 Chapter 13 of Mary Annerley This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Julian Henry Mary Annerley by Richard Dodderidge Blackmore Grumbling and growling While these successful runs went on and great authorities smiled at seeing the little authorities set at knot and men of the revenue smote their breasts for not being born good smugglers, and the general public was well pleased and congratulated them cordially upon their accomplishment of knot. One man there was whose noble spirit chafed and knew no comfort. He strode up and down at Coast Guard Point and communed with himself, while Robin held sweet converse in the lane. Why was I born? the sad caraway cried. Why was I thoroughly educated and trained in both services of the king, expected to rise and beginning to rise till a vile bit of splinter stopped me and then sent down to this whole of a place to starve and be laughed at and baffled by a boy. Another lucky run and the revenue bamboozled and the whole of us sent upon a wild goose chase. Every gapper mouth zany grinning at me and scoundrels swearing that I get my share and the only time I have had my dinner with my knees crooked for at least a fortnight was at Annerley Farm on Sunday. I am not sure that even they wouldn't turn against me. I am certain that pretty girl would. I have a great mind to throw it up, a great mind to throw it up. It is hardly the work for a gentleman born and the grandson of a rear admiral. Tinkers and Taylor's sons get the luck now, and a man of good blood is put on the back shelf behind the blacking bottles. A man who has battled for his country. Charles, are you coming to your dinner once more? No, I am not. There's no dinner worth coming to. You and the children may eat that rat pie. A man who has battled for his country and bled till all his veins were empty and it took two men to hold him up and yet waved his sword at the head of them. It is the downright contradiction of the world in everything for him to poke about with pots and tubs like a pig in a brewery, grain hunting. Once more Charles, there is next to nothing left. The children are eating for their very lives. If you stay out there another minute you must take the consequence. Alas that I should have so much stomach and so little to put into it. My dear, put a little bit under a basin if any of them has no appetite. I wanted just to think a little. Charles, they have all got tremendous appetites. It is the way the wind is. You may think by and by, but if you want to eat you must do it now or never. Never, never suits me in that matter, the brave lieutenant answered. Matilda, put Geraldine to warm the pewter plate for me. Geraldine, darling, you can do it with your mouth full. The commander of the Coast Guard turned abruptly from his long indignant stride and entered the cottage provided for him and which he had peopled so speedily. Small as it was it looked beautifully clean and neat and everybody used to wonder how Mrs. Caraway kept it so. But in spite of all her troubles and many complaints she was very proud of this little house with its healthful position and beautiful outlook over the Bay of Bridlington. It stood in a niche of the low soft cliff where now the sea parade extends from the northern pier of Bridlington Quay and when the roadstead between that and the point was filled with a fleet of every kind of craft or better still when they all made sail at once as happened when a trusty breeze arose the view was lively and very pleasant and full of moving interest. Often one of His Majesty's cutters, swordfish, kestrel or albatross would swoop in with all sail set and hover while the skipper came ashore to see the ancient Caraway as this vigilant officer was called and sometimes even a sloop of war armed brigantine or light corvette prowling for recruits or cruising for their training would run in under the head and overhaul every windbound ship with a very high hand. Ancient Caraway as old friends called him and even young people who had never seen him was famous upon this coast now for nearly three degrees of latitude. He had dwelled here long and in highly good content hospitably treated by his neighbours and himself more hospitable than his wife could wish until two troubles in his life arose and from year to year grew worse and worse. One of these troubles was the growth of mouths in number and size that required to be filled and the other trouble was the rampant growth of smuggling and the glory of that upstart robin life. Now let it be lawful to take that subject first. Fair robin though not at all anxious for fame but modestly willing to decline it had not been successful though he worked so much by night in preserving sweet obscurity. His character was public and set on high by fortune to be gazed at from wholly different points of view from their narrow and lime eyed outlook the Coast Guard beheld in him the latest incarnation of old Nick yet they hated him only in the abstract manner and as men feel toward that evil one. Magistrates also and the large protective powers were arrayed against him yet happy to abstain from laying hands when their hands were their own upon him and many of the farmers who should have been his warmest friends and best customers were now so attached to their king and country by bellicose warmth and army contracts that instead of a guinea for a four gallon anchor they would offer three crowns or the excisemen and not only conscience but short cash after three bad harvests constrained them yet the staple of public opinion was sound as it must be where women predominate the best of women could not see why they should not have anything they wanted for less than it cost the maker to gaze at a sister women better dressed at half the money was simply to abjure every lofty principle and to go to church with a counterfeit on when the genuine lace was in the next pew on a body of inferior standing was a downright outrage to the congregation director and all religion a cold blooded creature with no pin money might reconcile it with her principles if any she had to stand up like a dowdy and allow a poor man to risk his life by shot and storm and starvation and then to deny him a word or a look because of his coming with the genuine thing at a quarter of the price fat tradesmen asked never stirred out of their shops when it drained for a thing that was a story and an imposition charity duty and common honesty to their good husbands in these bad times compelled them to make the very best of bargains of which they got really more and more as those brave mariners themselves poor witness because of the depression in the free trade now and the glorious victories of England where they bound to pay three times the genuine value and then look a figure and be laughed at and as for captain caraway let him scold and threaten and stride about and be jealous because his wife dare not buy true things per creature although there were two stories also about that and the quantities of things that he got for nothing whenever he was clever enough to catch them which scarcely ever happened thank goodness let captain caraway attend to his own business unless he was much belied he had a wife who would keep him to it who was captain caraway to come down here without even being born in Yorkshire and lay down the law as if he owned the manner the tenant caraway had heard such questions but disdained to answer them he knew who he was and what his grandfather had been and he never cared a short word what sort of stuff long tongues might pray of him barbarous broaddrawlers murderers of his majesty's English could they even pronounce the name of an officer highly distinguished for many years in both of the royal services that was his description and the Yorkshire yokels might go and read it if read they could in the pages of authority like the celebrated calf that sucked two cows caraway had drawn royal pay though in very small drains upon either element beginning with a skeleton regiment and then when he became too hot for it diving off into a frigate as a recommended volunteer here he was more at home though he never ceased longing to be a general and having the credit of fighting well ashore he was looked at with interest when he fought a fight at sea he fought it uncommonly well and it was good and so many men fell that he picked up his commission and got into a 52 gunship after several years of service without promotion for his grandfather's name was worn out now and the wars were not properly constant there came a very lively succession of fights and caraway got into all of them or at least into all the best of them and he ought to have gone up much faster than he did and he must have done so but for his long lean jaws the which are the worst things that any man can have not only because of their own consumption and slow length of leverage but mainly on account of the sadness they impart and the timid recollection of a hungry wolf to the man who might have lifted up a fatter individual but in Rodney's great encounter with the Spanish fleet caraway showed a dauntless spirit and received such a wound that it was impossible not to pay him some attention his name was near the bottom of a very long list but it made a mark on someone's memory depositing a chance of coming up some day when he should be reported hit again and so good was his luck that he soon was hit again and a very bad hit it was but still he got over it without promotion because that enterprise was one in which nearly all our men ran away and therefore required to be well pushed up for the sake of the national honour when such things happen the few who stay behind must be left behind in the gazette as well that wound therefore seemed at first to go against him but he bandaged it and plastered it and hoped for better luck his third wound truly was a blessed one a slight one and taken in the proper course of things without a slur upon any of his comrades this set him up again with advancement and appointment and enabled him to marry and have children seven the lieutenant was now about 50 years of age gallant and lively as ever and resolute to attend to his duty and himself as well his duty was now a long shore in command of the Coast Guard of the East District for the loss of a good deal of one heel made it hard for him to step about as he should do when afloat the place suited him and he was fond of it although he grumbled sometimes about his grandfather and went on as if his office was beneath him he abused all his men and all the good ones liked him and respected him for his clear English and he enjoyed this free exercise of language out of doors because inside his threshold he was on his peas and queues to call him ugly caraway as course people did because of a scar across his long bold nose was petty and unjust and directly contradicted by his own and his wife's opinion for nobody could have brighter eyes or a kindlier smile and more open aspect in the four part of the week while his Sunday shave retained its influence so far as its limited area went for he kept a long beard always by Wednesday he certainly began to look grim and on Saturday ferocious pending the advent of the Bridlington Barber who shaved all the key every Sunday his mind was none the worse and his daughters liked him better when he rasped their young cheeks with his beard and paid a penny for to his children he was a loving and tender hearted father puzzled at their number and sometimes perplexed at having to feed and clothe them yet happy to give them his last and go without and even ready to welcome more if heaven should be pleased to send them but Mrs. Caraway most fidgety of women and born of a well-shorne family was unhappy from the middle to the end of the week that she could not scrub her husband's beard off the lady's sense of human crime and of everything hateful in creation expressed itself mainly in the word dirt her rancour against that nobly tranquil and most natural of elements enured itself into a downright passion from babyhood she had been notorious for kicking her little legs out at the least speck of dust upon a tiny red shoe her father a clergyman heard so much of this and had so many children of a different stamp that when he came to christen her at six months of age which used to be considered quite an early time of life he put upon her the name of Lotta to which she thoroughly acted up but people having ignorance of foreign tongues said that he always meant Matilda such was her nature and it grew upon her so that when a young and gallant officer tall and fresh and as clean as a frigate was captured by her neat bright eyes very clear run and sharp cut water she began to like to look at him before very long his spruce trim ducks careful scrape of Brunswick leather boots clean pocket handkerchiefs and fine specklessness were making and keeping a well-swept path to the thoroughly dusted storeroom of her heart how little she dreamed in those virgin days that the future could ever contain a week when her Charles would decline to shave more than once and then have it done for him on a Sunday she hesitated for she had her thoughts doubts she disdained to call them but still he forgot once to draw his boots sideways after having purged the toe and heel across the bristle of her father's mat with the quick eye of love he perceived her frown and the very next day he conquered her his scheme was unworthy a substituted corporate for personal purity still it succeeded as unworthy schemes will do on the birthday of his sacred majesty Charles took Matilda to see his ship the 48 gun frigate Immaculate commanded by a well-known martinette her spirit fell within her like the Queen of Sheba's as she gazed but trembled to set down foot upon the trim order and the dazzling choring she might have survived the strict purity of all things the declines whiter than parry and marble the bulwarks brighter than the cheekpiece of a great the breeches of the guns like goodly gold and not a whisker of a rope's end curling the wrong way if only she could have aspired a swab or a bucket or a flake of holy stone or any indicament of labour done artist Est Cillari Arton this art was unfathomable Matilda was feigned to assure herself that the main part of this might be superficial like a dish cover polished with the spots on and she lost her handkerchief on purpose to come back and try a little test work of her own this was a piece of unstopped knotting in the panel of a hatchway a resinous hole that must catch to keep any speck of dust meandering on the wayward will of the wind her cambrick came out as white as it went in she surrendered at discretion and became the prize of caraway now people at Bridlington Key declared that the lieutenant though he might have carried off a prize was certainly not the prize master and they even went so far as to say that he could scarcely call his soul his own the matter was no concern of theirs neither were their conclusions true in little things the gallant officer for the sake of discipline and peace submitted to due authority and being so much from home he left all household matters to affirm control in return for this he was always thought of first and the best of everything was kept for him and Mrs. Caraway quoted him to others as a wonder though she may not have done so to himself and so upon the whole they got on very well together now on this day when the lieutenant had exhausted a grumble of unusual intensity and the fair Geraldine his eldest child had obeyed him to the letter by keeping her mouth full while she warmed a plate for him it was not long before his usual luck befell the bold caraway rap rap came a knock at the side door of his cottage a knock only too familiar and he heard the gruff voice of Cadman can I see his honour immediately no you cannot replied Mrs. Caraway one would think you were all in a leak to starve him no sooner does he get half a mouthful Geraldine put it on the hob my dear and a basin over it love you know my maxim duty first dinner afterward Cadman I will come with you the revenue officer took up his hat which had less time now than his dinner to get cold and followed Cadman to the usual place for holding privy councils this was under the heel of the pier which was then about half as long as now at a spot where the outer wall combed over the crest of the surges in the height of a heavy eastern gale at knee-tides and in moderate weather this place was dry with a fine salt smell and with nothing in front of it but the sea and nothing behind it but solid stone wall anyone would think that here must be commune secret secret and secluded from eavesdroppers and yet it was not so by reason of a very simple reason upon the roadway of the pier and over against a mooring post where the parapet and the pier itself made a needful turn toward the south there was an equally needful thing a gully hole with an iron trap to carry off the rain that fell or the spray that broke upon the fabric and the outlet of this gully was in the face of the masonry outside caraway not being gifted with a crooked mind had never dreamed that this little butt might conduct the pulses of the air like the tyrant's ear and that the trap at the end might be a trap for him yet so it was and by gently raising the movable iron frame at the top a well-disposed person might hear every word that was spoken in the snug recess below Cadman was well aware of this little fact but left his commander to find it out the officer always thinly clad both through the state of his wardrobe and his dread of effeminate comfort settled his bony shoulders against the rough stonework and his heels upon the groin and gave his subordinate a nod which meant make no fuss but out with it Cadman, a short square fellow with crafty eyes, began to do so Captain, I have hit it off at last Hacker buddy put me wrong last time through the wench he hath a hankering after this time I got it and no mistake as right as if the villain lay asleep twixed you and me and told us all about it with his tongue out and a good thing for men of large families like me All that I have heard such a number of times his commander answered crustily that I whistle as we used to do in a dead calm, Cadman an old sod like you knows how little comes of that There I don't quite agree with your honour I have known a hurricane come from whistling but this time there is no women about it and the penny have come down straight forward New moon Tuesday next and Monday we slips first into that snug little cave he hath all had his last good run How much is coming this time, Cadman? I am sick and tired of those three caves it is all old women's talk of caves while they are running south upon the open beach Captain, it is a big venture the biggest of all the summer I do believe £2,000 if there is a penny in it the schooner and the lugger and the catch all to once of purpose to send us scattering but your honour knows what we be after most no women in it this time sir the murder has been of the women all along when there is no women I can see my way we have got the right pig by the ear this time John Cadman, your manner of speech is rude you forget that your commanding officer has a wife and family three quarters of which are female you will give me your information without any rude observations as to sex of which you as a married man should be ashamed a man and his wife are one flesh, Cadman and therefore you are a woman yourself and must labour not to disgrace yourself now don't look amazed but consider these things if you had not been in a flurry like a woman you would not have spoiled my dinner so I will meet you at the outlook at six o'clock I have business on hand of importance with these words, Caraway hastened home leaving Cadman to mutter his wrath and then to growl it when his officer was out of earshot never a day nor an hour almost without he insulted of me a woman indeed, well his wife may be a man but what call have he to speak of mine so John Cadman a woman had one flesh with his wife pretty news that would be for my mrs end of chapter 13 chapter 14 of Mary Annerley this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Gillian Henry Mary Annerley by Richard Dodderidge Blackmore serious charges Stephen, if it was anybody else you would listen to me in a moment said mrs Annerley to her lord a few days after that little interview in the Benton Lane for instance, if it was poor Willie how long would you be in believing it but because it is Mary you say poo-poo and I may as well talk to the old cracked churn first time in all my born days the farmer answered with a pleasant smile however I was resembled to a churn but a man's wife ought to know best about him Stephen it is not the churn I mean you and you never should attempt to ride off in that sort of way I tell you Mary hath a mischief on her mind and you never ought to bring up old churns to me as long as I can carry almost anything in mind I have been considered to be full of common sense and what should I use it upon Captain Annerley without it was my own daughter the farmer was always conquered when she called him Captain Annerley he took it to point at him as a pretender a coxcomb fond of titles a would-be officer who took good care to hold aloof from fighting and he knew in his heart that he loved to be called Captain Annerley by everyone who meant it my dear he said in a tone of submission and with a look that grieved her the knowledge of such things is with you I cannot enter into young maid's minds any more than command a company Stephen you could do both if you chose better than ten of eleven who do it for Stephen you have a very tender mind and are not at all like a churn my dear that was my manner of speech you ought to know because from my youngest days I had a crowd of imagination you remember that Stephen don't you I remember Sophie that in the old time you never resembled me to a churn let alone a cracked one you used to christen me a pillar and a tree and a rock and a polished corner but there what's the odds when a man has done his duty the names of him makes no difference twist you and me my dear she said nothing can make any difference we know one another too well for that you are all that I ever used to call you before I knew better about you and when I used to dwell upon your hair and your smile you know what I used to say of them now Stephen most complimentary highly complimentary another young woman brought me word of it and it made me stick firm when my mind was doubtful and glad you ought to be that you did stick firm and you have the Lord to thank for it as well as your own sense but no time to talk of our old times now they're coming up again with those youngers I'm afraid Willie is like a church and Jack no chance of him getting the chance of it but Mary you're darling of the lot or Mary her mind is unsettled and a worry coming over her the same as with me when I saw you first it is the Lord that directs those things the farmer answered steadfastly and Mary hath the sense of her mother I believe that it is making me so fond of her if the young maid hath taken a fancy it will pass without a bit of substance to settle on why how many fancies had you Sophie before you had the good luck to clap eyes on me that is neither here nor there his wife replied audaciously how many times have you asked such questions which are no concern of yours you could not expect me before ever I saw you not to have eyes or ears I had plenty to say for myself and I was not playing and I acted accordingly Master Annerley thought about this because he had heard it and thought of it many times before he hated to think about anything new having never known any good come of it and his thoughts would rather flow than fly even in the fugitive brevity of youth and now in his settled way his practice was to tread thought deeper into thought as a man in deep snow keeps the track of his own boots or as a child writes ink on pencil in his earliest copy books you acted accordingly he said and Mary might act according to you mother how can you talk so Stephen that would be a different thing altogether young girls are not a bit like what they used to be in my time no steadiness, no diligence no duty to their parents guiding about is all they think of and light-headed chatter and saucy ribbons maybe so with some of them but I never seen none of that in Mary Mary is a good girl and well brought up her mother could not help admitting and fond of her home and industrious but for all that she must be looked after sharply and who can look after a child like her mother I can tell you one thing master Stephen your daughter Mary has more will of her own than the rest of your family all put together including even your own good wife prodigious cried the farmer while he rubbed his hands and laughed prodigious and a man might say impossible a young lass like Mary such a coaxing little puppet as tender as a lambkin and as soft as wool Flannel won't only run one way no more won't Mary said her mother I know her better alongside than you do and I say if ever Mary sets her heart on anyone have him she will be he cowboy, thief or chimney sweep so now you know what to expect master Annerley Stephen Annerley never made light of his wife's opinions in those few cases wherein they differed from his own she agreed with him so generally that in common fairness he thought very highly of her wisdom and the present subject was one upon which she had a special right to be heard Sophie he said as he set up his coat to be off to a cutting of clover on the hill for no reaping would begin yet for another month the things you have said shall abide in my mind only you be a watching of the little wench Harry Tanfield is the man I would choose for her of all others but I never would force any husband on alas though stern would I be to force a bad one off or one in an unfit walk of life no ankle in your mind who it is or wouldst have told me well I may or I may not I never like to speak promiscuous you have the first right to know what I think but I beg you to let me be a while not even to you Steve would I say it without more to go upon than there is yet I might do the last a great wrong in my surmising and then you would visit my mistake on me for she is the apple of your eye no doubt there is never such another made in all York County nor in England to my thinking she is my daughter as well as yours and I would be the last to make cheap of her I will not say another word until I know but if I am right which the Lord forbid we shall both be ashamed of her Stephen the Lord forbid the Lord forbid amen I will not hear another word the farmer snatched up his hat and made off with a haste unusual for him while his wife sat down and crossed her arms and began to think rather bitterly for without any dream of such a possibility she was jealous sometimes of her own child presently the farmer rushed back again triumphant with a new idea his eyes were sparkling and his step full of spring and a brisk smile shone upon his strong and ruddy face what a pair of strips we must be to go on so he cried with a couple of bright guineas in his hand Mary has not had a new frock even going on now for a year and a half Sophie it is enough to turn a maid into thinking of any sort of mischief take you these and make everything right I was saving them up for her birthday but maybe another will turn up by that my dear you take them and never be a feared Steven you may leave them if you like I shall not be in any haste to let them go either give them to the last yourself or leave it to me purely she shall not have a sixpence unless it is deserved of course I leave it in your hands wife I never come between you and your children but young folk go piping always after money now and even our Mary might be turning sad without it he hastened off again without hearing any more for he knew that some hours of strong labour were before him and to meet them with a heavy heart would be almost a new thing for him some time ago he had begun to hold the plough of heaviness through the difficult looseness of willy's staple and the sudden maritime slope of Jack yet he held on steadily through all this with the strength of only courage but if in the pride of his heart his Mary he should find no better than a crooked furrow then truly the labour of his latter days would be the dull round of a mill horse now Mary in total ignorance of that council held concerning her and even of her mother's bad suspicions chance to come in at the front porch door soon after her father set off to his meadows by way of the backyard having been hard at work among her flowers she was come to get a cup full of milk for herself and the cherry content and general goodwill encouraged by the gardener's gentle craft were smiling on her rosy lips and sparkling in her eyes her dress was as plain as plain could be a lavender twill cut and fitted by herself and there was not an ornament about her that came from any other hand than natures but simple grace of movement and light elegance of figure fair curves of gentle face and loving kindness of expression gladdened with the hope of youth what did these want with smart dresses golden brooches and two guineas her mother almost thought of this when she called Mary into the little parlor and the two guineas lay upon the table Mary can you spare a little time to talk with me you seem wonderfully busy as usual mother will you never make allowance for my flowers they depend upon the weather and they must have things accordingly very well let them think about what they want next while you sit down a while and talk with me the girl was vexed for to listen to a lecture already manifest in her mother's eyes was a far less agreeable job than gardening and the lecture would have done as well by candlelight which seldom can be said of any gardening however she took off her hat and sat down without the least sign of impatience and without any token of guilt as her mother saw and yet stupidly proceeded just the same Mary she began with a gaze of stern discretion which the girl met steadfastly and pleasantly you know that I am your own mother and bound to look after you well while you are so very young for though you are sensible some ways Mary in years and an experience what are you but a child of the traps of the world and the wickedness of people you can have no knowledge you always think the best of everybody which is a very proper thing to do and what I have always brought you up to and never would dream of discouraging and with such examples as your father and your mother you must be perverse to do otherwise still it is my duty to warn you Mary and you are getting old enough to want it but the world is not made up of fathers and mothers brothers and sisters and good uncles there are always bad folk who go prowling about like wolves in wolves in what is it sheep's clothing the maiden suggested with a smile and then dropped her eyes maliciously how dare you be perp-miss correcting your own mother do I ever catch you reading off your Bible but you seem to know so much about it perhaps you have met some of them how can I tell mother when you won't tell me I tell you indeed it is your place to tell me I think and what is more I insist at once upon knowing all about it what makes you go on in the way that you are doing do you take me for a dumbledore you foolish child on Tuesday afternoon I saw you sewing with a double thread your father had potato eyes upon his plate on Sunday and which way did I see you trying to hang up a dish cover but that is nothing fifty things you go wandering about in and always out on some pretense as if the roof you were born under was not big enough for you and then your eyes I have seen your eyes flash up as if you were fighting the bosom of your sandy frock was loose in church two buttons it was not hot at all to speak of and there was a wasp next pew all these things make me unhappy Mary my darling tell me what it is Mary listened with great amazement to this catalogue of crimes at the time of their commission she had never even thought of them although she was vexed with herself when she saw one eye for in verity that was all a potato upon her father's plate now she blushed when she heard of the buttons of her frock which was only done because of tightness and showed how long she must have worn it but as to the double thread she was sure that nothing of that sort could have happened why mother dear she said quite softly coming up in her coaxing way which nobody could resist because it was true and gentle lovingness you know a hundred times more than I do I have never known of any of the sad mistakes you speak of except about the potato eye and then I had a round pointed knife but I want to make no excuses mother and there is nothing the matter with me tell me what you mean about the wolves my child said her mother whose face she was kissing while they both went on with talking it is no good trying to get over me either you have something on your mind or you have not which is it mother what can I have on my mind I have never hurt anyone and never mean to do it everyone is kind to me and everybody likes me and of course I like them all again and I always have plenty to do in and out as you take very good care dear mother my father loves me and so do you I am happy in a Sunday frock that wants more stuff to button and I have only one trouble in all the world when I think of the other girls I see never mind them my dear what is your one trouble mother as if you could help knowing about my dear brother Jack of course Jack was so wonderfully good to me I would walk on my hands and knees all the way to York to get a single glimpse of him he would never get as far as the Rickyard hedge you children talk such nonsense Jack ran away of his own free will and out of downright contrariness he has repented of it only once I dare say and that has been ever since he did it and every time he thought of it I wish he was home again with all my heart for I cannot bear to lose my children and Jack was as good a boy as need be when he got everything his own way Mary is that your only trouble stand where I can see you plainly and tell me every word the truth put your hair back from your eyes now like the catechism if I were saying 50 catechisms what more could I do than speak the truth Mary asked this with some little vexation while she stood up proudly before her mother and clasped her hands behind her back I have told you everything I know except one little thing which I am not sure about what little thing if you please and how can you help being sure about it positive as you are about everything mother I mean that I have not been sure whether I ought to tell you and I meant to tell my father first when there could be no mischief Mary I can scarcely believe my ears to tell your father before your mother and not even him until nothing could be done to stop it which you call mischief I insist upon knowing at once what it is I have felt that you were hiding something how very unlike you how unlike a child of mine you need not disturb yourself mother dear it is nothing of any importance to me though to other people it might be and that is the reason why I kept it to myself oh we shall come to something by and by one would really think you are older than your mother now miss if you please let us judge of your discretion what is it that you have been hiding so long Mary's face grew crimson now but with anger rather than with shame she had never thought twice about robin life with anything warmer than pity but this was the very way to drive her into dwelling in a mischievous manner upon him what I have been hiding she said most distinctly instead vastly looking at her mother is only that I have had two talks with the great free trader robin life that aren't smuggler that leader of all outlaws you have been meeting him on the sly certainly not but I met him once by chance and then as a matter of business I was forced to meet him again dear mother these things are too much for me Mrs Annerley said decisively when matters have come to such a pass I must beg your dear father to see to them very well mother I would rather have it so may I go now and make an end of my gardening certainly as soon as you have made an end of me as you must quite have laid your plans to do I have seen too much to be astonished anymore but to think that a child of mine my one and only daughter who looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth should be hand in glove with the wickedest smuggler of the age the rogue everybody shoots at but cannot hit him because he was born to be hanged the by name, the by word, the by blow robin life Mrs Annerley covered her face with both hands how would you like your own second cousin said Mary plucking up her spirit your own second cousin Mrs Coxcroft to hear you speak so of the man that supports them at the risk of his life every hour of it you may be doing wrong it is not for me to say but he does it very well and he does it nobly and what did you show me in your drawer dear mother what did you wear when that very cruel man Captain Caraway came here to dine on Sunday you wicked undutiful child go away I wish to have nothing more to say to you no I will not go away cried Mary with her resolute spirit in her eyes and brow when false and cruel charges are brought against me I have the right to speak and I will use it I am not hand and glove with robin life or any other robin I think a little more of myself than that if I have done any wrong I will meet it and be sorry and submit to any punishment I ought to have told you before perhaps that is the worst you can say on it but I never attached much importance to it and when a man is hunted so was I to join his enemies I have only seen him twice the first time by purest accident and the second time to give him back a piece of his own property and I took my brother with me but he ran away as usual of course of course everyone to blame but you miss however we shall see what your father has to say you have very nearly taken all my breath away but I shall expect the whole sky to tumble in upon us if Captain Annerley approves of robin life as a sweet heart for his daughter I never thought of Captain Life and Captain Life never thought of me but I can tell you one thing mother if you wanted to make me think of him you could not do it better than by speaking so unjustly after that perhaps you will go back to your flowers I have heard that they grow very fine ones in Holland perhaps you have got some smuggled tulips my dear Mary did not condescend to answer Mary said to herself as she went to work again tulips in August that is like the rest of it however I am not going to be put out when I feel that I have not done a single bit of harm and she tried to be happy with her flowers but could not enter into them as before Mistress Annerley was as good as her word at the very first opportunity her husband returned from the clover stack tired and hungry angry with a man who had taken too much beer and ran at him with a pitchfork angry also with his own son Willy for not being anywhere in the way to help he did not complain and his wife knew at once that he ought to have done so to obtain relief she perceived that her own discourse about their daughter was still on his mind and would require working off before any more was said about it and she felt as sure as if she saw it that in his severity against poor Willy for not doing things that were beneath him her master would take Mary's folly as a joke and fall upon her brother who was so much older for not going on to protect and guide her so she kept till after suppertime her mouth full of bad tidings and when the farmer heard it all as he did before going to sleep that night he had smoked three pipes of tobacco and was calm he had sipped for once in a way a little holland's and was hopeful and though he said nothing about it he felt that without any order of his or so much as the faintest desire to be told of it neither of these petty comforts would bear to be rudely examined of its duty he hoped for the best and he believed the best and if the king was cheated why his loyal subject was the same and the women were their masters have no fear, no fear he muttered back through the closing gate of sleep Mary knows her business, business and he buzzed it off into a snore in the morning however he took a stronger and more serious view of the case pronouncing that Mary was only a young lass and no one could ever tell about young lasses and he quite fell into his wife's suggestion that the maid could be spared till harvest time of which even with the best of weather there was little chance now for another six weeks the season being late and backward so it was resolved between them both that the girl should go on the following day for a visit to her uncle Pucklewell some miles the other side of Phile no invitation was required for Mr and Mrs Pucklewell a snug and comfortable pair were only too glad to have their niece and had often wanted to have her all together but the farmer would never hear of that End of chapter 14 Chapter 15 of Mary Annerley This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Julian Henry Mary Annerley by Richard Dodderidge Blackmore Caught at last While these little things were doing thus the coast from the mouth of the tees to that of Humber and even the inland parts were in a great stir of talk and work about events impending it must not be thought that Flambora although it was Robin's dwelling place so far as he had any was the principal scene of his operations or the stronghold of his enterprise on the contrary his liking was for quiet coves near Scarborough or even to the north of Whitby when the wind and tide were suitable and for this there were many reasons which are not of any moment now One of them showed fine feeling and much delicacy on his part he knew that Flambora was a place of extraordinary honesty where every one of his buttons had been safe and would have been so forever and strictly as he believed in the virtue of his own free importation it was impossible for him not to learn that certain people thought otherwise or acted as if they did so from the troubles which such doubts might cause he strove to keep the natives free Flamborians scarcely understood this largeness of goodwill to them their instincts told them that free trade was every Britain's privilege and they had the finest set of donkeys on the coast for landing it but none the more did any of them care to make any movement toward it they were satisfied with their own old way to cast the net their father cast and bait the hook as it was baited on their good grandfather's thumb yet even Flambora knew that now a mighty enterprise was in hand it was said without any contradiction that young captain Robin had laid a wager of 100 guineas with the worshipful mayor of Scarborough and the commandant of the castle that before the new moon he would land on Yorkshire coast without firing pistol or drawing steel free goods to the value of £2,000 and carry them inland safely and Flambora believed that he would do it Dr Uprown's house stood well as rectories generally contrived to do no place in Flambora, Parish could hope to swindle the wind of its bestied right or to embezzle much treasure of the sun but the personage made a good effort to do both and sometimes for three days together got the credit of succeeding and the dwellers therein who felt the edge of the difference outside their own walls not only said but thoroughly believed that they lived in a little goshen for the house was well settled in a wrinkle of the hill expanding southward and encouraging the noon from the windows a pleasant glimpse of the end of the broad and tranquil anchorage peopled with white or black according as the sails went up or down for the rectory stood to the southward of the point as the rest of Flambora surely must have stood if built by any other race than Armadillos but to see all those vessels and be sure what they were doing the proper place was a little snug gazebo chosen and made by the doctor himself near the crest of the gully he inhabited here upon a genial summer day when it came as it sometimes dared to do was the finest little nook upon the Yorkshire coast for watching what Virgil calls the sail winged sea not that a man could see round the head unless his own were gifted with very crooked eyes but without doing that which would only have disturbed the tranquility of his prospect there was plenty to engage him in the peaceful spread of comparatively waveless waters here might he see long vessels rolling not with great misery but just enough to make him feel happy in the firmness of his bench and little jolly boats it was more jolly to be out of and far away heads giving genial bobs and sea legs straddled in predicaments desirable rather for study than for practice all was highly picturesque and nice and charming for the critic who had never got to do it now papa you must come this very moment cried Miss Janetta up round the daughter of the house and indeed the only daughter with a gush of excitement rushing into the study of this deeply red divine there is something doing that I cannot understand you must bring up the spyglass at once and explain I am sure that there is something very wrong in the parish my dear the rector asked with a feeble attempt at malice for he did not want to be disturbed just now and for weeks he had tried with very poor success to make Janetta useful for she had no gift in that way no not in the parish at all papa unless it runs out under water as I am certain it ought to do and make every one of those ships pay tithe if the law was worth anything they would have to do it they get all the good out of our situation and they save whole thousands of pounds at a time and they never pay a penny nor even hoist a flag unless the day is fine and the flag wants drying but come along papa now I really cannot wait and they will have done it all without us Janetta take the glass and get the focus they will come presently in about two minutes by the time that you are ready very well papa it is very good of you I see quite clearly what you want to do and I hope you will do it but you promise not to play another game now my dear I will promise that with pleasure only do please be off about your business the rector was a most inveterate and insatiable chess player in the household rather than by it he was as a matter of lofty belief supposed to be deeply engaged with theology or magisterial questions of almost equal depth or to put it at the lowest parochial affairs the while he was solidly and seriously engaged in getting up the sound defence to some continental gambit and this not only to satisfy himself upon some point of theory but from a nearer and dearer point of view for he never did like to be beaten at present he was laboring to discover the proper defence to a new and slashing form of the Algyre Gambit by means of which Robin Life had won every game in which he had the move upon their last encounter the great free trader while a boy had shown a special aptitude for chess and even as a child he had seemed to know the men when first by some accident he saw them the rector being struck by this exception to the ways of childhood whose manner it is to take chess men for dollies or roll them about like nine pins at once included in the education of Izzunzidi which he took upon himself a course of elemental doctrine in the one true game and the boy fought his way up in the case that he jumped from odds of queen and rook to pawn and two moves in less than two years and now he could almost give odds to his tutor though he never presumed to offer them and trading as he did with enlightened merchants of large continental seaports who had plenty of time on their hands and played well he imported new openings of a dash and freedom for the growing players who had never seen a book upon their favourite subject of course it was competent to all these to decline such fiery onslaught but chivalry and the true love of analysis which without may none play chess compelled the acceptance of the challenge even with a trembling forecast of the taste of dust never mind he rose and stretched himself a good straight man of three-score years with silver hair that shone like silk it has not come to me yet but it must with a little more perseverance at Cambridge I beat everybody and who is this uncircumcised at least I beg his pardon for I did myself baptise him but who is Robin Live to meet his pastor and his master his gambits are like a night attack if once met properly and expelled you are in the very heart of the enemy's camp he has left his own watchfires to rush at yours the next game I play I shall be sure to beat him fully convinced of this great truth he took a strong oak staff and hastened to obey his daughter Miss Janetta Upround had not only learned by nature but also had been carefully taught by her parents and by everyone how to get her own way always and to be thanked for taking it but she had such a happy nature full of kindness and goodwill that other people's wishes always seemed to flow into her own instead of being swept aside over her father her government was in no sort constitutional nor even a quiet despotism sweetened with liberal illusions but as pure a piece of autocracy as the continent could itself contain in the time of this first Napoleon Papa, what a time you have been to be sure she exclaimed as the doctor came gradually up probing his way in perfect leisure and fragrant still of that gambit one would think that your parish was on dry land altogether while the better half of it as they call themselves though the women are in righteousness the better half a hundred fold my dear do try to talk with some little sense of arithmetic if no other a hundred fold the half would be the unit multiplied by fifty not to mention that there can be no better half yes there can Papa ever so many and you may see one in mama every day now you put one eye to this glass and the half is better than the whole with both you see nothing with one you see better fifty times better than with both before don't talk of arithmetic after that it is algebra now and quad demonstrandom to reason with the less worthy gender is degeneration of reason what would they have said in the senate house genetic however I will obey your orders how to look at a tall and very extraordinary man striking his arms out thus and thus I never saw anyone looking so excited and he flourishes a long sword now and again as if he would like to cut everybody's head off there he has been going from ship to ship for an hour or more with a long white bolt and a lot of men jumping after him everyone seems to be scared of him he stumps along the deck just as if he were on springs and one spring longer than the other you see that heavy break outside the rest painted with ten port holes well she began to make sail and run away but he fired a gun quite a real cannon and she had to come back again and drop her colours what was it some very great admiral papa perhaps lord nelson himself I would go and be seasick for three days to see lord nelson papa it must be lord nelson my dear lord nelson is a little short man with a very brisk walk and one arm gone now let me see who this can be where about is he now janetta do you see that clumsy looking schooner papa just behind a pilot boat he is just in front of her foremast making such a fuss as you have got my child you see better without the glass than I do with it oh now I have him why I might have guessed of course it is that very active man and vigilant officer lieutenant caraway captain caraway from bridlington papa why what can he be doing with such authority I have often heard of him but I thought he was only a coast guard he is as you say showing great authority and I fear using very bad language for which he is quite celebrated however the telescope refuses to repeat it for which it is much to be commended but every allowance must be made for a man who has to deal with a wholly uncultivated race and not of natural piety like ours well papa I doubt if ours have too much though you always make the best of them but let me look again please and do tell me what he can be doing there you know that the revenue officers must take the law into their own hands sometimes there have lately been certain rumours of some contraband proceedings on the Yorkshire coast not in flamborough parish of course and perhaps probably I may say a long way off papa dear will you never confess that free trade prevails and flourishes greatly even under your own dear nose facts do not warrant me in any such assertion if the fact were so it must have been brought officially before me I decline to listen to uncharitable rumours but however that matter may be there are officers on the spot to deal with it my commission as a justice of the piece gives me no cognisance of offences if such there are upon the high seas ah you see something particular my dear what is it captain caraway has found something or somebody of great importance he has got a man by the collar and he is absolutely dancing with delight ah there he goes dragging him along the deck as if he were a codfish or a conger and now I declare he is lashing his arms and legs with a great thick rope papa is that legal without even a warrant I can hardly say how far his powers may extend and he is just the man to extend them further I only hope not to be involved in the matter maritime law is not my province but papa it is much within three miles of the shore if that has got anything to do with it my goodness me they are all coming here I am almost sure that they will apply to you yes two boatloads of people racing to get their oars out and to be here first where are your spectacles dear papa you had better go and get up the law before they come you will scarcely have time they are coming so fast a white boat and a black boat the prisoner is in the white boat and the officer has got him by the collar still the men in the white boat will want to commit him and the men in the black boat are his friends no doubt coming for a habeas corpus my dear what nonsense you do talk what has a simple justice of the peace never mind that papa my facts are sound sounder than yours about smuggling my fear but do hurry in and get up the law I will go and lock both gates to give you more time do nothing of the kind Janetta a magistrate should be accessible always and how can I get up the law without knowing what it is to be about or even a clerk to help me and perhaps they are not coming here at all they may be only landing their prisoner if that were it they would not be coming so but rowing towards the proper place bridlington key where their station house is papa you are in for it and I am getting eager may I come and hear all about it I should be a great support to you you know and they would tell the truth so much better janetta what are you dreaming of it may even be a case of secrecy secrecy papa with two boatloads of men and about 30 ships involved in it oh do let me hear all about it whatever it may be your presence is not required and would be improper unless I should happen to want a book and in that case I might ring for you oh do papa do no one else can ever find them promise me now that you will want a book if I am not there there will be no justice done I wish you severely to reprimand whatever the facts of the case may be and even to punish if you can that tall lame violent ferocious man for dragging the poor fellow about like that and cutting him with ropes when completely needless and when he was quite at his mercy it is my opinion that the other man does not deserve one bit of it and whatever the law may be papa your duty is to strain it benevolently and question every syllable upon the stronger side perhaps I had better resign my dear upon condition that you shall be appointed in the stead of me it might be a popular measure and would secure universal justice papa I would do justice to myself which is a thing you never do but here they are landing and they hoist him out as if he were a sack or a thing without a joint they could scarcely be harder with a man compelled to be hanged tomorrow morning condemned is what you mean Janetta you will never understand the use of words what a nice magistrate you would make there can be no more correct expression would a man be hanged if he were not compelled papa you say the most illegal things sometimes now please to go in and get up your legal points let me go and meet those people for you I will keep them waiting till you are quite ready my dear you will go to your room and try to learn a little patience you begin to be too pat with your own opinions which in a young lady is very graceful there you need not cry my darling because your opinions are always sensible and I value them very highly but still you must bear in mind that you are but a girl and behave accordingly as they say nobody can do more so but though I am only a girl papa can you put your hand upon a better one certainly not my dear for going downhill I can always sit in the action to the word doctor up round whose feet were a little touched with gout came down from his outlook to his kitchen garden and then through the shrubbery back to his own study where with a little sigh he put away his chessman and heartily hoped that it might not be his favourite adversary who was coming before him to be sent to jail for although the good rector had a warm regard and even affection for Robin as a wave cast into his care and then a pupil wonderfully apt which breeds love in the teacher and after that a most gallant and highly distinguished young parishioner with all this it was a difficulty for him to be ignorant that the law was adverse more than once he had striven hard to lead the youth into some better path of life and had even induced him to follow the sea for a short time in the merchant's service but the force of nature and of circumstances had very soon prevailed again and Robin returned to his old pursuits with larger experience and seamanship improved a violent ringing at the gatebell followed by equal urgency upon the front door apprised the kind magistrate of a sharp call upon his faculties and perhaps a most unpleasant one the poor boy he said to himself poor boy from Caroway's excitement I greatly fear that it is indeed poor Robin how many a grand game have we had his new variety of that fine gambit scarcely beginning to be analysed and if I commit him to the meeting next week when shall we ever meet again it will seem as if I did it because he won three games and I certainly was a little vexed with him however I must be stern stern show them in Betsy I am quite prepared a noise and a sound of strong language in the hall and a dragging of something on the oil cloth led up to the entry of a dozen rough men pushed on by at least another dozen you will have the manners to take off your hats he said the magistrate with all his dignity not from any undue deference to me but common respect to his majesty off with your covers you sons of something shouted a loud voice and then the lieutenant with his blade still drawn stood before them sheath your sword sir said doctor upround in a voice which amazed the officer I beg your worships pardon he began with his grim face flushing purple but his sword laid where it should have been but if you knew half of the worry I have had you would not care to rebuke me cadman have you got him by the neck keep your knuckles into him while I make my deposition cast that man free I receive no depositions with a man half strangled before me the men of the coast guard glanced at their commander having a surly nod obeyed but the prisoner could not stand as yet he gasped for breath and someone set him on a chair your worship this is a mere matter of form said caraway still keeping eyes on his prey if I had my own way I would not trouble you at all and I believe it to be quite needless for this man is an outlaw felon and not entitled to any grace of law but I must obey my orders certainly you must Lieutenant caraway even though you are better acquainted with the law you are ready to be sworn take this book and follow me this being done the worthy magistrate prepared to write down what the gallant officer might say which in brief came to this that having orders to seize robin life wherever he might find him and having sure knowledge that said robin was on board of a certain schooner vessel the Elizabeth of Gull the which he had laden with goods liable to duty he, Charles caraway, had gently laid hands on him and brought him to the nearest justice of the peace to obtain an order of commitment all this at 50 times the length here given, Lieutenant caraway deposed on oath while his worship for want of a clerk set it down in his own very neat handwriting but several very coldly looking men who could scarcely be taught to keep silence observed that the magistrate smiled once or twice and this made them wait a bit and wink at one another very clear indeed Lieutenant caraway said doctor upred with spectacles on nose good sir have the kindness to sign your deposition it may become my duty to commit the prisoner upon identification of that I must have evidence confirmatory evidence but first we will hear what he has to say robin live stand forward me no robin live sir no robin man or woman cried the captive trying very hard to stand me only a poor francais make liberty to what you call row, row, swim, swim sail, sail from la belle france for why, for why there is no import to nobody your worship he is always going on about imports cadman said respectfully that is enough to show who he is you may trust me to know him my fine fellow no more of that stuff he can pass himself off for any countryman whatever he knows all their jabber sir better than his own put a cork between his teeth hacker buddy I never did see such a noisy rogue he is robin life all over I'll be blessed if he is nor under neither cried the biggest of the coley men this here froggie come out of a chasen merry as had run up from Dunkirk I know robin life as well as our own figurehead but what good to try reason with that their revenue officer at this all his friends set a good laugh up and wanted to give him a cheer for such a speech but that being hushed they were satisfied with condemning his organs of sight and their own quite fairly lift and car away his worship said amidst an impressive silence I greatly fear that you have allowed zeal my dear sir to outrun discretion robin life is a young and in many ways highly respected parishioner of mine he may have been guilty of casual breaches of the law concerning importation laws which fluctuate from year to year and require deep knowledge of legislation both to observe and to administer I hardly trust that you may not suffer from having discharged your duty in a manner most truly exemplary if only the example had been the right one this gentleman is no more robin life than I am End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of Mary Annerley This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Lynn Danforth Springfield, Missouri Mary Annerley by Richard Dodridge Blackmore Chapter 16 Discipline Asserted As soon as his troublesome visitors were gone the rector sat down in his deep arm chair laid aside his spectacles and began to think His face, while he thought, lost more and more of the calm and cheerful expression made it so pleasant a face to gaze upon and he sighed without knowing it at some dark ideas and gave a little shake of his grand old head The Revenue Officer had called his favorite pupil and cleverest parishioner a felon outlaw and if that were so Robin Leith was no less than a convicted criminal and must not be admitted within his doors Formally the regular penalty for illicit importation had been the forfeiture of the goods when caught and the smugglers, unless they made resistance or carried firearms were allowed to escape and retrieve their bad luck which they very soon contrived to do and as yet upon this part of the coast they had not been guilty of atrocious crimes such as the smugglers of Sussex and Hampshire who must have been utter fiends committed thereby raising the land against them Dr. Uppround had heard of no proclamation, exaction or even capious issued against this young free trader and he knew well enough that the worst defenders were not the bold seamen who contracted for the run nor the people of the coast who were hired for the carriage but the rich indwellers who provided all of the money and received the lion's share of the profits and with these law never even tried to deal however the magistrate parson resolved that in spite of all the interest of tutorship and chess play and even the influences of his wife and daughter who were hardy admirers of brave smuggling he must either reform this young man or compel him to keep at a distance which would be very sad meanwhile the lieutenant had departed in a fury which seemed to be incapable of growing any worse never an oath did he utter all the way to the landing where his boat was left and his men who knew how much that meant were afraid to do more than just wink at one another even the sailors of the Collier Schooner forebored to cheer him until he was afloat when they gave him three fine rounds of mocked cheers to which the poor Frenchman contributed a shriek the man had been most inhospitably treated through his strange but undeniable likeness to a pervidious Britain home cried the officer glowering at those fellows while his men held their oars and were ready to rush at them home with a will give way men and not another word he spoke till they touched the steps at Bridlington then he fixed stern eyes upon Katman who vainly strove to meet them and he said come to me in one hour and a half Katman touched his hat without an answer saw to the boat and then went home along the key caraway though of a violent temper especially when laughed at was not of that steadfast and sedentary wrath which choose the cud of grievances and feeds upon it in a shady place he had a good wife though a little over clean and seven fine appetited children who gave him the greatest pleasure in providing vittles also he had his pipe and his quiet corners sacred to the atmosphere and private thoughts of caraway and here he would often be ambitious even now perceiving no good reason why he might not yet command a line of battleship and run up his own flag and nobly tread his own lofty quarter-deck if so he would have Mrs. Caraway on board and not only on the boards but at them so that a challenge should be issued every day for any other ship in all the service to display white so holy spotless and black so void of streakiness and while he was dwelling upon personal matters which after all concerned the nation most he had tried very hard to discover any reason putting paltry luck aside why Horatio Nelson should be a lord and what more to the purpose an admiral while Charles Caraway his old shipmate and in every way superior who could eat him at a mouthful if only he were good enough should be no more than a long shore lieutenant and a Jonathan Wilde of the Revenue however as for envying Nelson the Lord knew that he would not give his little Geraldine's worst frock for all the fellow's grand coat of arms and freedom in a snuff box and golden shields and devices this that and the other with bona robas to support them to this conclusion he was fairly calm after a good meal and with the second glass of the finest Jamaica pineapple rum which he drank from pure principle because it was not smuggled steaming and senting the blue curls of his pipe when his admirable wife came in to say that on no account would she interrupt him my dear I am busy and I'm very glad to hear it Pish where have I put all those accounts Charles you're not doing any accounts when you have done your pipe and glass I wish to say a quiet word or two I'm sure that there is not a woman in a thousand Hilda I know it nor one in fifty thousand you're very good at figures will you take the sheet away with you eight o'clock will be quite time enough for it my dear I am always too pleased to do whatever I can to help you but I must talk to you now really I must say a few words about something tired as you may be Charles and well deserving of a little good sleep which you never seem to be able to manage in bed you told me you know that you expected Cadman that surly dirty fellow who delights to spoil my stones and would like nothing better than to take the pattern out of our drawing room Kitterminster now I have a reason for saying something Charles will you listen to me once just once I never do anything else said the husband with justice and meaning no mischief ah how very seldom you hear me talk and when I do I might just as well address the winds but for once my dear attend I do implore you that surly burly Cadman will be here directly and I know that you are much put out with him now I tell you he is dangerous savagely dangerous I can see it in his unhealthy skin oh Charles where have you put down your pipe I cleaned that shelf this very morning how little I thought when I promised to be yours that you would ever knock out your ashes like that but do bear in mind dear whatever you do if anything happened to you whatever would become of all of us all your sweet children and your faithful wife I declare you have made two great rings with your tumbler upon the new cover of the table Matilda that has been ever so long but I am almost certain this tumbler leaks so you always say just as if I would allow it you never think of simply wiping the rim every time you use it when I put you a saucer for your glass you forget it there was never such a man I do believe I shall have to stop the rum and water all together no no no I'll do anything you like I'll have a tumbler made with a saucer to it buy a piece of oil cloth the size of a four-tip sail I'll Charles no nonsense if you please as if I were ever unreasonable but your quickness of temper is such that I dread what you may say to that Cadman remember what opportunities he has dear he might shoot you in the dark any night my darling and put it upon the smugglers I entreat you not to irritate the man and make him your enemy he is so spiteful and I should be in terror the whole night long Matilda in the house you may command me as you please even in my own cutty here but as regards my duty you know well that I permit no interference and I should have expected you to have more sense a pretty officer I would be if I were afraid of my own men when a man is to blame I tell him so in good round language and I shall do so now this man is greatly to blame and I doubt whether to consider him a fool or a rogue if it were not that he has seven children as we have I would discharge him this very night Charles I'm very sorry for his seven children but our place is to think of our own seven first I beg you I implore you to discharge the man for he is not the courage to harm you except with the cowardly advantage he's got now promise me either to say nothing to him or to discharge him and be done with him Matilda of such things you know nothing and I cannot allow you to say any more very well very well I know my duty I shall sit up and pray every dark night you are out and the whole place will go to the dogs of course of the smugglers I am afraid one bit nor of any honest fighting such as you're used to but oh my dear Charles the very bravest man can do nothing against base treachery to dream of such things shows a bad imagination Caraway answered sternly but seeing his wife's eyes filled with tears he took her hand gently and begged her pardon and promised to be very careful I am the last man to be rash she said after getting so many more kicks than coppers I never had a fellow under my command who would lift a finger to harm me and you must remember my dear Tilly that I command Englishmen not Laskers with this she was forced to be content to the best of her ability and Geraldine ran bouncing in from school to fill her father's pipe for him so that by the time John Cadman came his commander had almost forgotten the wrath created by the failure of the morning but unluckily Cadman had not forgotten the words and the look he received before his comrades here I am sir to give an account of myself he said in an insolent tone having taken much liquor to brace him for the meeting is it your pleasure to say what you mean yes but not here in the station the lieutenant took his favorite staff and set forth while his wife from the little window watched him with a very anxious gaze she saw her husband stride in front with the long rough gate she knew so well and the swinging of his arms which always showed his temper was not in his best condition and behind him Cadman slouched along with his shoulders up and his red hands clenched his wife sadly went back to work for her life was a truly anxious one the station as it was rather grandly called was a hut about the size of a four-post bed upon the low cliff undermined by the sea and even then threatened to be swept away here was a tall flag staff for signals and a place for a beacon light when needed and a bench with a rest in the hut itself were signal flags and a few spare muskets and a keg of bullets with maps and codes hung round the wall and flint and tinder and a good many pipes and odds and ends on ledges caraway was very proud of this place and kept the key strictly in his own pocket and very seldom allowed a man to pass through the narrow doorway but he liked to sit inside and see them looking desirous to come in stand there Cadman he said as soon as he had settled himself in the one hard chair and the man though thoroughly primed for revolt obeyed the old habit and stood outside once more you have misled me Cadman and abused my confidence more than that you have made me a common laughing stock for scores of fools and even for a learned gentleman a magistrate of divinity I was not content with your information until you confirmed it by letters you produced from men well known to you as you said and even from the entland trader who had contracted for the venture the schooner Elizabeth of ghoul disguised as a Collier was to bring to with Robin Leith on board of her and the goods in her hold under covering of coal and to run the goods to the south of the rural landing this very night I have searched the Elizabeth from stem to stern and the craft brought up alongside of her and all I have found is a wretched Frenchman who sculpts so that I made sure of him and not a blessed anchor of foreign brandy nor even a 40 pound bag of tea you had that packet of letters in your neck tie hand them to me this moment the owner has made up your mind to think that a sailor of the Royal Navy Cadman none of that no licks beetle lies to me those letters that I may establish them you shall have them back if they are right and I will pay you a half crown for the loan if I was to leave the letters in your hand I could never hold head up in Burlington no more that's no concern of mine with me and those who find you in bread and butter precious little butter I ever gets and very little bread to speak of the folk that does the work gets nothing them that does nothing gets the name and game fellow no reasoning but obey me caraway shouted with his temper rising hand over those letters or you leave the service how can I give away another man's property as he said his words the man folded his arms as who should say that is all you get out of me is that the way you speak to your commanding officer who owns those letters then according to your ideas but your Houston and he says you shall have them as soon as he sees the money for his little bill this was a trifle too much for caraway up he jumped with surprising speed took one stride through the station door and seizing Cadman by the collar shook him rung his ear with his left hand which was like a pair of pincers and then with the other flung him backward as if he were an empty bag the fellow was too much amazed to strike or close with him or even swear but receive the vehement impact without any stay behind him so that he staggered back outward and striking one heel on a stone fell over the brink of the shallow cliff to the sand below the lieutenant who never had thought of this was terribly scared and his wrath turned cold for although the fall was of no great depth and the ground at the bottom so soft if the poor man had struck at pole foremost as he fell it was likely that his neck was broken without any thought of his crippled heel and the way took the jump himself as soon as he recovered from the jar which shook his stiff joints and stiffer back he ran to the coast guardsman and raised him and found him very much inclined to swear that was a good sign and the officer was thankful and raised him in the gravely sand and kindly requested him to have it out and to thank the lord as soon as he felt better but Cadman although very soon came round abstained from every token of gratitude falling with his mouth wide open in surprise he had filled it with gravel of inferior taste as a tidy sewer pipe ran out just there and at every execution he discharged a little what can be done with a fellow so ungrateful cried the lieutenant standing stiffly up again nothing but to let him come back to his manners hark you John Cadman between your bad words if a glass of hot grog will restore your right wits you can come up and have it when your clothes are brushed with these words Caraway strode off to his cottage without even dating to look back for a minute had been enough to show him that no serious harm was done the other man did not stir until his officer was out of sight then he rose and rubbed himself but he did not care to go for his rumour of hot grog I must work this off the lieutenant said as soon as he had told his wife and received his scolding I cannot sit down I must do something my mind is becoming too much for me I fear can you expect me to be laughed at I shall take a little sail in the boat the wind suits and I have a particular reason to be my dear when you see me in half an hour the largest boat which carried a brass swivel gun in her bows was stretching gracefully across the bay with her three white sails flashing back the sunset the lieutenant steered and he had four men with him of whom Cadman was not one that worthy being left at home to nurse his bruises and his dungeon four men now were quite marvelously civil having heard of their comrade's plight and being pleased alike with that and with their commander's prowess for Cadman was by no means popular among them because though his pay was the same as theirs he always tried to be looked up to the while his manners were not distinguished and scarcely could be called polite when a supper required to be paid for in derision of this and of his desire for mastery they had taken to call in him Boatswain Jack or John Boatswain and provoked him by a subscription to present him with a pig whistle for these were men who liked well enough to receive hard words from their betters who were masters of their business but saw neither virtue nor value in submitting to superior heirs from their equals the royal George as this boat was called passed through the fleet of quiet vessels some of which trembled for a second visitation but not daining to molest them she stood on and rounding flamborough head passed by the pillar rocks named king and queen and bore up for the north landing cove here sale was taken in and oars were man and caraway ordered his men to pull in to the entrance of each of the well-known caves to enter these when any swell is running requires great care and experience and the royal George had too much beam to do it comfortably even in the best of weather and now what the sailors call a chopping sea had set in with the turn of the tide although the wind was still offshore so that even to lie in at the mouth made rather a ticklish job of it the men looked at one another and did not like it for a badly handled or would have cast them on the rocks which are villainously hard and jagged and would stave in the toughest boat like biscuit china however they just not say that they feared it and by skill and steadiness they examined all three caves quite enough to be certain that the boat was in them the largest of the three and perhaps the finest was the one they first came to which already was beginning to be called the cave of robin leaf the dome was very high and sheds down light when the gleam of the sea strikes inward from the gloomy mouth of it as far as they could venture the lapping of the wavelets could be heard all around it without a boat or even a bulk of wood to make it then they tried echo whose clear answer hesitates where any soft material is but the shout rang only of hard rock and glassy water to make assurance doubly sure they lit a blue light and sent it floating through the depths while they held their position with two boat hooks and offender the cavern was lit up with a very fine effect they pulled inside of it to animate the scene and to tell the truth the bold invaders were by no means grieved at this for if there had been smugglers there it would have been hard to tackle them hauling off safely which was worse than running in they pulled across the narrow cove and rounding the little headland examined the church cave and the dev coat likewise and with a like result then hardly tired and well content with having done all that a man could do they set sail again in the dusk of the night and forged their way against a strong ebb tide toward the softer waters of Bridlington and the warmer comfort of their humble homes End of Chapter 16 Recording by Lynn Danforth Springfield, Missouri