Page:Doctor Syn - A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh.djvu/56

 "Are you all here?" said the captain to the bo'sun, before rejoining the Doctor outside the door.

"All except Bill Spiker and the mulatto, sir," returned Job Mallet. "I sent 'em for rum. Here they are, if I mistake not." And indeed up to the barn came two seamen carrying a barrel.

"Now," said the captain to Doctor Syn, "I am ready to return to the Court House."

But the cleric's eyes were fixed on the men carrying the barrel, who were passing him. "Who's that man?" he said to the captain, shivering violently, for a cold fog had risen with the night.

"That's Bill Spiker the gunner," said the captain. "Do you know him?"

"No—the other, the other," exclaimed the Doctor, still watching the retreating figures who were now being received with shouts of welcome from the barn.

"Oh, that fellow's a mulatto," returned the captain; "useful for investigation work. An ugly enough looking rascal, isn't he?"

"A very ugly rascal," muttered the Doctor, walking rapidly from the barn in the direction of the Court House.

"You look cold," remarked the captain as they stood outside the Court House door.

"Yes. It's a cold night," returned the Doctor. "Why, I declare my teeth are chattering."