Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/220

 cept that a sudden lurch brought his ear in violent contact with a piece of wood, nothing resulted. At that moment the horses turned to the right, the front wheels jarred down a little declivity and the wagon began to move faster.

"Ata boy!" approved Martin. "Some speed to these nags, what? Blessed if they aren't actually trotting! Or were," he added with less enthusiasm as the horses dropped to a walk again. "Get ap, consarn ye! Wish to goodness I had a whip! Or a stick of dynamite!"

"Open one of the cases in there," suggested Nelson dryly.

"It would he an awful joke on us if those same cases held canned tomatoes or some silly thing like that! Think of opening them and finding a lot of 'Sinn Fein Brand Early June Peas'!"

"They're rifles, I think," said Nelson. "The cases felt sort of long and narrow. As I make it out, those folks in the boat came from some schooner anchored out beyond there. The man with the lantern was the fellow who brought this wagon. Maybe there were two of him. What I can't see is what he expected to do with the stuff. He wouldn't dare take it into the town."

"Couldn't unless he swam it across the harbor."

"That's so. Or unless he drove all the way 195