 CHAPTER XXXIV. Whatever may be said, it does seem hard, from a wholly disinterested point of view, that so many mighty men, with swift ships armed with villainous salt-peeter and sharp steel, should have set their keen faces all together and at once to nip, defeat, and destroy as with a blow, liberal and well-conceived proceedings which they had long regarded with a larger mind. Everyone who had been led to embark soundly and kindly in this branch of trade felt it as an outrage, in a special instance of his own peculiar bad luck, that suddenly the officers should become so active. For long success at encouraged enterprise, men who had made a noble profit, nobly yearned to trouble it, and commerce, having shaken off her shackles, flapped her wings and began to crow, so at least she had been declared to do at a public banquet given by the mayor of Malton, and attended by a large grain factor, who was known as a wholesome purveyor of illicit goods. This man, Thomas Rideout, long had been the headmaster of the smuggling school. The poor seafaring men could not find money to buy or even hire the craft, with heavy deposit against forfeiture, which the breadth of turbulence of the North Sea made needful for such ventures. Across the narrow English Channel an open lobster-boat might run, in common summer weather, without much risk of life or goods. Smooth water, sandy coves, and shelfy landings tempted comfortable jobs, and any man owning a boat that would carry a sail as big as a shawl might smuggle with heat of the weather and audacity. It is said that once upon the Sussex Coast a band of haymakers, when the rick was done, and their wages in hand on a Saturday night, laid hold of a stout boat on the beach, pushed off to sea in tipsy faith of luck, and hit upon deep with a set fair breeze, having only a fisherman's boy for guide. There on the Sunday they heartily enjoyed the hospitality of the natives, and the dawn of Tuesday beheld them wrapped in domestic bliss and breakfast, and their money invested in old cognac, and glad would they have been to make such hay every season. But in Yorkshire a good solid capital was needed to carry on free importation. With our broad bottoms and deep sides the long and turbulent and often foggy voyage and the rocky landing could scarcely be attempted by sane folk, well-to-do people found the money and jeopardized neither their own bodies, consciences, nor good repute. And perhaps this fact had more to do with the comparative mildness of the man than difference of race, superior culture, or a loftier mold of mind. For what man will fight for his employer's goods with the ferocity inspired by his own? A thorough good ducking, or a toe behind a boat, was the utmost penalty generally exacted by the victors from the vanquished. Now, however, it seemed too likely that harder measures must be meted. The long success of that daring leaf and the large scale of its operations had compelled the authorities to stir at last. They began by setting a high price upon him and severely reprimanding Caraway, who had long been doing his best in vain, and becoming flurried did it more vainly still, and now they had sent the sharp nettle-bones down, who boasted largely, but as yet without result. When the pending great venture was resolved upon as a noble finish to the season, Thomas Rideout would entrust it to no one but Robin Leith himself, and the bold young mariners stipulated that from succeeding he should be free, and started in some more lawful business. For Dr. Upround, possessing as he did great influence with Robin, and shocked as he was by what Caraway had said, refused to have anything more to do with his most distinguished parishioner until he should forsake his ways. For this he must not be thought narrow-minded, straight-laced, or unduly dignified. His wife quite agreed with him, and indeed had urged it as the only proper course. For her motherly mind was uneasy about the impulsive nature of Genetta, and chessmen to her were dolls, without even the merit of encouraging the needle. Therefore with a deep sigh the worthy magistrate put away his board, which came out again next day, and it is best to endure for a night the erythmetical torture of cribbage, while he found himself supported by a sense of duty incapable of preaching hard to Caraway if he would only come for it on Sunday. From that perhaps an officer of revenue may abstain, through the pressure of his duty and the purity of conscience. But a man of less crackness must behave more strictly, therefore when a gentleman of vigorous aspect, resolute, step, and successful looking forehead marched into church next Sunday morning, showed himself to a prominent position, and hung his head against a leading pillar, after putting his mouth into it as for prayer, but scarcely long enough to say amen. Behind other hats low whispers passed that there was a great financier, a free trade, the chancellor of Exchequer of Smuggling, the celebrated Master Rideout. That conclusion was shared by the rector, whose heart immediately burned within him to have at this man, whom he had met before and suspiciously glanced at in weighing lane, as an interloper in his parish. Probably this was the very man whom Robin Leith served too faithfully, and the chances were that the great operations now known to be pending had brought him hither, spying out all flamborough. The corruption of fishfolk, the beguiling of women with foreign silks and laces, and of men with brandy, the seduction of Robin from lawful commerce, and even the loss of his own pastime were to be laid at this man's door. While donning his surplice, Dr. Upround revolved these things with the gentle indignation, quickened as soon as he found himself in white, by clerical and theological zeal, these feelings impelled him to produce a creaking of the heavy vestry door, a well-known signal for his daughter to slip out of the chancel pew and come to him. "'Now, Papa, what is it?' cried that quick young lady. "'That miserable Methodist that ruined your boots. Has he got the impudence to come again? Oh, please do say so, and show me where he is after church. Nobody shall stop me.' "'Geneta, you quite forget where you are, as well as my present condition. Be off like a good girl, as quick as you can, and bring number twenty-seven to my handwriting. Render unto Caesar. And put my hat upon it. My desire is that Billy Jack should not know that a change has been made in my subject of discourse. "'Pop, I see. She'll be done to perfection while Billy Jack is at your very loudest roar in the chorus of the anthem. But do tell me who it is, or how can I enjoy it? And lemon drops, lemon drops! Geneta, I must have some serious talk with you. Now, don't be vexed, darling. You are thoroughly a good girl, and thoughtless and careless, and remember, dear, church is not a place for high spirits.' The rector has behooved him, kissed his child behind the vestry door to soothe all sting, and then he strode forth toward the reading desk, and a tuning of fiddles sank to differential scrape. It was not at all a common thing, as one might know, for whittle precious to be able to escape from casks and taps and the frying pan of eggs demanded by some half-ground fisherman. Also the reckoning of notches on the bench for the pints of the week unpaid for, and then to put herself into her two best gowns, which she wore in the winter, one over the other. A plan to be highly commended to the ladies who never can have dress enough. And so to enjoy without losing a penny the warmth of the neighborhood of a congregation, even if she had so wished, with knowledge that this was common people's time, so if she went at all it must, in spite of the difference of length, be managed in the morning, and this very morning here she was, earnest, humble and devout, with both the tap keys in her pocket, and turning the leaves with a smack of her thumb, not only to show her learning, but to get sweet approval of the rector's pew. Now, if the good rector had sent for this lady, instead of his daughter, Janetta, the sermon which he brought would have been the one to preach, and that about Caesar might have stopped at home. For no sooner did the widow begin to look about, taking in the congregation with a dignified eye and nodding to her solvent customers, than the wrath of perplexity began to gather in her goodly countenance, to see that distinguished stranger would say no him ever afterward. His power of eating and of paying had endeared his memory, and for him to put up at any other house were foul shame to the codfish. Hath a put up his beastie? she whispered to her eldest daughter who came in late. Na, na, no beastie! the child replied, and the widow's relish of her thumb was gone, for, sooth to say, no master write-out nor any other patron a free trade was there, but Jeffrey Mordox of York City, general factor and universal agent. It was beautiful to see how Dr. Uprown, firmly delivering his texts and stoutly determined to spare nobody, even insisted in the present case upon looking at the man he meant to hit, because he was not his parishioner. The sermon was eloquent and even trenchant. The necessity of duties was urged most sternly, if not of directly divine institution, though learned parallels were adduced which almost proved them to be so. Yet to every decent Christian citizen they were synonymous with duty. To defy or allude them for the sake of paltry gain was a dark crime recoiling on the criminal, and the preacher drew a contrast between such guilty ways in the innocent path of the fisherman. Neither did he even relent and comfort according to his custom toward the end. That part was there, but he left it out. And the only consolation for any poor smuggler and all the disclosure was the final, amen. But of the rector's great amazement and inward indignation the object of his sermon seemed to take it as a personal compliment. Mr. Mordox not only failed to wince, but finding himself particularly fixed by the gaze of the eloquent divine concluded that it was from his superior intelligence and visible gifts of appreciation. Delighted with this, for he was not free from vanity. What did he do but return the compliment, not indecorously, but nodding very gently as much to say, That was very good indeed. You are quite right, sir, in addressing that to me. You perceive that it is far above these common people. I never heard a better sermon. When a heartened rogue you are, thought Dr. Uppround, how feebly and incapable I must have put it. If you ever come again, you shall have my Ahab's sermon. But the clergyman was still more astonished a very few minutes afterward. Before, as he passed out of the churchyard gate, receiving with his wife and daughter the kindly salute to the parish, the same tall stranger stood before him with a face as hard as the statues and making a short quick flourish with his hat, begged for the honour of shaking his hand. Sir, it is the thank you for the very finest sermon I ever have the privilege of hearing. My name is Mordox, and I flatter nobody except myself, and I know a good thing when I get it. Sir, I'm obliged to you, said Dr. Uppround stiffly, and not without suspicion of being bantered, so dry was the stranger's countenance and his manner so peculiar. And if I have been able to say a good word in season, and its season lasts, it will be a source of satisfaction to me. Yes, I fear there are many smugglers here, but I am no revenue officer, as your congregation seemed to think. May I call upon business to-morrow, sir? Thank you. Then may I say ten o'clock? Your time of beginning, as I hear. Mordox is my name, sir, of York City, not unfavourably down there. Ladies, my duty to you. What an extraordinary man, my dear! Mrs. Uppround exclaimed with some ingratitude. After the beautiful bow she had received, he may talk as he likes, but he must be a smuggler. He said that he was not an officer. That shows that, for they always run into the opposite extreme. You have converted him, my dear, and I am sure that we ought to be so much obliged to him. If he comes to-morrow morning to give up all his lace, do try to remember how my little all has been ruined in the wash. And I am sick of working at it. My dear, he is no smuggler. I begin to recollect. He was down here in the summer, and I made a great mistake. I took him for ride-out. And I did the same to-day. When I see him to-morrow I shall beg his pardon. One gets so hurried in the vestry always, they are so important with their fiddles. A great deal of it was Jeanette's fault. It always is my fault, papa, some how or other. The young lady answered with a faultless smile, and so they went home to the early Sunday dinner. Papa, I am in such a state of excitement, I am quite unfit to go to church this afternoon. Miss Upper Hound exclaimed as they set forth again. You may put me in stocks made out of hasx. You may rope me to the Floddenfield man's monument of the ominous name of Constable, but whatever you do I shall never attend, and I feel that it is so sinful. Jeanette, your mama has a feeling sometimes. For instance, she has it this afternoon, and there is a good deal to be said for it. But I feel that it would grow with indulgence. I can firmly fancy that it never would, though one cannot be sure without trying. Suppose that I were to try it, just once, and let you know how it feels at tea-time. My dear, we are quite round the corner of the lane. The example would be too shocking. Now don't you make excuses, papa. Only one moment can have seen us yet, and she is so blind she will think it was her fault. May I go, quick, before anyone else comes? If you are quite sure, Jeanette, of being in a frame of mind which unfits you for the worship of your maker, as sure as a pike's dafty at papa. And by all means go before anybody sees you for whom it might be undesirable and correct your thoughts, and endeavour to get into a befitting state of mind by tea-time. Certainly, papa, I will go down on the stones and look at the sea. That always makes me better, because it is so large and uncomfortable. Director went on to do his duty by himself. A narrow-minded man might have shaken solemn head, even if he had allowed such dereliction. But Dr. Uprow knew that this girl was good, and he never put strain upon her honesty. So away she sped by a lonely little footpath where nobody could take from her contagion of bad morals, and avoiding the incline of boats. She made off nicely for the quiet outer bay, and there upon shelfy rock she sat and breathed the sea. Flamborough, excellent place as it is, and delightful and full of interest for people who do not live there, is apt to grow dull perhaps for spirited youth in the scanty and foggy winter-light. There is not so very much of that choice, product generally called society, by a man who has a house to let in an eligible neighborhood, and by ladies who do not heed their own. Moreover, it is vexatious not to have more rogues to talk about. At scarcity may be less lamentable now, being one that takes care to redress itself, and perhaps any amateur purchaser of fish may find rogues enough now for his interest. But the rector's daughter pined for neither society nor scandal. She had plenty of interest in her life, and in pleasing other people, whenever she could do it with pleasure to herself, and that was nearly always. Her present ailment was not languor, wariness nor dullness, but rather the want of such things, which we long for when they happen to be scarce, and declare them to be our first need under the sweet name of repose. Her mind was a little disturbed by rumors, wonders, and uncertainty. She was not at all in love with Robin Leith, and laughed at his vanity as much as she admired his gallantry. She looked upon him also as of lower rank, kindly patronized by her father, but not to be treated upon an equal footing. He might be of any rank for all that was known, but he must be taken to belong to those who had brought him up and fed him. Leith was a lively girl, of quick perception and some discretion, though she often talked much nonsense. She was rather proud of her position and somewhat disdainful of uneducated folk, though, thanks to her father, Leith was not one of these, possibly love, if she had felt it, would have swept away such barriers. But Robin was grateful to his patron, and knowing his own place in life would rightly have thought it a mean return to attempt to envile his daughter. So they liked one another, but nothing more. It was not, therefore, for his sake only, but for her father's, and that of the place, that Miss Uprown now was anxious. For days and days she had watched the sea with unusual forebodings, knowing that a great importation was toward, and pretty sure to lead to blows after so much preparation. With feminine zeal she detested poor caraway, whom she regarded as a tyrant and a spy, and she would have clapped her hands at beholding the three cruisers run upon a shoal, and there stick fast. And as for King George, she had never believed that he was the proper King of England. There were many stanced Jacobites still in Yorkshire, and especially the bright young ladies. Tonight at least the coast was likely to be uninvaded. Smugglers, even of their own forces, would make breach upon the day of rest, durst not outrage the piety of the land, which would only deal with kegs indoors. The Coast Guard, being for the most part Southerns, splashed about as usual, a far more heinous sin against the word of God than smuggling. It is the matter of Yorkshire men to think for themselves, with boldness in the way they are brought up to, and they made it a point of serious doubt whether the orders of the King himself could set aside the fourth commandment, though his arms were over it. Dr. Uprown's daughter, as she watched the sea, felt sure that even if the goods were ready, no attempt at landing would be made that night, though something might be done in the morning. But even that was not very likely, because, as seemed to be widely known, the venture was a very large one, and the landers would require a whole night's work to get entirely through with it. I wish you was over, one way or the other, she kept saying to herself as she gazed at the dark, weary lifting of the sea. It keeps one unsettled as the waves themselves. Sunday always makes me feel restless, because there is so little to do. It is wicked, I suppose, but how can I help it? Why, there is a boat. I do declare. Well, even a boat is welcome just to break this gray monotony. What boat can it be? None of ours, of course, and what can they want with our church cave? I hope they understand it's dangerous. Although the wind was not upon the shore and no long rollers were setting in, short, uncomfortable, clumsy waves were lulloping under the steep gray cliffs and casting up splashes of white here and there. To enter that cave is a risky thing, except at very favorable times, and even then some experience is needed, for the rocks around it are like knives, and the boat must generally be backed in, with more use of fender and hook than of oars. But the people in the boat seemed to understand all that. They were two men rowing, and one steering with an oar, and a fourth standing up as if to give directions. Though in truth he knew nothing about it, but hated even to seem to play second fiddle. What a strange thing! Janetta thought as she drew behind a rock that they might not see her. I could almost declare that the man standing up is that most extraordinary gentleman Papa preached quite the wrong sermon at. Truly he deserves a have one for spying our caves out on a Sunday. He must be a smuggler after all, or a very crafty agent of the revenue. Well, I never. That old man steering is sure as I live as Robin Coxcroft, by the scarlet handkerchief around his head. Oh, Robin! Robin, could I ever have believed that you would break the Sabbath so? But the boat is not Robin's. What boat can it be? I have not stayed away from church for nothing. One of the men rowing has got no legs. When the boat goes up and down, it must be that villain of a tipsy Joe who used to keep the monument. I heard that he was come back again to stump for his beer as usual, and his son that sings like the big church bell, and has such a very fine face and one leg. Why, he's the man that pulls the other oar. Was there ever such a boatload? But they know what they're doing. Truly it was, as the young lady said, an extraordinary boat's crew. Old Robin Coxcroft with a fringe of silver hair escaping from the crimson silk, which he valued so much more than it, and his face still grand in spite of wrinkles and some weakness of the eyes, keenly understanding every wave, its character, temper, and complexity of influence, as only a man can understand who has for his life stood over them. Then tugging at the oars or rather dipping them with a short well-placed plunge and very little toil of body, two ancient sailors, one considerably older than the other, in as much as he was his father, yet gyps alike from a sturdy block, and fitted up with jury stumps. Old Joe pulled rather the better oar, and called his son a one legged fiddler when he missed the dip of wave, while Mordoch stood with his legs apart and playing the easy part of critic at his sneers at both of them, but they let him jibed to his liking, because they knew their work, and he did not, and upon the whole they went merrily. The only one with any doubt concerning the issue of the job was the one who knew most about it, and that was Robin Coxcroft. He doubted not about want of strength or skill or discipline of his oars, because the boat was not flamburian, but borrowed from a collier around the head. No flamboral boat would ever think to putting a sea on a Sunday, unless it were to save human life, and it seemed to him that no strange boat could find her way into the native caves. He doubted also whether even with the pressure of strong motive put upon him, which was not of money. It was a godly thing on his part to be steering in his Sunday clothes. He feared to hear of it thereafter, but being in for it he must do his utmost. With genuine skill and solid patience the entrance of the cave was made and the boat was lost to Ginetta's view. She as well was lost in the deeper cavern of great wonder and waited long and much desire to wait even longer to see them issue forth again, and learn what they could have been after, but the mist out of which they had come and inside of which they would rather have remained perhaps now thickened over land and sea, and groping dream-elive or something delayed hold of, fond of a solid stay and rust-hold in the jagged headlands here. Here, accordingly, the coilings of the wandering forms began to slide into straight layers, and soft settlement of vapor, loops of hanging moisture mark the hollows of the land-front, or the alleys of the waning light, and then the mass-abandoned outline fused at shades to pulp and melted into one great blur of rain. Ginetta thought of her Sunday frock, forgot the boat, and sped away for home. CHAPTER XXI TACTICS OF ATTACK I am sorry to be troublesome, mine-hair van-donk, but I cannot say good-bye without having your receipt in full for the old bellender. Good! It is very good, Mr. Liedt! You are the good man for the princes. With these words the wealthy merchant of the Zudir Zee drew forth his ancient ink-horn, smeared with the dirt of countless contracts and signed in aquitants which a smuggler had prepared. But he signed it with a sigh as a man declares that a favourite horse must go at last, signing not for the money, but for the memories that go with it. Then as the wind began to pipe and the roll of the sea grew heavier, the solid Dutchman was lowered carefully into his shore-boat, and drew the apron over his great and gouty legs. I false-married in Dutch sheeps, he shouted back with his ponderous fist wagging up at Robin Leith, this time you have the bad luck, sir. Well, mine-hair, if you have only to pay the difference, and the catch will do, the bellender sails almost as fast. A master van-donk only heaved another sigh and felt that his leather-bag was safe and full in his breech's pocket. Then he turned his eyes away and relieved his mind by swearing at his men. Now this was off the Isle of Texel, and the time was Sunday morning, the very same morning which saw the general factor sitting to be preached at. The flotilla of free trade was putting forth upon its great enterprise, and van-donk, who had been ship's husband, came to speed them from their moorings. He took no risk, and to him it mattered little except as a question of commission. But still he enjoyed the relish of breaking English law most heartily. He hated England as a loyal Dutchman for generations was compelled to do. Anyhow that a Dutchman was a better sailor, a better ship-builder, and a better fighter than the very best Englishman ever born. However his opinions mattered little, being, as we must feel, absurd. Therefore let him go his way and grumble and reckon his guilders. It was generally known that he could sink a ship with money, and when such a man is insolent who dares to contradict him. The flotilla and the offing soon plowed hissing furrows through the misty waves. There were three craft, all of different rig, a schooner, a catch, and the said belander. All were laden as heavy as speed and safety would allow, and all were thoroughly well manned. They laid their course for the Dogger Bank, where they would receive the latest news of the disposition of the enemy. Robin Leith, high admiral of smugglers, kept to his favorite schooner, the glimpse, which had often shown a fading wake to the fastest cutters. His squadron was made up by the catch, good hope, and the old Dutch coaster crown of gold. This vessel, though built for peaceful navigation and inland waters, had proved herself so thoroughly at home in the roughest situations and so swift of foot, though round of cheek, that the smugglers gloried in her and the good luck which sat upon her prow. They called her the Lugger, though her rig was widely different from that, and her due title was Belander. She was very deeply laden now, and having great capacity appeared in unusually tempting prize. This grand armada of invasion made its way quite leisurely. Off the Dogger Bank they waited for the last news, and received it, and the whole of it was to their liking, though the fishermen who brought it strongly advised them to put back again. But Captain Leith had no such thought, for the weather was most suitable for the bold scheme he had hit upon. This is my last turn, he said, and I mean to make it a good one. Then he dressed himself as smartly as if he were going to meet Mary Annerley, and sent a boat for the skippers of the good hope and the crown of gold, who came very promptly and held counsel in his cabin. I'm thinking that your notion is a very good one, Captain, said the master of the Belander Brown, a dry old hand from Grimsby. Capital, capital, there never was a batter, the master of the catch chimed in. Nattle-bones and caraway, will they knock their heads together? The plan is clever enough, replied Robin, who is free from all modesty. But you heard what the old Van Dunck said. I wish he had not said it. Ten thousand two-fills, as this dingy old thief himself says, he might have held his infernal croak. I hate to make sale with a croak of stern, it is as bad as a crow in a four-stay sale. All very fine for you to talk, grumble the man of the Belander to the master of the catch. But bad luck has saddled upon me this voyage. You two get the gilgos, and I get the Bilboes. Brown, none of that! Captain Leith said quietly, but with a look which the other understood. You are not such a fool as you pretend to be. You may get a shot or two fired at you, but what is that to the Grimsby man? Then who will look at you when your hold is broached? Your game is the easiest that any man can play, to hold your tongue and run away. Brown, you share the profits, don't you see? The catch man went on while the other looked glum. And what risk do you take for it? Even though they collar you through your own clumsiness, what is there for them to do? A Grimsby man is a grumbling man. I have heard ever since I was that high. I'll change births with you if you choose this minute. You could never do it. Said the Grimsby man with a high contempt which abounds where he was born. A boy like you. I should like to see you try it. Remember, both of you, said Robin Leith, that you are not here to do as you please, but to obey my orders. If the Coast Guard quarrel we do not, and that is why we beat them, you will both do exactly as I have laid it down, and the risk of failure falls on me. The plan is very simple, and cannot fail, if you will just try not to think for yourselves which always makes everything go wrong. The only thing you have to think about at all is any sudden change of weather. If a gale from the east sets in, you both run north, and I come after you. But there will not be any easterly gale for the present week, to my belief, although I am not quite sure of it. Not a sign of it. Wind will hold with sunset up to the next quarter of the moon. The time I have been on the coast, and to hear the young chaps talking over my head. Never you mind how I know, but I'll lay a guinea with both of you, easterly gale of our Friday. Brown, you may be right, said Robin. I have had some fear of it, and I know that you carry a weather eye. No man under forty can pretend to do that. But if it'll only hold off until Friday, we shall have the laugh of it. And even if it come on, Tom and I shall manage. But you will be badly off in that case, Brown. After all, you are right. The main danger is for you. Leith, knowing how important it was that each man should play his part with true goodwill, shifted his ground thus to satisfy the other, who was not the man to shrink from peril, but like to have his share acknowledged. Aye, aye, Captain. You see, clear enough, though Tom here has not got the gumption. The man of Grimsby answered with a lofty smile. Everybody knows pretty well what William Brown is. When there is anything that needs a bit of pluck, it is sure to be put upon old Bill Brown. And never you come across the man, Captain Leith, as could say that Bill Brown was not all there. Now orders as orders, lad. Tip us your latest. Then latest orders are to this effect. Toward dusk of night you stand in first, a league or more ahead of us, according to the daylight. Tom to the north of you and me to the south, just within signalling distance. The kestrel and the albatross will come to speak the swordfish off Robin Hood's Bay at that very hour, as we happen to be aware. You sight them, even before they sight you, because you know where to look for them and you keep a sharper look out, of course. Not one of them will sight us so far off in the offing. Signal immediately. One, two, three. And I heartily hope it will be all three. Then you still stand in as if you could not see them, and they begin to laugh and draw in shore, knowing the inlander as they do. They will hug the cliffs for you to run into their jaws. Tom and I bear off all sail, never allowing them to sight us. We crack on to the north and south, and by that time it will be nearly dark. You still carry on, till they know that you must see them. Then, bout ship, and crowds sail to escape. They give chase, and you lead them out to sea, and the longer you carry on the better. Then, as they begin to forereach and threaten to close, you, bout ship again, as in despair, run under their counters and stand in for the bay. They may fire at you, but it is not very likely for they would not like to sink such a valuable price, though nobody else would have much fear of that. Captain, I laugh at their brass kettle-pots. They may blaze away as blue as veredigris, though an Englishman haven't no right to be shot at only by a Frenchman. Very well, then, you hold on, like a Norfolk man, through the thickest of the enemy. Nelson is a Norfolk man, and you charge through as he does. You bear right on and rig a gangway for the landing, which puts them all quite upon the screen. All three cutters race after you, Pelmel, and it is much better if they do not run into each other. You take the beach, stem on with the tide upon the ab, and by that time it ought to be getting on for midnight. What to do, then, I need not tell you, but make all the stand you can to spare us any hurry. We don't give the knock-down blow if you can help it. Their lawyers make such a point of that from their intimacy with the prize-fighters. Clearly perceiving their duty now, these three men brazed up loin and sailed to execute the same accordingly, for invaders and defenders were by this time in real earnest with their work, and sure alike of having done the very best that could be done, with equal confidence on either side. A noble triumph was expected, while the people on the dry land shook their heads and were thankful to be out of it. Carroway, in a perpetual ferment, gave no peace to any of his men, never entered his own door. But riding, rowing, or sailing up and down here and there and everywhere, set an example of unflagging zeal, which was largely admired and avoided. And yet he was not the only remarkably active man in the neighborhood. For that great fact and universal factor Jeffrey Mordox was entirely here. He had not broken the heart of widow precious by taking up his quarters at the Thornwick Inn, as she had first imagined, but loyalty brought himself and his horse to her signpost for their Sunday dinner. Nor was this all, but he ordered the very best bedroom and the Coral Parlor, as he elegantly called the Sea Weedy Room, gave every child, whether male or female, six pence of new mintage, and created such impression on her widowed heart that he even won the privilege of basting his own duck. Whatever this gentleman did never failed to reflect equal credit on him and itself. But thoroughly well as he basted his duck and efficiently as he consumed it, deeper things were in his mind, and moving with every mouthful. If Captain Caroway labored hard on public and royal service no less severely did Mordox work, though his stronger sense of self-duty led him to feed the labor better. On the Monday morning he had a long and highly interesting talk with a magisterial rector to whom he set forth certain portions of his purpose, loftily spurning entire concealment, according to the motto of his life. You see, sir, he said as he rose to depart, what I have told you is very important, and in the strictest confidence, of course, because I never do anything on the sly. Mr. Mordox, you have surprised me, answered Dr. Upround. Though I am not so very wiser at the present, I really must congratulate you upon your activity and the impression you create. Not at all, sir, not at all. It is my manner of doing business, now for thirty years or more. Moles and fools, sir, work underground and only get traps set for them. I travel entirely above ground and go ten miles for their ten inches. My strategy, sir, is simplicity. Nothing puzzles rogue so much, because they cannot believe it. The theory is good. May the practice prove the same. I should be sorry to be against you in any case you undertake. In the present matter I am wholly with you, so far as I understand what it is. Still Flamborough is a place of great difficulties. The greatest difficulty of all would be to fail, as I look at it, especially with your most valuable aid. What little I can do shall be the most readily forthcoming, but remember, there is many a slip, if you had interfered but one month ago how much easier it might have been. Truly, but I have to grope my way, and it is a hard people, as you say, to deal with. But I have no fear, sir. I shall overcome all Flamborough, unless—unless what I fear to think of—there should happen to be bloodshed. There will be none of that, Mr. Mordox. We are too skillful and too gentle for anything more than a few cracked crowns. And everything is as it ought to be. But I must be off. I have many points to see to. How I find time for this affair is the wonder. But you will not leave us, I suppose, until—until what appears to be expected has happened? When I undertake a thing, Dr. Upround, my rule is to go through with it. You have promised me the honour of an interview at any time. Goodbye, sir, and pray give the compliments of Mr. Mordox to the ladies. With even more than his usual confidence and high spirits a general factor mounted horse and rode at once to Bridelington, or rather to the quay thereof, in search of Lieutenant Caroway. But Caroway was not at home, and his poor wife said with a sigh that now she had given up expecting him. Have no fear, madam. I will bring him back. Mordox answered as if he already held him by the collar. I have very good news, madam, very grand news for him, and you, and all those lovely and highly intelligent children. Place me, madam, under the very deepest obligation by allowing these two little deers to take the basket I see under, and accompany me to that apple-stand. I saw there some fruit of a sort which used to fit my teeth most wonderfully when they were just the size of theirs. And here is another little darling with a pin before infinitely too spotless. If you will spare her also we will do our best to take away that reproach, ma'am. Oh, sir, you are much too kind. But to speak good news does one good. It is so long since there has been any that I scarcely know how to pronounce the words. Mr. Caroway take my word for it that such a state of things shall be shortly of the past. I will bring back, Captain Caroway, madam, to his sweet and most beautifully situated home with the tidings which shall please you. It is kind of you not to tell me the good news now, sir. I shall enjoy it so much more, to see my husband hear it. Goodbye, and I hope that you will soon be back again. While Mr. Mordox was loading the children with all that they made soft mouths at, he observed for the second time three men who appeared to be taking much interest in his doings. They had sauntered aloof while he called at the cottage, as if they had something to say to him, but would keep until he had finished there. But they did not come up to him as he expected, and when he had seen the small Caroway's home he rode up to ask what they wanted with him. Nothing, only this, sir, the shortest of them answered while the others pretended not to hear. We was told that Jan was Smuggler's house, and we thought that your honor was the famous Captain Leith. If I ever want a man, so the general factored, to tell a lie with a perfect face I shall come here and look for you, my friend. The man looked at him and smiled, and nodded as much to say, You might get it done worse, and then carelessly followed his comrades toward the sea. And Mr. Mordox, riding off with equal jauntiness, cocked his head and stared at the priory church as if he had never seen any such building before. I begin to have a very strong suspicion, he said to himself as he put his horse along, that this is the place where the main attack will be. Signs of a well-suppressed activity are manifest to an experienced eye like mine. All the grocers, the bakers, the candlestick-makers, and the women, who always precede the men, are mightily gathered together. And the men are holding counsel in a milder way. They have got three jugs at the old boathouse, for the benefit of all oaring in the open air. Moreover, the lane inland is scored with a regular market day of wheels, and there is no market this side of the old town. Caraway, vigilant captain of men, why have you forsaken your domestic hearth? Is it through jealousy of nettle-bones and a stern resolve to be ahead of him? Robin, my Robin, is a genius in tactics, a very bright Napoleon of free trade. He penetrates the counsels, or what is more, the feelings of those who camp against him. He means to land this great enterprise at Captain Caraway's threshold. True justice on the man for sleeping out of his own bed so long. But instead of bowing to the blow, he would turn a downright maniac, according to all I hear of him. Well, it is no concern of mine, so long as nobody is killed, which everybody makes such a fuss about. The poise of this great enterprise was hanging largely in the sky, from which come all things, and to which resolved they are referred again. The sky, to hold an equal balance, or to decline all troublesome responsibility about it, went away, or, to put it more politely, retired from the scene. Even as nine men out of ten when a handsome fight is toward, would rather have no opinion on the merits, but abide in their breeches, and there keep their hands till the fist of the victor is opened. So at this period the upper firmament knotted a strict neutrality, and yet on the whole it must have indulged a sneaking proclivity toward free trade. Otherwise, why should it have been as follows? November now was far advanced, and none but Sanguine Britain's hoped, at least in this part of the world, to know, except from memory and predictions of the Almanac, whether the sun were round or square, until next Easter-day should come. It was not quite impossible that he might appear at Candlemas, when he is supposed to give a dance, though hitherto a strictly private one. But even so, this premature frisk of his were undesirable, if faith and ancient rhyme be any. But putting him out of the question, as he had already put himself, the things that were below him, and, from length of practice, manage well to shape their course without him, were moving now and managing themselves with moderation. The tone of the clouds was very mild, and so was the color of the sea. A comely fog involved the day, and a decent mist restrained the night from ostentatious waste of stars. It was not such very bad weather, but a capacious man might find fault with it, and only a thoroughly cheerful one could enlarge upon its merits. Plainly enough these might be found by anybody having any core of rest inside him, or any gift of turning over upon a rigidly neutral side, and considerably outgazing the color of his eyes. Commander Nettlebones was not of poetic, philosophic, or vague mind. What a dumb fog! he exclaimed in the morning, and he used the same words in the afternoon through a speaking trumpet as the two other cutters ranged up within hail. This they did very carefully, at the appointed rendezvous, toward the fall of the afternoon and hauled their wind under easy sail, shivering in the southwestern breeze. Not half so bad as it was! returned Baler, being of a cheerful mind. His lift in every minute, sir. Have you had sight of anything? Not a blessed stick except a fishing-boat. What makes you ask, Lieutenant? Why, sir, as we rounded in it lifted for a moment, and I saw a craft, some two leagues out, standing straight in for us. The devil you did! What was she like, and where away, Lieutenant? A heavy lager under all sail, about east-north-east, as near as may be. She's standing for Robin Hood's Bay, I believe, and in our time she'll be upon us, if the weather keeps so thick. She may have seen you, and sheered off. Stand straight for her as nigh as you can guess. The fog is lifting, as you say. If you sight her signal instantly. Lieutenant Donovan, have you heard Baler's news? Sure, and if it wasn't for the fog, I would. Every word of it come to me as clear as seeing. Very well, carry on a little to the south, half a league or so, and stand out, but keep within sound of signal. I shall bear up presently. It is clearing every minute, and we must nab them. The fog began to rise in loops and alleys, with the upward pressure of the evening breeze which freshened from the land and lines and patches according to the run of cliff. Here the water darkened with the ruffle of the wind, and there it lay quiet with a glassy shine or gentle shadows of variety. Soon the three cruisers saw one another clearly, and then they all sighted an approaching sail. This was a full-bowed vessel, of quaint rig, heavy shear, an extraordinary build, a foreigner clearly in an ancient one. She differed from a lugger as widely as a lugger differs from a schooner, and her broad spread of canvas combined the features of square and of fore and aft tackle. But whatever her build or rig might be, she was going through the water at a strapping pace, heavily laden as she was with her long yards creaking, and her broad frame croaking, and her deep boughs driving up the fountains of the sea. Her enormous mainsail upon the mizzen mast, or main mast, where she only carried two, was hung obliquely, yet not as a lugger's, slung at one-third of its length, but bent to a long yard hanging fore and aft, with a long fore end sloping down to midship. This great sail gave her vast power when close hauled, and she carried a square sail on the fore mast, and a square sail on either top mast. Lord have mercy, she could run us all down if she tried, exclaimed Commander Nettlebones. And what are my pop-cuns against such beam? For a while the billender seemed to mean to try it, for she carried on toward the Central Cruiser as if she had not seen one of them. Then, beautifully handled, she brought two and was scutting before the wind in another minute, leading them all a brave stern chase out to sea. It must be that dare devaleth himself, Nettlebones said, as the swordfish strained with all canvas set, but no gain made. No weather, fellow, and all the world would dare to beard us in this style. I'd lay ten guineas that Donovan's guns won't go off if he tries them. Oh, I thought so, a fizz and a stink, trustin' Irishman, for this gallant lieutenant slanting toward the boughs of the flying billender, which he had no hope of fore-reaching, trained his long swivel gun upon her and let go, or rather tried to let go, at her. But his powder was wet, or else there was some stoppage. For the only result was a spurt of smoke inward and a powdery eruption on his own red cheeks. I wish I could have heard him swear, grumbled Nettlebones. That would have been worth something. A bowler is further out, a bowler will cross her bows. And he's not a fool. Don't be in a hurry, my fine Bob-Leath. You're not clear yet, though you crack on like a trooper. Well done, bowler. You've headed him. My jove, I don't understand these tactics. Stand by there. She's running back again. To the great amazement of all on-bore the cruisers, except perhaps one or two, the great Dutch vessel which might happily have escaped by standing on her present course spun round like a top, and bore in again among her three pursuers. She had the heels of all of them before the wind and might have run down any interceptor, but seemed not to know it, or to lose all nerve. Thank the Lord and Heaven, all rogues are fools. She may double as she will, but she's ours now. Signal Albatross and Kestrel to stand in. In a few minutes all four were standing for the bay. The Dutch vessel leading with all sails set and cruisers following warily and spreading to head her from the north or south. It was plain that they had her well in the toils. She must either surrender or run ashore. Close hauled as she was. She could not run them down, even if she would dream of such an outrage. So far from showing any sign of rudeness was the smuggling vessels that she would not even plead want of light as excuse for want of courtesy. For running past the royal cutters who took much longer to come about, she saluted each of them with deep respect for the swallow-tail of his majesty. And then she bore on like the admiral's ship with signal for all to follow her. Such cursed impudence never did I see! cried every one of the revenue-skippers as they all were compelled to obey her. Surrender, she must, or else run upon the rocks. Does the fool know what he's driving at? The fool, who was Master James Brown of Grimsby, knew very well what he was about. Every shoal and sounding and rocky gut was thoroughly familiar to him. And the spread of faint light on the waves and the long shore told him all his bearings. The loud cackle of laughter which Grimsby men at the cost of the rest of the world enjoy, was carried by the wind to the ears of nettle-bones. The latter set fast his teeth and ground them, for now in the rising of the large full moon he perceived that the beach of the cove was black with figures gathering rapidly. I see the villain's game, it's all clear now. He shouted as he slammed his spy-glass, he means to run in where we dare not follow. And he knows that caraway is out of hail. The home-ago smashed for the sake of the cargo and his flat-bottom tub can run where we cannot. I dare not carry after him cord-martial if I do. That is where those fellows beat us always. But by the Lord Harry he shall not prevail. Guns are no good, the rogue knows that. We will land round the point and nab him. By this time the moon was beginning to open the clouds and strew the waves with light, and the vapours which had lain across the day defying all power of sun-ray were gracefully yielding and departing softly at the insinuating whisper of the gliding night. Between the busy rolling of the distant waves and the shining prominence of forward cliffs a quiet space was left for ships to sail in and for men to show activity in shooting one another. And some of these were hurrying to do so, if they could. There's little chance of hitting him in his bad light, but let him have it, Jenkins, and a guinea for you if you could only bring that main sail down. A gunner was yearning for this and the bellow of his piece responded to the captain's words, but the shot only threw up a long path of fountains and the billender plowed on as merrily as before. Hard aboard by the Lord, I've felt her touch! Go about! So, so easy! Lie too for Kestrel and Albatross to join. My sirdy, but that was a narrow shave! How the beggar would have laughed if we had grounded! Give them another shot. It will do the gun good. She wants a little exercise. Nothing loath was the master gunner, as the other bow gun came into bearing to make a little more noise in the world and possibly produce a greater effect, and therein he must have had a grand success and established a noble reputation by carrying off a great Grimsby head if he only had attended to a little matter. Gunner Jenkins was a celebrated shot and the miss he had made stirred him up to shoot again. If the other gun was crooked this one should be straight, and dark as it was in shore he got a patch of white ground to sight by. The billender was a good sizable object and not to hit her anywhere would be too bad. He considered these things carefully, and cocked both eyes, with a twinkling ambiguity between them, then trusting mainly to the left one as an ancient gunner for the most part does. He watched the due moment and fired. The smoke curled over the sea and so did the Dutchman's main top sail, for the mass beneath it was cut clean through. Some of the crew were frightened as may be the bravest man when for the first time shot at, but James Brown rubbed his horny hands. Ah, this is a good judgment for that younger Robin Leith! He shouted aloud with the glory of a man who has verified his own opinions. He puts all the danger upon his elders and tells them there's none of it. I might just as well have been my head if a wave hadn't lifted the muzzle when that straight-eyed chap let fire. Bear hand, boys, and cut away the wreck! He hasn't got never another shot to send. He hath saved us the trouble of shortening that air canvas. We don't need too much way, honor. This was true enough. As all hands knew, for the craft was bound to take the beach without going to pieces yet a while. James Brown stood at the wheel himself and carried her in with consummate skill. It goeth to my heart to throw away good stuff. He grumbled at almost every creek. Two hundred pounder would have paid myself for this here piece of timber. Steady as a lighthouse and handy as a mop. But what do they young fellows care? There, now, my lads, hold your legs a moment. And now make your best of that. The crash and a grating and a long sad grind, the nuptial arc of the wealthy Dutchman cast herself into her last bed and birth. It done right well, said the Grimsby man. The poor old Billender had made herself such a hole in the shingle that she rolled no more, but only lifted at the stern and groaned. As the quiet waves swept under her the beach was swarming with men who gave her a cheer and flung their hats up. And in two or three minutes as many gang waves of timber and rope were rigged to her haws holes or forechains or almost anywhere. And then the rolling of punchions began, and the hoisting of bales and the thumping the creek and the laughter and the swearing. Now be you particular, uncommon particular, never start a stave nor fray of ale. Powerful precious stuff this time. Gold every bit of it if it are a penny. A blessing, coast riders will be on us round that point. But never you hurry, lads, the more for that. Better almost let them have it than damage a drop or a thread of such goods. All right, Captain Brown, don't you be so wonderful and easy? Not the first time we've handled such stuff. I'm not so sure of that, replied Brown as he lit a short pipe and began to puff. I've run some before, but never none so precious. Then the men of the coast and the sailors worked with the will, and by broad light of the moon which showed their brawny arms and panting chests with the hoisting and the heaving and the rolling, in less than an hour three-fourths of the cargo was landed in some already stowed inland, where no preventive eye could penetrate. Then Captain Brown put away his pipe and was busy in a dark, empty part of the hold, with some barrels of his own which he covered with a sailcloth. Presently the tramp of marching men was heard in a lane on the north side of the cove, and then the like sound echoed from the south. Now, never you hurry, said the Grimsby man. The others, however, could not attain such standard of equanimity. They fell into sudden confusion and babble of tongues and hesitation, everybody longing to be off but nobody liking to run without something good. And to get away with anything at all substantial, even in the dark, was difficult, because there were cliffs in front and the flanks would be stopped by men with cutlasses. Stanya still! cried Captain Brown. Never you budge, never I wanted you. I stand upon my legitimacy and I answer for the consequence. I take all responsibility. Like all honest Britons they loved long words and they knew that if the worst came to the worst a mere broken head or two would make all straight. So they huddled together in the moonlight waiting, and no one desired to be the outside man. And while they were striving for precedence toward the middle, the Coast Guards from either side marched upon them, according to their very best drill and in high discipline, to knock down almost any man with the pommel of the sword. But the smugglers also showed high discipline under the commanding voice of Captain Brown. Every man stawn with his hands to his sides and asked of they soldiers for a pinch of paca. This made them laugh till Captain Nuddlebones strode up. In the name of his Majesty's surrender, O you fellows, you are fairly caught in the very act of landing a large run of goods contraband. It is high time to make an example of you. Where is your skipper, lads? Robin Leith, come forth. It may please your good honour and his Majesty's commission, said Brown, in his full round voice as he walked down the broadest of the gangways leisurely. My name is not Robin Leith, but James Brown, a family man of Grimsby, and an honest trader upon the high seas. My cargo is medical water and rags, mainly for the use of the revenue men, by reason they hadn't had their new uniforms this twelve months. Several of the enemy began to giggle, for their winter supply of clothes had failed through some laps of the department. But Nuddlebones marched up and collared Captain Brown and said, You are my prisoner, sir. Surrender, Robin Leith, this moment. Brown made no resistance, but respectfully touched his hat and thought. I was trying to call upon my memory. He said, as a revenue officer led him aside and promised him that he should get off easily if he would only give up his chief. I am not going to deny your honour that I have heard tell of the name Robin Leith. But my memory never do come in a moment. Now, were he a man in the contraband line? Brown, if you want to provoke me, it will only be ten times worse for you. Now give him up like an honest fellow and I will do my best for you. I might even let a few tubs slip by. Sir, I'm a stranger around these parts and the lingo is beyond me. Tubs is a bucket as the women use for washing. Never I heard of any other sort of tubs. But my mate, he knoweth more of Yorkshire talk. Jack, here his honour is speaking about tubs. Ever you hear of tubs, Jack? Make the villain fast of the yonder mooring post, shout of nuttlebones losing his temper, and one of you stand by him with a hanger ready. Now, Master Brown, we'll see what tubs are, if you please, and what sort of rags you land at night. One chance more for you. Will you give up Robin Leith? Yes, sir, that I will. Without two thoughts about him. Only too happy as the young women say, to give him up quick stick, so soon as ever I had gotten. If ever there was a contumaceous rogue, roll up a couple of those punch-y-uns, Mr. Avery, and now light half a dozen links. Have you got your spigot heels and rumours? Very good. Lieutenant Donovan, Mr. Avery, and Senior Volunteer Brett, oblige me by standing by to verify. Gentlemen, we will endeavour to hold what is judiciously called an assay. A proof of the purity of substances. The brand on these casks is of the very highest order. The renowned mine here Van Dunck himself. Donovan, you shall be our foreman. I have heard you say that you understood ardent spirits from your birth. Fakes, and I quite forgot, Commander, whether I was weaned on or off of them. But the phone judged me, Father, was come down to me. Honey, don't be nervous. Slope it well, then. A little thick, is it? All the richer for the same, my boy. Commander! Here's the good health of His Majesty. Oh, Lord! Mr. Corker and Donovan fell upon the shingle, and rolled and bellowed. Sure me insides out, as poisoned I am, every morge you'll bit of me. A doctor, a doctor, and a praise to kill me, that ever I should live to die like this. O'tshon, O'tshon, every bit of me ought to be brought forth upon good whiskey and to go out of this world upon toxler stuff. Most folk does that when they ought to turn, and stutter-wise. James Brown of Grimsby could see how things were going, though his power to aid was restricted by a double turn of rope around him. But a kind hand had given him a pipe, and his manner was to take things easily. Commander, Captain, or whatever you be, with your king's clothes constructing a hole in the flints, tis medical water, and your own wife wouldn't know you to-morrow. Your complexion will be like a angels. You turn, rogue! cried Nutterbone, striding up with sword flashing in the link-lights. If ever I had a mind to cut any men down. Well, sir, do it then upon a roped man, if the honour of the British navy calleth for it. My will is made, and my widow will have action. And the executioner of my will is a Grimsby man, with a pile of money made in the line of salt-fish and such-like. Brown, you are a brave man, and I would score and harm you. Now upon your honour are all your punch-ins filled with that stuff and nothing else. Upon my word of honour, sir, they are. Some a little weaker, some with more bilge-water in it, or a trifle of a dash from the midden. The main of it, however, and the very same condition is bubbled without what they call the spouses. My captain, you must have lived long enough to know, particular if gifted with a family, that no sort of spirit as were ever still will fat so much money by the gallon, as the doctor stuffed doth by the file-bottle. That is true enough, but no lies, Brown, particularly when upon your honour. If you were importing doctor's stuff, why did you lead us such a dance and stand fire? Well, your honour, you must promise not to be offended if I tell you a little mistake we made. We heard a slight talk about some pirate craft as hoisted this majesty's flag upon their villainy, and when first you come up in the dusk of the night, you are the most impudent rogue I ever saw. Show your bills of lading, sir. You know his majesty's revenue cruisers, as well as I know your smuggling-tub. Ships, papers, or a board of her, all correct, sir. Keys at your service, if you please, to feel my pocket, objecting to let my hands loose. Very well, I must go on board of her and test a few of your punches and bales, Master Brown. Lock her in the master's own cabin, I suppose. Yes, sir, plain as can be on the starboard side, just behind the cabin door. Only your honour must be smart about it. The time, Fuse, can't have got three inches left. Time, Fuse, what do you mean, you crimsby villain? Nothing, Commander, but to keep you out of mischief. When we were compelled to beach the old craft for fear of them scoundrel-y pirates, it came into my head what a pity it would be to have her used illegal, for she do out-sail the most everything, as your honour can bear witness. So I just laid a half-hour Fuse to three big powder-barrels as is down there in the hold. Then I expect to see a blow-up almost every moment, but your honour might be in time yet, with a run and a good luck to your foot, you might. Back, lads, back, every one of you this moment! The first concern of nettle-bones was rightly for his men. Under the cliff here, keep well back, push out those smuggler fellows into the middle, let them have the benefit of their own inventions and this impudent brown the foremost. They have laid a train to their powder-barrels, and the lugger will blow up any moment. No fear for me, Commander. James Brown shouted through the hurry and jostle of a hundred runaways. More fear for that poor man, as lieth their alertion. She won't hit me when she bloweth up, no more than your honour could, but surely your duty demandeth of you do a board of the old bellender and take samples. Sample enough of you, my friend, but I haven't done quite with you yet. Simpson, here, bear a hand with poor Lieutenant Donovan. Nettle-bones set a good example by lifting the prostrate Irishman, and they bore him into safety, and drew up there, while the beach-men forbidden the shelter at point of cutlass made off right and left, and then, with a crash that shook the strand and drove back the water in a white turmoil, the crown of gold flew into a fount of timbers, splinters, shreds, smoke, fire, and dust. Gentlemen, you may come out of here, hauls! The Grimmsomey man shouted from his mooring post as the echoes ran along the cliffs and rolled to and fro in the distance. My old woman will miss a piece of my pigtail, but she hasn't hurt her old skipper else. She blown up handsome and no mistake. No more danger, gentlemen, and plenty of stuff to pick up before next payday. What shall we do with that insolent hound? Nettle-bones asked poor Donovan, who was groaning in slow convalescence. We have caught him in nothing. We cannot commit him. We cannot even duck him legally. Be jammers, let him drink his health in my own potting. Capital, bravo, over old Ireland, my friend. You shall see it done unhandsomely. Brown, you recommend these waters, so you shall have a dose of them. A piece of old truncated kelp was found, as good a drinking horn as need be, and with this Captain Brown was forced to swallow half a bucketful of his own medical water, and they left him fast as his moorings to reflect upon this form of importation. CHAPTER 33 BEARDED IN HIS DEN What do you think of it by this time, Barlar? Commander Nettle-bones asked his second, who had been left in command of Float, and to whom they rode back in a wrathful mood, with a good deal of impression that the fault was his. You have been taking it easily out here. What do you think of the whole of it? I have simply obeyed your orders, sir, and if I am to be blamed for that, I had better offer no opinion. No, no, I am finding no fault with you. Don't be touchy, Barlar. I seek your opinion, and you are bound to give it. Well, then, sir, my opinion is that they have made fools of a lot of us, accepting, of course, my superior officer. You think so, Barlar? Well, and so do I, and myself, the biggest fool of any. They have charged our center with a dummy cargo while they run the real stuff far on either flank. Is that your opinion? To a nice city, that is my opinion. Now that you put it so clearly, sir, a trick is a clumsy one, and never should succeed. Caraway ought to catch one lot if he has a half-worth sense in him. What is the time now, and how is the wind? I hear a church-clock striking twelve, and by the moon it must be that. The wind is still from the shore, but veering. And I felt a flaw from the east just now. If the wind works round, our turn will come. Is down of unfit for duty yet? Ten times fit, sir, to use his own expression. He is burning to have at somebody. His eyes work about like a binnacles' card, and board him and order him to make all sail for Burlington, and see what old Caraway is up to. You be off for Whitby, and as far as Steesmouth, looking into every cove you pass. I shall stand off and on from this to Scarborough, and as far as Filey. Sure measure's mind. If you come across them, find and have that fellow-leath. I shall go near to hanging him as a felon outlaw. His trick is a little too outrageous. No fear, Commander, if it is as we suppose, it is high time to make a strong example. Hours had been lost, as the captains of the cruisers knew too well by this time. Robin Lee's stratagem had duped them all. While the contraband cargoes might be landed safely at either extremity of their heat, by the aid of the fishing boats he had learned their maneuvers clearly and out maneuvered them. Now it would have been better for him, perhaps, to have been content with a lesser triumph, and to run his own schooner or glimpse further south, toward Hornsea or even Aldborough. Nothing, however, would satisfy him but to land his fine cargo at Caraway's own door. A piece of downright insolence for which he paid out most bitterly. A man of his courage and lofty fame should have been above such vindictive feelings. But, as it was, he cherished and, alas, indulged a certain small grudge against the bold lieutenant. Scarcely so much for endeavouring to shoot him as for entrapping him at Biersa Cottage, during the very sweetest moment of his life. You broke in disgracefully, said the smuggler to himself, upon my privacy when it should have been most sacred. Now these thing I can do is return your visit and pay my respects to Mrs. Caraway and your interesting family. Little expecting such a courtesy as this the vigilant officer was hurrying about, here, there, and almost everywhere except in the right direction, at one time by pinnance, and another upon horseback, or on his unwary, though unequal feet. He carried his sword in one hand and his spyglass in the other, and at every fog he swore so hard that he seemed to turn it yellow. With his heart worn almost into holes as an overmangled quilt is, by burdensome roll of perpetual lies, he condemned with a round mouth, smugglers, cutters, the coast guard, and the coast itself, the weather and with a deeper depth of condemnation the farmers, landlady, and fishermen. For all these verily seemed to be in league to play him the game which schoolboys play with a gentle-faced newcomer, the game of send the fool further. John Gristhorpe, of the ship in, it finally had turned out his visitors, barred his door, and was counting his money by the fireside, with his wife grumbling at him for such late hours, as half past ten o'clock in the bar, that night when the poor bailender ended her long career, as aforesaid. Then a thundering knock at the door, just fastened, made him upset a little pyramid of pence, and catch up the iron candlestick. None of you roistering here, cried the lady. John, you know better than to let them in, I hope. Copper cometh by day, gold cometh tonight, that I'm— A sturdy publican answered, though resolved to learn who it was before unbarring. In the name of the king undo this door. A deep stern voice resounded, Or by roll, command, we make splinters of it. It is that horrible caraway again, whispered Mrs. Gristhorpe. Much gold cometh of him, I doubt. Let him in if you dare, John. Keep out, if you dare, saith he. Alawan, here's the tale of it. While Gristhorpe and wholesome fealty to his wife was doubting, the door flew open, and in March caraway and all his men, or at least all saved one of his present following, he had ordered his penance to meet him here, himself having ridden from Scarborough, and the penance had brought the Jolly Boat in tow, according to his directions. The men had landed with the Jolly Boat, which was hand-eared for beech work, leaving one of their number to mine the larger craft while they should refresh themselves. They were nine and all, and caraway himself the tenth, all sturdy fellows, and for the main of it tolerably honest. Cadman, Ellis, and Dick Hackerbody, and one more man from Bridelington, the rest a reinforcement from Spurn Head, called up for occasion. Landlord, produce your best and quickly, the officer said, as he threw himself into the armchair of State, being thoroughly tired. In one hour's time we must be off, therefore John bring nothing tough for our stomachs are better than our teeth. A shilling per head is his Majesty's price, and half a crown for officers. Now a gallon of ale to begin with. Grislar, being a prudent man, brought the very toughest parts of his larder forth, with his wife giving nudge to his elbow. All, and especially caraway, too hungry for nice criticism fell too, by the light of three tallow candles, and were just getting into the heart of it when the rattle of horseshoes on the pitch stone shook the long low window, and a little boy came staggering in, with scanty breath, and a long face pale with hurrying so. Why, Tom, my boy! The Lieutenant cried, jumping up so suddenly, that he overturned the little table at which he was feeding by himself, to preserve the proper discipline. Tom, my darling, what has brought you here? Anything wrong with your mother? Nobody wouldn't come but me! Caraway's elder son began to gasp with his mouth full of crying, and a borrowed butcher hoos since Pony, and he's going to charge five shillings for it. Never mind that, we shall not have to pay it, but what is this all about, my son? About the men that are landing the things, just opposite our front door, Father. They've got seven carts, and a wagon with three horses, and one of the horses is three colors, and ever so many ponies, more than you could count. Well, then, may I be forever? Here the Lieutenant used an expression which not only was in breach of the third commandment, but might lead his son to think less of the fifth. If it isn't more than I can bear to be running a cargo at my own hall door, he had a passage large enough to hang three hats in, which the lady of the house always called the hall. Very well, very good, very fine indeed. You sons of—an animal that has not yet accounted the mother of the human race. Have you done guzzling and swizzling? The men who were new to his orders jumped up, for they liked his expressions by way of a change. But the Bridelington squads stuck to their trenches. Ready in five minutes, sir, said Cadman, with a glance neither loving nor respectful. If ever there was an old hog for the trough, the name of him is John Cadman. In ten minutes, lads, we must all be afloat. One more against you, muttered Cadman, and a shrewd, quiet man from Spurn Head, Adam Andrews, heard him and took heed of him. While the men of the Coast Guard were hurrying down to make ready the jolly boat and hail the penance, Carroway stopped to pay the score, and to give his son some beer and meat. The thirsty little fellow drained his cup and filled his mouth in both hands with food, while the landlady picked out the best bits for him. Don't talk, my son, don't try to talk! Said Carroway, looking proudly at him while the boy was struggling to tell his adventures without loss of feeding time. You are a chip of the old block, Tom, for whittling and for riding, too. Kind madam, you never saw such a boy before. Mark my words, he will do more in the world than ever his father did, and his father was pretty well known in his time in the Royal Navy, ma'am. To have stuck to his horse all that way in dark was wonderful, perfectly wonderful, and the horse blows more than the rider, ma'am, which is quite beyond my experience. Now, Tom, ride home very carefully and slowly if you feel quite equal to it. The Lord has watched over you, and he will continue, as he does with brave folk that do their duty. Half a crown you shall have, all for yourself, and the six-penny boat that you long for in the shops. Keep out of the way of the smugglers, Tom. Don't let them even clap eyes on you. Kiss me, my son. I am proud of you. Little Tom long remembered this, and his mother cried over it hundreds of times. Although it was getting on for midnight now, Master Gristhorpe and his wife came out into the road before their house to see the departure of their guests. And this they could do well, because the moon had cleared all the fog away and was standing in a good part of the sky for throwing clear light upon Filey. Along the uncovered ridge of shore, which served for a road and was better than a road, the boy and the pony grew smaller, while upon the silvery sea the same thing happened to the penance, with their white sails bending and her six oars glistening. The world goeth up, and the world goeth down, said the lady with her arms at Kimbu. And the moon goeth over the whole of us, John, but to my heart I do pity poor folkers kind of count the time to have the sniff of their own blankets. Marjorie, I luxe the moon as long as ever you did, but I sooner see the snuff of our own taller a going out for the bed-curtains. Shaking their heads with concrete wisdom they managed to bar the door again, and blessing their stars that they did not often want them, took shelter beneath the quiet canopy of bed. And when they heard by and by what had happened it cost them a week apiece to believe it, because with their own eyes they had seen everything so peaceable, and had such a good night afterward. When a thing is least expected, and then it loves to come to pass, and then it is enjoyed the most, whatever good there is of it. After the fog and the slur of the day to see the sky at all was joyful, although there was but a white moon upon it, and faint stars gliding hazily. And it was a great point for every man to be satisfied as to where he was, because that helps him vastly toward being satisfied to be there. The men in the penance could see exactly where they were in this world, and as to the other world their place was fixed, if discipline be an abiding gift, by the stern precision of their commander in ordering the lot of them to be the devil. They carried all sail, and they pulled six oars, and the wind and sea ran after them. Ah, I see something! Caroway sat after a league or more of swearing. Dick! The night glass my eyes are sore. What do you make her out for? Sir? She is a spurn head, y'all! Answered Dick Heckerbody, who was famed for long sight, but could see nothing with a telescope. I can see the patch of her foresail. She is looking for us. We are the wrong way of the moon. Ship oars, lads, bear up for her. In ten minutes' time the two boats came to speaking distance off of Bempton Cliffs in the windmill, that vexed Willie Annerley so looked bear and black on the Highland. There were only two men in the spurn head boat, not half enough to manage her. Well, what is it? Shouted Caroway. Robin Leith has made landfall in the Burlington Sands opposite your honor's door, sir. There was only two of us to stop him, and the man as his deaf and dumb. I know it, said Caroway, too wroth, to swear. My boy of eight years old is worth the entire boiling of you. You got into a rabbit hole and ran to tell your mammy. Captain! I never had no mammy. The other man answered with his feelings hurt. I come to tell you, sir, and something. If you please, for your own ear, if agreeable. Nothing is agreeable, but let me have it. Hold on, I will come aboard of you. Lieutenant stepped into the spurn head boat with a confident activity and ordered his own haul off a little, while the stranger bent to him in the stern and whispered. Now are you quite certain of this? Ask Caroway with his grim face glowing in the moonlight. I have had such a heap of cock and bulls about it. Markham, are you certain? As certain, sir, as that I stand here and you sit there, commander. Put me under guard with a pistol to my ear and shoot me if it turns out to be a lie. The dove-coat, you say. Are you quite sure of that? And not the Kirk Cave, or Leith's hole? Sir, the dove-coat and no other. I had it from my own young brother who has been cheated of his share, and I know it from my own eyes, too. Then, by the Lord of Heaven, Markham, I shall have my revenge at last, and I shall not stand upon niceties if I call for the jolly boat you step in. I doubt of either of these will enter. It was more than a fortnight since the lieutenant had received the attentions of a barber, and when he returned to his own boat and changed her course inshore, he looked most bristly even in the moonlight. The sea and the moon between them gave quite light enough to show how gaunt he was, the aspect of a man who cannot thrive without his children to make play, and his wife to do cookery for him. End of Chapter 33 Recording by Keith Salis Chapter 34 of Mariannerly This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Mariannerly by Richard Dodridge Blackmore Chapter 34 The Dove-Goat With a tiller in his hand the brave lieutenant meditated sadly. There was plenty of time for thought before quick action would be needed, although the Dove-Goat was so near that no boat could come out of it unseen. For the penance was fetching a circuit so as to escape the eyes of any sentinel, if such there should be at the mouth of the cavern, and to come upon the inlet suddenly, and the two other revenue boats were in her wake. The wind was slowly veering toward the east, as the Grimsby man had predicted with no sign of any storm as yet, but rather a prospect of winterly weather, and a breeze to bring the woodcocks in. The gentle rise and fall of waves, or rather perhaps of the tidal flow, was checkered and veined with a ripple of a slanting breeze, and twinkled into moonbeams. For the moon was brightly mounting toward her zenith, and casting bastions of rugged cliff and the gloomy largeness of the mirror of the sea, hugging these as closely as their peril would allow. Caraway ordered silence, and with a sense of coming danger thought, probably I shall kill this man. He will scarcely be taken alive, I fear. He is as brave as myself or braver, and in his place I would never yield. If he were a Frenchman it would be all right, but I hate to kill a gallant Englishman. And such a pretty girl, and a good girl, too, loves him with all her heart, I know, and that good old couple who depend upon him, and who have had such shocking luck themselves. He has been a bitter plague to me, and often I have longed to strike him down. But tonight I cannot tell why it is. I wish there were some way out of it. God knows that I would give up the money, and give up my thief-catching business, too, if the honor of the service let me. But duty drives me, and in do it I must. And after all, what is life to a man who is young, and has no children, better over, better done with, before the troubles and the disappointment come, the weariness, the loss of power, and the sense of growing old, and seeing the little ones hungry. Life is such a fleeting vapor. I smell some man sucking peppermint. The smell of it goes on the wind for a mile. Cadman again as usual. Peppermint in the Royal Coast Guard, away with the ancient bedlam. Mattering something about his bad tooth, the man flung his lozenge away, and his eyes flashed fire in the moonlight, while the rust grinned a low grin at him. An adam Andrews, sitting next to him, saw him lay hands upon his muscatune. Are your firelocks all-prime, my lads? The commander asked quite as if he had seen them, although he had not been noticing. And the foremost to answer, I, I, sir, was Cadman. Then be sure that you fire not, except at my command. We will take them without shedding blood, if it may be. But happen what will, we must have, Leith. With these words Careway drew his sword and laid it on the bench beside him, and the rest who would rather use steel than powder, felt that their hangers were ready. Few of them wished to strike at all, for vexed as they were with the smugglers for having outwitted them so often. And yet there was no bad blood between them, such as must be quenched with death. And some of them had friends, and even relatives, among the large body of free-traders, and counted it too likely that they might be here. Meanwhile in the cave there was rare work going on, speedily, cleverly, and with a merry noise. There was only one boat, with a crew of six men besides Robin Leith, the captain, but the six men made noise enough for twelve, and the echoes made it into twice enough for any twenty-four. The crew were trusty, hearty fellows who liked their joke and could work with it, and Robin Leith knew them too well to attempt any high authority of gagging. The main of their cargo was landed in Gaunenland, as snugly as need be, and having kept beautifully sober over that they were taking the liberty of beginning to say, or rather sip, the grace of the fine indulgence due to them. Pleasant times make pleasant scenes, and everything now is fair and large in this happy cave of freedom. Lights of bright resin were burning with strong flare and fume upon shelves of rock. Dark water softly went lapping round the sides, having dropped all rude habits at the entrance, and a pulse of quiet rise and fall opened and spread to the discovery of light, tremulous fronds, and fans of kelp. The cavern, expanding and mounting from the long narrow gut of its inlet, shown with staves of snowy crag wherever the scour of the tide ran round, bulged and scooped or peaked and fissured, and sometimes beautifully sculptured by the pliant tools of water. Above the tide reached darker hues prevailed, and more jagged outline tufted here and there with yellow where the lichen freckles spread, and the vault was framed of mountain fabric masked with ponderous gray slabs. All below was limpid water, or at any rate not very muddy, but as bright as need be for the time of year, and a sea which is not tropical, no one may hope to see the bottom through ten feet of water on the Yorkshire coast toward the end of the month of November, but still it tries to look clear upon occasion, and here in the caves it settles down, after even a week free from churning, and perhaps the fog outside had helped it to look clearer inside, for the larger world as a share of the spirit of contrarity intensified in man. Be that as it may, the water was too clear for any hope of sinking tubs deeper than preventive eyes could go, and the very honest fellows who were laboring here had not brought any tubs to sink. All such coarse gear was shipped off inland, as they vigorously expressed it, and what they were concerned with now was the cream and the jewel of their enterprise. The sea reserved exclusive right of way around rocky sides, without even a niche for human foot, so far as a stranger could perceive. At the furthest end of the cave, however, the craggy basin had a lip of flinty pebbles and shelly sand. This was no more than a very narrow shelf, just enough for a bathur to plunge from, but it ran across the broad end of the cavern, and from its southern corner, when a deep, dry fissure, mounting out of sight into the body of the cliff, and here the smugglers were merrily at work. The nose of their boat was run high upon the shingle. Two men on board of her were passing out the bales, while the other four received them, and staggered with them up the cranny. Captain Leith himself was in the stern-sheets sitting calmly, but ordering everything and jotting down the numbers. Now and then the gentle wash was lifting the brown timbers and swelling with a sleepy gush of hushing murmurs out of sight, and now and then the heavy vault was echoing with some sailor's song. There was only one more bail to land, and that the most precious of the whole, being all pure lace most closely packed in a waterproof enclosure. Robin Leith himself was ready to indulge in a careless song. For this, he had promised Mary was to be his last illegal act. Henceforth, instead of defrauding the revenue, he would most loyally cheat the public, as every reputable tradesman must. How could any man serve his time more nobly toward shopkeeping and pave fairer way into the corporation of a grandly corrupt old English town than by long graduation of free trade? And Robin was yet too young and careless to know that he could not endure dull work. How pleasant, how comfortable, how secure, he was saying to himself, It will be. I shall hardly be able to believe that I ever lived in hardship. The great laws of human nature were not to be balked so. Robin Leith, the prince of smugglers and the type of hardyhood, was never to wear a grocers apron, was never to be licensed to sell tea, coffee, tobacco, pepper, and snuff. For while he indulged in this vain dream and was lifting his last most precious bale as surge of neither wind nor tide, but of hostile invasion washed the rocks and broke beneath his feet. In a moment all his wits returned, and all his plentitude of resource and unequaled vigor and coolness. With his left hand, for he was as ambidextor as a brave writer of this age requires, he caught up a hand-spike and hurled it so truly along the line of torches that only two were left to blink. With his right he flung the last bale upon the shelf, then leapt out after it and hurried it away. Then he sprang into the boat again and held an oar in either hand. In the name of the king, surrender! shouted Carroway, standing tall and grim in the bow of the penance which he had skillfully driven through the entrance, leaving the other boats outside. We are three to one. We have muskets and a cannon. In the name of the king, surrender! In the name of the devil, splash! cried Robin, suiting the action to the word, striking the water with both broad blades while his men snatched oars and did the same. A whirl of flashing water filled the cave as if with a tempest. Soaked poor Carroway and drenched his sword and deluged the priming of his hostile guns. All was uproar, turmoil and confusion, thrice confounded. No man could tell where he was and the grappling boats reeled to and fro. Club your muskets and add'em! cried a lieutenant mad with rage as a gun-whale of his boat swung over. Their blow had me upon their own heads. Draw your hangers and add'em! He never spoke another word but furiously leaping at the smuggler chief fell back into his own boat and died without a syllable, without a groan. The roar of a gun and the smoke of powder mingled with a watery hubbub and hushed in a moment all the oaths of conflict. The revenue men drew back and sheathed their cutlasses and laid down their guns. Some looked with terror at one another, and some at the dead commander. His body lay across the heel of the mast, which had been unstepped at his order, and a heavy drip of blood was weltering into a ring upon the floor. For several moments no one spoke, nor moved, nor listened carefully. But the fall of the poor lieutenant's death-drops, like the ticking of a clock, went on. Until an old tar, who had seen the sight of battles, crooked his legs across a thwart and propped up the limp head upon his doubled knee. Dad is adorn now. He muttered after laying his ear to his lips and one hand on the two impetuous heart. Who takes command? This is a hanging job, I'm thinking. There is nobody to take command, not even a petty officer. The command fell to the readiness mind as it must in such catastrophes. Jim, you do it! whispered two or three, and being so elected he was clear. They are broad-signed on the mouth of the cave. Not a man stirs without killing me. Old Jim shouted, and to hear the plain voice was sudden relieved to most of them. In the wavering dimness they laid dependence across the narrow entrance, while the smugglers huddled all together in their boat. Burn two blue lights! cried old Jim, and it was done. I'm not going to speechify to any cursed murderers, the old sailors said with a sense of authority which made him use mild language. But take heed of one thing. I'll blow you all the pieces with this here four-pounder without you strikes preemptory. The brilliance of the blue lights filled the cavern, throwing out everybody's attitude and features, especially those of the dead Lieutenant. A fine job you've made of it this time! said Jim. They were beaten. They surrendered. They could scarcely even speak to assert their own innocence of such a wicked job. They submitted to be bound and cast down into their boat, imploring only that it might be there, that they might not be taken to the other boat and laid near the corpse of Caraway. Let the white-livered cards have their way, the old sailor said contemptuously. Put their captain on top of them. Now which is Robin Leith? The lights were burned out, and the cave was dark again, except when the slant of moonlight came through a fissure upon the southern side. The smugglers muttered something, but they were not heeded. Never mind. Make her fast. Fetch her out, you lovers. We shall see him well enough when we get outside. But in spite of their certainty they failed of this. They had only six prisoners, and not one of them was Leith. CHAPTER 35. LITTLE CAROWAISE Mrs. Caraway was always glad to be up quite early in the morning, but some few mornings seemed to slip in between wiles when, in accordance with human nature, and its operations in the baby stage, even Louta Caraway failed to be about the world before the sun himself. Whenever this happened she was slightly cross from the combat of conscience and self-assertion, which fly at one another worse than any dog and cat. Geraldine knew that her mother was put out if any one of the household dirts go down the stairs before her, and yet if Geraldine herself held back and followed the example of late minutes, she was sure to catch it worse as the poor child expressed it. If any active youth with a very small income, such as an active youth is pretty sure to have, once a good wife and has the courage to set out with one, his proper course is to choose the eldest daughter of a numerous family. When the others come thickly, this daughter of the house gets worked down into a wonderful perfection of looking after others, while she overlooks herself. Such a course is even better for her than to have a stepmother, which also is a goodly thing, but sometimes leads to sourness, whereas no girl of any decent staple can revolt against her duty to her own good mother and the proud sense of fostering and working for the little ones. Now Geraldine was wise in all these ways and pleased to be called the little woman of the house. The baby had been troublesome in the night, and scant of reason as the rising race can be, even while so immature and after being up with it and herself producing a long series of noises, which lead to peace through the born desire of contradiction, the mother fell asleep at last perhaps from simple sympathy and slept beyond her usual hour. But instead of being grateful for this, she was angry and bitter to any one awake before her. I cannot tell why it is, she said to Geraldine who was toasting a herring for her brothers and sisters and enjoying the smell which was all that she would get. But perpetually now you stand exactly like your father. There is every excuse for your father, because he is an officer, and has been knocked about as he always is. But there is no excuse for you, miss. Put your heel decently under your dress, if we can afford nothing else we can surely afford to behave well. The child made no answer, but tucked her heel in and went on toasting nobly, while she counted the waves on the side of the herring, where his rib should have been if he were not too fat. And she mentally divided him into seven pieces, not one of which alas, would be for hungry Geraldine. Tom must have two after being out all night, she was saying to herself, and to grudge him would be greedy, but the bit of skin upon the toasting fork will be for me. I am almost sure. Geraldine, the last thing you can do when I speak to you is to answer. This morning you are in a most provoking temper and giving yourself the most intolerable heirs. And who gave you leave to do your hair like that? One would fancy that you were some rising court beauty or child of nobility at the very least, instead of a plain little thing that has to work, or at any rate that ought to work to help its poor mother. Now you are going to cry, I suppose. Let me see a tear and you shall go to bed again. Oh, mother, mother, now what do you think has happened? Little Tom shouted as he rushed in from the beach. Father has caught all the smugglers, every one, and the royal George is coming home before a spanking breeze. The three boats behind her, and they can't be all ours. And one of them must belong to Robin Leith himself, and I would almost bet a penny that they have been and shot him. Though everybody said that he never could be shot. Jerry, come and look. Never mind the old fish. I never did see such a sight in all my life. They have got the jib sail on him, so he must be dead at last, and instead of half a crown I am sure to get a guinea. Come along, Jerry, and perhaps I'll give you some of it. Tommy, said his mother, you are always so impetuous. I never will believe in such good luck until I see it. But you have been a wonderfully good brave boy, and your father may thank you for whatever he has done. I shall not allow Geraldine to go for she is not a good child this morning, and of course I cannot go myself, for your father will come home absolutely starving, and it would not be right for the little ones to go if things are at all as you suppose. Now, if I let you go yourself, you are not to go beyond the Flagstaff. Keep far away from the boats, remember, unless your father calls for you to run on any errand. All the rest of you go in here, with your bread and milk, and wait until I call you. Mrs. Caraway locked all the little ones in a room from which they could see nothing of the beach, with orders to sissy the next girl to feed them, and keep them all quiet until she came again. But while she was busy with the very lively air to fetch out whatever could be found of the fatness or grease that could be hoped to turn to gravy in the pan. For Caraway being so lean, loved fat, and to put a fish before him was an insult to his bones. Just at the moment when she had struck oil in the shape of a very fat chop from forth a stew, which had beaten all the children by steering inertia, then at this moment when she was rejoicing the latch of the door clicked and a man came in. Whoever you are, you seem to me to make yourself very much at home. The lady said sharply without turning around, because she supposed it to be a well-accustomed enemy, armed with that odious little bill. The intruder made no answer, and she turned to rate him thoroughly, but the petulance of her eyes drew back before the sad, stern gaze of his. Who are you, and what do you want? She asked with a yellow dish in one hand and a frying pan in the other. Geraldine, come here. That man looks wild. Her visitor did look wild enough, but without any menace in his sorrowful dark eyes. Can't the man speak? she cried. Are you mad or starving? We are not very rich, but we can give you bread, poor fellow. Captain Caraway will be at home directly, and you will see what can be done for you. Have you not heard of a thing that has been done? The young man asked her word by word and staying himself with one hand upon the dresser, because he was trembling dreadfully. Yes, I have heard of it all. They shot the smuggler Robin Leith at last. I am very sorry for him. But it was needful, and he had no family. Lady, I am Robin Leith. I have not been shot, nor even shot at. The man that has been shot, I know not how, instead of me, was— was—somebody quite different. With all my heart I wish it had been me, and no more trouble. He looked at the mother and the little girl and sobbed and fell upon a salting stool, which was to have been used that morning. Then, while Mrs. Caraway stood bewildered, Geraldine ran up to him and took his hand and said, Don't cry. My papa says that men never cry, and I am so glad that you were not shot. See me kiss her," said Robin Leith as he laid his lips upon the child's fair forehead. If I had done it, could I do that? Darling, you will remember this. Madam, I am hunted like a mad dog, and shall be hanged to your flagstaff if I am caught. I am here to tell you that, as God looks down from heaven upon you and me, I did not do it. I did not even know it. The smuggler stood up, with his right hand on his heart and tears rolling manifestly down his cheeks. But his eyes like crystal, clear with truth. And the woman, who knew not that she was a widow, but felt it already, with a helpless wonder, answered quietly, You speak the truth, sir. But what difference can it make to me? Leith tried to answer with the same true look, but neither his eyes nor his tongue would serve. I shall just go and judge for myself, she said, as if it were a question of marketing. Such bitter defiance came over her. And she took no more heed of him than if he were a chair, nor even half so much, for she was a great judge of a chair. Geraldine, go and put your bonnet on. We are going to meet your father. Tell Sissy and all the rest to come but the baby. The baby cannot do it, I suppose. In a minute and a half I shall expect you all. How many? Seven? Yes. Seven of you. Seven, mother, yes. And the baby makes eight. And yesterday you said that he was worth all us together. Robin Leith saw that he was no more wanted, or even heated, and without delay he quitted such premises of danger. Why should he linger in a spot where he might have violent hands laid upon him, and be sped to a premature end without benefit even of trial by jury? Upon this train of reasoning he made off. Without any manner of reasoning at all but with fierceness of dread and stupidity of grief the mother collected her children in silence, from the damsel of ten to the toddler of two, then leaving the baby tied down in the cradles she pulled at the rest of them, on this side and on that, to get them into proper trim of dresses and of hats, as if they were going to be marched off to church, for that all the younger ones made up their minds and put up their ears for the tinkle of the bell. But the elder children knew that it was worse than that, because their mother never looked at them. You will go by way of the station, she said, for the boats were still out at sea, and no certainty could be made of them. Whatever it is, we may thank the station for it. The poor little things looked up at her in wonder, and then, acting up to their discipline, set off and lopsided pairs of a small and a big one to save any tumbling and cutting of knees. The elder ones walked with discretion, and a strong sense of responsibility hushed moreover by some inkling of a great black thing to meet. But the baby ones prattled and skipped with their feet and straggled away toward the flowers by the path, the mother of them all followed slowly and heavily, holding the youngest by the hand because of its trouble in getting through the stones. Her heart was nearly choking, but her eyes free and reckless, wandering wildly over earth and sea and sky, in vain search of guidance from any or from all of them. The penance came nearer, with its sad, cold freight. The men took off their hats and rubbed their eyes, and some of them wanted to go back off again. A Mrs. Caraway calmly said, Please, to let me have my husband.