Mike cut out enough of the thin lining to admit of a hole being made, large enough to hold ten louis in each boot, and he and the two officers then set to work, to cut out a sufficient depth of leather for the coins to lie side by side.

Half an hour sufficed for this.
The coins were put in.

Mike had, in the meantime, obtained a handful of pitch and melted it at the galley fire.

This he ran in over the gold, and then replaced the pieces of lining with hot pitch.
"There, your honours," he said, when he had finished.

"I call that a neat job, and it would be hard, indeed, if the spalpeens find that there is anything amiss.