sleep for noise of wind and sea. And in the small hours of an autumn morning, as I lay here, just where we lie now, I heard such wailing cries above the storm—ay, and such shrieks of women—as made my blood run cold, and have not yet forgot them. And so I woke the gang, who were all deep asleep, as seasoned contrabandiers should be; but though we knew that there were fellow-creatures fighting for their lives in the seething flood beneath us, we could not stir hand or foot to save them, for nothing could be seen for rain and spray, and 'twas not till next morning that we learned the Florida had foundered just below with every soul on board. Ay, 'tis a queer life, and you and Block are in a queer strait now, and that is what I came to tell you. See here." And he took out of his pocket an oblong strip of printed paper:—
"G. R.
"Whereas it hath been humbly represented to the King that on Friday, the night of the 16th of April last, Thomas Maskew, a Justice of the Peace, was most inhumanly murdered at Hoar Head, a lone place in the Parish of Chaldron, in the County of Dorset, by one Elzevir Block and one John Trenchard, both of the Parish of Moonfleet, in the aforesaid County: His Majesty, for the better discovering and bringing to Justice these Persons, is pleased to promise His Most Gracious Pardon to any of the Persons concerned therein, except the Persons who actually committed the said Murder; and, as a further Encouragement, a Reward of Fifty Pounds to any Person who shall furnish such Information as shall lead to the Apprehension of the said Elzevir Block, and a Reward of Twenty Pounds to any Person who shall furnish such Information as shall lead to the Apprehension of the said John Trenchard. Such Information to be given to Me, or to the Governour of His Majesty's Gaol in Dorchester.
"There—that's the bill," he said; "and a vastly fine
