Ram followed, and took one of the oars, settled down behind Jemmy, and the next minute, with the whole crew of the cutter standing grinning at the side, they began to row shoreward.
"How about the tide, Jemmy ?" said Ram, when they had been rowing a few minutes, with the cow standing placidly in the boat.
"Too high, can't do it," said the man.
"Let's row to the ledge then, and land there till the tide goes down." "Right," said Jemmy, and they bore off a little to the east, made straight for the shelf of rock, which was just awash; and as they rowed, they saw the lieutenant and the midshipman enter the light gig, four men dropped their oars in the water, and with the drops flashing from the blades, the gig came swiftly after them.
"Why, they're coming here too, Jemmy," said Ram, as they reached the ledge, and leaped on to the ammonite-studded stone, over which the water glided and then ran back.
"Well, let 'em," said Jemmy, following suit with the painter, the cow standing contentedly with her eyes half-closed.

"Don't matter to us, lad, so long as they didn't come last night." They made fast the hawser to an iron stanchion, one of several dotted about and pretty well hidden by the water, climbed up on the rock, and sat down in the warm sunshine to wait for the turn of the tide, while after a pull in one direction, the gig's course was altered, and they saw its course changed again.
"I liked that chap," said Ram, as he gazed across a few hundred yards of smooth water, at where Archy sat in his uniform, steering.
"What are they up to ?" said Jemmy, shading his eyes.

Then quite excitedly, "Say, lad, lookye yonder," he whispered.
"I was looking," cried Ram excitedly; "they've picked up a brandy keg." There was no denying the fact; and as the dripping little barrel was placed by one of the men in the fore part of the gig, the others gave way, and the light vessel came rapidly now toward the ledge.
Archy was shading his eyes just then, and pointing out something to the lieutenant a little to the left of where Ram and his companion were seated, and the boy's eyes, trained by his nefarious habits, gazed sharply in search of danger or criminating evidence, in the direction the midshipman pointed.
A chill of horror ran through him, for there, with the wash of the tide half covering and then leaving them bare, were two more brandy kegs, which had been missed the previous night during the fog.
"Ah!" ejaculated Ram, as in imagination he saw the well-filled vault, and the crew of the cutter being marched up to make a seizure, and arrest his father perhaps.
If he could but get away and give the alarm!.