Captain Luke barely gave them time to make fast the sheets before he
hurried them back to the hatch again; and by that time the cutter had
so walked up to us that we had her close aboard. I could see that he
fully expected her to hail us; and I could see also that there seemed
to be a feeling of uneasiness among the crew, though they went on
briskly with their work of getting what remained of the boxes and
barrels below. And then, being close under our stern, the cutter
quietly shifted her helm to clear us--and so slid past us, without
hailing and with scarcely a look at us, and stood on out to sea.

That the captain and all hands so manifestly should dread being
overhauled by a government vessel greatly increased my vague doubts as
to the kind of company that I had got into; and at the very moment
that the cutter passed us these doubts were so nearly resolved into
bad certainties that my thoughts shot around from speculation upon
Captain Luke's possible perils into consideration of what seemed to be
very real perils of my own.

With the cutter close aboard of us, and with the captain and both the
mates swearing at them, I suppose that the men at the hatch--who were
swinging the things below with a whip--got rattled a little. At any
rate, some of them rigged the sling so carelessly that a box fell out
from it, and shot down to the main-deck with such a bang that it burst
open. It was a small and strongly made box, that from its shape and
evident weight I had fancied might have arms in it. But when it split
to bits that way--the noise of the crash drawing me to the hatch to
see what had happened--its contents proved to be shackles: and the
sight of them, and the flash of thought which made me realize what
they must be there for, gave me a sudden sick feeling in my inside!