initial commit of ebook 23386HEADmain

1 files changed, 11304 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/23386.txt b/23386.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9f23c4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/23386.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11304 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the King's Name, by George Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: In the King's Name
+       The Cruise of the "Kestrel"
+
+Author: George Manville Fenn
+
+Release Date: November 6, 2007 [EBook #23386]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE KING'S NAME ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+In the King's Name; or, The Cruise of the Kestrel, by George Manville
+Fenn.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+This is quite a long book, and one of G.M. Fenn's very best, for his
+hero gets into all sorts of tight corners, from which there appears no
+possible escape, just in the manner of most of Fenn's books, for he is
+the very master of suspense.
+
+It starts off with a coastguard vessel, the "Kestrel", on patrol
+looking for smugglers, Jacobites, or anything else that appears
+suspicious.
+
+Most of the action, however, takes place on the land, though sometimes
+in smugglers' caves near the shore.
+
+It makes a brilliant audiobook for your enjoyment.
+
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+IN THE KING'S NAME; OR, THE CRUISE OF THE KESTREL, BY GEORGE MANVILLE
+FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+ON BOARD THE "KESTREL."
+
+Morning on board the _Kestrel_, his Britannic majesty's cutter, lying on
+and off the south coast on the lookout for larks, or what were to her
+the dainty little birds that the little falcon, her namesake, would pick
+up.  For the _Kestrel's_ wings were widespread to the soft
+south-easterly breeze that barely rippled the water; and mainsail, gaff
+topsail, staysail, and jib were so new and white that they seemed to
+shine like silver in the sun.
+
+The larks the hover-winged _Kestrel_ was on the watch to pick up were
+smuggling boats of any sort or size, or Jacobite messages, or exiles, or
+fugitives--anything, in fact, that was not in accordance with the laws
+of his most gracious majesty King George the Second, whose troops had
+not long before dealt that fatal blow to the young Pretender's hopes at
+the battle of Culloden.
+
+The sea was as bright and blue as the sea can look in the Channel when
+the bright sun is shining, and the arch above reflects itself in its
+bosom.  The gulls floated half asleep on the water, with one eye open
+and the other closed; and the pale-grey kittiwakes seemed to glide about
+on the wing, to dip down here and there and cleverly snatch a tiny fish
+from the surface of the softly heaving sea.
+
+On the deck of the little cutter all was in that well-known apple-pie
+order customary on board a man-of-war, for so Lieutenant Lipscombe in
+command always took care to call it, and in this he was diligently
+echoed by the young gentleman who acted as his first officer, and, truth
+to say, second and third officer as well, for he was the only one--to
+wit, Hilary Leigh, midshipman, lately drafted to this duty, to his great
+disgust, from on board the dashing frigate _Golden Fleece_.
+
+"Man-o'-war!" he had said in disgust; "a contemptible little cock-boat.
+They ought to have called her a boy-o'-war--a little boy-o'-war.  I
+shall walk overboard the first time I try to stretch my legs."
+
+But somehow he had soon settled down on board the swift little craft
+with its very modest crew, and felt no small pride in the importance of
+his position, feeling quite a first lieutenant in his way, and for the
+greater part of the time almost entirely commanding the vessel.
+
+She was just about the cut of a goodsized modern yacht, and though not
+so swift, a splendid sailer, carrying immense spars for her tonnage, and
+spreading canvas enough to have swamped a less deeply built craft.
+
+The decks were as white as holystone could make them, the sails and the
+bell shone in the morning sun like gold, and there was not a speck to be
+seen on the cabin skylight any more than upon either of the three brass
+guns, a long and two shorts, as Billy Waters, who was gunner and
+gunner's mate all in one, used to call them.
+
+Upon this bright summer morning Hilary Leigh was sitting, with his legs
+dangling over the side and his back against a stay, holding a fishing
+line, which, with a tiny silvery slip off the tail-end of a mackerel,
+was trailing behind the cutter, fathoms away, waving and playing about
+in the vessel's wake, to tempt some ripple-sided mackerel to dart at it,
+do a little bit of cannibalism, and die in the act.
+
+Two had already been hauled on board, and lay in a wooden bucket,
+looking as if they had been carved out of pieces of solid sea at
+sunrise, so brilliant were the ripple marks and tints of pink and purple
+and grey and orange and gold--bright enough to make the gayest
+mother-o'-pearl shell blush for shame.  Hilary Leigh had set his mind
+upon catching four--two for himself and two for the skipper--and he had
+congratulated himself upon the fact that he had already caught his two,
+when there was a sharp snatch, the line began to quiver, and for the
+next minute it was as though the hook was fast in the barbs of a silver
+arrow that was darting in all directions through the sea.
+
+"Here's another, Billy!" cried the young man, or boy--for he was on the
+debatable ground of eighteen, when one may be either boy or man,
+according to one's acts, deeds, or exploits, as it used to say in
+Carpenter's Spelling.
+
+Hilary Leigh, from his appearance, partook more of the man than the boy,
+for, though his face was as smooth as a new-laid egg, he had well-cut,
+decisive-looking Saxon features, and one of those capital
+closely-fitting heads of hair that look as if they never needed cutting,
+but settle round ears and forehead in not too tight clustering curls.
+
+"Here's another, Billy," he cried; and a stoutly built sailor amidships
+cried, "Cheer ho, sir!  Haul away, sir!  Will it be a mess o' mick-a-ral
+for the lads to-day?"
+
+"Don't know, Billy," was the reply, as the beautiful fish was hauled in,
+unhooked, a fresh lask or tongue of silvery bait put on, and the leaded
+line thrown over and allowed to run out fathoms astern once again.
+
+Billy Waters, the gunner, went on with his task, rather a peculiar one,
+which would have been performed below in a larger vessel, but here the
+men pretty well lived on deck, caring little for the close stuffy
+quarters that formed the forecastle, where they had, being considered
+inferior beings, considerably less space than was apportioned to their
+two officers.
+
+Billy's work was that of carefully binding or lashing round and round
+the great mass of hair hanging from the poll of a messmate, so as to
+form it into the orthodox pigtail of which the sailors of the day were
+excessively vain.  The tail in question was the finest in the cutter,
+and was exactly two feet six inches long, hanging down between the
+sailor's shoulders, when duly lashed up and tied, like a long handle
+used for lifting off the top of his skull.
+
+But, alas for the vanity of human nature!  Tom Tully, owner of the
+longest tail in the cutter, and the envy of all his messmates, was not
+happy.  He was ambitious; and where a man is ambitious there is but
+little true bliss.  He wanted "that 'ere tail" to be half a fathom long,
+and though it was duly measured every week "that 'ere tail" refused to
+grow another inch.
+
+Billy Waters had a fine tail, but his was only, to use his own words,
+"two foot one," but it was "half as thick agen as Tom Tully's," so he
+did not mind.  In fact the first glance at the gunner's round
+good-humoured face told that there was neither envy nor ambition there.
+Give him enough to eat, his daily portion of cold water grog, and his
+'bacco, and, again to use his own words, he "wouldn't change berths with
+the king hissen."
+
+"Easy there, Billy messmet," growled Tom Tully; "avast hauling quite so
+hard.  My tail ain't the cable."
+
+"Why, you don't call that 'ere hauling, Tommy lad, do you?"
+
+"'Nuff to take a fellow's head off," growled the other, just as the
+midshipman pulled in another mackerel, and directly after another, and
+another, for they were sailing through a shoal, and the man at the helm
+let his stolid face break up into a broad grin as the chance of a mess
+of mackerel for the men's dinner began to increase.
+
+  "Singing down deny, down deny, down deny down,
+  Sing--"
+
+"Easy, messmet, d'yer hear," growled Tom Tully, straining his head round
+to look appealingly at the operator on his tail.  "Why don't yer leave
+off singing till you've done?"
+
+"Just you lay that there nose o' your'n straight amidships," cried
+Billy, using the tail as if it was a tiller, and steering the sailor's
+head into the proper position.  "I can't work without I sing."
+
+  "For this I can tell, that nought will be well,
+  Till the king enjoys his own again."
+
+He trolled out these words in a pleasant tenor voice, and was just
+drawing in breath to continue the rattling cavalier ballad when the
+young officer swung his right leg in board, and, sitting astride the low
+bulwark, exclaimed--
+
+"I say, Billy, are you mad?"
+
+"Mad, sir? not that I knows on, why?"
+
+"For singing a disloyal song like that.  You'll be yard-armed, young
+fellow, if you don't mind."
+
+"What, for singing about the king?"
+
+"Yes; if you get singing about a king over the water, my lad.  That's an
+old song; but some people would think you meant the Pretend--Hallo! look
+there.  You look out there forward, why didn't you hail?  Hi! here fetch
+me a glass.  Catch hold of that line, Billy.  She's running for
+Shoreham, as sure as a gun.  No: all right; let go."
+
+He threw the line to the gunner just as a mackerel made a snatch at the
+bait, and before the sailor could catch it, away went the end astern,
+when the man at the helm made a dash at it just as the slight cord was
+running over the side.
+
+Billy Waters made a dash at it just at the same moment, and there was a
+dull thud as the two men's heads came in contact, and they fell back
+into a sitting position on the deck, while the mackerel darted
+frightened away to puzzle the whole shoal of its fellows with the novel
+appendage hanging to its snout.
+
+"Avast there, you lubber!" exclaimed Billy Waters angrily.  "Stand by,
+my lad, stand by," replied the other, making a dart back at the helm
+just as the cutter was beginning to fall off.
+
+"Look ye here, messmet, air you agoin' to make my head shipshape, or air
+you not?" growled Tom Tully; and then, before his hairdresser could
+finish tying the last knot, the lieutenant came on deck.
+
+For when Hilary Leigh ran below, it was to seize a long spyglass out of
+the slings in the cabin bulkhead, and to give his commanding officer a
+tremendous shake.
+
+"Sail on the larboard bow, Mr Lipscombe, sir.  I say, do wake up, sir;
+I think it is something this time."
+
+The officer in question, who was a hollow-cheeked man of about forty,
+very sallow-looking, and far from prepossessing in his features, opened
+his eye, but he did not attempt to rise from the bunker upon which he
+was stretched.
+
+"Leigh," he said, turning his eye round towards the little oval thick
+glass window nearest to him, "You're a most painstaking young officer,
+but you are always mare's-nesting.  What is it now?"
+
+"One of those three-masted luggers, sir--a Frenchman--a _chasse maree_,
+laden deeply, and running for Shoreham."
+
+"Let her run," said the lieutenant, closing his eye again; the other was
+permanently closed, having been poked out in boarding a Frenchman some
+years before, and with the extinction of that optic went the prospect of
+the lieutenant's being made a post-captain, and he was put in command of
+the _Kestrel_ when he grew well.
+
+"But it _is_ something this time, sir, I'm sure."
+
+"Leigh," said the lieutenant, yawning, "I was just in a delicious dream,
+and thoroughly enjoying myself when you come down and bother me about
+some confounded fishing-boat.  There, be off.  No: I'll come this time."
+
+He yawned, and showed a set of very yellow teeth; and then, as if by an
+effort, leaped up and preceded the young officer on deck.
+
+"Let's have a look at her, Leigh," he said, after a glance at a long,
+low, red-sailed lugger, about a couple of miles ahead, sailing fast in
+the light breeze.
+
+He took the spyglass, and, going forward, looked long and steadily at
+the lugger before saying a word.
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"French lugger, certainly, Leigh," he said, quietly; "fresh from the
+fishing-ground I should say.  They wouldn't attempt to run a cargo now."
+
+"But you'll overhaul her, sir, won't you?"
+
+"It's not worth while, Leigh, but as you have roused me up, it will be
+something to do.  Here, call the lads up.  Where's Waters?  Waters!"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," replied that worthy in a voice of thunder, though he was
+close at hand.
+
+"Load the long gun, and be ready to fire."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+There was no beating to quarters, for the little crew were on deck, and
+every man fell naturally into his place as the lieutenant seemed now to
+wake up to his work, and glanced at the sails, which were all set, and
+giving his orders sharply and well, a pull was taken at a sheet here and
+a pull there, the helm altered, and in spite of the lightness of the
+breeze the _Kestrel_ began to work along with an increase of speed of
+quite two knots an hour.
+
+"Now then, Leigh, shall we ever have her, or shall we have to throw a
+shot across her bows to bring her to?"
+
+"Let them have a shot, sir," cried the young officer, whose cheeks were
+beginning to flush with excitement, as he watched the quarry of which
+the little falcon was in chase.
+
+"And waste the king's powder and ball, eh?  No, Leigh, there will be no
+need.  But we may as well put on our swords."
+
+Meanwhile, Billy Waters was busy unlashing the tail of Long Tom, as he
+called the iron gun forward, and with a pat of affection he opened the
+ammunition chest, and got out the flannel bag of powder and smiled at a
+messmate, rammer in hand.
+
+"Let's give him his breakfast, or else he won't bark," he said, with a
+grin; and the charge was rammed home, the ball sent after it with a big
+wad to keep it in its place, and the men waited eagerly for the order to
+fire.
+
+Billy Waters knew that that would not come for some time, so he sidled
+up to Hilary, and whispered as the young man was buckling on his sword,
+the lieutenant having gone below to exchange a shabby cap for his cocked
+hat, "Let me have your sword a minute, sir, and I'll make it like a
+razor."
+
+Hilary hesitated for a moment, and then drew it, and held it out to the
+gunner, who went below, and by the time the young officer had had a good
+inspection of the lugger, Billy came back with his left thumb trying the
+edge of the sword.
+
+"I wouldn't be too hard on 'em, sir," he said, with mock respect.
+
+"What do you mean, Billy?"
+
+"Don't take off too many Frenchies' heads, sir; not as they'd know it,
+with a blade like that."
+
+"Are we gaining on her, Leigh?" said the lieutenant.
+
+"Just a little, sir, I think; but she creeps through the water at an
+awful rate."
+
+The lieutenant looked up at the white sails, but nothing more could be
+done, for the _Kestrel_ was flying her best; and the water bubbled and
+sparkled as she cut her way through, leaving an ever-widening train
+behind.
+
+There was no chance of more wind, and nothing could be done but to hold
+steadily on, for, at the end of half an hour, it was plain enough that
+the distance had been slightly reduced.
+
+"However do they manage to make those luggers sail so fast?" exclaimed
+the lieutenant impatiently.  "Leigh, if this turns out to be another of
+your mares' nests, you'll be in disgrace."
+
+"Very well, sir," said the young man quietly.
+
+And then to himself: "Better make some mistake than let the real thing
+slip by."
+
+The arms were not served out, for that would be but a minute's task; but
+an arm chest was opened ready, and the men stood at their various
+stations, but in a far more lax and careless way than would have been
+observed on board a larger vessel, which in its turn would have been in
+point of discipline far behind a vessel of the present day.
+
+The gulls and kittiwakes rose and fell, uttering their peevish wails; a
+large shoal of fish fretting the radiant surface of the sea was passed
+and about a dozen porpoises went right across the cutter's bow, rising
+and diving down one after the other like so many black water-boys,
+playing at "Follow my leader;" but the eyes of all on board the
+_Kestrel_ were fixed upon the dingy looking _chasse maree_, which
+apparently still kept on trying hard to escape by its speed.
+
+And now the time, according to Billy Waters' judgment, having come for
+sending a shot, he stood ready, linstock in hand, watching the
+lieutenant, whose one eye was gazing intently through the long
+leather-covered glass.
+
+"Fire!" he said at last.  "Well ahead!"
+
+The muzzle of the piece was trained a little more to the right, the
+linstock was applied, there was a puff of white smoke, a heavy deafening
+roar; and as Hilary Leigh gazed in the direction of the lugger, he saw
+the sea splashed a few hundred yards ahead, and then dip, dip, dip, dip,
+the water was thrown up at intervals as the shot ricochetted, making
+ducks and drakes right across the bows of the lugger.
+
+"Curse his impudence!" cried the lieutenant, as the men busily sponged
+out and began to reload Long Tom; for the lugger paid not the slightest
+heed to the summons, but sailed away.
+
+"Give her another--closer this time," cried the lieutenant; and once
+more the gun uttered its deep-mouthed roar, and the shot went skipping
+along the smooth surface of the sea, this time splashing the water a few
+yards only ahead of the lugger.
+
+"I think that will bring him to his senses," cried the lieutenant, using
+his glass.
+
+If the lowering of first one and then another sail meant bringing the
+lugger to its senses, the lieutenant was right, for first one ruddy
+brown spread of canvas sank with its spar into the lugger, and then
+another and another, the long low vessel lying passive upon the water,
+and in due time the cutter was steered close up, her sails flapped, and
+her boat which had been held ready was lowered, and Leigh with three men
+jumped in.
+
+"Here, let me go too," exclaimed the lieutenant; "you don't half
+understand these fellows' French."
+
+Hilary flushed, for he fancied he was a bit of a French scholar, but he
+said nothing; and the lieutenant jumped into the boat.  A few strokes
+took them to the dingy lugger, at whose side were gathered about a dozen
+dirty-looking men and boys, for the most part in scarlet worsted caps,
+blue jerseys, and stiff canvas petticoats, sewn between the legs, to
+make believe they were trousers.
+
+"Va t'en chien de Francais.  Pourquoi de diable n'arretez vous pas?"
+shouted the lieutenant to a yellow-looking man with whiskerless face,
+and thin gold rings in his ears.
+
+"Hey?"
+
+"I say pourquoi n'arretez vous pas?" roared the lieutenant fiercely.
+
+"I ar'nt a Dutchman.  I don't understand.  Nichts verstand," shouted the
+man through his hollow hands, as if he were hailing some one a mile
+away.
+
+"You scoundrel, why didn't you say you could speak English?"
+
+"You never arkst me," growled the man.
+
+"Silence, sir.  How dare you address an officer of a king's ship like
+that!"
+
+"Then what do you go shooting at me for?  King George don't tell you to
+go firin' guns at peaceable fisher folk, as me."
+
+"Silence, sir, or I'll put you in irons, and take you on board the
+cutter.  Why didn't you obey my signals to heave-to?"
+
+"Signals!  I never see no signals."
+
+"How dare you, sir! you know I fired."
+
+"Oh, them!  We thought you was practisin', and hauled down till you'd
+done, for the balls was flying very near."
+
+"Where are you from?"
+
+"From?  Nowheres.  We been out all night fishing."
+
+"What's your port?"
+
+"Shoreham."
+
+"And what have you on board?  Who are those people?"
+
+Those two people had been seen on the instant by Hilary Leigh, as they
+sat below the half-deck of the lugger, shrinking from observation in the
+semi-darkness.  He had noticed that, though wearing rough canvas
+covering similar to those affected by a crew in stormy weather, they
+were of a different class; and as the lieutenant was in converse with
+the skipper of the lugger, he climbed over the lowered sail between, and
+saw that one of the two whom the other tried to screen was quite a young
+girl.
+
+It was but a momentary glance, for she hastily drew a hood over her
+face, as she saw that she was noticed.
+
+"Jacobites for a crown!" said Hilary to himself, as he saw a pair of
+fierce dark eyes fixed upon him.
+
+"Who are you?" he exclaimed.
+
+"Hush, for heaven's sake!" was the answer whispered back; "don't you
+know me, Leigh?  A word from you and they will shoot me like a dog."
+
+At the same moment there was a faint cry, and Hilary saw that the young
+girl had sunk back, fainting.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+A STRICT SEARCH.
+
+"Sir Henry!" ejaculated Hilary Leigh; and for the moment his heart
+seemed to stand still, for his duties as a king's officer had brought
+him face to face with a dear old friend, at whose house he had passed
+some of his happiest days, and he knew that the disguised figure the
+Jacobite gentleman sought to hide was his only daughter, Adela, Hilary's
+old playmate and friend, but so grown and changed that he hardly
+recognised her in the momentary glance he had of her fair young face.
+
+"Hush! silence!  Are you mad?" was the reply, in tones that set the
+young man's heart beating furiously, for he knew that Sir Henry Norland
+was proscribed for the part he had take in the attempt of the Young
+Pretender, and Leigh had thought that he was in France.
+
+"Who are they, Mr Leigh?" said the lieutenants striding over the lumber
+in the bottom of the boat.
+
+"Seems to be an English gentleman, sir," said Leigh, in answer to an
+agonised appeal from Sir Henry's eyes.
+
+"I am an English gentleman, sir, and this is my daughter.  She is very
+ill."
+
+"Of course she is," cried the lieutenant testily.  "Women are sure to be
+sick if you bring them to sea.  But look here, my good fellow, English
+gentleman or no English gentleman, you can't deceive me.  Now then, what
+have you got on board?"
+
+"Fish, I believe," said Sir Henry.
+
+"Yes, of course," sneered the lieutenant; "and brandy, and silk, and
+velvet, and lace.  Now then, skipper, you are caught this time.  But
+look here, you scoundrel, what do you mean by pretending to be a
+Frenchman?"
+
+"Frenchman?  Frenchman?" said the skipper with a look of extreme
+stupidity.  "You said I was a Dutchman."
+
+"You lie, you scoundrel.  Here, come forward and move that sail and
+those nets.  Now no nonsense; set your fellows to work."
+
+He clapped his hand sharply on the skipper's shoulder, and turned him
+round, following him forward.
+
+"Take a man, Mr Leigh, and search that dog-hole."
+
+Hilary Leigh was astounded, for knowing what he did he expected that the
+lieutenant would have instantly divined what seemed patent to him--that
+Sir Henry Norland was trying, for some reason or another, to get back to
+England, and that although the lugger was commanded by an Englishman,
+she was undoubtedly a French _chasse maree_ from Saint Malo.
+
+But the lieutenant had got it into his head that he had overhauled a
+smuggling vessel laden with what would turn into prize-money for himself
+and men, and the thought that she might be bound on a political errand
+did not cross his mind.
+
+"I'll search fully," said Leigh; and bidding the sailor with the long
+pigtail stay where he was, the young officer bent down and crept in
+under the half-deck just as the fainting girl recovered.
+
+As she caught sight of Hilary she made a snatch at his hand, and in a
+choking voice exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Hilary! don't you know me again?  Pray, pray save my poor father.
+Oh, you will not give him up?"
+
+The young man's heart seemed to stand still as the dilemma in which he
+was placed forced itself upon him.  He was in his majesty's service, and
+in the king's name he ought to have called upon this gentleman, a
+well-known Jacobite, to surrender, and tell the lieutenant who he was.
+
+On the other hand, if he did this unpleasant duty he would be betraying
+a dear old companion of his father, a man who had watched his own career
+with interest and helped him through many a little trouble; and, above
+all, he would be, as the thought flashed upon him, sending Adela's
+father--his own old companion's father--to the scaffold.
+
+These thoughts flashed through his mind, and with them recollections of
+those delightful schoolboy days that he had passed at the Old Manor
+House, Sir Henry's pleasant home, in Sussex, when boy and girl he and
+Adela had roamed the woods, boated on the lake, and fished the river
+hard by.
+
+"No," he muttered between his teeth; "I meant to be a faithful officer
+to my king; but I'd sooner jump overboard than do such dirty work as
+that."
+
+There was an angry look in the young girl's eyes; and as Hilary read her
+thoughts he could not help thinking how bright and beautiful a woman she
+was growing.  He saw that she believed he was hesitating, and there was
+something scornful in her gaze, an echo, as it were, of that of her
+grey-haired, careworn father, whose eyebrows even seemed to have turned
+white, though his dark eyes were fiery as ever.
+
+There was no doubt about it; they believed that he would betray them,
+and there was something almost of loathing in Adela Norland's face as
+her hood fell back, and the motion she made to place her hands in her
+father's brought her head out of the shadow into the bright morning
+light.
+
+"Thank ye, ma'am," said Hilary in a rough, brisk voice; "I was just
+going to ask you to move.  You'd better come in, Tom Tully, there's a
+lot of things to move.  P'r'aps this gentleman will stand outside."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," growled Tom Tully, as Hilary darted one meaning look at
+the proscribed man.
+
+"Look here, sir," continued Hilary, as he heard the lieutenant
+approaching, "you may just as well save us the trouble by declaring what
+you have hidden.  We are sure to find it."
+
+"Got anything, Mr Leigh?" said the lieutenant briskly.
+
+"Nothing yet, sir.  Have you?"
+
+"Not a tub, or a package."
+
+"If you imagine, sir, that this boat is laden with smuggled goods you
+may save yourselves a great deal of trouble, for there is nothing
+contraband on board, I feel sure."
+
+"Thank you," said the lieutenant politely, and with a satirical laugh;
+"but you'd hardly believe it, my dear sir, when I tell you that dozens
+of skippers and passengers in boats have said the very same thing to me,
+and whenever that has been the case we have generally made a pretty good
+haul of smuggled goods.  Go on, my lads; I can't leave a corner
+unsearched."
+
+Sir Henry gave his shoulders a slight shrug, and turned to draw his
+daughter's hood over her head.
+
+"You'll excuse my child, gentlemen," he said coldly.  "She is very weak
+and ill."
+
+"Oh! of course," said Hilary; "we've searched here, sir; she can lie
+down again."
+
+Adela uttered a low sigh of relief, and she longed to dart a grateful
+look at the young officer, but she dared not; and knowing that in place
+of looking pale and ill a warm flush of excitement was beaming in her
+cheeks, she hastily drew her hand closer over her face, and let her
+father place her upon a rough couch of dry nets.
+
+"Heaven bless him!" muttered Sir Henry to himself; "but it was a
+struggle between friendship and duty, I could see."
+
+Meanwhile the lugger was ransacked from end to end, three more men being
+called from the cutter for the purpose.  Tubs were turned over, spare
+sails and nets dragged about, planks lifted, bunks and lockers searched,
+but nothing contraband was found, and all the while the skipper of the
+lugger and his crew stood staring stupidly at the efforts of the king's
+men.
+
+"Labour in vain, Leigh," said the lieutenant at last.  "Into the boat
+there.  Confound that scoundrel!  I wish he was overboard."
+
+The lieutenant did not say what for, but as soon as the men were in the
+boat he turned to the skipper:
+
+"Look ye here, my fine fellow, you've had a narrow escape."
+
+"Yes," said the man stolidly, "I thought you'd have hit us."
+
+The lieutenant did not condescend to reply, but climbed over the side
+into the cutter's boat, and motioned to Leigh to follow, which he did,
+not daring to glance at the passengers.
+
+"Are you quite done, officer?" growled the skipper.
+
+No answer was given, and as the boat reached the side of the cutter the
+sails of the lugger were being hoisted, and she began to move quickly
+through the water at once.
+
+"Lay her head to the eastward," said the lieutenant sourly; "and look
+here, Leigh, don't you rouse me up again for one of your mare's nests,
+or it will be the--"
+
+"Worse for you," Hilary supposed, but he did not hear the words, for the
+lieutenant was already down below, and the young officer took the glass
+and stood watching the lugger rapidly growing distant as the cutter
+began to feel the breeze.
+
+A curious turmoil of thought was harassing the young man's brain, for he
+felt that he had been a traitor to the king, whose officer he was, and
+it seemed to him terrible that he should have broken his faith like
+this.
+
+But at the same time he felt that he could not have done otherwise, and
+he stood watching the lugger, and then started, for yes--no--yes--there
+could be no mistake about it, a white handkerchief was being held over
+the side, and it was a signal of amity to him.
+
+Quite a couple of hours had passed, and the lugger had for some time
+been out of sight round the headland astern, when all at once the
+lieutenant came on deck to where his junior was pacing up and down.
+
+"Why, Leigh," he exclaimed, "I did not think of it then; but we ought to
+have detained that _chasse maree_."
+
+"Indeed, sir; why?"
+
+"Ah! of course it would not occur to you, being so young in the service;
+but depend upon it that fellow was a Jacobite, who had persuaded those
+dirty-looking scoundrels to bring him across from Saint Malo, or some
+other French port, and he's going to play spy and work no end of
+mischief.  We've done wrong, Leigh, we've done wrong."
+
+"Think so, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I'm sure of it.  I was so intent on finding smuggled goods that I
+didn't think of it at the time.  But, there: it's too late now."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Leigh quietly, "it's too late now."
+
+For he knew that by that time the fugitives must be in Shoreham harbour.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+THE LIEUTENANT'S BARGAIN.
+
+Three days of cruising up and down on the lookout for suspicious craft,
+some of which were boarded, but boarded in vain, for, however suspicious
+they might appear at a distance, there was nothing to warrant their
+being detained and taken back into port.
+
+Hilary used to laugh to himself at the impudence of their midge of a
+cutter firing shots across large merchantmen, bringing them to, and
+making them wait while the cutter sent a boat on board for their papers
+to be examined.
+
+It gradually fell to his lot to perform this duty, though if it happened
+to be a very large vessel Lieutenant Lipscombe would take upon himself
+to go on board, especially if he fancied that there would be an
+invitation to a well-kept cabin and a glass of wine, or perhaps a
+dinner, during which Hilary would be in command, and the cutter would
+sail on in the big ship's wake till the lieutenant thought proper to
+come on board.
+
+The men sang songs and tied one another's pigtails; Hilary Leigh fished
+and caught mackerel, bass, pollack, and sometimes a conger eel, and for
+a bit of excitement a little of his majesty's powder was blazed away and
+a cannonball sent skipping along the surface of the water, but that was
+all.
+
+Hilary used sometimes to own to himself that it was no wonder that Mr
+Lipscombe, who was a disappointed man, should spend much time in
+sleeping, and out of sheer imitation he once or twice took to having a
+nap himself, but twice settled that.  He had too much vitality in his
+composition to sleep at abnormal times.
+
+"Hang it all, Billy Waters," he said one day, after a week's sailing up
+and down doing nothing more exciting than chasing fishing-luggers and
+boarding trading brigs and schooners, "I do wish something would turn
+up."
+
+"If something real don't turn up, sir," said the gunner, "I shall be
+certain to fire across the bows of a ship, from its always being my
+habit, sir, and never hit a mark when I want it."
+
+"Here, hi! hail that fishing-boat," he said; "I've fished till I'm
+tired, and can't catch anything; perhaps we can get something of him."
+
+He pointed to a little boat with a tiny sail, steered by its crew of one
+man by means of an oar.  The boat had been hanging about for some time
+after pulling off from the shore, and its owner was evidently fishing,
+but with what result the crew of the cutter could not tell.
+
+"He don't want no hailing, sir; he's hailing of us," said Billy.
+
+It was plain enough that the man was manoeuvring his cockleshell about,
+so as to get the cutter between it and the shore, and with pleasant
+visions in his mind of a lobster, crab, or some other fish to vary the
+monotony of the salt beef and pork, of which they had, in Hilary's
+thinking, far too much, he leaned over the side till the man allowed his
+boat to drift close up.
+
+"Heave us a rope," he said.  "Got any fish?"
+
+"Yes.  I want to see the captain."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"You'll see.  I want the captain.  Are you him?"
+
+"No; he's down below."
+
+"I want to see him.  May I come aboard?"
+
+"If you like," said Hilary; and the man climbed over the side.
+
+He was a lithe, sunburnt fellow, and after looking at him for a few
+moments with a vague kind of feeling that he had seen him before, Hilary
+sent a message below, and Mr Lipscombe came up with his hand before his
+mouth to hide a yawn.
+
+"Are you the captain?" said the man.
+
+"I command this ship, fellow.  What is it?"
+
+"What'll you give me, captain, if I take you to a cove where they're
+going to run a cargo to-night?"
+
+"Wait and see, my man.  You take us there and you shall be rewarded."
+
+"No, no," said the man laughing; "that won't do, captain.  I'm not going
+to risk my life for a chance of what you'll give.  I want a hundred
+pounds."
+
+"Rubbish, man!  Ten shillings," said Lipscombe sharply.
+
+"I want a hundred pounds," said the man.  "That there cargo's going to
+be worth two thousand pounds, and it's coming in a fast large French
+schooner from Havre.  I want a hundred pounds, or I don't say a word."
+
+A cargo worth two thousand pounds, and a smart French schooner!  That
+would be a prize indeed, and it made the lieutenant's mouth water; but
+he still hesitated, for a hundred pounds was a good deal, perhaps more
+than his share would be.  But still if he did not promise it they might
+miss the schooner altogether, for in spite of his vigilance he knew that
+cargoes were being run; so he gave way.
+
+"Very well then, you shall have your hundred pounds."
+
+"Now, captain?"
+
+"Not likely.  Earn your wages first."
+
+"And then suppose you say you won't pay me?  What shall I do?"
+
+"I give you my word of honour as a king's officer, sir."
+
+The man shook his head.
+
+"Write it down," he said with all the low cunning of his class.  The
+lieutenant was about to make an angry reply, but he wanted to take that
+prize, so he went below and wrote out and signed a memorandum to the
+effect that if, by the informer's guidance, the French schooner was
+taken, he should be paid one hundred pounds.
+
+Lipscombe returned on deck and handed the paper to the fisherman, who
+took it and held it upside down, studying it attentively.
+
+"Now you read it," he said to Hilary; who took it, and read it aloud.
+
+"Yes," said the fellow, "that's it.  Now you sign it."
+
+Hilary glanced at his superior, who frowned and nodded his head; and the
+young man went below and added his signature.
+
+"That'll do," said the man smiling.  "Now look here, captain, as soon as
+I'm gone you sail right off out of sight if you can, and get her lying
+off the point by about ten o'clock--two bells, or whatever it is.  Then
+you wait till a small lugger comes creeping off slowly, as if it was
+going out for the night with the drift-nets.  I and my mates will be
+aboard that lugger, and they'll drop down alongside and put me aboard,
+and I'll pilot you just to the place where you can lie in the cove out
+of sight till the schooner comes in.  If I come in my little boat the
+boys on shore would make signals, and the schooner would keep off, but
+if they see us go as usual out in our lugger they'll pay no heed.  But
+don't you come in a bit nigher than this.  Now I'm off!"
+
+Lieutenant Lipscombe stood thinking for a few minutes after the man had
+gone, stealing over the side of the cutter farthest from the shore, so
+that when his boat drifted by it was not likely that his visit on board
+would have been seen.
+
+Then turning to Hilary:
+
+"What do you think of it, Leigh?"
+
+"It may be a ruse to get us away."
+
+"Yes, it may be, but I don't think it is.  'Bout ship, there!" he
+shouted; and the great boom of the mainsail slowly swung round, and they
+sailed nearly out of sight of land by sundown, when the helm was once
+more rammed down hard, the cutter careened round in a half circle, and
+as the white wings were swelling, they made once more for the coast.
+
+It was about nine o'clock of a deliciously soft night, and the moist
+sweet air that came off the shore was sweetly fragrant of flowers and
+new-mown hay.  The night was cloudy, and very dusky for the time of
+year, a fact so much in their favour, and with the watch on the alert,
+for the lieutenant would not call the men to quarters in case the
+informer did not come, he and Hilary leaned over the side, gazing at the
+scattered lights that twinkled on the shore.
+
+An hour and a half had passed away, and the time, which a church clock
+ashore had struck, ten, seemed to have far exceeded this hour, when, as
+they all watched the mist which hung between them and the invisible
+shore, a light was suddenly seen to come as it were out of a bank of
+fog, and glide slowly towards them, but as if to go astern.
+
+The cutter had a small lamp hoisted to the little masthead, and the
+lieutenant knew that this would be sufficient signal of their
+whereabouts, and so it proved, for the gliding light came nearer and
+nearer, and soon after a voice they both recognised hailed them.
+
+"Cutter ahoy!"
+
+"Ahoy!"
+
+The light came on nearer and nearer, and at last they could dimly make
+out the half-hoisted sails of a small fishing lugger, which was run
+cleverly enough close alongside, her occupants holding on by boathooks.
+
+"Mind what you are doing there," cried the lieutenant sharply; "jump
+aboard, my man."
+
+"All right, captain."
+
+"Go down and get my sword, Leigh," whispered the lieutenant; "and put on
+your own."
+
+It was as if just then an idea had occurred to him that there might be
+treachery, and the thought seemed to be communicated to Hilary, who ran
+down below, caught up the two swords from the hooks where they hung upon
+the bulkhead, and was on his way up, when the lieutenant came down upon
+him with a crash, there was the rattling on of the hatch, the trampling
+of feet, and a short scuffle, and as Hilary leaped over his prostrate
+officer, and, sword in hand, dashed up at the hatch, it was to find it
+fastened, for they had been cleverly trapped, and without doubt the
+cutter was in the smuggler's hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+IN COMMAND.
+
+Hilary Leigh was only a boy, and he acted boyishly at that moment, for
+in his rage and mortification he first of all struck at the hatch with
+his fist, and then shouted to the people on deck.
+
+"Here, hi! you sirs, open this hatch directly."
+
+But as he shouted he knew that his order was absurd, and tucking the
+lieutenant's sword under his arm he buckled on his own before leaping
+down to where his leader lay.
+
+"Are you much hurt, sir?" he asked; but there was no answer.
+
+"I've got a orfle whack side o' the head, sir," growled Tom Tully.
+
+"So've I, sir," said another man.
+
+"Serve you right too, for not keeping a good lookout," cried Hilary
+savagely; "here, it's disgraceful!  A king's ship taken by a set of
+smuggling rascals.  Look alive, there, my lads.  Here, you marines, be
+smart.  Where's Billy Waters?"
+
+"Here, sir," cried that worthy.
+
+"Serve out the arms smart, my man.  Two of you carry the lieutenant into
+the cabin.  Steady there!  He isn't dead."
+
+For two of the men had been seen, by the dim light of a horn lantern, to
+seize their commanding officer in the most unceremonious way, to lug him
+into the cabin.
+
+By this time the 'tween decks of the cutter was alive with dimly-seen
+figures, for in a vessel of this description the space devoted in a
+peaceful vessel to the storage of cargo was utilised for the convenience
+of the comparatively large crew.
+
+"Heave those hammocks out of the way," cried Hilary next; and this being
+done, he stood there with twenty well-armed men awaiting his next
+orders--orders which he did not give, for the simple reason that he did
+not know what to do.
+
+It was a ticklish position for a lad of his years, to find himself
+suddenly in command of a score of fighting men, one and all excited and
+ready for the fray, as, schooled by drill and discipline, they formed
+themselves into a machine which he was to set in motion; but how, when,
+and where?
+
+There was the rub, and in the midst of a dead silence Hilary listened to
+the trampling of feet overhead.
+
+It was a curious scene--the gloomy 'tween decks of the cutter, with the
+group of eager men standing about awaiting their young officer's orders,
+their rough, weatherbeaten faces looking fierce in the shadowy twilight,
+for the lanterns swinging fore and aft only seemed to make darkness
+visible; and as the trampling went on, evidently that of men wearing
+heavy fisher-boots, the steps were within a few inches of the heads of
+the crew.
+
+"Pair o' pistols, sir," said a low, gruff voice; and Hilary started, for
+the gunner had come up quite silently.  "Shall I shove 'em in your belt,
+sir?"
+
+"Yes," said Hilary sharply; and the gunner thrust the barrels of the two
+heavy, clumsy weapons into the young officer's sword-belt, where they
+stuck in a most inconvenient way.
+
+"Both loaded, sir, and cocked," said the gunner quietly.  Hilary nodded,
+and stood thinking.
+
+It was an awkward time for quiet thought, for he knew that the men were
+anxiously awaiting some order; but, for the reasons above given, no
+order came, and the force of his position came with crushing violence
+upon the young officer's head.
+
+He knew that the lieutenant was to blame for not being prepared for an
+attack, however little it might be anticipated; but at the same time he
+would have to share the lieutenant's disgrace as second officer--the
+disgrace of a well manned and armed king's ship falling into the hands
+of a pack of smugglers.
+
+He knew, too, that if he had proposed taking precautions, Lieutenant
+Lipscombe would have laughed at him, and refused to take his advice; but
+he would have felt more at rest if he had made the suggestion.
+
+But the mishap had happened, and according to the old proverb it was of
+no use to cry over spilt milk.  What he felt he had to do now was to
+find a cow and get some more.
+
+But how?
+
+By the sounds on deck it was evident that the cutter had been seized by
+quite a strong party, and it was no less certain that they would not
+have made so desperate a move if they had not some particular venture on
+the way.  What Hilary felt then was that he must not only turn the
+tables on the attacking party, but try and make a valuable capture as
+well.
+
+But again--how?
+
+He could not answer the question, but as he tried to solve the
+difficulty the feeling was strong upon him--could he manage to do this
+before the lieutenant recovered?
+
+The excitement produced by this idea was such that it drove away all
+thoughts of peril and danger, and he could think of nothing but the dash
+and daring of such an exploit.
+
+As he thought, his hand gripped the hilt of his sword more tightly, and
+he whispered an order to the men:
+
+"Close round."
+
+The crew eagerly pressed up to him, and he spoke.
+
+"We've got to wipe out a disgrace, my lads--hush! don't cheer, let them
+think we are doing nothing."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," came in a low growl.
+
+"I say, my lads, we've got to wipe out a disgrace, and the sooner the
+better.  One hour ought to be enough to get on deck and drive these
+scoundrels either overboard or below.  Then I think there'll be some
+prize-money to be earned, for they are sure to be running a cargo
+to-night.  Silence!  No cheering.  Now then, to work.  Waters, how are
+we to get up the hatch?"
+
+"Powder, sir," said the gunner laconically.
+
+"And blow ourselves to pieces."
+
+"No, sir, I think I can build up a pile of hammocks and fire
+half-a-dozen cartridges atop of it, and blow the hatch off without
+hurting us much below."
+
+"Try it," said Hilary shortly.  "You marines, come aft into the cabin
+and we'll get the ventilators open; you can fire through there."
+
+The four marines and their corporal marched into the cabin, where a
+couple kneeled upon the little table, and two more stood ready to cover
+them, when the folly of attempting to blow off the hatch became apparent
+to Hilary; for he saw that he would do more harm to his own men than
+would warrant the attempt.
+
+"Get axes," he said.
+
+This was done, and the gunner brought out a long iron bar used in
+shifting the long gun, but he muttered a protest the while that there
+was nothing like the powder.
+
+"Silence there," cried Hilary.  "Waters, pass that bar to Tully, and you
+with your men go forward and keep the fore-hatch.  If they open it and
+try to come down to take us in the rear when we begin to break through
+here, up with you and gain the deck at all costs.  You understand?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"I'll send you help if you get the hatch open.  Go on!"
+
+The gunner and half-a-dozen men went forward and stood ready, while at a
+sign from the young officer the dimly-seen figure of Tom Tully took a
+couple of steps up the cabin-ladder, and there he stood with the bar
+poised in his bare arms ready to make his first attack upon the wooden
+cover as soon as the order reached his ears.
+
+Just then a rattling noise was heard, and the hatch was evidently about
+to be removed.  The next moment it was off, and the light of a lantern
+flashed down, showing that half-a-dozen musket barrels had been thrust
+into the opening, while about them flashed the blades of as many swords.
+
+There was a dead silence below, for Hilary and his men were taken by
+surprise, and though the hatch was now open there was such a terrible
+display of weapons in the opening that an attempt to rush up seemed
+madness.
+
+"Below there!" cried a harsh voice; "surrender, or we fire."
+
+"Is Hilary Leigh there?" cried another voice, one which made the young
+man start as he recognised that of Sir Harry Norland.
+
+"Yes, sir, I am here," he said after a moment's pause.
+
+"Tell your men to surrender quietly, Mr Leigh, and if they give their
+word not to attempt rescue or escape they will have two of the cutter's
+boats given to them, and they can row ashore."
+
+"And what about the cutter, Sir Henry?" said Hilary quietly.
+
+"She is our lawful prize," was the reply.
+
+"And no mistake," said the rough, harsh voice, which Hilary recognised
+now as that of the apparently stupid skipper of the _chasse maree_.
+
+"Come up first, Mr Leigh," said Sir Henry; "but leave your arms below.
+I give you my word that you shall not be hurt."
+
+"I cannot give you my word that you will not be hurt, Sir Henry, if you
+do not keep out of danger," cried Hilary.  "We are all coming on deck,
+cutlass in one hand, pistol in the other.  Now, my lads!  Forward!"
+
+Madness or no madness he made a dash, and at the same moment Tom Tully
+struck upwards with his iron bar, sweeping aside the presented muskets,
+half of which were fired with the effect that their bullets were buried
+in the woodwork round the hatch.
+
+What took place during those next few moments Hilary did not know, only
+that he made a spring to mount the cabin-ladder and got nearly out at
+the hatch, but as Tom Tully and another man sprang forward at the same
+moment they hindered one another, when there was a few moments' interval
+of fierce struggling, the sound of oaths and blows, a few shots were
+fired by the marines through the cabin skylight, and then Hilary found
+himself lying on the lower deck under Tom Tully, listening to the
+banging down of the cabin-hatch.
+
+"Are you much hurt, sir?" said one of the men.
+
+"Don't know yet," said Hilary, as Tully was dragged off him.  "Confound
+the brutes!  I'll serve them out for this.  Is any one killed?"
+
+"I ain't," growled Tom Tully, with his hand to the back of his head.
+"But that there slash went half through my tail, and I've got one on the
+cheek."
+
+Tom Tully's wound on the cheek proved to be quite a slight cut, and the
+other man was only stunned, but the injury to his pigtail was more than
+he could bear.
+
+"Of all the cowardly games as ever I did come acrost," he growled, "this
+here's 'bout the worst.  Think o' trying to cut off a sailor's pigtail!
+It's worse than mutiny!"
+
+"Hold your tongue, you stupid fellow!" cried Hilary, who could not help
+feeling amused even then.  "Why, don't you see that your tail has saved
+your head?"
+
+"Who wanted his head saved that way?" growled Tom Tully.  "It's
+cowardly, that's what it is!  I don't call it fair fighting to hit a man
+behind."
+
+"Silence!" exclaimed Hilary; and as the trampling went on overhead he
+tried to make out what the enemy were doing.
+
+He was startled to find Sir Henry on board, but though he looked upon
+him as a friend, he felt no compunction now in meeting him as an enemy
+who must take his chance.  Betraying him when a fugitive was one thing,
+dealing with him as one of a party making an attack upon a king's ship
+another.
+
+A chill of dread ran through him for a moment as he thought of the
+possibility of Sir Henry's daughter being his companion, but a second
+thought made him feel assured that she could not be present at a time
+like this.
+
+"And Sir Henry would only think me a contemptible traitor if I
+surrendered," he said to himself; and then he began to make fresh plans.
+
+He stepped into the cabin for a moment or two, to find that the
+lieutenant was lying in his bed place, perfectly insensible, while the
+marines, with their pieces in hand, were waiting fresh orders.
+
+The difficulty was to give those orders, and turn which way he would
+there was a pair of eyes fixed upon him.
+
+He had never before understood the responsibility of a commanding
+officer in a time of emergency, and how great a call there would be upon
+him for help, guidance, and protection.  One thing, however, he kept
+before his eyes, and that was the idea that he must retake the cutter,
+and how to do it with the least loss of life was the problem to be
+solved.
+
+In his extremity he called a council of war under the big lantern, with
+Billy Waters, the corporal of marines, and the boatswain for
+counsellors, and took their opinions.
+
+"Well, sir, if it was me in command I should do as I said afore," said
+Billy Waters cheerfully.  "A lot o' powder would rift that there
+cabin-hatch right off; and them as guards it."
+
+"Yes, and kill the lieutenant and half the men below," said Hilary.
+"What do you say, corporal?"
+
+"I think bayonets is the best things, sir," replied the corporal.
+
+"Yes," exclaimed Hilary, "if you've got a chance to use them.  What do
+you say, bo'sun?"
+
+"Well, your honour, it seems as how we shall get into no end of a pickle
+if we let these here smugglers capter the _Kestrel_, so I think we'd
+best go below and scuttle her.  It wouldn't take long."
+
+"Well, but, my good fellow, don't you see that we should be scuttling
+ourselves too?" cried Hilary.
+
+"Oh! no, sir, I don't mean scuttle ourselves.  I only mean the cutter.
+She'd soon fill.  We'd go off in the boats."
+
+"How?"
+
+The boatswain did not seem to have taken this into consideration at all,
+but stood scratching his head till he scratched out a bright thought.
+
+"Couldn't we let them on deck know as we're going to scuttle her, sir,
+and then they'd sheer off, and as soon as they'd sheered off we wouldn't
+scuttle her, but only go up and take possession."
+
+"Now, Jack Brown, how can you be such a fool?" cried Hilary,
+impatiently.  "They're sharp smugglers who have seized the _Kestrel_,
+and not a pack of babies.  Can't you suggest something better than
+that?"
+
+"Well, sir, let's scuttle her, and let them know as she's sinking, and
+as soon as they've sheered off stop the leaks."
+
+"Oh! you great bullet-head," cried Hilary angrily.  "How could we?"
+
+"Very sorry, sir," growled the man humbly; "I don't know, sir.  I can
+trim and bend on sails, and overhaul the rigging as well as most
+bo'suns, sir, but I never did have no head for figgers."
+
+"Figures!" cried Hilary, impatiently.  "There, that'll do.  Hark!  What
+are they doing on deck?"
+
+"Seems to me as if they're getting all sail set," growled the boatswain.
+
+"And they'll run us over to the coast of France," cried Hilary
+excitedly.  "We shall be prisoners indeed."
+
+He drew his breath in between his teeth, and stamped on the deck in his
+impotent rage.
+
+"There!" he said, at last, as the crew stood impatiently awaiting the
+result of their consultation.  "It's of no use for me to bully you, my
+lads, for not giving me ideas, when I can find none myself.  You are all
+right.  We'll try all your plans, for the scoundrels must never sail the
+_Kestrel_ into a French port with us on board.  Waters, we'll blow up
+the hatchway--but the fore-hatchway, not the cabin.  Corporal, you and
+your lads shall give them a charge with bayonets.  And lastly, if both
+these plans fail Jack Brown and the carpenter shall scuttle the little
+cutter; we may perhaps save our lives in the confusion."
+
+It was a sight to see the satisfied grin that shone out on each of the
+rough fellows' faces, upon finding that their ideas were taken.  It was
+as if each had grown taller, and they smiled at each other and at the
+young officer in a most satisfied way.  Hilary did not know it; but that
+stroke of involuntary policy on his part had raised him enormously in
+the estimation of the crew; and the little council being dissolved, it
+was wonderful with what alacrity they set to work.
+
+For the gunner's plan was at once adopted, and in perfect silence a bed
+of chests was raised up close beneath the fore-hatchway, whose ladder
+was cautiously removed.  On this pile were placed hammocks, and again
+upon these short planks, so that the flat surface was close up to the
+square opening that led from the forecastle on deck.
+
+"You see, sir, the charge won't leave much room to strike sidewise,"
+said the gunner, as he helped to get all ready, ending by emptying the
+bags of powder that formed four charges for the long gun.  These he
+rolled up in a handkerchief, tied it pretty tightly, and before putting
+it in place he made a hole in it, so that some of the powder would
+trickle out on to the smooth plank.
+
+This being done, he laid a train from it to the end of the plank, made a
+slow-match with some wet powder and a piece of paper, and finished by
+raising the planks by stuffing blankets under them at Hilary's
+suggestion, till the powder charge was right up in the opening of the
+hatch, surrounded by the coamings, and the planks rested up against the
+deck.
+
+"If that there don't fetch 'im off, I'm a Dutchman," said Billy Waters.
+"Here, just you keep that there lantern back, will you," he cried to the
+corporal of marines; "we don't want her fired before her time."
+
+"Yes, that will do," cried Hilary.  "There, stand by, my lads, and the
+moment the charge is fired make a dash for it with the ladder, and up
+and clear the deck whether I lead you or no."
+
+There was something in those words that the men could not then
+understand, but they did as the gunner declared all to be ready.
+
+"Hush! silence, my lads," cried Hilary.  "Away aft, and all lie down.
+Now, Waters, give me the lantern."
+
+"I'll fire the train, sir.  I'm gunner," said the man.
+
+"No, no," replied Hilary, "that is my task."
+
+"But, if you please, sir, you might get hit, and then--"
+
+"Silence, sir!  I'll fire the train," cried Hilary, sternly.  "Away aft
+with the men; and look, Mr Waters, my good fellow, if I go down I trust
+to you to retake the cutter."
+
+"All right, sir," said the gunner.  "Well, sir, if you will do it,
+here's my last words: open your lantern and just touch the end of the
+paper, then close and run aft.  One touch does it; so go on, and good
+luck to you!"
+
+The young officer nodded and took the lantern, while the gunner joined
+the men as far aft as they could go.  There was something very strange
+and unreal to him as he took a couple of steps or so forward, and
+listened to the noise of men above, hesitating for the moment as he
+thought of the life he was about to destroy, and mentally praying that
+Sir Harry Norland might not be near.  Then duty reasserted itself, and,
+not knowing whether he might not be about to destroy the vessel, and
+with it his own life, he slowly opened the door of the lantern.
+
+What was it to be--life and liberty, or death and destruction?  He could
+not say, but feeling that he ought to stick at nothing to try and retake
+the cutter, he held the flame of the wretched purser's dip in the
+lantern to the powder-besmeared paper, and there was on the instant an
+answering burst of tiny sparks.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+A MISSING ENEMY.
+
+As the slow-match began to sputter Hilary drew back, closed the door of
+the lantern, and walked backwards aft, towards where the men were
+gathered.  The desire was strong upon him to run and rush right into the
+far corner of the cabin; but he was a king's officer, and the men looked
+up to him for example, so he told himself that he could not show the
+white feather.
+
+Fortunately he was able to keep up his dignity and retreat in safety to
+where the men were crouching down, and, joining them, he too assumed a
+reclining position upon the deck, and watched the sparkling of the piece
+of paper in the darkness of the forepart of the cutter.
+
+Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle, with plenty of scintillation; like some
+little firework made for their amusement, but no sign of the train being
+fired.
+
+On deck there was an ominous silence, as if the smugglers had received
+warning of the coming danger, and they too were watching for the
+explosion.
+
+More sparkling and more bright flashes of light, and yet the train did
+not catch.  Never had moments seemed to Hilary so long before, and he
+felt sure that the slow-match had not been connected with the train, as
+it must have fired before now.
+
+Then as he waited he wondered what would be the effect of the explosion,
+and whether it would do more harm than blow off the hatch.  He hoped
+not, for Sir Henry's sake; and there were moments during that terribly
+lengthy time of watching when he hoped that after all the plan had
+failed, for it seemed too terrible, and he would gladly have run forward
+and dashed the light aside.
+
+They were lightning like, these thoughts, for it really was but a
+question of very few moments before there was a flash, a hissing noise,
+a bright light, and then it was as though they had all been struck a
+violent blow with something exceedingly soft and elastic, and at the
+same moment there was a dull heavy roar.
+
+Simultaneously the lower deck was filled with the foul dank choking
+fumes of exploded gunpowder, the thick smoke was blinding, and the men
+crouched in their places for the moment forgetful of their orders till
+they heard the voice of Hilary Leigh shouting to them to come on, and
+they leaped to their feet and followed.
+
+It was a case of blindman's-buff; but the quarters below were narrow,
+and after a little blundering the two men who had charge of the ladder
+forced aside some of the heap of chests, hammocks and planks, placed the
+steps in position, and, sword in one hand, pistol in the other, the
+young officer sprang up.  The gunner followed, and in less than a minute
+the whole crew were over the shattered coamings of the hatchway and on
+deck, ready to encounter the enemy.
+
+The change from the stifling fumes below to the soft night-air was
+delightful, and the men leaped along the deck after their young leader,
+their cutlasses flashing in the faint light cast by the lanterns swung
+aloft and astern; but no enemy was to be seen.
+
+They dashed aft right to the taffrail, and back along the starboard
+side, and away to the bowsprit; but the deck was without an enemy.
+
+"Why, they're gone!" cried Hilary, in astonishment, as he now realised
+the meaning of the silence over his head when he was awaiting the
+explosion.  "Here, hi!  Waters, Brown, what does this mean?  Quick! go
+to the helm, Brown!" he shouted; "we're going through the water at an
+awful pace.  Quick! quick! down--down hard!" he roared.  But it was too
+late; the wheel was lashed, and before the slightest effort could be
+made to check the cutter's way, she glided, with heavy sail set, over
+half a dozen long rollers, and then seemed to leap upon the beach, which
+she struck with so heavy a thud that the little vessel shuddered from
+stem to stern, and pretty well the whole crew were thrown upon the deck.
+
+The causes of the enemy forsaking the cutter were plain enough now.
+They did not want her, and if they did it would have been without the
+crew, who would have been a cause of risk and trouble to them.  If they
+could put her _hors de combat_ it would do just as well, and to this end
+all the sail had been hoisted and sheeted home, the wheel lashed, and
+with the unfortunate cutter running dead for the beach the party who had
+seized her had quietly gone over the side while Hilary and his men were
+plotting their destruction, and knowing full well they had nothing to
+fear till next tide floated her off--if ever she floated again--they
+proceeded to carry out their plans.
+
+The men struggled to their feet once more as the great sail flapped,
+while a wave that seemed bent on chasing them struck below the cutter's
+taffrail, and the spray leaped on board.
+
+Fortunately for them it was calm and the tide fast falling, or the
+gallant little _Kestrel_ would have flown her last flight.  As it was,
+it was open to doubt whether she would ever spread her long wings again
+to skim the sea, for the rising tide might bring with it a gale, and
+before she could be got off her timbers might be torn into matchwood.
+
+It was a rapid change from danger to danger.  But a few minutes back
+they risked sinking the vessel by the explosion of gunpowder, believing
+her to be in the hands of the enemy who had cleverly compassed her
+defeat, and now they were cast ashore.
+
+Hilary Leigh was seaman enough, however, to know what to do without
+consulting the boatswain, and giving his orders rapidly he stopped the
+heeling over and beating of the _Kestrel_ upon the sand by relieving her
+of her sail, in the midst of which he was startled by the voice of Mr
+Lipscombe.
+
+"Good heavens, Mr Leigh!" he exclaimed, angrily, "what does this mean?
+I go and lie down for a few minutes, leaving you in charge of the
+cutter, and I come up and find her ashore.  Brown, Waters! where are
+you, men?  Have you been mad, asleep, or drunk?  Oh, my head!  Good
+gracious, why, what's this--blood?"
+
+He staggered, and seemed about to fall, but Hilary caught his arm.
+
+"I am glad to see you better, sir," he cried; "but had you not better
+lie down?"
+
+"Better?" he said--"better?"
+
+"Yes, sir; don't you remember?"
+
+"Remember?  Remember?" he said, staring.
+
+"Yes, sir, the smugglers; they knocked us down and took possession of
+the ship."
+
+"Yes, of course, yes," said the lieutenant eagerly.  "I remember now.
+Of course, yes, Leigh.  But--but where are they now?"
+
+"That's just what I should like to know, sir," said Leigh, sharply;
+"we've got rid of them, but they ran the little _Kestrel_ ashore."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+EXPLORING.
+
+Fortunately for the little _Kestrel_ the morning breeze was soft and the
+sea as smooth as a mirror, and all the crew had to do was to await the
+tide to float them off from where they were lying high and dry, with the
+keel driven so deeply in the sand that the cutter hardly needed a
+support, and the opportunity served for examining the bottom to see if
+any injury had been sustained.
+
+Lieutenant Lipscombe appeared with a broad bandage round his head, for
+his head had been severely cut in his fall, and the pain he suffered did
+not improve his already sore temper.
+
+For though he said nothing, Hilary Leigh could see plainly enough that
+his officer was bitterly annoyed at having been mastered in cunning and
+so nearly losing his ship.  He knew that to go into port to repair
+damages meant so close an investigation that the result might be the
+loss of his command.  So, after an examination of the injuries, which
+showed that the whole of the coamings of the hatchway were blown off and
+the deck terribly blackened with powder, the carpenter and his mate were
+set to work to cut out and piece in as busily as possible.
+
+"Nothing to go into port for, Leigh, nothing at all.  The men will soon
+put that right; but it was very badly managed, Leigh, very.  Half that
+quantity of powder would have done; the rest was all waste.  Hang it
+all! what could you have been thinking about?  Here am I disabled for a
+few minutes, and you let a parcel of scoundrels seize the cutter and run
+her ashore, and then, with the idea of retaking her, you go and blow up
+half the deck!  My good fellow, you will never make a decent officer if
+you go on like this."
+
+"Well, that's grateful, certainly," thought Hilary; and the desire came
+upon him strongly to burst out into a hearty laugh, but he suppressed it
+and said quietly:
+
+"Very sorry, sir; I tried to do all for the best."
+
+"Yes; that's what every weak-headed noodle says when he has made a
+blunder.  Well, Leigh, it is fortunate for you that I was sufficiently
+recovered to resume the command; but of all the pickles which one of his
+majesty's ships could be got into, this is about the worst.  Here we are
+as helpless as a turned turtle on a Florida sandspit."
+
+"Well, sir, not quite," replied Hilary smiling; "we've got our guns, and
+the crew would give good account of--"
+
+"Silence, sir!  This is no laughing matter," cried the lieutenant
+angrily.  "It may seem very droll to you, but if I embody your conduct
+of the past night in a despatch your chance of promotion is gone for
+ever."
+
+Hilary stared, but he had common sense enough to say nothing, while the
+lieutenant took a turn up and down the deck, which would have been a
+very pleasant promenade for a cripple with one leg shorter than the
+other; but as the cutter was a good deal heeled over, it was so
+unpleasant for Lieutenant Lipscombe, already suffering from giddiness,
+the result of his wound, that he stopped short and stood holding on by a
+stay.
+
+"Most extraordinary thing," he said; "my head is always perfectly clear
+in the roughest seas, but ashore I turn as giddy as can be.  But there;
+don't stand staring about, Leigh.  Take half-a-dozen men and make a bit
+of search up and down the coast.  See if you can find any traces of the
+smuggling party.  If you had had any thought in you such a thing might
+have been proposed at daybreak.  It will be hours before we float."
+
+"Yes, sir, certainly," exclaimed Leigh, rather excitedly, for he was
+delighted with the idea.  "Shall I arm the men, sir?"
+
+"Arm the men, sir!  Oh, no: of course not.  Let every man carry a swab,
+and a spoon stuck in his belt.  Goodness me, Mr Leigh, where are your
+brains?  You are going to track out a parcel of desperadoes, and you ask
+me if you shall take the men armed."
+
+"Very sorry, sir," said Hilary.  "I'll try and do better.  You see I am
+so sadly wanting in experience."
+
+The lieutenant looked at him sharply, but Hilary's face was as calm and
+unruffled as the sea behind him, and not finding any chance for a
+reprimand, the lieutenant merely made a sign to him to go, walking
+forward himself to hurry on the carpenter, and then repassing Hilary and
+going below to his cabin.
+
+"Skipper's got his legs acrost this mornin', sir," said Billy Waters,
+touching his hat.  "Hope you'll take me with you, sir."
+
+"I should like to have you, Waters, and Tom Tully.  By the way, how is
+he this morning?  He got hurt."
+
+"Oh, he's all right, sir," said the gunner grinning.  "He got a knock,
+sir, but he didn't get hurt.  Nothin' hurts old Tom.  I don't believe
+he's got any feeling in him at all."
+
+"Now, if I propose to take them," thought Hilary, "Lipscombe will say
+they sha'n't go.  Here he comes, though.  I shall catch it for not being
+off."
+
+He made a run and dropped down through the damaged hatchway, alighting
+amidst the carpenter's tools on the lower deck, ran aft to his cabin,
+obtained sword and pistols, and then mounted to the deck to find the
+lieutenant angrily addressing Waters and Tully.
+
+For no sooner had Hilary disappeared, and the gunner made out that the
+chief officer was coming on deck, than he turned his back, busied
+himself about the breeching of one of the guns, and shouting to Tom
+Tully:
+
+"Going to send you ashore, matey?"
+
+"No," growled Tully; "what's on?"
+
+"Oh! some wild-goose hunt o' the skipper's.  I don't mean to go, and
+don't you if you can help it.  There won't be a place to get a drop o'
+grog.  All searching among the rocks."
+
+"Gunner!"
+
+"Yes, your honour."
+
+Billy Waters' pigtail swung round like a pump-handle, as he lumped up
+and pulled his forelock to his angry officer.
+
+"How dare you speak like that, sir, on the deck of his majesty's vessel?
+How dare you--you mutinous dog, you?  Go forward, sir, and you, too,
+Tom Tully, and the cutter's crew, under the command of Mr Leigh, and
+think yourself lucky if you are not put under punishment."
+
+"Very sorry, sir.  Humbly beg pardon, sir," stammered the gunner.
+
+"Silence, sir!  Forward!  Serve out cutlasses and pistols to the men,
+and I'll talk to you afterwards."
+
+Billy Waters chuckled to himself at the success of his scheme, and after
+a word or two of command, Hilary's little party, instead of jumping into
+the cutter and rowing ashore, dropped down over the side on to the
+sands, and went off along the coast to the west.
+
+"What's going to be done first, sir?" said the gunner.
+
+"Well, Waters, I've just been thinking that we ought first to try and
+find some traces of the boats."
+
+"Yes, sir; but how?  They're fur enough away by now."
+
+"Of course; but if we look along the shore here about the level that the
+tide was last night I daresay we shall find some traces of them in the
+sands, and that may give us a hint where to search inland, for I'll be
+bound to say they were landing cargo somewhere."
+
+"I'll be bound to say you're right, sir," said Waters, slapping his leg.
+"Spread out, my lads, and report the first mark of a boat's keel."
+
+They tramped on quite five miles over the sand and shingle, and amidst
+the loose rocks, without seeing anything to take their attention, when
+suddenly one of the men some fifty yards ahead gave a hail.
+
+"What is it, my lad?" cried Hilary, running up.
+
+"Only this here, sir," said the man, pointing to a long narrow groove in
+the sand, just such as might have been made by the keel of some large
+boat, whilst a closer inspection showed that the sand and shingle had
+been trampled by many feet.
+
+"Yes, that's a boat, certainly," said Hilary, looking shorewards towards
+the cliffs, which rose like a vast ramp along that portion of the coast.
+
+There was nothing to be seen there; neither inlet nor opening in the
+rock, nor depression in the vast line of cliffs.  Why, then, should a
+boat be run ashore there?  It looked suspicious.  Nothing but a fishing
+lugger would be likely to be about, and no fishing lugger would have any
+reason for running ashore here.  Except at certain times of the tide it
+would be dangerous.
+
+"It's the smugglers, Billy," cried Hilary eagerly; "and there must be
+some way here up the rock.  Hallo! what have you got there?" he
+exclaimed, as the gunner, true to his instinct, dropped upon his knees
+and scraped the sand away from something against which he had kicked his
+foot.
+
+"Pistol, sir," was the reply; and the gunner brushed the sand off the
+large clumsy weapon, and wiped away the thin film of rust.
+
+"And a Frenchman," said Hilary, examining the make.
+
+"Frenchman it is, sir, and she ar'n't been many hours lying here."
+
+"Dropped by some one last night," said Hilary.  "Hurrah! my lads, we've
+struck the scent."
+
+Just then Tom Tully began to sniff very loudly, and turned his head in
+various directions, his actions somewhat resembling those of a great
+dog.
+
+"What yer up to, matey?" cried Waters.  "Ah!  I know, sir.  He was
+always a wunner after his grog, and he's trying to make out whether
+they've landed and buried any kegs of brandy here."
+
+"Oh, nonsense!" cried Hilary; "they would not do that.  Come along, my
+lads.  One moment.  Let's have a good look along the rocks for an
+opening.  Can any of you see anything?"
+
+"No, sir," was chorused, after a few minutes' inspection.
+
+"Then now let's make a straight line for the cliff, and all of you keep
+a bright lookout."
+
+They had about a couple of hundred yards to go, for the tide ran down
+very low at this point, and as they approached the great sandstone
+cliffs, instead of presenting the appearance of a perpendicular wall, as
+seen from a distance, all was broken up where the rock had split, and
+huge masses had come thundering down in avalanches of stone.  In fact,
+in several places it seemed that an active man could climb up to where a
+thin fringe of green turf rested upon the edge of the cliff; but this
+did not satisfy Hilary, who felt convinced that such a place was not
+likely to be chosen for the landing of a cargo.
+
+No opening in the cliff being visible, he spread his men to search right
+and left, but there was no sand here; all was rough shingle and broken
+_debris_ from the cliff with massive weathered blocks standing up in all
+directions, forming quite a maze, through which they threaded their way.
+
+"There might be a regular cavern about somewhere big enough to hold a
+dozen cargoes," thought Hilary, as he searched here and there, and then
+sat down to rest for a few minutes, and wiped the perspiration from his
+forehead, when it suddenly occurred to him that they had been hours away
+from the cutter, and that if he did not soon make some discovery he had
+better return.
+
+"And I don't like to go back without having done something," he thought.
+"Perhaps if we keep on looking we may make a find worth the trouble,
+and--what's that?"
+
+Nothing much; only a little bird that kept rising up from a patch of
+wiry herbage at the foot of the cliff, jerking itself up some twenty or
+thirty feet and then letting itself down as it twittered out a pleasant
+little song.
+
+Only a bird; but as he watched that bird, he did not know why, it
+suddenly went out of sight some twenty feet or so up the rock, and while
+he was wondering it came into sight again and fluttered downwards.
+
+"Why, there must be a way through there," he cried, rising and gazing
+intently at the face of the rock, but seeing nothing but yellowish
+sandstone looking jagged and wild.
+
+"No, there can't be," he muttered; "but I'll make sure."
+
+Climbing over three or four large blocks, he lowered himself into a
+narrow passage which seemed to run parallel with the cliff, but doubled
+back directly, and in and out, and then stopped short at a perpendicular
+mass some twenty feet high.
+
+"Leads nowhere," he said, feeling very hot and tired, and, turning to go
+back disappointed and panting, he took another look up at the lowering
+face of the cliff to see now that a large portion was apparently split
+away, but remained standing overlapping the main portion, and so like it
+that at a short distance the fracture could not be seen.
+
+"There's a way round there for a guinea," thought Hilary, "but how to
+get there?  Why, of course, one must climb over here."
+
+"Here" was a rugged piece of rock about fifty feet back from the _cul de
+sac_ to which he had reached, and placing his right foot in a chink and
+drawing himself up he was soon on the top with a rugged track before him
+to the face of the cliff; but as he took a step forward, meaning to
+investigate a little, and then summon his men, a low chirping noise on
+his right took his attention, and going cautiously forward he leaned
+towards a rock to see what animal it was, when something came like a
+black cloud over his head and he was thrown violently down.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+HILARY LEIGH FINDS HIMSELF IN AN UNDIGNIFIED POSITION.
+
+"That's a boat-cloak, and the brute's sitting on me," said Hilary Leigh
+to himself as he vainly struggled to get free and shout for help.  He
+did utter a few inarticulate noises, but they were smothered in the
+folds of the thick cloak, and he felt as if he were about to be
+smothered himself.  Getting free he soon found was out of the question,
+so was making use of the weapons with which he was armed, for his wrists
+were wrenched round behind his back and his elbows firmly lashed.  So
+were his ankles, and at the same time he felt the pistols dragged out of
+his belt and his sword unhooked and taken away.
+
+"Well, I've discovered the smugglers' place and no mistake," he thought;
+"but I might just as well have left it alone.  Oh, this is too bad!
+Only last night in trouble, and now prisoner!  I wonder what they are
+going to do?"
+
+He was not long left in doubt, for he suddenly felt himself roughly
+seized and treated like a sack, for he was hauled on to some one's back
+and borne along in a very uncomfortable position, his legs being banged
+against corners of the rock as if he were being carried through a very
+narrow place.
+
+This went on for a few minutes, during which he was, of course, in utter
+darkness, and panting for breath.  Then he was allowed to slide down,
+with a bump, on to the rock.
+
+"They're not going to kill me," thought Hilary, "or they would not have
+taken so much trouble.  I wish I could make Billy Waters hear."
+
+He tried to shout, but only produced a smothered noise, with the result
+that some one kicked him in the side.
+
+"That's only lent, my friend," thought Hilary.  "It shall be paid back
+if ever I get a chance.  What now?  I am trussed; are they going to
+roast me?"
+
+For just then he felt a rope was passed round him, and a slip-knot drawn
+tight under his arms.  Then there was a sudden snatch, and he was raised
+upon his feet, steadied for a moment by a pair of hands, the rope
+tightened more and more, and he felt himself being drawn up, rising
+through the air, and slowly turning round, one elbow rasping gently
+against the rock from time to time.
+
+"Well, I'm learning some of their secrets," thought Hilary, "even if
+they are keeping me in the dark.  This is either the way up to their
+place, or else it's the way they get up their cargoes."
+
+"Yes, cargoes only," he said directly, as he heard indistinctly a gruff
+voice at his elbow, some one being evidently climbing up at his side.
+"I hope they won't drop me."
+
+In another minute he was dragged sidewise and lowered on to the rock, a
+change he gladly welcomed, for the rope had hurt him intolerably, and
+seemed to compress his chest so that he could hardly breathe.
+
+"Well, this is pleasant," he thought, as he bit his lip with vexation.
+"The lads will have a good hunt for me, find nothing, and then go back
+and tell Lipscombe.  He will lie on and off for an hour or two, and then
+go and report that I have deserted or gone off for a game, or some other
+pleasant thing.  Oh, hang it all! this won't do.  I must escape somehow.
+I wish they'd take off this cloak."
+
+That seemed to be about the last thing his captors were disposed to do,
+for after he had been lying there in a most painfully uncomfortable
+position for quite an hour, every effort to obtain relief being met with
+a kick, save one, when he felt the cold ring of a pistol muzzle pressed
+against his neck under the cloak, he was lifted by the head and heels,
+some one else put an arm round him, and he was carried over some rugged
+ground, lifted up higher, and then his heart seemed to stand still, for
+he felt that he was going to be allowed to fall, and if allowed to fall
+it would be, he thought, from the top of the cliff.
+
+The feeling was terrible, but the fall ridiculous, for it was a distance
+of a foot on to some straw.  Then he felt straw thrown over him--a good
+heap--and directly after there was a jolting sensation, and he knew he
+was in a cart on a very rugged road.  The sound of blows came dull upon
+his ear, and a faint hoarse "Go on!"  And in spite of his pain, misery,
+and the ignorance he was in respecting his fate, Hilary Leigh began to
+laugh with all the light-heartedness of a lad, as he mentally said:
+
+"Oh, this is too absurd!  I'm in a donkey-cart, and the fellow who is
+driving can't make the brute go."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+LIEUTENANT LIPSCOMBE LAYS DOWN THE LAW.
+
+"Say, lads, I'm getting tired of this here," said Tom Tully, bringing
+himself to an anchor on a patch of sand; "I'm as hot as I am dry.
+Where's our orsifer?"
+
+"I d'no," said another.  "Ahoy!  Billy Waters, ahoy-y-y!"
+
+"Ahoy!" came from amongst the rocks; and the gunner plodded up wiping
+his face, and another of the little party came at the same time from the
+other direction.
+
+"Where's Muster Leigh?" said Tom Tully.
+
+"Isn't he along of you?" said Waters.
+
+"No, I ar'n't seen him for ever so long."
+
+Notes were compared, as the hailing brought the rest of the party
+together, and it was agreed on all sides that Hilary had gone in amongst
+the rocks close by where they were standing.
+
+"I know how it is," growled Tom Tully, "he's having a caulk under the
+lee of one of these here stones while we do all the hunting about; and I
+can't walk half so well as I used, after being shut up aboard that there
+little cutter."
+
+"Oh, no, he wouldn't go to sleep," said the gunner.  "He's close here
+somewhere.  I hope he's had better luck than we, for I ar'n't found
+nothing; have you?"
+
+"No, no," arose on all sides.
+
+"Why, there ain't nothin' to find," growled Tom Tully.  "I wish I was
+aboard.  You're chief orsifer when he ar'n't here, Billy Waters.  Give
+the order and let's go back."
+
+"What, without Mr Leigh?" said the gunner; "that's a likely tale, that
+is.  Here, come on lads, and let's find him.  Ahoy!"
+
+"Ahoy!" came back from the rocks.
+
+"There he is," said one of the men.
+
+"No, my lads, that's only the ecker," said Billy Waters.  "Hark ye--
+Ahoy!"
+
+"Ahoy!" came back directly.
+
+"Hoy--hoy--hoy-y-y!" shouted the gunner again.
+
+"Hoy--hoy-y-y!" came back.
+
+"Mis' Leigh, ahoy!" roared the gunner.
+
+"Leigh--hoy!" was the response.
+
+"Told you so, my lads; he ar'n't about here.  Let's go further on.  Now
+then, Tom Tully, we must have off some o' that there tail if it's so
+heavy it keeps you anchored down.  Get up, will you?"
+
+The sailor got up unwillingly, and in obedience to the gunner's orders
+they began now, in place of searching for traces of the smugglers, to
+look for their missing officer, scattering along, as fate had it,
+farther and farther from the spot where he had disappeared, no one
+seeing a face watching them intently through the thin wiry strands of a
+tuft of grass growing close up under the cliff.
+
+The heat was now intense, for the sun seemed to be reflected back from
+the face of the rocks, and the men were regularly fagged.
+
+They shouted and waited, and shouted again, but the only answer they got
+was from the echoes; and at last they stood together in a knot, with
+Billy Waters scratching his head with all his might, and they were a
+good half mile now from where Hilary had made his discovery and stepped
+into a trap.
+
+"Well, this here _is_ a rummy go," exclaimed the gunner, after looking
+from face to face for the counsel that there was not.  "Let's see, my
+lads; it was just about here as he went forrard, warn't it?"
+
+"No," growled Tom Tully; "it were a good two-score fathom more to the
+east'ard."
+
+"Nay, nay, lad; it were a couple o' cables' length doo west," said
+another.
+
+"I think it were 'bout here," said Tom Tully; "but I can't find that
+there track o' the boat's keel now.  What's going to be done?"
+
+"Let's go aboard again," growled Tom Tully.  "I'm 'bout sick o' this
+here, mates."
+
+"But I tell yer we can't go aboard without our orsifer," cried the
+gunner.  "'Taint likely."
+
+"He'd go aboard without one of us," growled Tom Tully, "so where's the
+difference?"
+
+"There's lots o' difference, my lad.  We can't go aboard without him.
+But where is he?"
+
+"Having a caulk somewhere," said Tully gruffly; "and I on'y wish I were
+doing of that same myself.  If we stop here much longer we shall be
+cooked like herrings.  It's as hot as hot."
+
+"I tell you he wouldn't desert us and go to sleep," said the gunner
+stubbornly.  "Mr Leigh's a lad as would stick to his men like pitch to
+a ball o' oakum."
+
+"Then why don't he?" growled Tom Tully in an ill-used tone.  "What does
+he go and sail away from conwoy for?"
+
+"He couldn't have got up the cliffs," mused the gunner; "'cause there
+don't seem to be no way, and he couldn't have gone more to west'ard,
+'cause we must have seen him.  There ain't been no boats along shore,
+and he can't have gone back to the cutter.  I say, my lads, we've been
+and gone and got ourselves into a reg'lar mess.  What's the skipper
+going to say when he sees us?  You see we can't tell him as the
+youngster's fell overboard."
+
+"No," growled Tom Tully; "'cause there ar'n't no overboard for him to
+fall.  I'm right, I know; he's having a caulk."
+
+"Tell yer he ain't," roared Waters fiercely; "and if any one says again
+as my young orsifer's doing such a thing as to leave his men in the
+lurch and go to sleep on a hot day like this, he'll get my fist in his
+mouth."
+
+"Sail ho!" cried one of the men; and looking in the indicated direction,
+there was the cutter afloat once more, and sailing towards them, quite a
+couple of miles away, and as they looked there was a little puff of
+white smoke from her side, and a few seconds after a dull report.
+
+"Look at that now;" cried Billy Waters, "there's the skipper got some
+one meddling with my guns.  That's that Jack Brown, that is; and he
+knows no more about firing a gun than he do 'bout Dutch.  There was a
+dirty sort of a shot."
+
+"That's a signal, that is, for us to come aboard," growled Tom Tully.
+
+"Well, nobody said it warn't, did they?" cried Waters, who was regularly
+out of temper now.
+
+"No," growled Tom Tully, "on'y wishes I was aboard, I do."
+
+"Then you ain't going till you've found your orsifer, my lad."
+
+"Hah!" said Tom Tully, oracularly.  "Shouldn't wonder if he ar'n't
+desarted 'cause the skipper give him such a setting down this morning."
+
+"Now just hark at this here chap," cried the gunner, appealing to the
+others.  "He'd just go and do such a dirty thing hisself, and so he
+thinks every one else would do the same.  Tom Tully, I'm 'bout ashamed
+o' you.  I shouldn't ha' thought as a fellow with such a pigtail as
+you've got to your headpiece would say such a thing of his orsifer."
+
+"Then what call's he got to go and desart us for like this here,
+messmet?" growled Tom Tully.  "I don't want to say no hard things o'
+nobody, but here's the skin off one o' my heels, and my tongue's baked;
+and what I says is, where is he if he ar'n't gone?"
+
+That was a poser; and as after another short search there was a second
+gun fired from the cutter, and a boat was seen to put off and come
+towards them, there was nothing for them but to go down to the water and
+get into the boat, after Billy Waters had taken bearings, as he called
+it, of the place where the young officer had left them, setting up
+stones for marks,--which, however, through the deceptive nature and
+similarity of the coast in one part to another, were above half a mile
+from the true spot,--and suffer themselves to be rowed aboard.
+
+"The skipper's in a fine temper," said one of the crew.  "Where's Muster
+Leigh?"
+
+"Ah! that's just what I want to know," said Waters, ruefully.  "He'll be
+down upon me for losing on him--just as if I took him ashore like a dog
+tied to a string.  How did you get the cutter off?"
+
+"Easy as a glove," was the reply.  "We just took out the little anchor
+and dropped it over, and when the tide come up hauled on it a bit, and
+she rode out as easy as a duck.  But he's been going on savage because
+Muster Leigh didn't come back.  Has he desarted?"
+
+The gunner turned upon him so fierce a look, and made so menacing a
+movement, that the man shrank away, and catching what is called a crab
+upset the rower behind him, the crew for the moment being thrown into
+confusion, just as the lieutenant had raised his spyglass to his eye and
+was watching the coming off of the boat.
+
+"What call had you got to do that, Billy?" cried the man, rubbing his
+elbows.  "There'll be a row about that.  Here, give way, my lads, and
+let's get aboard."
+
+The men made the stout ashen blades bend as they forced the boat through
+the water, and at the end of a few minutes the oars were turned up, laid
+neatly over the thwarts, and the bowman held on with the boathook while
+the search party tumbled on board, the sides of the cutter being at no
+great height above the water.
+
+The lieutenant was there, with his glass under his arm, his head tied up
+so that one eye was covered, and his cocked hat was rightly named in a
+double sense, being cocked almost off his head.
+
+"Disgraceful, Mr Leigh!" he exclaimed furiously.  "You deserve to be
+court-martialled, sir!  Never saw a boat worse manned and rowed, sir.  I
+never saw from the most beggarly crew of a wretched merchantman worse
+time kept.  Why, the men were catching crabs, sir, from the moment they
+left the shore till the moment they came alongside.  Bless my
+commission, sir! were you all drunk?"
+
+He had one eye shut by the old accident, as we have intimated, and the
+injury of the previous night had so affected the other that he saw
+anything but clearly, as he kept stamping up and down the deck.
+
+"Do you hear, sir?  I say were you all drunk?" roared the lieutenant.
+
+"Please your honour," said the gunner, "we never see a drop of anything
+except seawater since we went ashore."
+
+"Silence, sir!  How dare you speak?" roared the lieutenant.
+"Insubordination and mutiny.  Did I speak to you, sir?  I say, did I
+speak to you?"
+
+"No, your honour, but--"
+
+"If you say another word I'll clap you in irons, you dog!" cried the
+lieutenant.  "A pretty state of affairs, indeed, when men are to answer
+their officers.  Do you hear, there, you mutinous dogs!  If another man
+among you dares to speak I'll clap him in irons."
+
+The men exchanged glances, and there was a general hitching up of
+trousers along the little line in which the men were drawn up.
+
+"Now then, sir.  Have the goodness to explain why you have been so long,
+and why all my signals for recall have been disregarded.  Silence, sir!
+don't speak till I've done," he continued, as one of the men, who had
+let a little tobacco juice get too near the swallowing point, gave a
+sort of snorting cough.
+
+There was dead silence on board, save a slight creaking noise made by
+the crutch of the big boom as it swung gently and rubbed the mast.
+
+"I call upon you, Mr Leigh, sir, for an explanation," continued the
+lieutenant.  "Silence, sir!  Not yet.  I sent you ashore to make a
+search, expecting that your good sense would lead you to make it brief,
+and to get back in time to assist in hauling off the cutter which you
+had run ashore.  Instead of doing this, sir, you race off with the men
+like a pack of schoolboys, sir, larking about among the rocks, and
+utterly refusing to notice my signals, sir, though they have been
+flying, sir, for hours; and here have I been obliged to waste his
+majesty's powder, sir, and foul his majesty's guns, sir."
+
+Here, as the lieutenant's back was turned, Billy Waters shook his great
+fist at Jack Brown, the boatswain, going through sundry pantomimic
+motions to show how he, Billy Waters, would like to punch Jack Brown,
+the boatswain's head.  To which, waiting until the lieutenant had turned
+and had his back to him, Jack Brown responded by taking his leg in his
+two hands just above the knee and shaking it in a very decisive manner
+at the gunner.
+
+"And what is more, sir," continued the lieutenant, "you had my gunner
+with you."
+
+Billy Waters, who had drawn back his fist level with his armpit in the
+act of striking an imaginary blow at the boatswain, stopped short as he
+heard himself mentioned, and the lieutenant continued his trot up and
+down like an angry wild beast in a narrow cage and went on:
+
+"And, sir, I had to intrust the firing of that gun to a bungling,
+thick-headed, stupid idiot of a fellow, who don't know muzzle from vent;
+and the wonder is that he didn't blow one of his majesty's liege
+subjects into smithereens."
+
+The lieutenant's back was now turned to Billy Waters, who as he saw Jack
+Brown's jaw drop placed his hands to his sides, and lifting up first one
+leg and then the other, as if in an agony of spasmodic delight, bent
+over first to starboard and then to larboard, and laughed silently till
+the tears ran down his cheeks.
+
+"I say, sir--I say," continued the lieutenant, pushing up his bandage a
+little, "that such conduct is disgraceful, sir; and what is more, I
+say--"
+
+The lieutenant did not finish the sentence then, for in him angry
+excitement he had continued his blind walk, extending it more and more
+till he had approached close to where the carpenter had sawn out several
+of the ragged planks torn by the previous night's explosion, and as he
+lifted his leg for another step it was right over the yawning opening
+into the men's quarters in the forecastle below.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+BLIND PROCEEDINGS.
+
+It would have been an ugly fall for the lieutenant, for according to the
+wholesome custom observed by most mechanics, the carpenter had turned
+the damaged hatchway into a very pleasant kind of pitfall, such as the
+gentle mild Hindoo might have dug for his enemy the crafty tiger, with
+its arrangements for impaling whatever fell.
+
+In this case Chips had all the ragged and jagged pieces of plank
+carefully stuck point upwards, with a couple of augers, a chisel or two,
+and a fair amount of gimlets and iron spike-like nails, so that it would
+have been impossible for his officer have fallen without receiving one
+or two ugly wounds.
+
+Just in the nick of time, however, Jack Brown, the boatswain, darted
+forward and gave the lieutenant a tremendous push, which sent him clear
+of the opening in the deck, but in a sitting position under the bulwark,
+against which his head went with a goodly rap.
+
+"Mutiny, by Jove!" he roared, in astonished fury.  "Marines, fix
+bayonets!  Run that scoundrel through."
+
+"Beg your honour's pardon," began Jack Brown, offering his hand to
+assist the astonished commander to rise.
+
+"It's a lie, sir!  How dare you say it was an accident?" cried the
+lieutenant, struggling up and readjusting the handkerchief tied round
+his injured head, and his cocked hat over that.  "It's mutiny, sir, rank
+mutiny.  You struck your officer, sir, and you'll be shot.  Corporal,
+take this man below.  In irons, sir, in irons."
+
+"But your honour would have gone through the hole squelch on to the
+lower deck," growled Jack Brown in an injured tone.
+
+"Silence, sir," roared the lieutenant.  "Corporal, do your duty."
+
+"All right, corpy, I'm coming," said the boatswain, as the marine laid
+his hand upon his arm.  "But the skipper may fall overboard and drown
+hisself next time, afore I gives him a helping hand."
+
+"Mutiny! mutiny!" cried the lieutenant.  "Do you hear, Mr Leigh?  The
+ship's crew are in open mutiny, and uttering threats.  Fetch my pistols,
+sir," he cried, drawing his sword.  "Cut down the first man who utters
+another word.  Do you hear, Mr Leigh?  Quick! my pistols!"
+
+"If you please, your honour," began Billy Waters, pulling his forelock
+and giving a kick out behind.
+
+"Si-lence!" roared the lieutenant.  "Here, marines, come on my side.
+I'll cut down the next man who dares to speak.  Have you got the
+pistols, Mr Leigh?"
+
+Of course there was no answer.
+
+"I say, have you got my pistols, Mr Leigh?" cried the lieutenant again.
+
+Still there was silence, and in his fury the lieutenant thrust the
+bandage up from over his inflamed eye, and tried to see what was going
+on.
+
+Truth to speak, he was as blind as an owl in broad sunshine; but in his
+irritable frame of mind he would not own it, even to himself, and
+pushing the bandage higher he tilted off his cocked hat, which fell with
+a bang on the deck, and in trying to save his hat he struck himself on
+the jaw with the hilt of his sword, and dropped that in turn, to fall
+with a ringing noise on the whitened planks.
+
+"Confusion!" he exclaimed as the corporal picked up hat and sword in
+turn, and handed them to the irate officer, whose temper was in no wise
+sweetened by this last upset.  "Ha! thank you, Mr Leigh, you are very
+polite all at once," he cried sarcastically, as he stared at the
+corporal, who stood before him drawn up stiff as a ramrod, but
+representing nothing but a blurred figure before the inflamed optic of
+the lieutenant.  "Well, sir!  Now, sir! perhaps you will condescend to
+give some explanation of your conduct.  Silence, there!  If any man of
+this crew dares to speak I'll cut him down.  Now, Mr Leigh, I call upon
+you for an explanation."
+
+No answer, of course.
+
+"Do you hear what I say, sir?"
+
+The corporal did not stir or move a muscle.
+
+"Once more, sir, I demand why you do not explain your conduct," cried
+the lieutenant.
+
+The corporal drew himself up a little tighter, and his eyes were fixed
+upon the bright blade quivering in the lieutenant's hand.
+
+"Speak, sir.  It's mutiny by all the articles of war," roared the
+lieutenant, taking a step forward, seizing the corporal by the collar,
+and presenting at his throat the point of the sword.
+
+"Mind my eyes, your honour," cried the corporal, flinching; "I ain't Mr
+Leigh."
+
+"Where is he then?" cried the astonished lieutenant.
+
+"Your honour won't cut me down if I speak?" said the corporal.
+
+"No, no," said the lieutenant, lowering the point of his sword; "where
+is Mr Leigh?"
+
+"Ain't come aboard, sir."
+
+"Not come aboard?  Here, Waters!"
+
+The gunner trotted forward, pulled his forelock and kicked out his right
+leg behind.
+
+"Where is Mr Leigh?"
+
+The gunner pulled his forelock again, kicked out his left leg, and as he
+bobbed his head, his pigtail went up and came down again flop between
+his shoulders as if it were a long knocker.
+
+"I say, where is Mr Leigh?  You mutinous scoundrel, why don't you
+speak?"
+
+"Honour said you'd cut me down if I did."
+
+"Rubbish!  Nonsense!  Tell me, where is Mr Leigh?"
+
+"Don't know, your honour."
+
+"Don't know, sir?  What do you mean?"
+
+"Please your honour, we'd found tracks, as we thought, of the smugglers'
+lugger, and then Mr Leigh lost us.  No; I mean, your honour, we lost
+him.  No, he lost--I say, Tom Tully, my lad, which way weer it?"
+
+Tom Tully grunted, gave his trousers a hitch, and looked at the
+lieutenant's sword.
+
+"Well, sir, do you hear?" cried the lieutenant; "how was it?"
+
+"Stow all cuttin's down," grumbled Tom Tully, putting his hand behind so
+as to readjust the fall of his pigtail.
+
+"Will--you--speak--out--you--ras-cal?" cried the lieutenant.
+
+"Don't know, your honour," growled Tom Tully; "only as Muster Leigh went
+off."
+
+"There, I thought as much!" cried the lieutenant.  "Deserted his men,
+and gone off."
+
+"Please your honour, I don't think as--"
+
+"Silence!" cried the lieutenant, so fiercely that Billy Waters gave up
+the young officer's defence, and shut his teeth together with a loud
+snap like that of a trap.
+
+"All hands 'bout ship!" cried the lieutenant.  "He'll be coming back
+presently, and signalling for a boat to fetch him off, but he shall come
+on to Portsmouth and make his report to the admiral."
+
+The great mainsail swung over to the other side, and the breeze
+favouring, the squaresail was set as well, and the _Kestrel_, so late
+helpless on shore, began to skim over the surface of the water at a
+tremendous rate, while the lieutenant, having given his orders as to
+which way the cutter's head should be laid, went down to the cabin to
+bathe his painful eye, having told one of the men to bring him some warm
+water from the galley.
+
+The man he told happened to be Tom Tully, and as he stood by, ready to
+fetch more if it should be wanted, the bathing seemed to allay the
+irritation, so that the commander grew less angry, and condescended to
+ask a few questions.  Then he began to think of the _Kestrel_ having
+been ashore, the state of her deck about the fore-hatchway, and the late
+encounter, all of which he would have to minutely describe to the
+admiral if he ran into harbour to report Hilary Leigh's evasion.
+
+Then, as he grew more comfortable, he began to think that perhaps, after
+all, the young man had not run off.  Furthermore, as he owned that he
+was an indefatigable young officer, he came to the conclusion that
+perhaps Leigh might have discovered further traces of the smugglers,
+and, if so, it would be wrong to leave him in the lurch, especially as a
+good capture might be made, and with it a heap of prize-money.
+
+"And besides, I'll give fifty pounds to run up against that scoundrel
+who led me into that trap."
+
+A little more bathing made the lieutenant see so much more clearly,
+mentally as well as optically, that he went on deck and repeated his
+former orders of "'Bout ship," with the result that the _Kestrel_ was
+once more gently gliding along off the cliff-bound stretch of land where
+Hilary Leigh had fallen into strange hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+IN THE DARK.
+
+Hilary's burst of merriment was of very short duration.  There is, no
+doubt, something very amusing to a young naval officer in the fact of
+his being made a prisoner, and carried off in a donkey-cart; but the
+pleasure is not of a lasting kind.
+
+At the end of a few moments Hilary's mirth ceased, and he grew very
+wrathful.  He was exceedingly hot and in no little pain, and in addition
+his sensations were such that he began to wonder whether he should live
+to reach his destination, where ever that might be, without being
+stifled.
+
+For the folds of the cloak were very tight about his head, and the straw
+on which he lay let him settle down into a hole, while that above shook
+down more closely and kept out the air.
+
+For a few minutes a horrible sensation of dread troubled him, and he
+uttered a hoarse cry; but, making a struggle to master his fear, he grew
+more calm, and though he was exceedingly hot and the effort was painful,
+he found he could breathe, and after a final effort to relieve himself
+of his bonds he lay still, patiently waiting for his release.
+
+The road seemed to grow rougher and rougher, and he felt that he must be
+going along some out-of-the-way by-lane, full of tremendous ruts, for
+sometimes one wheel would be down low, sometimes the other; and every
+now and then the cart seemed to stick fast, and then followed the sound
+of blows.
+
+Whenever there came this sound of blows the cart began to echo back the
+noise with a series of tremendous kicks; for it soon became evident that
+this was no patient, long-suffering donkey, but one with a spirit of its
+own, and ready to resist.
+
+On again, and then another stick-fast.
+
+Whack! whack! whack! went a stick, and clatter, clatter came the
+donkey's heels against the front of the cart, in such close proximity to
+Hilary's head that he began to be alarmed for the safety of his skull,
+and after a good dead of wriggling he managed to screw himself so far
+round that when the next assault took place with the stick and battering
+with the donkey's heels the front boards of the cart only jarred against
+Hilary's arm.
+
+Another term of progress, during which the road seemed better, and they
+appeared to get along some distance before there was another jerk up and
+another jerk down, and then a series of jumps as if they were going
+downhill; and then the cart gave a big bump and stuck fast.
+
+The driver shouted and banged the donkey, and the donkey brayed and
+battered the front of the cart, and once more, in spite of his pain and
+discomfort, Hilary lay under the straw and laughed as he pictured
+accurately enough the scene that was taking place in that narrow lane.
+
+For he was in a rutty, little-used track, in a roughly-made, springless
+cart, drawn by a big, ragged, powerful jackass, which every time the
+cart stuck, and his driver used the light ash stick he carried, laid
+down his ears, bared his teeth, and kicked at the front of the cart,
+which was rough with indentations and splinters, the result of the
+prowess of the donkey's heels.
+
+On again--stop again--jolt here--jolt there--more blows and kicking, and
+Hilary still lying there half stifled beneath the straw; but his youth
+and abundant vitality kept him up, so that he lay listening to the
+battles between the donkey and his driver; then he thought of his men,
+and wondered whether they had made a good search for him; then he began
+to think of the lieutenant, and wondered what he would say when the men
+went back and reported his absence; lastly, he began to wonder whether
+Mr Lipscombe would come with the _Kestrel_ and try to find him.
+
+"Not much good to come with the cutter," he thought as drew a long
+breath; "he would want a troop of light horse if I'm being taken inland,
+as it seems to me I am."
+
+Then he began to wonder what would be done with him, whether Sir Henry
+Norland knew of his capture.  Perhaps it was by Sir Henry's orders.
+
+"Well, if it is," he said, half aloud, "if he don't behave well to me he
+is no gentleman."
+
+He began musing next about Adela, and thought of how she had altered
+since the old days when Sir Henry was a quiet country gentleman, and had
+not begun to mix himself up with the political questions of the day.
+
+"Oh!" said Hilary at last, "this is horribly tiresome and very
+disgusting.  I don't know that I should have much minded being made
+prisoner by a French ship, and then sent ashore, so long as they treated
+me well; but to be kidnapped like this by a beggarly set of smugglers is
+too bad."
+
+"Well," he thought, "I don't see that I shall be very much better off if
+I make myself miserable about my condition.  I can't escape just at
+present; they are evidently not going to kill me.  That's not likely.
+Why should they?  So I shall just make the best of things, and old
+Lipscombe must grumble as long as he likes."
+
+Phew!  It was very hot, and he was very weary.  The kicking of the
+donkey and the sound of the blows had ceased to amuse him.  He was so
+sore with the jolting that he told himself he could not get any worse.
+And still the cart went on, jolt, jolt, till a curious sensation of
+drowsiness came over him, and before he was aware that such a change was
+approaching he dropped off fast asleep, to make up for the wakefulness
+and excitement of the past night, the long and arduous walk of that
+morning, and the exhaustion produced by the jolting and shaking to which
+he had been subjected at intervals for the past two hours.  During that
+time he had striven very hard to guess in which direction he was being
+taken, and wished he had known a little more of the locality inland, his
+geographical knowledge being confined to the points, bays, cliffs,
+villages, churches, and ports along the coast.
+
+It was no slow dozing off and re-awaking--no softly passing through a
+pleasant dreamy state into a light sleep, for Nature seemed to say, with
+stern decision, that his body and mind had borne as great a strain as
+was good for either; and one moment he was awake, feeling rather drowsy;
+the next he was gone--plunged deep down in one of those heavy, dreamless
+sleeps in which hours pass away like moments, and the awakened sleeper
+wonders at the lapse of time.
+
+Nature is very kind to her children, whether they are old or young; and
+during those restful times she builds up what the learned folks call
+tissue, and strengthens mind and muscle, fitting the said children for
+the wear and tear that is to go on again the next day, and the next.
+
+Hilary awoke with a start, and so deep had been his sleep that it was
+some little time before he could recall what had taken place.
+
+At first he thought he was in his berth on board the _Kestrel_, for it
+was intensely dark, but on stretching out his hands he could touch
+nothing, so it could not be there, where his elbows struck the side, and
+not many inches above his head there was the top.
+
+No, it could not be there.  Where was he then?
+
+Asleep and dreaming, he believed the next minute; and then all came back
+with a leap--his capture, the swing off the cliff, the straw in the
+donkey-cart, and that was where he was now, only the donkey was standing
+still, for there was no jolting, and it had ceased to kick the front
+board of the cart.
+
+He had either been asleep or insensible, he knew, and--
+
+"Hullo! they've untied my arms," he exclaimed; "and it isn't so hot as
+it was.  They must have taken off the cloak."
+
+Yes; the cloak was gone and his arms were free.  So were his legs.
+
+No; his legs were securely tied, but the straw over his head had been
+taken away.
+
+He lay perfectly still for a few minutes, thinking, and with his eyes
+trying in all directions to pierce the thick black darkness by which he
+was surrounded, but without avail.
+
+"I wonder where I am," he thought, as, after forcing his mind to obey
+his will, he went over in review all the adventures that had befallen
+him from the time he left the ship till he was jolting along in that
+donkey-cart, half-suffocated in the boat-cloak and straw.
+
+Then there came a dead stoppage.  He could get no farther.  He knew he
+must have gone to sleep, and the probabilities were that the cart had
+been backed into some shed, the donkey taken out, and he had been left
+to finish his sleep.
+
+"I wish I knew what time it was," thought Hilary.  "How dark it is, to
+be sure.  I wonder where the donkey is; and--hullo! where are the sides
+of the cart?"
+
+He felt about, but could touch only straw; and on stretching his hands
+out farther, it was with no better result.
+
+He listened.
+
+Not a sound.
+
+Strained his eyes.
+
+All was blacker than the blackest night.
+
+What should he do?  Get up?  Crawl about?  Shout?
+
+He could not answer his own questions; and as he lay there wondering
+what would be best, that strange feeling of confusion that oppresses the
+strongest of us in the dark when we are ignorant of where we are, came
+upon him, and he lay there at last with the perspiration gathering in
+big drops upon his brow.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+AN UNPLEASANT AWAKENING.
+
+Did you ever suffer from that unpleasant bodily disorder--sleep-walking?
+Did you ever wake up and find yourself standing undressed in the cold--
+somewhere--you can't tell where, only that you are out of bed and on the
+floor?  You are confused--puzzled--and you want to know what is the
+matter.  You know you ought to be in bed, or rather you have a vague
+kind of belief that you ought to be in bed, and you want to be back
+there, but the question directly arises--where is the bed? and for the
+life of you you cannot tell.  You hold out your hands, and they touch
+nothing.  You try in another direction--another, and another, with the
+same result, and, at last with one hand outstretched to the full extent,
+you gradually edge along sidewise till you touch something--wall,
+wardrobe, door, and somehow it feels so strange that you seem never to
+have touched it before; perhaps you never have, for in daylight one does
+not go about one's room touching doors and walls.
+
+Of course the result is that you find your bed at last, and that it is
+close to you, for you stretched your hands right over it again and
+again; but all the same it is a very singular experience, and the
+accompanying confusion most peculiar, and those who have ever had such
+an awakening can the better understand Hilary Leigh's feelings as he lay
+there longing for the light.
+
+"Well," he exclaimed at last, after vainly endeavouring to pierce the
+darkness, and to touch something else but straw and the stones upon
+which it had been heaped, "if any one had told me that I should be such
+a coward on waking up and finding myself in the dark, I should have hit
+him, I'm sure I should.  But it is unpleasant all the same.  Oh, I say,
+how my legs ache!"
+
+This took his attention from his position, and he sat up and then drew
+up his legs.
+
+"Well, I must be stupid and confused," he muttered impatiently.  "Why do
+I sit here and let my legs ache with this rope tied round them when I
+might take it off?"
+
+This was better still; it gave him something to do; and he at once
+attacked the tight knots, which proved so hard that he pulled out his
+pocket-knife, which had not been taken away.  But the rope might be
+useful for escape!  So he closed his knife, and with all a sailor's
+deftness of fingers attacked the knots so successfully that he at last
+set his legs free, and, coiling up the rope, tucked it beneath the
+straw.
+
+"Murder!" he muttered, drawing in his breath; for now that his legs were
+freed they seemed to ache and smart most terribly.  They throbbed, and
+burned, and stung, till he had been rubbing at them for a good
+half-hour, after which the circulation seemed to be restored to its
+proper force, and he felt better; but even then, when he tried to stand
+up they would hardly support his weight, and he was glad to sit down
+once more and think.
+
+The darkness was terrible now that he had no longer to make any effort,
+and the silence was worse.  He might have been buried alive, so solemn
+and still did all seem.
+
+But Hilary soon shook off any weak dread that tried to oppress him, and
+rising at last he found that he could walk with less pain, and
+cautiously leaving the heap of straw upon which he had been lying, he
+began to explore.
+
+Slowly and carefully he thrust out one foot and drew the other to it,
+feeling with his hands the while, till they came in contact with a wall
+that was roughly plastered.
+
+That was something tangible; and gradually feeling his way along this he
+came to an angle in the wall, starting off in another direction.
+
+This he traced, and at the end of a few paces came to another angle.
+Then again another, and in the next side of what was a stone-floored,
+nearly square apartment, he felt a door.
+
+There was the way out, then.  The door was not panelled, but of slant
+bevelled boards, crossed by strong iron hinges, and--yes--here was the
+keyhole; but on bending down and looking through, he could feel a cold
+draught of air, but see no light.
+
+"There must be a window," he thought; and to find this he searched the
+place again as high as he could reach, but without avail; and at last he
+found his way back to the heap of straw, and threw himself down in
+disgust.
+
+"Well, I sha'n't bother," he muttered.  "I'm shut up here just as if I
+was in prison.  I've been to sleep, and I've woke up in the dark,
+because it's night; and that's about the worst of it.  I don't see
+anything to mind.  There's no watch to keep, so I sha'n't be roused up
+by that precious bell; and as every sailor ought to get a good long
+sleep whenever he can, why here goes."
+
+Perhaps Hilary Leigh's thoughts were not quite so doughty as his words;
+but whatever his thoughts were, he fought them down in the most manful
+way, stretched himself out upon the straw, and after lying thinking for
+a few minutes he dropped off fast asleep, breathing as regularly and
+easily as if he had been on board the _Kestrel_, and rocked in the
+cradle of the deep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+A MORE PLEASANT AWAKENING, WITH A HUNGRY FIT.
+
+"Tchu weet--tchu weet--tchu weet!  Come to tea, Jack!  Come to tea,
+Jack!  Come to tea, Jack!  Whips Kitty!  Whips Kitty!  Whips Kitty!
+Tcho-tcho-tcho!"
+
+Hilary Leigh lay half awake, listening to the loud song of a thrush,
+full-throated and joyous, whistling away to his mate sitting close by in
+her clay cup of a nest upon four pale greenish-blue spotted eggs; and as
+he heard the notes he seemed to be in the old bedroom at Sir Henry
+Norland's, where he used to leave his window open to be called by the
+birds.
+
+Yes, he was back in the old place, and here was the rich, ruddy, golden
+light of the sun streaming in at his window, and through on to the
+opposite wall; and it was such a beautiful morning that he would jump up
+and take his rod, and go down to the big hole in the river.  The tench
+would bite like fun on a morning like this.  There were plenty of big
+worms, too, in the old watering-pot, tough as worms should be after a
+good scouring in a heap of wet moss.  Just another five minutes and he'd
+get up, and when he met Adela at breakfast he could brag about what a
+good one he was at early rising, and show her all the beautiful tench,
+and--
+
+"Hallo!  Am I awake?"
+
+There was no mistake about it.  He was wide awake now, and it was years
+ago that he used to listen to the birds in his old bedroom at Sir Henry
+Norland's; and though a thrush was whistling away outside, and the
+rising sun was streaming in at a window and shining on the opposite
+wall, where he was now Hilary Leigh did not know, only that he was
+seated on a heap of straw, and that he was in what looked like a part of
+an old-fashioned chapel, with a window high up above his reach.
+
+"I feel as if I had been asleep for about a week," muttered Hilary, "and
+I'm so hungry that if they, whoever they are, don't soon bring me some
+breakfast I shall eat my boots."
+
+"Why, they must have carried me in here while I was asleep," he thought;
+and then, "Hallo, old fellow!" he cried, laughing, "there you are, are
+you?"
+
+For just then, completely eclipsing the thrush in power, a donkey--
+probably, he thought, the one that brought him there--trumpeted forth
+his own resonant song, the song that made the savage Irishman exclaim
+that it was "a wonderful bird for singing, only it seemed to have a
+moighty cowld."  And if there had been any doubt before what donkey it
+was, Hilary's mind was set at rest, for as the bray ended in a
+long-drawn minor howl there came two or three sharp raps, just as if the
+jackass has relieved his feelings with these good kicks, as was the
+case, up against the boards of the shed in which he was confined.
+
+"Well, this is a rum set-out," said Hilary, getting up, and then bending
+down to have a rub at his legs, which still suffered from the
+compression of the cord.  "Hang it all! what a mess my uniform is in
+with this chaffy straw!"
+
+He set to and brushed off as much as he could, and then began to inspect
+the place in which he was imprisoned, to find that the ideas he had
+formed of it in the dark were not far wrong, inasmuch as there was a
+plastered wall, a stone floor, an ancient-looking door with a big
+keyhole, through which he could see nothing, and the Gothic window with
+iron bars across, and no glass to keep out the air.
+
+"Well, if any fellow had told me about this I should have said he was
+inventing.  I suppose I'm a prisoner.  I wonder what Lipscombe thinks of
+my not coming back.  Well, I can't help it; and he must come with some
+of our men to cut me out."
+
+"Come to tea, Jack!  Come to tea, Jack!  Whips Kitty!  Whips Kitty!
+Whips Kitty!"
+
+"Yes, I'll come to tea," said Hilary, as the thrush sang on; "but how am
+I to come?  Oh!  I say, I am so precious hungry.  I could eat the
+hardest biscuit and the toughest bit of salt beef that ever a fellow put
+between his teeth.  They might bring me some prog."
+
+Hilary was well rested by his sleep, and felt as active as a young goat
+now, so running to the door he tried it again, to find it shut fast, and
+no chance of getting it open.  So he turned at once to the window, and
+looked around for something to enable him to reach it, but looked in
+vain, for there was nothing to be seen.
+
+"Never mind; here goes!" he cried; and walking back to the opposite wall
+he took a run and a jump, and succeeded in getting his hands upon the
+old stone sill, but only to slip back again.
+
+He repeated his efforts several times, but in vain; and at last finding
+this was hopeless, unless for the time being he had been furnished with
+the hind-legs of a kangaroo, he took out his pocket-knife, opened it,
+and began to cut a notch in the wall.
+
+It was the soft sandstone of the district, and he was not long in
+carving a good resting-place for one foot; and this he followed up,
+cutting another niche about a foot higher.
+
+"I'm making a pretty mess," he muttered as he looked down; "serve 'em
+right for shutting me up."
+
+On he went carving away with the big jack-knife, which was an offering
+made by Billy Waters, and his perseverance was at last rewarded by his
+contriving a series of niches in the stone wall by whose means he
+climbed up sufficiently high to enable him to reach the iron bars, when
+he easily drew himself up to the broad sill, upon which he could sit,
+and with one arm through the bars, make himself pretty comfortable and
+enjoy the view.
+
+His first glance, though, was at the iron bars embedded in the stone,
+and he came to the conclusion that, given enough time, he could pick
+away the cement and make his escape; but as it would be a matter of time
+he thought that perhaps it would be better to defer it until he knew
+where he was.
+
+"Looking due east," said Hilary, as he began taking observations; "then
+the sea must be to the right, over those hills; and out here to the
+left--my word, what a pretty place!  Why, it is like a park!"
+
+For gazing to the left, or northward, his eye ranged over the lovely
+undulating Sussex Weald, with its park-like, well-wooded hills and
+valleys, now in the first blush of their summer beauty, the leafage all
+tender green, and the soft meadowlike pastures gilded with the dazzling
+yellow of the over-abundant crowfoot.
+
+There was a thick dew upon the grass, which sparkled like myriads of
+diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires in the morning sun.  Here was a patch
+of vivid blue where the wild hyacinths were peering out from the edge of
+a wood which, farther in, was tinted with the delicate French-white of
+the anemones; the cuckoo-flowers rose with their pale lavender turrets
+of bloom above the hedgeside herbage, and the rich purple of the spotted
+orchis was on every side.
+
+There was a cottage here, a mossy-roofed barn there, all green and
+yellow; and a tile roofed and sided farmhouse peered from an apple
+orchard all pink blossoms farther on; and dotted about were the patches
+like pinky snow lying thick amongst the trees, telling of golden and
+ruddy russet apples in the days to come.
+
+Here and there the land dipped down sharply into woody ravines, from out
+of whose depths there were reflected back the brilliant flashes of the
+sun where the little streamlets trickled down towards one that was
+broader, and opened out into quite a little lake, with a hoary-looking
+building at one end, where something seemed to be in motion, and, making
+a telescope of his hands, he could just discern that it was a great
+wheel, from which the water was falling in splashes that glistened and
+sparkled in the sun.  Far away the hills seemed of a pale misty blue,
+near at hand they were of a golden green, and as he drank in with his
+eyes the beauty of the scene beneath the brilliant blue sky Hilary Leigh
+exclaimed:
+
+"Oh! how I could enjoy all this, if I were not so jolly hungry!"
+
+He forgot his hunger the next moment, for he caught sight of a couple of
+tiny white tails seeming to run up a sandy bank, their owners, a pair of
+brown rabbits, making for their holes as if ashamed of having been seen
+by daylight after eating tender herbage all the night.  Far above them
+the bird that gave its name to the cutter was hovering in the air,
+seemingly motionless at times, as it poised itself over something that
+tried to hide itself in the grass.
+
+The proceedings of the kestrel interested Hilary to no small extent as
+he saw it stoop, rise, hover again, and end by making a dash down like
+an arrow, and then skim along the ground and fly away without its prey.
+
+"Like our dash after the smugglers," he said to himself; and then he
+looked closer home, to see that where he was formed part of a very
+ancient house, one of whose mossy-roofed, ivy-grown gables he could just
+make out by pressing his cheek very hard against the iron bars.  Beside
+it was an orchard full of very old lichened trees, with patches of green
+moss about their boles, and beyond this there seemed to be a garden in a
+very neglected state, while surrounding all was a wide black moat.
+
+"I wonder whether there's a bridge," thought Hilary, as he looked at the
+smooth dark water, dotted with the broad leaves of the yellow
+water-lily, and amidst the herbage of whose banks a sooty-looking
+water-hen was walking delicately upon its long thin green toes, darting
+its crimson-shielded head forward and flicking its white black-barred
+tail at every step.
+
+"It's very nice to be growing a man," mused Hilary; "but how I could
+enjoy being a boy again!  I'll be bound to say there's heaps of fish in
+that great moat, for it looks as deep as deep."
+
+It was not above twenty yards from him at the nearest end, where it
+curved round the place that formed his prison, and from his elevated
+position he could command a good view.
+
+"There, I said so!" he exclaimed; "I can see the lily leaves moving.
+There's a big tench pushing about amongst the stems.  Smack!  That was a
+great carp."
+
+The water moved in a series of rings in the spot whence the loud
+smacking noise had come, and as Hilary excitedly watched the place a
+faint nibbling noise reached his ear.  After looking about he saw what
+produced the sound, in the shape of a pretty little animal, that seemed
+to be made of the softest and finest of black velvet.  It had crawled a
+little way up a strand of reed, and was nibbling its way through so
+rapidly that the reed fell over with a light splash in the water, when
+the little animal followed, took the cut end in its teeth, and swam
+across the moat, trailing the reed, and disappearing with it under some
+overhanging bushes, where it probably had its hole.
+
+"I could be as happy as a king here," thought Hilary, "if I could go
+about as I liked.  Why, there's a snake crawling out in the sun on that
+patch of sand, and--phew! what a whopper! a ten-pounder, if he's an
+ounce!" he cried, as, simultaneously with the flashing out of a shoal of
+little silvery fish from the black surface of the moat there was a rush,
+a swirl, a tremendous splash, and the green and gold of a large pike was
+seen as it threw itself out of the water in pursuit of its prey.
+
+"I wonder whether they've got any fishing-tackle here," he cried
+excitedly.  "How I could enjoy a week or two at this place!  Why,
+there'd be no end of fun, only one would want a companion.  Birds' nests
+must swarm, and one might get rabbits and hares, and fish of an
+evening."
+
+He stopped short, for an acute pang drew his attention to an extremely
+vulgar want.
+
+"Oh, I say, what a boy I am still!" he said, half aloud.  "Here I am,
+half starved for want of food.  I'm a king's officer taken prisoner by a
+pack of dirty smugglers, and I'm keeping up my dignity as a gentleman in
+the king's service by thinking about chasing water-rats and fishing for
+carp and pike.  'Pon my word I'm about ashamed of myself.  What a
+beautiful magpie, though!" he continued, staring out of the window; "I
+never saw one with so large a tail.  Why, there are jays, too calling in
+the wood.  Yes, there they go--char, char, char!  One might keep 'em
+aboard ship to make fog-signals in thick weather.  My word, how this
+does bring back all the old times!  I feel as boyish and as bright and--
+Oh!  I say, are you going to starve a fellow to death?  I can't stand
+this.  Ahoy!  Is there any one here?  Ahoy!  Pipe all hands to
+breakfast, will you?  Ahoy!"
+
+He placed one hand to the side of his face and shouted with all his
+might, and as he ceased--
+
+"Haw-w! hee-haw! hee-haw! hee-haw! hee-haw! haw-haw! haw-haw-wk!" came
+from a short distance, as if in answer to his hail, followed directly by
+half a dozen lively kicks.
+
+"Sweet, intelligent beast!" cried Hilary.  "What, are you hungry too?
+Surely they have not left us to starve, my gentle friend in misfortune."
+
+Growing too hungry and impatient to be interested any longer by the
+beauty of the scene, Hilary shouted again several times, but without
+obtaining an answer.  He startled some pigeons, though, from somewhere
+upon the roof, and they circled round a few times before settling down
+again, and beginning to sing, "Koo-coo-coo-cooo! koo-coo-coo-cooo!" over
+and over again.
+
+He leaped down, went to the door, and hammered and kicked and shouted
+till his toes were tender and his throat hoarse; but in answer to his
+kicks came hollow echoes, and to his shouts the donkey's brays, and at
+last he threw himself sulkily down upon the straw.
+
+"I'm not going to stop here and be starved to death," he exclaimed
+angrily; "there's no one in the place, that's my opinion, and they've
+stuffed me in here while they get out of the country."
+
+He jumped up in a fury and went and kicked at the door again, but the
+mocking echoes were the only response, and, tired of that, he shouted
+through the keyhole, ran, jumped, and clambered to the window, as he
+took out his knife, opened it, and began to dig at the stonework to
+loosen the bars, when the donkey brayed once more.
+
+"Be quiet, will you," roared Hilary, "or I'll kill you, and eat you
+afterwards."
+
+As he said this he burst out laughing at the ludicrous situation, and
+this did him good, for he felt that it would be best to be patient.
+
+So there he sat, listening for some sound to indicate the presence of a
+human being, but hearing nothing, longing intensely the while for some
+breakfast; and just as he was conjuring up visions of a country-house
+meal, with hot bread, delicious butter, and yellow cream, he detected in
+the distance the cooking of home-made bacon, and as if to add poignancy
+to the keen edge of his hunger, a hen began loudly to announce that
+somewhere or other there was a new-laid egg.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+BREAKFAST UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
+
+"Well, this beats everything I've had to do with," said Hilary, as the
+hours glided by, and he began to suffer acutely.  Visions of delicious
+country breakfasts, for which he had longed, had now given place to the
+humblest of desires, for he felt as if he would have given anything for
+the most mouldy, weevilly biscuit that ever came out of a dirty bag in a
+purser's locker.  He had fasted before now, but never to such an extent
+as this, and he sat upon his straw heap at last, chewing pieces to try
+and relieve his pain.
+
+He had worked at the iron bars for a time, but had now given it up,
+finding that he would be knifeless long before he could loosen a single
+bar; besides, that gnawing hunger mastered everything else, and in place
+of the active the passive state had set in: with a feeling of obstinate
+annoyance against his captors he had determined to sit still and starve.
+
+The probabilities are that Hilary's obstinate determination would have
+lasted about an hour; but he was not called upon to carry it out, for
+just about noon, as he guessed, he fancied he heard a voice, and jumping
+up he ran to the window and listened.
+
+Yes, there was no mistake about it.  Some one was singing, and it was in
+sweet girlish tones.
+
+"Ahoy!  I say there!" shouted Hilary at the invisible singer, who seemed
+to be right away on the other side of the garden; and the singing
+stopped on the instant.  "Is any one there?"
+
+There was not a sound now, and he was about to cry out once more when he
+caught a glimpse of a lady's dress, and a little slight figure came
+cautiously through the trees, looking wonderingly about.
+
+"Hurrah!" shouted Hilary, thrusting out his arm and waving his hand,
+"Addy!  Addy!  Here!"
+
+The figure came closer, showing the pleasant face and bright wondering
+eyes of Sir Henry Norland's daughter, who came timidly on towards the
+building where Hilary was confined.
+
+"Don't you know me, Addy?" he cried.
+
+"Hilary! you here?"
+
+"Yes, for the present; and I've been kicking and shouting for hours.  Am
+I to be starved to death?"
+
+"Oh, Hilary!" she cried.
+
+"Well, it seems like it.  I haven't had a morsel since yesterday
+morning.  Get me something, there's a dear girl--bread, meat, tea,
+coffee, anything, if it's only oats or barley."
+
+"Wait a minute," cried the girl, turning to go.
+
+"You mustn't be longer, or I shall be dead," shouted Hilary as she ran
+off; and then, dropping from the window, the young fellow executed a
+figure out of the dance of delight invented for such occasions by Dame
+Nature to aid young people in getting rid of their exuberance, stopped
+short, pulled out a pocket-comb, and carefully touched up his hair,
+relieving it from a number of scraps of straw and chaff in the process.
+
+"A nice Tom o' Bedlam I must have looked," he said to himself.  "No
+wonder she didn't know me."
+
+"Hil!  Hil!"
+
+"Ahoy!" he shouted, scrambling up to the window and slipping down again,
+to try the next time more carefully and on regaining the window-sill
+there was the bright, eager-looking girl beneath, with a jug of milk and
+a great piece of bread.
+
+"This was all I could get now, Hil," she said, her eyes sparkling with
+pleasure.
+
+"All!" he cried.  "New bread and new milk!  Oh, Addy, it's lovely!
+There's nothing I like better for breakfast, and our cow on board won't
+milk and our oven won't bake.  Give us hold: I'm ravenous for the
+feast."
+
+Hilary reached one arm down and Adela Norland reached one arm up, but
+when they had strained to the utmost a good six feet intervened between
+Hilary's hand and the slice of bread.
+
+"Oh, I say, how tantalising!" he cried, giving a shake at the bars.
+"Make haste, Addy, and do something.  Isn't there a ladder?"
+
+"No," she said, shaking her head.  "I'll get a chair."
+
+"Two chairs wouldn't do it," cried Hilary, who, sailor-like, was pretty
+ready at ideas.  "Here, I know.  Get a long stick; put the bread and
+milk down first."
+
+She placed the jug on the ground, and was about to run off.
+
+"Cover your handkerchief over them first," cried Hilary, "or I can't
+bear to sit and look at them."
+
+"I won't be a minute," cried the girl; and she ran off, leaving the
+young sailor in the position of that mythical gentleman Tantalus,
+waiting her return.
+
+The minute had reached two when a peculiar grunting noise was heard,
+and, to Hilary's horror, an exceedingly pendulous, narrow-backed pig
+came snuffing and rooting into sight, turning over stones with its huge
+pointed snout, investigating clods of earth, pushing aside pieces of
+wood, and all the while making an ill-used grunting squeaking noise, as
+if protesting against the long period that had elapsed since it was fed.
+
+"Well, of all the ugly, hungry-looking brutes I ever saw," said Hilary,
+as he gazed down at the pig, "you are about the worst.  Why, you are not
+fit to cut up and salt for a ship's company, which is saying a deal.
+Umph! indeed!  Get out you ugly--Oh, murder! the brute's coming at my
+breakfast!  Addy, Addy, quick!  Yah!  Pst!  Get out!  Ciss!  Swine!
+Co-chon!  Boo!  Bah-h-h!  Oh, if I'd only got something to throw at the
+wretch!  Quick, Addy, quick!"
+
+His sufferings were bad enough before, but now they were agonising, for,
+treating the loud objurgations of the prisoner with the greatest
+contempt, after raising its snout sidewise and gazing up at him with one
+little eye full of porcine wisdom, and flapping one of its ears the
+while, the pig came to the conclusion that Hilary could only throw words
+at it such as would not injure its pachydermatous hide, and then with a
+contemptuous grunt it came on.
+
+Nearer and nearer to the breakfast came the pig, twiddling its miserable
+little tail about, investigating here and turning over there; and more
+frantic grew the prisoner.  He abused that unfortunate pig with every
+sentence, phrase, and term he could remember or invent, but the animal
+paid not the slightest heed.
+
+"Au, you thick-skinned beast," he cried; "if I were only down there with
+a stick!"
+
+But he was not down there with a stick, and the pig evidently knew,
+though as yet he did not know of the breakfast lying on the ground so
+invitingly close, or it would have disappeared at once.  Still, there
+was no doubt that before many minutes had passed it would be gone if
+Adela did not return, and at last Hilary pulled off a shoe, and as the
+animal came now in a straight line for the bread, he took careful aim
+and hit the intruder on the nose.
+
+The pig uttered an angry squeal, and jumped back; but as the shoe lay
+motionless, it concluded that it was probably something thrown it to
+eat, and in this belief it approached the foot-guard, turned it over,
+thrust its nose right inside, and lifted it up, flung it off its snout,
+and proceeded to taste the leather, when, to Hilary's horror, the bread
+met the ugly little pink eyes.
+
+The pig uttered a squeal of pleasure, and dropped the shoe.  Hilary
+uttered a yell of horror, and threw the fellow shoe, and the pig made
+for the bread, just as, armed with a long stick, Adela came round the
+corner, saw the position, and rushed at the intruder, whom a blow from
+the stick drove grunting away.
+
+"Oh, I am glad you came," cried Hilary.  "You were only just in time."
+
+"The nasty thing," cried the lady, picking up the bread.  "Had he
+touched it?"
+
+"No," said Hilary pointedly; "_she_ had.  But pray make haste."
+
+"Oh, what fun!" cried Adela, sticking the point of the stick into the
+bread, and then, with the weight at the end making the wand bend like a
+fishing-rod, she held it up bobbing and bowing about to Hilary, who
+caught at it eagerly, and took a most frightful bite out of one side,
+leaving a model for the arch of a bridge perfectly visible to the young
+lady.
+
+"What lovely bread!" said Hilary, with his mouth full.  Another model
+arch made in the bread.
+
+"I was so precious hungry."
+
+"I can see you were," cried Adela laughing.
+
+"But I say," said Hilary, with his mouth full; "this is just like
+feeding a wild beast in a cage."
+
+"But however did you come to be here?" cried the girl.
+
+"Can't talk till I've been fed a little more," replied Hilary.  "I say,
+Addy, dear, how about that milk?"
+
+"That's what I was thinking," said the girl; "I can't push that up to
+you on the stick."
+
+"No," said Hilary, munching away.  "What are we to do?"
+
+"I don't know, Hil."
+
+"I do."
+
+He took another tremendous bite, which made the two arches into one by
+the destruction of the model pier, laid the bread down on the
+window-sill, and was about to leap down, when he remembered something.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he said politely; "would you mind picking up my
+shoes on the end of that stick, and passing them up?"
+
+"Oh, Hilary!"
+
+"I was obliged to shy them at the pig to save my breakfast.  Thank you,"
+he continued, as she laughingly picked up a shoe on the end of the stick
+and passed it up.  "Now the other.  Thanks," he added, dropping them
+inside his prison.  "Now I want that milk."
+
+As Adela picked up the jug the sailor dropped back after his shoes, put
+them on, ran to his straw bed, munching away the while, and drew out the
+cord that had been used to bind his legs.
+
+"How useful a bit of line always is!" he muttered as he climbed back to
+the window-sill, held on with one arm through the bars, and took another
+tremendous bite from the bread, nodding pleasantly the while at his old
+friend.
+
+"Why, Hil, how hungry you must have been!" she said.  "Let me run and
+get some butter."
+
+"How hungry I am, you mean," he said.  "Addy, dear, I feel now just like
+what wolves must feel when they eat little children and old women.  I'll
+never speak disrespectfully of a wolf again.  Why, I could have eaten
+you."
+
+"Oh, what nonsense!"
+
+"I don't know so much about that," he said; "but never mind about the
+butter; let me have some of that milk.  Look here, tie one end of this
+cord round the handle of the jug, and then I'll haul it up."
+
+He lowered down one end of the cord and watched her carefully, munching
+busily the while, as she cleverly tied the end to the jug handle, and
+then held the vessel of milk up so that he should not have so far to
+haul.
+
+"Steady," said Hilary, with his mouth unpleasantly full; and he softly
+drew the cord tight, but only to find that the want of balance would
+pull the jug so much on one side that half the milk would be spilled.
+
+"That won't do," he said; "and I can't wait for you to tie the cord
+afresh; besides, I don't think you could do it right.  I say, Addy,
+drink some of it, there's a good girl; it would be a pity to spill any."
+
+Adela hesitated a moment, and then placed the jug to her lips, Hilary
+watching her attentively the while.
+
+"Steady," he cried excitedly; "steady!  Don't drink it all."
+
+"Oh, Hilary," said the girl laughing, "what a greedy boy you are!
+You're just as bad as you used to be over the cider."
+
+"Can't help it," he said.  "There, drink a little more.  You don't know
+how bad I am."
+
+"Poor fellow!" she said feelingly; and having drunk a little more she
+again held up the jug, which he drew rapidly to the window, but not
+without spilling a good deal.
+
+"Hah!" he exclaimed as he got hold of the vessel.  "Good health."
+
+He drank long and with avidity; and then setting down the jug once more,
+partook of some bread, looking down the while at his little benefactor,
+and ending by saying:
+
+"Why, Addy, what a nice girl you have grown!"
+
+"Have I!" she said laughingly.  "And what a great big fellow you have
+grown; and oh, Hilary," she said, with her face becoming serious, "thank
+you--thank you for being so very, very kind to us the other day."
+
+"Yes," he said, "and this is the way you show it.  Now I'm better, and I
+want to know how you came here."
+
+"Oh, this is a very old house--a Place they call it--where papa and I
+have been staying for some time.  Poor papa is obliged to be in hiding."
+
+"And who lives here?"
+
+"Well, Hilary, perhaps I ought not to say," she said sadly.
+
+"Tell me, then, how far are we from the sea?"
+
+"About eight miles."
+
+"Only eight miles?  Well, how did I come here?"
+
+"I don't know.  I want to know."
+
+"Am I a prisoner?"
+
+"It seems like it."
+
+"But where's everybody?  I haven't heard a soul about till you came."
+
+"They are not up yet," said Adela, glancing over her shoulder.  "They
+have been out all night, Hilary."
+
+"Oh, then, I'm in a regular smuggler's den, I suppose.  What place is
+this I am in?"
+
+"The old chapel, Hilary.  They say it's haunted, and for the moment,
+when I saw you, I was frightened."
+
+"What! are there ghosts here?" said Hilary, glancing inside.
+
+"Yes, they say one walks there sometimes."
+
+"I only wish he had walked here last night, and left the door open,"
+said Hilary.  "But I say, Addy, how funny that we should meet again like
+this."
+
+"Yes, isn't it, Hilary?  And yet," said the girl thoughtfully, "it is
+not funny, but sad, for the days are not so happy now as they were when
+we played together years ago."
+
+"And we've both grown so," said Hilary thoughtfully.  "But look here,"
+he exclaimed, as a sudden thought struck him.  "I want to see somebody.
+I'm not going to be made a prisoner here in my own country.  I'm not
+cross with you, Addy, but I must have this set right.  Where is Sir
+Henry?"
+
+As he asked the question a distant voice was heard calling the young
+girl's name, and she turned, ran, and was out of sight in an instant.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+A TEMPTING OFFER.
+
+Hilary sat upon the window-ledge and listened, but he heard no further
+sound; so, coming to the conclusion that though he was extremely
+indignant he was also still uncommonly hungry, he drained the jug of
+milk, and went on steadily until he had finished his bread, after which,
+feeling better, he let himself down from the ledge, which was anything
+but a comfortable place, and began walking up and down the little
+chapel.
+
+For a few minutes he was too indignant to do more than think about his
+position; and he kept on muttering about "A gross case of kidnapping!"
+"Cowardly scoundrels!"  "Insult to king's officer!" and a few more such
+expressions; but having partaken of food he felt easier and soon had
+another good look round the place.
+
+It was only a portion of the old chapel, and had evidently been patched
+and used for different purposes of late years, so that its old religious
+character was to a great extent gone.
+
+"I don't think it would be so very hard to get out," he said to himself,
+"if a fellow made up his mind to it, and--hallo! here's some one coming
+at last."
+
+His quick ears had detected footsteps, followed by the unlocking of a
+door; then the steps passed over a boarded floor in some empty echoing
+room.
+
+Then he heard voices, and the unlocking of another door, when the voices
+and steps sounded plainer, and he began to understand how it was that
+his shouts had not been heard, for the people, whoever they were, now
+seemed to come down along a stone passage before they stopped at and
+unlocked the door of his prison.
+
+As the heavy old door was thrown open Hilary saw two things--one which
+made him very cross, the other which made him very glad.
+
+The sight that roused his anger was Sir Henry Norland, in elegant
+half-military costume, with high riding boots and spurs; the other was a
+rough, ill-looking man, carrying a tray, on which was bread, a cold
+chicken, and what seemed to be a flask of French wine.
+
+Certainly Hilary had just partaken of food, but a draught of milk and
+some bread seemed only provocatives to fresh eating in the case of a
+young growing fellow who had been fasting for considerably more than
+twenty-four hours.
+
+"Set the tray down, Allstone," said Sir Henry.  "Don't wait," he
+continued; "I'll lock the door after me when I come out."
+
+"The skipper said I was to keep charge of the young lad," said the man,
+surlily.
+
+"Keep charge, then," said Sir Henry sharply, "but wait outside."
+
+The man scowled and withdrew, whereupon Sir Henry held out his hand.
+
+"Well, Hilary," he said, "you and I seem to meet under strange
+conditions."
+
+"May I ask, Sir Henry," cried Hilary sharply, and without looking at the
+extended hand, "why I am seized, bound, and kidnapped in this
+disgraceful way?"
+
+"Certainly, my dear boy," said Sir Henry; "but let me tell you at once
+that I had nothing whatever to do with it."
+
+"Who had, then?" cried Hilary, with the blood flaming in his cheeks.
+
+"That I cannot exactly answer; but from what I can learn it seems that
+you were found prying rather too closely into the affairs of some
+friends of mine, and they pounced upon you and carried you off."
+
+"Yes, and I'll pounce upon some of them," cried Hilary, "and carry them
+off."
+
+"When you get your liberty," said Sir Henry with a smile.
+
+"Yes; when I get my liberty," cried Hilary; "and that sha'n't be long
+first.  Even now my commander will be searching for me."
+
+"Very likely, Hilary," said Sir Henry; "but you must be very hungry.  I
+have only just learned of your being here, and that you had not been
+attended to.  The habits of my friends here are somewhat nocturnal, and
+hence they are irregular by day.  Come, sit down, man, and eat.  We
+campaigners are not so particular as some people."
+
+He seated himself upon the straw as he spoke, and looked up so frankly
+and with such friendly eyes at the young man, that Hilary was slightly
+softened.
+
+"Adela is here," he said.
+
+"Yes, I know; I have seen her this morning, Sir Henry."
+
+"Seen her!  Oh, yes, I see--from the window.  But come, fall to."
+
+Hilary glanced at the chicken and the bread, and felt disposed to resent
+his rough treatment, especially as just then the donkey brayed loudly,
+and fired off a salute of kicks against the side of the shed where he
+was confined; but there was a specially tempting brown side to that
+chicken, which looked tender and seductive, and Hilary argued that he
+should not be able to stand long upon his dignity if he starved himself,
+so he seated himself tailor-fashion beside the tray, and began to carve.
+
+"You'll take some, Sir Henry?" he said sulkily.
+
+"With pleasure," was the reply; and Sir Henry allowed himself to be
+helped, Hilary's carving being of a very primitive kind, but he managed
+to hack off a leg and a wing, and passed them to Sir Henry, who, in
+return, cut some bread, and poured out a glass of wine.
+
+The chicken came fully up to its looks, and those who discussed it were
+very busy for some little time.
+
+"There is only one glass," said Sir Henry.  "Will you drink first,
+Hilary?"
+
+"No, Sir Henry.  After you."
+
+"But I stand in the place of your host," said Sir Henry smiling.
+"However, I will set you the example after the good old custom, so as to
+show you that the wine is not drugged."
+
+"His majesty King Charles of England!" said Sir Henry, drinking a hearty
+draught before wiping his lips on a French cambric handkerchief.  Then
+he refilled the glass and passed it to Hilary.
+
+"His majesty King George the Second of England," said Hilary taking the
+glass, "and down with the Pretender!"
+
+He said this defiantly, as he gazed full in Sir Henry's eyes; but the
+latter only smiled.
+
+"You foolish boy," he said lightly; "how little you know what you are
+saying."
+
+"I know that I am speaking like a loyal officer of the king, Sir Henry,
+and that if I did my duty I should arrest you at once on a charge of
+high treason."
+
+"And get my head chopped off, eh, Hilary?  Rather comical that would be,
+my boy, for a prisoner to arrest his visitor, and keep him in prison
+with him; but how would you manage to give him up to the law?"
+
+Hilary bit his lip.  Certainly it did seem laughable for him, a
+prisoner, to talk in such a way as that, and he felt vexed, and looked
+uneasily at his visitor; but he brightened up directly as he felt that
+he had shown his loyalty to the king he served.
+
+"So you believe in the Dutchman, Hilary?"
+
+"I don't understand you, Sir Henry," said the young man.
+
+"I say you believe in the Dutchman--the man you call George the Second--
+the Pretender."
+
+"I do not believe in the Pretender," exclaimed Hilary quickly.
+
+"Don't quibble, my boy," said Sir Henry smiling.  "You call my sovereign
+the Pretender, and that is what I call the man you serve.  Good heavens,
+boy! how could you devote your frank young life to such a service?"
+
+Hilary had finished all he wanted of the chicken, and he sat and gazed
+in the baronet's face.
+
+"Well," said the latter, "what are you thinking?"
+
+"I was thinking, Sir Henry, how much better it would be if we were both
+to speak out frankly.  Now, what do you mean?"
+
+"What do I mean?" said Sir Henry thoughtfully.
+
+He stopped and remained thinking.
+
+"I'll tell you what you mean, Sir Henry, if you like," said Hilary.
+"You have come here now, secure in your power, if you like to call it
+so, and you are going to try and win me over by soft words to join the
+other cause."
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed Sir Henry, changing his ground.  "I did not say
+anything to make you think such a thing as that."
+
+Hilary saw that he had made a mistake, and he, too, withdrew his
+argumentative position.
+
+"Perhaps I am wrong then," he said.
+
+"Presumably, Hilary.  Why, my good boy, of what value would you be to
+us?  I said what I did only out of compassion."
+
+This nettled Hilary, who, boylike, had no little idea of his importance
+in the world.
+
+"Oh, no, my dear boy, I only felt a little sorry; and as to being in my
+power, really I have no power whatever here.  I am, as I told you, only
+a visitor."
+
+"On the Pretender's business," said Hilary sharply.
+
+"I did not say so," replied Sir Henry quietly.  "But come, suppose we
+two enemies, in a political sense, leave off fencing and come, down to
+the matter of fact.  Hilary, my boy, I am very grateful to you for your
+reticence the other day.  You saved my life."
+
+"I am very glad I served you, Sir Henry; but I hope I shall never be
+placed in such a situation again.  If I am, sir, I shall be obliged to
+give you up."
+
+"From a stern sense of duty," said Sir Henry laughing.  "Well, now I
+want to serve you in turn, Hilary.  What can I do for you?"
+
+"Have me immediately set at liberty, Sir Henry."
+
+"Ah! there you ask an impossibility, my boy.  You know what you are
+supposed to have discovered?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And if you are set at liberty you will of course bring the _Kestrel_
+abreast of a certain part of the shore and land your men?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Then is it likely, my dear boy, that these people here will give you
+the opportunity?  No; I am ready to help you in remembrance of old days;
+and if you will give your word of honour as a gentleman not to go more
+than five hundred yards in any direction from this old place I dare say
+I can get for you that length of tether."
+
+"I'm to promise not to escape?"
+
+"Most decidedly; and if you do I dare say I can manage for your life to
+pass far more agreeably than in your close quarters on board the cutter,
+with a peremptory, bullying officer."
+
+"Lieutenant Lipscombe is my officer, and a gentleman, Sir Henry."
+
+"Lieutenant Lipscombe is your officer, and he is no gentleman, Hilary
+Leigh," said Sir Henry warmly.  "But we will not discuss that.  As I was
+saying, I daresay I can manage to make your life pass pretty pleasantly
+here.  Adela will be your companion, and you can be boy and girl
+together again, and spend your time collecting and fishing and boating
+on the little river.  It will be pleasant for both of you.  All you will
+have to do will be to hear, see, and say nothing.  Better still--don't
+hear, don't see, and say whatever you like.  I will take care that a
+snug room is provided for you, and you will have your meals with us.
+Now what do you say?"
+
+"What is to become of my duty to my ship?"
+
+"A prisoner of war has no duties."
+
+"But I am not a prisoner of war, Sir Henry."
+
+"Indeed, my boy, that you are, most decidedly.  You and yours make war
+on the gentlemen who fetch brandy and lace from the French coast."
+
+"And followers of the Pretender," said Hilary sharply.
+
+"I accept your correction, my boy--and followers of his most gracious
+majesty King Charles Edward."
+
+"Stuff!" cried Hilary.
+
+"Every man according to his lights, my boy.  But as I was saying, your
+people make war against these people, and they generally act on the
+defensive.  Sometimes they retaliate.  This time they have taken a
+prisoner--you."
+
+"Yes, hang them!" cried Hilary.
+
+"No, no," laughed Sir Henry, "don't do that.  No yardarm work, my boy.
+You see we do not offer to hang you; on the contrary, I offer you a
+comfortable happy life for a few months on parole."
+
+"A few months!" cried Hilary.
+
+"Perhaps a year or two.  Now what do you say?"
+
+"No!" cried Hilary quickly.
+
+"Think, my boy.  You will be kept a very close prisoner, and it will be
+most unpleasant.  We want to use you well."
+
+"And you nearly smother me; you drag me here in a wretched donkey-cart;
+and you nearly starve me to death."
+
+"On chicken and wine," said Sir Henry smiling.  "Come, Hilary, your
+parole."
+
+"No, Sir Henry," cried the young man, "I'll give no parole.  I mean to
+get away from here, and I warn you that as soon as I do I'll bring
+brimstone and burn out this miserable wasps' nest; so get out of the
+way."
+
+"Then I must leave you to think it over, Hilary.  There," he continued,
+rising, "think about it.  I'll come and see you this evening."
+
+"Stop, Sir Henry," cried the young man, leaping up in turn; "this is an
+outrage on an officer in the navy.  In the king's name I order you to
+set me at liberty."
+
+"And in the king's name I refuse, Master Hilary."
+
+"Then I shall take it," cried Hilary, making for the door, which he
+reached and flung open, but only to find himself confronted by three
+rough, sailor-looking fellows.
+
+"You see," said Sir Henry smiling.  "Allstone, take away that tray.
+Good-bye for the present, Hilary.  I will see you to-night."
+
+He went out of the door, which was slammed to and locked, and Sir Henry
+Norland said to himself:
+
+"I like the lad, and it goes against me to make him break faith; but it
+must be done.  My cause is a greater one than his.  Once on our side, he
+could be of immense service.  He will have to be won over somehow, poor
+fellow.  Let's see what a day or two's caging will do."
+
+Meanwhile Hilary was angrily walking up and down his prison, wroth with
+Sir Henry, with himself, and with fate, for placing him in such a
+position, to ameliorate which he climbed up to the window-sill and gazed
+out at the sunny meads.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+ANOTHER CRUISE ASHORE.
+
+Lieutenant Lipscombe made up his mind half a dozen times over that he
+would run into port and send in a despatch detailing Hilary Leigh's
+desertion; and each time that he so made up his mind, and had the
+cutter's head laid in the required direction, his eye became so painful
+that the cook had to supply hot water from the galley, and the worthy
+officer went below to bathe the injured optic.
+
+Each time as the inflammation was relieved the lieutenant unmade his
+mind, and decided to wait a little longer, going on deck again to
+superintend the repairs Joe Smith, the carpenter, familiarly known as
+"Chips," was proceeding with in the damaged deck.
+
+There was a great deal to do and the carpenter was doing that great deal
+well, but at his own pace, for "Chips" was not a rapid man.  If he had a
+hole to make with gimlet or augur he did not dash at it and perhaps bore
+the hole a quarter or half an inch out of place, but took his
+measurements slowly and methodically, and no matter who or what was
+waiting he went steadily on.
+
+There was enough in the composition of "Chips" to make anyone believe
+that he had descended from a family in the far-off antiquity who were
+bears; for he was heavy and bearlike in all his actions, especially in
+going up or coming down a ladder, and his caution was proverbial amongst
+the crew.
+
+So deliberately were the proceedings now going on that Lieutenant
+Lipscombe grew hot every time he went on deck, and the hotter the
+commander became the cooler grew "Chips."
+
+The lieutenant stormed and bade him make haste.
+
+"You are disgracefully slow, sir," he exclaimed.
+
+"Chips" immediately found that his saw or chisel wanted sharpening, and
+left off to touch up the teeth of the one with a file, and the edge of
+the other on a stone well lubricated with oil.
+
+The lieutenant grew more angry, and the carpenter looked at him in the
+calmest possible way, till in despair, seeing that he was doing no good,
+but only hindering progress, Lieutenant Lipscombe went aft to his cabin
+and bathed his eye.
+
+"Lookye here," said Billy Waters the day after Hilary's disappearance,
+"I hope, my lads, I'm as straightforrard a chap as a man can be, and as
+free from mut'nous idees; but what I want to know is this: why don't we
+go ashore and have another sarch for our young orsifer?"
+
+"That's just what I says," exclaimed Tom Tully.
+
+"No, you don't, Thomas," cried the gunner sharply.  "You did nothing but
+grumble and growl all the blessed time we was ashore, and say as our
+young orsifer had cut on some games or another.  I put it to you, lads;
+now didn't he?"
+
+"That's a true word," said one of the men, and several others agreed.
+
+"Yes," growled Tom Tully; "but that was when I weer hot and wanted to
+stow some wittles below, and my feet was as sore as if they'd been
+holystoned or scraped with a rusty nail.  I'm ready enough now."
+
+"Then I think we ought to go.  I don't like the idee o' forsakin' of
+him."
+
+"Pass the word there for the gunner," cried the corporal of marines.
+"Captain wants him in his cabin."
+
+Billy Waters pulled himself together, straightened his pigtail, and
+hauling up his slack, as he called it--to wit, giving the waistband of
+his trousers a rub up with one arm in front and a hitch up with one arm
+behind, he went off aft, and came back at the end of a quarter of an
+hour to announce that a fresh search was to be made for Mr Leigh, and
+that they were to go ashore as soon as it was dusk.
+
+"What's the good o' going then?" said the boatswain.  "Why not go now?"
+
+"That's just what I was a-thinking," said Billy Waters; "but I s'pose
+the skipper knows best."
+
+Preparations were made and arms served round.  The boat was to go under
+command of the gunner, and each man was supplied with a ration of
+biscuits, to be supplemented by a tot of grog before starting, which was
+to be just at dark, and the men, being all eager to find their young
+officer, who was a great favourite, lounged about waiting the order, a
+most welcome one on account of the grog; but just as the grog was being
+mixed in its proper proportions the gunner was sent for to the cabin,
+where the lieutenant was still bathing his eye.
+
+"Has that grog been served out, Waters?"
+
+"No, your honour; it's just a-going to be done."
+
+"Go and stop it."
+
+"Stop it, your honour?  The men's grog?"
+
+"Go and stop it, I say," cried the lieutenant irascibly.  "I shall not
+send the expedition to-night."
+
+Billy Waters went back and gave the order in the hearing of the
+assembled crew, from whom a loud murmur arose--truth to tell more on
+account of the extra tot of grog than the disappointment about searching
+for Hilary; but the latter feeling dominated a few minutes later, and
+the men lay about grumbling in no very pleasant way.
+
+"I say it's a shame, that's what I says it is," growled Tom Tully, "and
+it ought to be reported.  For half a button I'd desart, and go and look
+for him myself--that's about what I'd do."
+
+Just then Chips, who had knocked off work for the night, struck in
+slowly, laughing heartily the while: "Why don't you say as you won't go,
+my lads?  He's sure to send you then."
+
+"That's a good 'un," said Tom Tully.
+
+"Ah! to be sure," said the boatswain.  "I'm a officer, and can't do it;
+but if I was you, seeing as we ought to fetch young Mr Leigh back
+aboard, I should just give three rattling good cheers."
+
+"What good would that do?" said Billy Waters dubiously.
+
+"Why, then the skipper would send for one of us to know what's the
+matter.  `Ship's crew mutinous, sir; says they wouldn't have gone ashore
+if they'd been ordered.'"
+
+"Well?" said Billy Waters, "I don't see that that would have been no
+good neither."
+
+"Why, don't you see?  Soon as you says that he claps on his sword, takes
+his pistols, and orders you all into the boat; and says he, `If you dare
+to come back without Mr Leigh I'll string one of you up to the
+yardarm.'"
+
+"That's it," chorussed several of the men.
+
+"Yes," said Billy Waters; "but suppose we do come back without him, and
+he do string us up--how then?"
+
+"Ah! but he won't," said the boatswain.  "Men's too scarce."
+
+"Well, I wouldn't have gone ashore in the boat," said one man.
+
+"Nor I", "Nor I," chorussed half-a-dozen; and then they stopped, for the
+lieutenant had approached unseen, caught the words, and in a fit of fury
+he shouted to the boatswain:
+
+"Here, my sword--from the cabin!" he cried.  "No; stop.  Pipe away the
+boat's crew.  You, Waters, head that expedition!"  And then, as if moved
+to repeat the boatswain's words, he continued, "And don't you men dare
+to come back without Mr Leigh."
+
+The men had got their own way; but though they waited patiently for the
+rest of the lieutenant's order respecting the extra tot of grog, that
+order did not come, and they had to set off without it.
+
+They were in capital spirits, and bent well to their oars, sending the
+boat surging through the water, and chattering and laughing like so many
+boys as soon as they were out of hearing.  No wonder, for there is
+something exceedingly monotonous in being cooped up day after day on
+board ship, especially if it be a very small one; and there is no wonder
+at Jack's being fond of a run ashore.
+
+The evening was coming on very dark, and a thick bank of clouds was
+rising in the west, gradually blotting out the stars one by one, almost
+before they had had time to get well alight.
+
+"Pull steady, my lads," said the gunner.  "Save a little bit of breath
+for landing."
+
+"All right, matey," said one of the men; and they rowed steadily, each
+stroke of an oar seeming to splash up so much pale liquid fire, while
+the boat's stem sent it flashing and sparkling away in an ever-diverging
+train.
+
+"Now then, lads, steady," said Billy Waters, who seemed to have suddenly
+awakened to the fact that he ought to be more dignified, as became the
+officer in command.  "We don't want to go for to let everybody ashore
+know we're coming."
+
+There was silence then, only broken by the splash of the water from the
+oars, and a dismal creaking noise of wood upon wood.
+
+"Shove a bit o' grease agen that there thole-pin o' yours, Tom Tully.
+Your oar'll rouse all the smugglers along the coast."
+
+"Ar'n't no grease," growled Tom.
+
+"Then why didn't you get a bit out of a lantern afore you come aboard?"
+
+"'Cause nobody didn't tell me," growled Tom, who ceased rowing and
+splashed the space between the thole-pins with a few drops of water,
+when the noise ceased.
+
+"Steady, my lads, steady!" said Billy Waters, giving a pull at the
+rudder, so as to run the boat more west towards where the cliff rose
+high and black against the darkening sky.
+
+"Yer see--" began Tom Tully, and then he stopped.
+
+"Not werry far," said the man pulling behind him.
+
+"Well, what do you see, old Tommy?" said Billy Waters.  "Give it woice."
+
+"Yer see," began Tom Tully, "I'm a chap as allus gets bullied as soon as
+he opens his mouth."
+
+"Soon as what chap opens his mouth?" said the gunner.
+
+"Why, ar'n't I a-telling of you?--me," growled Tom Tully.
+
+"Well, what's the matter now?" said the gunner.
+
+"Well, I was a-wondering what we was going for ashore."
+
+"Now, just hark at this here chap!" said the gunner indignantly.
+
+"That's what I says," growled Tom Tully; "directly I opens my mouth I
+gets a bullying.  I allus gets told I'm a-grumbling."
+
+"Well, come now," said the gunner, "speak out will you?  What's the
+matter?"
+
+"Oh, I don't want to speak out unless you like," said Tom.
+
+"Yes, come, out with it, and don't let's have no mutinous, onderhanded
+ways," cried the gunner importantly.
+
+"Well, what I want to know is, what we're a-going for ashore?"
+
+"Now just hark at him," cried the gunner, "grumbling again.  Why, ar'n't
+we going to look after our young orsifer?"
+
+"Then why didn't we come in the daytime, and not wait until it was
+getting so pitch dark as you can't see your hand afore your eyes?"
+
+Billy Waters scratched his head.
+
+"Well, it is getting dark, old Tommy, sartinly," he said apologetically.
+
+"Dark as Davy Jones's locker," growled Tom.  "I wants to find Muster
+Leigh as much as anybody, but you can't look if you can't see."
+
+"That's a true word anyhow," said one of the men.
+
+"It's my belief as our skipper's pretty nigh mad," continued Tom, giving
+a vicious jerk at his oar, "or else he wouldn't be sending us ashore at
+this time o' night."
+
+"Well, it is late, Tommy," said the gunner; "but we must make the best
+on it."
+
+"Yah!  There ar'n't no best on it.  All we can do is to get ashore, sit
+down on the sand, and shout out, `Muster Leigh, ahoy!'"
+
+"There, it ar'n't no use to growl again, Tom Tully," said Billy Waters,
+reassuming his dignified position of commanding officer.  "Give way, my
+lads."
+
+The men took long, steady strokes, and soon after the boat glided right
+in over the calm phosphorescent waves, four men leaped out as her bows
+touched the sand, and as the next wave lifted her, they ran her right
+up; the others leaped out and lent a hand, and the next minute the boat
+was high and dry.
+
+"Now then, my lads," cried the gunner, "what I propose is that we try
+and find our landmarks, and as soon as we have hit the place where
+Master Leigh left us we'll all hail as loud as we can, and then wait for
+an answer."
+
+Tom Tully growled out something in reply, it was impossible to say what,
+and leaving one man to act as boatkeeper, they all set off together
+along the shore.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+ATTACK AND DEFEAT.
+
+Tom Tully had marked down a towering portion of the cliff as being over
+the spot where they had lost sight of their young officer, and, as it
+happened, that really was pretty close to the place, so, trudging on in
+silence after giving a glance in the direction where the cutter lay, now
+seen only as a couple of lights about a mile from the shore, they soon
+reached the rocks, where the gunner called a halt.
+
+"Now, my lads," he said, "get all of a row, face inwards, and make ready
+to hail.  We'll give him one good `_Kestrel_ ahoy!' and that'll wake him
+up, wherever he is.  Hallo! stop that chap!  There, he's dodged behind
+that big stone."
+
+The men wanted no further inducement than the sight of some one trying
+to avoid them.
+
+In an instant the quiet stolid row of men were dashing here and there
+among the rocks in chase of a dark figure, which, from a thorough
+knowledge of the ground, kept eluding them, darting between the rocks,
+scrambling over others; and had he had to deal with a couple of pursuers
+he would have escaped at once, but he had too many on his track, and
+fortune was rather against him, so that several times over he ran right
+upon one or other of the party and was nearly taken.
+
+The activity of the young man, for such he seemed to be, was something
+marvellous; and again and again he made a tremendous leap, scrambled
+over the rocks, and escaped.  The last time, however, he dropped down in
+a narrow place that formed quite a _cul-de-sac_, and right in front of
+Tom Tully.
+
+"What! have I got you?" cried the great stolid fellow; and he made a
+dash forward, straddling out his legs as if on board ship, when, to his
+intense astonishment, his quarry bent down, dashed at him, ducked
+between his knees, struggling through, and throwing the great sailor
+headlong flat upon his face.
+
+The shout Tom Tully gave brought up Billy Waters; and as the stranger
+recovered his feet to escape in a fresh direction, he ran right into the
+gunner's arms, to be held with a grip like iron.
+
+The man had his arms free, however, and putting his fingers into his
+mouth he gave vent to a piercing whistle, close to the gunner's ear.
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Billy Waters.  "Well, my lad, I sha'n't let
+you go any the more for that.  Here, lend a hand my lads, and lash his
+wristies and elbows together.  We've got him, and we'll keep him till we
+get back Muster Leigh.  Now then, Tom Tully, you hold him while I lash
+his wristies.  That's your style.  I say, he won't get away once I--Look
+at that!"
+
+Tom Tully had, as he thought, taken a good hold of the prisoner, when
+the man gave himself a sudden wrench, dived under the gunner's arm, and
+was gone.
+
+"Well, of all--" began Tom Tully.
+
+"Why didn't you hold him?" cried the gunner.
+
+"I thought he was a man and not a slippery eel," cried Tom Tully.  "He's
+for all the world like one o' them big congers Muster Leigh caught off
+Hastings."
+
+"Yes," cried the gunner, "but he did hold 'em when he caught 'em.  Look
+out, my lads! he come your way."
+
+The men were well on the alert this time, and one of them, in spite of
+the darkness, saw which way the prisoner had taken, that being none
+other than the narrow passage between the rocks which Hilary had found.
+
+He saw him go down here, and then caught sight of him as he climbed over
+the rock.
+
+"This way," shouted the sailor as he scrambled over after the escaping
+man, got into the chasm on the other side, and then following him, just
+in time to hear a dull, heavy thud, and his mate staggered back against
+him half stunned by a heavy blow.
+
+Just then there was a sharp whiz; and he felt the wind of a blow aimed
+at him from the rocks above his head, to which he replied by lugging out
+his hanger and dealing a vigorous blow at his unseen enemy, but without
+effect.
+
+"Here, this way," he shouted.  "Waters!  Tom Tully!  Here they are."
+
+A sturdy "Ahoy!" came in response, just as the first man began to
+scramble to his feet and stood rubbing his head.
+
+"Where away?" cried Billy Waters.
+
+"Here ho!" replied both the men in the narrow pass; and beading the rest
+of the party, the gunner, after another hail or two, scrambled over and
+joined the two first men, every one of the party now having his
+unsheathed cutlass in his hand.
+
+"Well," cried the gunner excitedly, "where are they?"
+
+"Close here," said the man who had received the blow.  "One of 'em hit
+me with a handspike."
+
+"And some one cut at me from up above on the rocks," cried the other.
+
+The gunner held up his hand to command silence, and then listened
+attentively.
+
+"Why there ar'n't no one," he cried in tones of disgust.  "You Joe
+Harris, you run up again a rock; and as for you, Jemmy Leeson, you've
+been asleep."
+
+The two men indignantly declared that they had spoken the truth; but
+with an impatient "Pish!" the gunner went forward along the narrow way.
+
+"Here, come along," he said; and as the words left his lips those behind
+heard a heavy blow, and Billy Waters came hastily back.
+
+"That ain't fancy," said one of the men, "unless Billy hit his head
+again the rocks."
+
+"It warn't my head," whispered the gunner drawing in his breath, and
+trying to suppress the pain.  "It caught me right on the left shoulder.
+I shall be all right directly, my lads, and we'll give it 'em.  I'll bet
+that's how they sarved poor Master Leigh; and we've dropped right into
+the proper spot.  Just wait till I get my breath a bit."
+
+"Think it's the smugglers?" said Tom Tully.
+
+"Sartain," was the reply.  "I wish we had a lantern or two.  But never
+mind.  If we can't see to hit them, they can't see to hit us; so it's
+broad as it's long."
+
+"We shall want the pistols, shan't we?" said one of the men.
+
+"Pistols? no," cried the gunner.  "Stick to your whingers, lads.  It's
+no use to fire a piece without you can take good aim, and you can't do
+that in the dark--it's only waste of powder.  Now, then, are you ready?"
+
+"Ay, ay," was whispered back in the midst of the ominous silence that
+prevailed.
+
+"Then look here," cried the gunner, "I shall go in at 'em roosh; and if
+they downs me, don't you mind, lads, but keep on; go over me at once and
+board the place."
+
+"Lookye here," growled Tom Tully, "I'm 'bout as hard as iron; they won't
+hurt me.  Let me go fust, capten."
+
+As he spoke the great fellow spat in his hand before taking a tighter
+grip of his weapon, and making a step forward.
+
+"Just you keep aft, will yer, Tom Tully, and obey orders?" said the
+gunner, seizing the great fellow by the tail and dragging him back.
+"I'm skipper here, and I'm going to lead.  Now, lads, are you all
+ready?"
+
+"Ay, ay," was the reply.
+
+"Then I ar'n't," said the gunner.  "That crack pretty nigh split my
+shoulder.  Now I am.  Close up, and hit hard.  We're all right, my lads;
+they're smugglers, and they hit us fust."
+
+The gunner made a dash forward, and, as they had expected, a concealed
+enemy struck a tremendous blow at him; but Billy Waters was a sailor,
+and accustomed to rapid action.  By quickness of movement and ready wit
+he avoided the blow, which, robbed of a good deal of its force, struck
+Tom Tully full in the chest, stopping him for a moment, but only serving
+to infuriate him, as, recovering himself, he dashed on after the gunner.
+
+A sharp fight ensued, for now, as the sailors forced their way on, they
+found plenty of antagonists.  Most of them seemed to be armed with stout
+clubs like capstan-bars, with which they struck blow after blow of the
+most formidable character from where they kept guard at various turns of
+the narrow passage, while the sailors could not reach them with their
+short cutlasses.
+
+It was sharp work, and with all their native stubbornness the little
+party fought their way on, attacking and carrying yard after yard of the
+passage, forcing the smugglers to retreat from vantage ground to vantage
+ground, and always higher and higher up the rocks.
+
+The attacking party were at a terrible disadvantage, for the place was
+to them like a maze, while the smugglers kept taking them in the rear,
+and striking at them from the most unexpected positions, till the
+sailors were hot with a rage that grew fiercer with every blow.
+
+At the end of ten minutes two of the men were down, and the gunner and
+Tom Tully panting and breathless with their exertions; but far from
+feeling beaten they were more eager than ever to come to close quarters
+with their antagonists, for, in addition to the fighting spirit roused
+within them, they were inflamed with the idea of the large stores of
+smuggled goods that they would capture: velvets and laces and silks in
+endless quantities, with kegs of brandy besides.  That they had hit
+accidentally upon the party who had seized Mr Leigh they had not a
+doubt, and so they fought bravely on till they reached a narrower pass
+amongst the rocks than any they had yet gone through.  So narrow was it
+that they could only approach in single file, and, hemmed in as they
+were with the rocks to right and left, the attack now resolved itself
+into a combat of two--to wit, Billy Waters and a great broad-shouldered
+fellow who disputed his way.  The men who backed up the big smuggler
+were apparently close behind him; but it was now too dark to see, and,
+to make matters worse for the gunner, there was no room for him to swing
+his cutlass; all he could do was to make clumsy stabs with the point, or
+try to guard himself from the savage thrusts made at him with the
+capstan bar or club by the smuggler.
+
+This went on for some minutes without advantage on either side, till,
+growing tired, Billy Waters drew back for a moment.  "Now, my lads," he
+whispered, "I'm going to roosh him.  Keep close up, Tom Tully, and nail
+him if I go down."
+
+Tom Tully growled out his assent to the order given to him, and the next
+moment the gunner made a dash forward into the darkness, striking
+sharply downwards with his cutlass, so sharply that the sparks flew from
+the rock, where his weapon struck, while on recovering himself for a
+second blow he found that it, too, struck the rock, and Billy Waters
+uttered a yell as he started back, overcome with superstitious horror on
+finding himself at the end of the narrow rift, and quite alone.
+
+"What's the matter, matey?" growled Tom Tully; "are you hurt?"
+
+"No.  Go and try yourself," said the gunner, who was for the moment
+quite unnerved.
+
+Tom Tully squeezed by, and, making a dash forward, he too struck at the
+rock, and made the sparks fly, after which he poked about with the point
+of his cutlass, which clinked and jingled against the stones.
+
+"Why, they ar'n't here!" he cried.  "Look out!"
+
+Every one did look out, but in vain.  They were in a very narrow passage
+between two perpendicular pieces of rock, and they had driven the
+smugglers back step by step into what they expected to find to be a
+cavern crammed with treasure; but now that the end was reached they
+could feel nothing in the dark but the flat face of the rock, and this
+seemed to slope somewhat over their heads, and that was all.
+
+Billy Waters' surprise had now evaporated along with his alarm, and
+pushing to the front once more he set himself to work to find how the
+enemy had eluded them.
+
+They could not have gone through the rock, he argued, and there was no
+possible way that he could feel by which they had climbed up.  Neither
+was ascent possible by scaling the rock to right or left, unless they
+had had a ladder, and of that there did not seem to have been any sign.
+
+For a few moments the gunner stood as if nonplussed.  Then an idea
+occurred to him.
+
+Taking a pistol from his belt he quickly drew out the bullet and a
+portion of the powder before flashing off the other over some which he
+laid loose upon the rock.
+
+This lit up the place for the moment, but revealed nothing more than
+they knew before, and that was that they were walled in on either side
+by rock, and that a huge mass rose up in front.
+
+"It's a rum 'un," growled Tom Tully; and then again, "It's a rum 'un.  I
+say, Billy Waters, old mate, what's gone o' them chaps?"
+
+The gunner felt ready to believe once more that there was something "no
+canny" about the affair, but he shook off the feeling, and began
+searching about once more for some sign or other of his enemies; but he
+sought in vain, and at last he turned to his companions to ask them what
+they had better do.
+
+Such a proceeding would, however, be derogatory to his dignity, he
+thought, so he proceeded to give his opinion on the best course.
+
+"Look here, my lads," he said in a whisper; "it seems to me that we
+ought to have come on this trip by daylight."
+
+"That ere's what I said," growled Tom Tully.
+
+"All right, Tommy, only don't be so precious proud of it," said the
+leader.  "I says we ought to have come on this trip by daylight."
+
+"As I says afore, that's what I did say," growled Tom Tully again; but
+this time his superior officer refused to hear him, and continued:
+
+"As we didn't come by daylight, my lads, we ought to have had lanterns."
+
+"Ay, ay," said one of the men.
+
+"So I think," said the gunner; "we'd best go back and get the lanterns,
+so as to have a good search, or else come back and do the job by
+daylight."
+
+"Ay, ay," was chorussed by three of the party.
+
+"Yes, it's all very well to say `Ay, ay,' and talk about lanterns and
+daylight," growled Tom Tully; "but I don't like going off and leaving
+one's work half done.  I want to have a go at that chap as fetched me a
+crack with a handspike, and I shan't feel happy till I have; so now
+then, my lads."
+
+"What's the good o' being obst'nit, Tommy?" said his leader.  "No one
+wants to stop you from giving it to him as hit you, only just tell me
+where he is."
+
+"That ar'n't my job, Billy Waters," cried the big fellow; "that's your
+job.  You leads, and I does the fighting.  Show him to me and I'll make
+him that sore as he shall wish he'd stopped at home."
+
+"Come on, then, and let's get the lanterns, and come back then," said
+the gunner.  "It ar'n't no use to be knocking ourselves about here in
+the dark.  Come on."
+
+He tried to lead the way back as they had come, each man cutlass in
+hand, and well on the alert in case of attack; but nothing interposed to
+stop them as they scrambled and clambered over the rocks till they got
+to the open shore once more, just as, in front of them and out in the
+pitchy blackness, there was a flash, a report, and then the wall of
+darkness closed up once more.
+
+"Oh! ah, we're a-coming," said Billy Waters, who, now that the
+excitement was over, began to feel very sore, while his companions got
+along very slowly, having a couple of sorely-beaten men to help.
+"Anybody make out the ship's lights?"
+
+"I can see one on 'em," growled Tully.
+
+"And where's our boat?" cried the gunner.  "Jim Tanner, ahoy!"
+
+"Ahoy!" came in a faint voice from a distance.
+
+"There he is," said Billy Waters.  "Come, my lads, look alive, or we
+shall have the skipper firing away more o' my powder.  I wish him and
+Jack Brown would let my guns alone.  Now then, Jim Tanner, where away?"
+
+"Ahoy!" came again in a faint voice, and stumbling on through the
+darkness, they came at last upon the boatkeeper, tied neck and heels,
+and lying in the sand.
+
+"Who done this?" cried the gunner.
+
+"I dunno," said the man; "only cast me loose, mates."
+
+This was soon done, the man explaining that a couple of figures suddenly
+jumped upon him out of the darkness, and bound him before he could stand
+on his defence.
+
+"Why, you was asleep, that's what you was," cried the gunner angrily.
+"Nice job we've made of it.  My! ar'n't it dark?  Now, then, where's
+this here boat?  Bring them two wounded men along.  D'yer hear?"
+
+"Oh, it ar'n't been such a very bad time," growled Tom Tully; "we did
+have a bit of a fight!"
+
+"Fight? ay! and didn't finish it.  Now, then, Tom Tully, where's that
+boat?  Can you see her?"
+
+"Yes; here she is," growled the big sailor; "and blest if some one
+ar'n't took away the oars; and--yes that they have.  No getting off
+to-night, lads; they've shoved a hole in her bottom."
+
+"What!" cried Billy Waters, groping his way to the boat; and then, in a
+hoarse, angry voice, "and no mistake.  She's stove-in!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+A FEW IDEAS ON ESCAPE.
+
+Hilary Leigh felt very angry at being shut up in his prison, but the
+good breakfast with which he had been supplied went some way towards
+mollifying him, and as he sat upon the window-sill he felt that Sir
+Henry would much like to win him over to his side.
+
+"And he is not going to do it," he said half aloud.
+
+It was a lovely day, and as he sat there gazing out at the view, he
+thought he had never seen anything so beautiful before.  It was
+wonderful, too, how a comfortable meal had improved his appreciation of
+what he saw.
+
+But even then there were drawbacks.  A rough and narrow stone seat, upon
+which you can only sit by holding on tightly to some rusty iron bars,
+does go against the full enjoyment of a scene, especially if you know
+that those rusty iron bars prevent you from going any farther.
+
+So before long Hilary grew weary of his irksome position, and, letting
+himself down, he had a walk along each side of the old chapel, striding
+out as fast as he could, till he fancied he heard his old playmate
+outside, when he pounded up to the window again, but only to be
+disappointed.
+
+This went on hour after hour, but still Adela did not come, and as the
+afternoon wore on he began to think it extremely cruel and
+unsympathising.
+
+"She knows I'm shut up here like a bird in a cage, and yet she does not
+come to say a single word to cheer me."
+
+The side where the window was seemed darkened now, for the sun had got
+well round to the west, and as he climbed up for another good look out
+the landscape seemed to wear fresh charms, exciting an intense longing
+to get out and ramble over the sunshine-flooded hills, or to lie down
+beneath the shaded trees.
+
+He was accustomed to a prison life, as it were, being shut up so much
+within a little sloop; but that wooden prison was always on the move,
+and never seemed to oppress him as did the four dull walls of his
+present abode.
+
+"I shall wear out the knees of my breeches in no time, if I'm to be kept
+in here long," he said, as he was in the act of making a run and a jump
+for another look out; but he stopped short just in the act, for he
+fancied he heard the rattle of a key, and directly after he knew he was
+not deceived, for there was a heavy step, then another, and then a key
+was placed in the big door.
+
+"Well, this is being made a prisoner, and no mistake.  Hallo, handsome!"
+he cried aloud, as the forbidding-looking man addressed by Sir Henry as
+Allstone entered the place with another looking little more amiable, and
+both were bringing something in the shape of food.
+
+"What?" said the man surlily.
+
+"I said `Hallo, handsome!'" cried Hilary.  "Have you come to let me
+out?"
+
+The man uttered a low hoarse chuckle, which sounded like a laugh, but
+his face did not move a muscle, and he looked as if he were scowling
+heavily.
+
+"We'll carry you out some day, my young buck," he said, "feet foremost.
+There's a little burying-ground just outside the place here."
+
+"Thank you," replied Hilary.  "Is that meant for a joke?"
+
+"Joke?  No, I never joke.  Here I've brought you something to eat, and
+you won't get any more till to-morrow."
+
+He set the rough tray he carried on the floor, and the man who was with
+him did the same, after which they both stood and stared at the
+prisoner.
+
+"Send him away," said Hilary suddenly, and he pointed to the fresh man.
+
+"What for?"
+
+"I want to talk to you."
+
+Allstone gave his head a jerk and the man went outside.  "Look here,"
+said Hilary, "how long are you going to keep me here?"
+
+"Till the skipper is tired of you, I suppose, or till Sir Henry's gone."
+
+"And then you'll let me go?"
+
+"Oh, yes," said the man grimly.  "We shall let you go then."
+
+There was another hoarse chuckle, which appeared very strange, for it
+did not seem to come from the man, who scowled at him in the same heavy,
+morose way.
+
+"Oh! come! you're not going to frighten me into the belief that you can
+kill me, my man," cried Hilary.  "I'm too old for that."
+
+"Who's to know if we did?" said the fellow.
+
+"Why, you don't suppose that one of his majesty's officers can be
+detained without proper search being made.  You'll have the crew of my
+ship over here directly, and they'll burn the place about your ears."
+
+"Thankye," said the man.  "Is that all you want to say?"
+
+"No.  Now look here; I'll give you five guineas if you'll let me go some
+time to-night.  You could break through that window, and it would seem
+as if I had done it myself."
+
+For answer the man turned upon his heel and stalked out of the place
+without a word.
+
+"Get out, you rude boor!" cried Hilary, as the door slammed and the key
+turned.  "Kill me and bury me!  Bah!  I should like to see them do it."
+
+A faint noise outside made him scale the window once more; but there was
+no sign of Adela, so he returned.
+
+"Well, they're not going to starve me," he said to himself, as he looked
+at the plates before him, one containing a good-looking pork pasty, the
+others a loaf and a big piece of butter, while a large brown jug was
+half full of milk.
+
+There was a couple of knives, too, the larger and stronger of which he
+took and thrust beneath the straw.
+
+"What a piggish way of treating a fellow!" he muttered.  "No chair, no
+table; not so much as a stool.  Well, I'm not very hungry yet, and as
+this is to last till to-morrow I may as well wait."
+
+He stood thinking for a bit, and then the idea of escaping came more
+strongly than ever, and he went and examined the door, which seemed
+strong enough to resist a battering-ram.
+
+There was the window as the only other likely weak place, but on
+climbing up and again testing the mortar with the point of his knife,
+the result was disheartening, for the cement of the good old times
+hardened into something far more difficult to deal with than stone.  In
+fact, he soon found that he would be more likely to escape by sawing
+through the bars or digging through the stone.
+
+"Well, I mean to get out if Lipscombe don't send and fetch me; and I'll
+let them see that I'm not quite such a tame animal as to settle down to
+my cage without some effort;" and as he spoke he looked up at the
+ceiling as being a likely place to attack.
+
+He had the satisfaction of seeing that it was evidently weak, and that
+with the exercise of a little ingenuity there would be no difficulty in
+cutting a way through.
+
+But there was one drawback--it was many feet above his head, and
+impossible of access without scaffold or ladder.
+
+"And I'm not a fly, to hold on with my head downwards," he said, half
+aloud.
+
+He slowly lowered himself from the window-sill, and had another good
+look at the walls, tapping them here and there where they had been
+plastered; but though they sounded hollow, they seemed for the most part
+to be exceedingly thick, and offered no temptation for an assault.
+
+He stood there musing, with the place of his confinement gradually
+growing more gloomy, and the glow in the sky reminding him of how
+glorious the sea would look upon such an evening.
+
+There were a few strands of straw lying about, and he proceeded to kick
+them together in an idle fashion, his thoughts being far away at the
+time, when a sudden thought came to him like a flash.
+
+The place was paved with slabs of stone, and it had been the chapel of
+the old mansion; perhaps there were vaults underneath, or maybe cellars.
+
+The more he thought, the more likely this seemed.  The old builders in
+that part of England believed in providing cool stores for wine and
+beer.  In many places the dairy was underground, and why might there not
+be some place below here from which he could make his escape?
+
+He stamped with his foot and listened.
+
+Hollow, without a doubt.
+
+He tried in another part, and another; and no matter where, the sound
+was such as would arise from a place beneath whose floor there was some
+great vault.
+
+"That'll do," he said to himself, with a half-laugh.  "I'm satisfied; so
+now I'll have something to eat."
+
+The evening was closing in as he seated himself upon the straw and began
+his meal, listening the while for some sign of the presence of Adela
+under his prison window, but he listened in vain.  There was the evening
+song of the thrush, and he could hear poultry and the distant grunting
+of his friend the pig.  Now and then, too, there came through the window
+the soft cooing of the pigeons on the roof, but otherwise there was not
+a sound, and the place might have been deserted by human kind.
+
+"So much the better for me," he said, "if I want to escape;" and having
+at last finished his meal, he placed the remains on one side for use in
+the morning, and tried to find a likely stone in the floor for
+loosening, but he had to give up because it was so dark, and climbed up
+once more to the window to gaze out now at the stars, which moment by
+moment grew brighter in the east.
+
+There was something very soft and beautiful in the calm of the summer
+night, but it oppressed him with its solitude.  In one place he could
+see a faint ray of light, apparently from some cottage window; but that
+soon went out, and the scene that had been so bright in the morning was
+now shrouded in a gloom which almost hid the nearest trees.
+
+Now and then he could hear a splash in the moat made by fish or
+water-vole, and once or twice he saw the star-bejewelled surface twinkle
+and move as if some creature were swimming across; but soon that was all
+calm again, and the booming, buzzing noise of some great beetle sweeping
+by on reckless wing sounded quite loud.
+
+"It's as lively as keeping the middle watch," said Hilary impatiently.
+"The best thing I can do is to go to sleep."
+
+Hilary Leigh was one not slow to act upon his convictions, and getting
+down he proceeded to make himself as snug a nest as he could in the
+straw, lay down, pulled some of it over him, to the great bedusting of
+his uniform, and in five minutes he was fast asleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+BILLY WATERS FINDS IT OUT.
+
+"Well," said Billy Waters, "of all the cowardly, sneaking tricks anybody
+could do, I don't know a worse one than staving in a man's boat.  Yah! a
+fellow who would do such a thing ought to be strung up at the yardarm,
+that he ought!"
+
+"Every day," growled Tom Tully.  "Well, matey, how is we to get aboard?"
+
+"What's the good of asking me?" cried Billy Waters, who was regularly
+out of temper.  "Leave that gun alone, will yer?" he roared as there was
+another flash and a report from the cutter.  "It's enough to aggravate a
+hangel, that it is," he continued.  "No sooner have I left the cutter,
+and my guns that clean you might drink grog out of 'em, than the skipper
+and that Jack Brown gets fooling of 'em about and making 'em foul.  They
+neither of 'em know no more about loading a gun than they do about being
+archbishops; but they will do it, and they'll be a-busting of 'em some
+day.  Firing again, just as if we don't know the first was a recall!
+Here, who's got a loaded pistol?"
+
+"Here you are, matey," said Tom Tully.
+
+"Fire away, then, uppards," said the gunner; "and let 'em know that we
+want help."
+
+The flash from the pistol cut the darkness; there was a sharp report,
+and the gunner fired his own pistols to make three shots.
+
+"There," he said, replacing them in his belt.  "That'll make him send
+another boat, and if that there Jacky Brown's in it I shall give him a
+bit of my mind."
+
+There was a long pause now, during which the weary men sat apart upon
+the sands, or with their backs propped against the sides of the damaged
+boat, but at last there came a hail out of the darkness, to which Tom
+Tully answered with a stentorian "Boat a-hoy-oy!"
+
+"Who told you to hail, Tom Tully?" cried the gunner.  "I'm chief orsifer
+here, so just you wait until you are told."
+
+Tom Tully growled, and the gunner walked down to where the waves beat
+upon the shingle just as the regular plash-plash of the oars told of the
+coming of the boat from the cutter with the boatswain in command, that
+worthy leaping ashore, followed by half a dozen men.
+
+"What's on?" he cried.  "Have you found Muster Leigh?"
+
+"No."
+
+"What did you signal for?"
+
+"Boat.  Ourn's stove-in, and we've got knocked about awful."
+
+"What! by the smugglers?"
+
+"Ay, my lad.  They beat us off."
+
+"Then, now there's reinforcements, let's go and carry all afore us."
+
+"It's all very fine for you, coming fresh and ready, to talk," said the
+gunner; "but it ar'n't no use, my lad--we're reg'lar beat out.  They got
+away somehow, and you want daylight to find 'em."
+
+"Then you may go up the side of the cutter first, my lad, that's all
+I've got to say," said the boatswain.  "You don't catch me facing the
+skipper to-night."
+
+It was a close pack to get all the men on board, but it was successfully
+accomplished, the stove-in boat taken in tow, and the side of the cutter
+reached at last, where, as the boatswain had vaguely hinted, there was a
+storm.  Billy Waters was threatened with arrest, and he was abused for
+an hour for his clumsy management of the expedition.
+
+"A child would have managed it better, sir," cried the lieutenant; "but
+never was officer in his majesty's service worse served than I am.  Not
+one subordinate have I on whom I can depend; I might just as well get a
+draught of boys from the guardship, and if it was not for the men and
+the marines I don't know what I should do.  Pipe down."
+
+The men were piped down, glad enough to get something to eat, and then
+to crawl to their hammocks, out of which they rolled in the morning
+seeming little the worse for their engagement, the injured men being
+bruised pretty severely, though they would not own to their hurts, being
+too eager, as they put it, to go and pay their debts.
+
+For quite early the cutter began to sail in pretty close to the shore,
+the carpenter busy the while in getting a fresh plank in the bottom of
+the stove-in boat, having it ready by the time the lieutenant mustered
+his men and told them off into the boats, leaving the boatswain in
+command of the cutter and leading the expedition himself.
+
+The men fancied once or twice that they could see people on the cliffs
+watching their movements, but they could not be sure, and as the boats
+grated on the shingle the rocks looked as desolate and deserted as if
+there had not been a soul there for years.
+
+The men were well-armed, and ready to make up for their misadventure of
+the previous night, and Billy Waters being sent to the front to act as
+guide he was not long in finding out the narrow entrance amongst the
+rocks, but only to be at fault directly after, on account of places
+looking so different in broad daylight to what they did when distorted
+by the shadowy gloom.
+
+He had come to the head-scratching business, when a rub is expected to
+brighten the intellect, and felt ready to appeal to his companions for
+aid and counsel when he suddenly recollected that they had clambered
+over a rock here, and this he now did, shouting to his companions to
+come on, just as the lieutenant was approaching to fulminate in wrath
+upon his subordinate's ignorance.
+
+"Here you are," he cried, and one after the other the men tumbled down
+the rock, following him through each well-remembered turn--spots
+impressed upon them by the blows they had received, until they were
+brought to a standstill in a complete _cul-de-sac_, through a passage so
+narrow that one man could have held it against a dozen if there had been
+anything to hold.
+
+The lieutenant squeezed his way past the men till he stood beside his
+subordinate.
+
+"Well, why have you brought us here?" he exclaimed.
+
+"This here's the place where we chased 'em to, your honour," said the
+gunner, "and then they disappeared like."
+
+"But you said it was so dark that you could not see any one."
+
+"Yes, your honour, we couldn't hardly see 'em; but they disappeared all
+the same."
+
+"Where?  How?"
+
+"Some'eres here, your honour."
+
+"Nonsense, man!  The rock's thirty feet high here, and they could not go
+up that."
+
+"No, your honour."
+
+"Then where did they go?"
+
+"That's what none of us can't tell, your honour."
+
+"Look here, Waters," said the lieutenant in a rage; "do you mean to tell
+me that you have let me lead his majesty's force of marines and sailors
+to the attack of a smugglers' stronghold, and then got nothing more to
+show than a corner in the rocks?"
+
+Billy Waters scratched his head again and looked up at the face of the
+rock, then at the sides, and then down at his feet, before once more
+raising his eyes to his commander.
+
+"Now, sir!" exclaimed the latter, "what have you to say?"
+
+Billy Waters appealed to the rocks again in mute despair, but they were
+as stony-faced as ever.
+
+"Do you hear me, sir?" cried the lieutenant.  "The fact of it is that
+you all came ashore, got scandalously intoxicated, and then began
+fighting among yourselves."
+
+"No, we didn't," growled Tom Tully from somewhere in the rear.
+
+"Who was that?  What mutinous scoundrel dared to speak like that?" cried
+the lieutenant; but no one answered, though the question was twice
+repeated.  "Very good, then," continued the lieutenant; "I shall
+investigate this directly I am back on board.  Waters, consider yourself
+under arrest."
+
+"All right, your honour," said the gunner; "but if I didn't get a crack
+on the shoulder just about here from some one, I'm a Dutchman."
+
+"Ay, ay," was uttered in chorus; and the members of the previous night's
+party stared up at the rocks on all sides, in search of some evidence to
+lay before their doubting commander; but none being forthcoming, they
+reluctantly followed him back to the open shore, where, as there was
+nothing to be seen but rocks, sand, and stones, and the towering cliff,
+they proceeded back to the boats.
+
+"Fools! idiots! asses!" the lieutenant kept muttering till they
+embarked, the gunner and Tom Tully being in one boat, the lieutenant in
+the other, which was allowed to get well on ahead before the occupants
+of the second boat ventured to speak, when Tom Tully became the
+spokesman, the gunner being too much put out by the rebuff he had met
+with to do more than utter an occasional growl.
+
+"Lookye here, my lads," said Tully; "arter this here, I'll be blessed."
+
+That was all he said; but it was given in so emphatic a tone, and
+evidently meant so much, that his messmates all nodded their heads in
+sage acquiescence with his remark.  Then they looked at each other and
+bent steadily to their oars, in expectation of what was to take place as
+soon as they got on board.
+
+By the time they were three-quarters of the way Billy Waters had
+somewhat recovered himself.
+
+"I've got it," he exclaimed.
+
+"Got what?" said three or four men at once.
+
+"Why that 'ere.  I see it all now.  Them chaps lives atop o' the cliff
+when they ar'n't afloat, and they've got tackle rigged up ready, and
+what do they do but whip one another up the side o' the rock, just as
+you might whip a lady out of a boat up the side of a three-decker."
+
+Tom Tully opened his mouth and stared at the gunner in open admiration.
+
+"Why, what a clever chap you are, Billy!" he growled.  "I shouldn't ha'
+thought o' that if I'd lived to hundred-and-two."
+
+"I see it all now plain enough, mates," continued the gunner.  "I was
+hitting at that chap one minute in the dark, and then he was gone.  He'd
+been keeping me off while his mates was whipped up, and then, when his
+turn came, up he goes like a bag o' biscuit into a warehouse door at
+Portsmouth, and I'll lay a tot o' grog that's what's become of our young
+orsifer."
+
+"Hark at him!" cried Tom Tully, giving his head a sidewise wag.  "That's
+it for sartain; and if I wouldn't rather sarve under Billy Waters for
+skipper than our luff, I ar'n't here."
+
+"You'd best tell him, then, as soon as we get on board," said one of the
+men.
+
+"What! and be called a fool and a hidiot!" cried the gunner.  "Not I, my
+lads.  I says let him find it out for hisself now, for I sha'n't tell
+nothing till I'm asked."
+
+In this spirit the crew of the second boat reached the side of the
+cutter, went on board, the boats were hoisted up, and Billy Waters had
+the pleasure of finding himself placed under arrest, with the great
+grief upon his mind that his guns were left to the tender mercies of the
+boatswain, and a minor sorrow in the fact that his supply of grog was
+stopped.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+IN THE MIDDLE WATCH.
+
+How long Hilary had been asleep he did not know, but he was aroused
+suddenly by something touching his face, and he lay there wide awake on
+the instant, wondering what it meant.
+
+And now for the first time the hardship of his position came with
+renewed force.  He was accustomed to a rough life on board ship, where
+in those days there were few of the luxuries of civilisation, but there
+he had a tolerably comfortable bed.  Here he had straw, and the absence
+of a coverlet of any description made him terribly cold.
+
+The cold chill did not last many seconds after his awaking, for he felt
+a strange sensation of heat come over him; his hands grew moist, and in
+a state of intense excitement he lay wondering what it was that had
+touched his face.
+
+He could not be sure, but certainly it felt like a cold, soft hand, and
+he waited for a renewal of the touch, determined to grasp at it if it
+came again.
+
+He was as brave as most lads of his age, but as he lay there, startled
+into a sudden wakefulness, it was impossible to help thinking of Adela's
+words spoken that morning and his own light remarks, and for a time he
+felt in a strange state of perturbation.
+
+All was perfectly still, and it was so dark that he could not for some
+time make out the shape of the window against the night sky; but inside
+his prison there was a faint light, so faint that it did not make the
+wall visible, and towards this he strained his eyes, wondering whence it
+came.
+
+"Why, what a coward I am!" he said to himself, as he made an effort to
+master his childish fears.  "Ghosts, indeed!  What nonsense!  I'm worse
+than a child--afraid of being in the dark."
+
+He lay listening with the straw rustling at his slightest movement, and
+then, unable to bear the uncertainty longer, he started up on one elbow.
+
+As he did so there was a quick noise to his right, and he turned sharply
+in that direction.
+
+"I might have known it," he muttered--"rats.  I daresay they swarm in
+this old place.  How did that fellow get in?  I saw no holes."
+
+Unable to answer the question, he turned his attention to the faint
+light that seemed to pervade the place, and, after a time, he made out
+that it struck down through some crack or crevice in the ceiling.
+
+As he tried to make out where, it seemed to die away, leaving the place
+as black as ever; but now, in place of the depressing silence, he could
+hear that something was going on.  There was a dull noise somewhere
+below him, making his heart beat fast with excitement, for it was an
+endorsement of his ideas that there was a cellar or vault.  Then, in the
+distance, he fancied he could hear the rattle of chains, and the
+impatient stamp of a horse, with once or twice, but very faintly heard,
+a quick order or ejaculation.
+
+"I wonder whether there are many rats here?" he thought, for he wanted
+to get up and clamber to the window, and look out to see if he could
+witness any of the proceedings of his captors.
+
+It was an unpleasant thought that about the rats, for, as a matter of
+course, he began directly afterwards to recall all the old stories about
+people being attacked by rats, and half devoured by the fierce little
+animals; and it was some time before he could shake off the horrible
+idea that if he moved dozens of the little creatures might attack him.
+
+Making an effort over himself to master his cowardly feelings, he sprang
+up and stood listening; but there was not so much as a scuffle of the
+tiny feet, and groping his way to the wall beneath the window, he
+climbed up and looked out, but could see nothing, only hear voices from
+the other side of the house.
+
+Directly after, though, he heard some one apparently coming to his
+prison; for there were the steps upon the boarded floor, then others
+upon a stone passage, and a light shone beneath his door.
+
+"They sha'n't find me up here," he thought; and he lowered himself down;
+but, to his surprise, instead of whoever it was coming right to his
+door, he seemed to go down some steps, with another following him.  The
+light disappeared, and then the footsteps ceased, and he could hear the
+rumbling mutter of voices below his feet.
+
+"I hope they are not getting up a gunpowder plot below," said Hilary to
+himself, for his dread had given place to curiosity.  "I'll be bound to
+say that there's a regular store of good things down there waiting to be
+turned into prize-money for my lads when I once get back on board.
+Hallo! here they come again."
+
+The ascending steps were heard plainly enough, and the light reappeared,
+shining feebly beneath the door; and, going softly across, Hilary looked
+through the great keyhole, and could see the ill-looking man Allstone
+with a candle in one hand and a little keg that might have contained
+gunpowder or spirit upon his shoulder.
+
+"Here," he whispered to his companion, "lay hold while I lock up."
+
+It was all in a moment.  The keg was being passed from one to the other,
+when, between them, they let it fall with a crash, knocking the candle
+out of Allstone's hands.
+
+Hilary saw the flash of the contents of the keg as the candle fell upon
+the stones; then there was the noise of a dull explosion that rattled
+the door; and as the prisoner started back from the door a stream of
+blue fire began to run beneath it, and he heard one of the men yell out:
+
+"There's that young officer in there, and he'll be burned to death!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+A FIERY TRIAL.
+
+It was a terrible position, and for a few moments Hilary felt helpless
+to move.
+
+That blue stream of fire came gurgling and fluttering beneath the door,
+spreading rapidly over the floor, filling the chapel with a ghastly
+glare; and the prisoner saw that in a few moments it would reach the
+straw.
+
+Even in those exciting moments he fully comprehended the affair.  He
+knew, as in a case he had once seen on shipboard, that this was spirit
+of extraordinary strength, and that the vapour would explode wherever it
+gathered, even while the surface of the stream was burning.
+
+He did not stand still, though, to think, but with all the
+matter-of-fact, business habitude of one accustomed to a life of
+emergencies, he proceeded to drag the straw into the corner farthest
+away from the increasing flame.
+
+The next minute he saw that this corner was the one nearest the window,
+and that if he had to take refuge there, and the flame extended to the
+straw, there would be a tremendous blaze almost beneath him.
+
+Setting to work, he dragged it away into another corner, sweeping up the
+loose pieces as rapidly as he could, and even as he did so the
+fluttering blue-and-orange flames advanced steadily across the floor,
+cutting off his access to the window, and rapidly spreading now all over
+the place, for the passage had a gradual descent to the door, and nearly
+the whole of the spilt spirit came bubbling and streaming in.
+
+It was a beautiful, although an appalling sight, for the surface of the
+spirit was all dancing tongues of fire--red, blue, and orange, mingled
+with tiny puffs of smoke and bright sparks as it consumed the fragments
+of straw that lay upon the stones.
+
+It had reached the opposite wall now, and ran as well right up to the
+window, the floor being now one blaze, except in the corner where Hilary
+stood on guard, as if to keep the flames back from the straw.
+
+But now he found that he had another enemy with which to contend, for a
+peculiarly stifling vapour was arising, producing a sensation of
+giddiness, against which he could not battle; and as Hilary drew back
+from the approach of the tiny sea of waves of fire, pressing back, as he
+did so, the straw, he felt that unless he could reach the window he
+would be overcome.
+
+There was no time for pause; help, if it were coming, could not reach
+him yet.  In another instant he knew that the straw would catch fire.
+Even now a little rill of spirit had run to it, along which the flames
+were travelling, so, nerving himself for the effort, he made a dash to
+cross to the window.
+
+At his first step the burning spirit splashed up in blue flames; at his
+second, the fire rose above his ankles; then, placing his foot upon a
+plate that had been left upon the floor, he slipped and fell headlong
+into the burning tongues that seemed to rise and lick him angrily.
+
+The sensation was sharp to his hands, but not too pungent, and,
+fortunately, he kept his face from contact with the floor, while
+struggling up he for the moment lost his nerve, and felt ready to rush
+frantically about the place.
+
+Fortunately, however, he mastered himself, and dashed at the window,
+leaped at the sill, and climbed up to breathe the pure cool air that was
+rushing in, just as the straw caught fire, blazed up furiously, and the
+place rapidly filled with rolling clouds of smoke.
+
+He could not notice it, however, for the flames that fluttered about his
+garments where they were soaked with the spirit, and for some few
+minutes he thought of nothing but extinguishing the purply blaze.
+
+They burned him but slightly, and in several places went out as the
+spirit became exhausted; but here and there the woollen material of his
+garments began to burn with a peculiar odour before he had extinguished
+the last spark.
+
+Meanwhile, although the straw blazed furiously, and the smoke filled the
+place so that respiration would have been impossible, no help came.  The
+spirit fluttered and danced as it burned, and save here and there where
+it lay in inequalities of the floor, it was nearly consumed, the danger
+now being from the straw, which still blazed.
+
+Fortunately for Hilary, although he could feel the glow, his foresight
+in sweeping it to one corner saved him from being incommoded, and the
+heat caused a current of cool night-air to set in through the window and
+keep back the blinding and stifling fumes.
+
+He listened, and could hear shouts in the distance; but no one came to
+his help, and he could not avoid feeling that if he had been dependent
+upon aid from without he must have lost his life.  Fortunately for him,
+just at a time when his fate seemed sealed, the flames from the burning
+straw reached their height, and though they blackened the ceiling they
+did no worse harm, but exhausted from the want of supply they sank lower
+and lower.  There was not a scrap of furniture in the place, or salient
+piece of wood to catch fire, and so as the spirit burned out, and the
+blazing straw settled down into some blackened sparkling ash, Hilary's
+spirits rose, and with the reaction as he clung there by the window came
+a feeling of indignation.
+
+"If I don't be even with some of them for this!" he muttered.  "They
+half starve me, and then try to burn me to death."
+
+"Yes, that's right," he cried.  "Bravo, heroes!  Come, now the danger's
+over."
+
+For as he sat there he could hear hurrying feet, the rattle of a key in
+the chapel door, and shouts to him to come out.
+
+The smoke was so dense that the fresh comers could not possibly see him
+where he sat in the window, and they cried to him again to come out.
+
+"I sha'n't come," said Hilary to himself; "you'll only lock me up
+somewhere else, and now I have found out as much as I have, perhaps I
+shall be better off where I am."
+
+"There'll be a pretty noise about this when Sir Henry comes back," cried
+a voice, which Hilary recognised as that of the ill-looking fellow
+Allstone.  "You clumsy fool, dropping that keg!"
+
+"It was as much you as me," cried another.  "I sha'n't take all the
+blame."
+
+"The lad's burned to death through your clumsiness," continued Allstone.
+
+"And a whole keg of the strongest brandy wasted," said another
+dolefully.
+
+"The place nearly burned down too," said another.
+
+"Here, go in somebody," cried Allstone.  "Perhaps he isn't quite dead,
+and I suppose we must save him if we can.  Do you hear?  Go in some of
+you."
+
+"Who's going in?" said another voice.  "There's smoke enough to choke
+you.  Why don't you go in yourself?"
+
+"Because I tell you to go," cried Allstone savagely.  "I'm master here
+when the skipper's away, and I'll be obeyed.  Go in, two of you, and
+fetch the boy out."
+
+"He don't want no fetching out," said one of the men, as the current of
+air that set from the window drove the smoke aside and revealed the
+dimly-seen figure of Hilary seated in the embrasure holding on to the
+iron bars.  "He don't want no help; there he sits."
+
+Allstone, who had been seized with a fit of coughing and choking from
+the effects of the blinding, pungent smoke, did not speak for a few
+moments, during which the smoke went on getting thinner and thinner,
+though, as the men had no lights, everything was still very obscure.
+
+"Oh, you're up there, are you?" cried Allstone at last.  "Come down,
+sir; do you hear?"  And he spoke as if he were addressing a disobedient
+dog; but Hilary remained perfectly silent, truth to say, almost
+speechless from indignation.
+
+"What do you mean by pretending to be smothered and burned to death,
+hey?" cried the fellow again, roughly.  "Why don't you answer?  Get
+down."
+
+"Out, bully!" cried Hilary angrily.  "Why, you insolent dog, how dare
+you speak to a king's officer like that?  Why, you ugly,
+indecent-looking outrage upon humanity, you set fire to the place
+through your clumsiness, and then come and insult me for not being
+burned to death."
+
+"Haw! haw! haw!" laughed one of the men.  "Well crowed, young gamecock."
+
+"You cowardly lubbers, why didn't you come sooner to help me, instead of
+leaving me to frizzle here?  I might have burned to death a dozen times
+for aught you cared."
+
+"Haw! haw! haw!" laughed a couple of the men now, to Allstone's great
+annoyance.
+
+"Hold your tongue, and come down, boy," he cried.  "You can't stop
+there."
+
+"Be off and lock the door again, bully," cried Hilary.  "You great ugly,
+cowardly hound, if I had you on board the _Kestrel_, you should be
+triced up and have five dozen on your bare back."
+
+"Haw! haw! haw!" came in a regular chorus this time, for the danger was
+over.
+
+"I'd like to look on while the crew of you were being talked to by the
+boatswain," cried Hilary, angrily--"a set of cowardly loons."
+
+"That'll do!" cried Allstone, who was hoarse with passion.  "Go in and
+fetch him out."
+
+No one stirred, and Allstone went in himself, but only to be seized with
+a furious fit of coughing which lasted a couple of minutes or so, and to
+his companions' intense delight.
+
+The fit over, the fellow went in again and stood beneath the window.
+
+"Come down!" he cried; but as Hilary did not condescend to notice him
+Allstone seized the young man by one of his legs, with the result that
+he clung with both hands to the iron bars, and raising up his knees for
+a moment, kicked out with as much cleverness as his friend the jackass,
+catching Allstone full in the chest and sending him staggering back for
+a few steps, where, unable to recover his balance, he went down heavily
+in a sitting position.
+
+There was a roar of laughter from his companions, who stamped about,
+slapped their legs, and literally danced with delight; while, in spite
+of his anger and indignation at this scoundrel of a smuggler daring to
+touch a king's officer, Hilary could not help feeling amused.
+
+But matters looked tragic directly after instead of comic, for, uttering
+a fierce oath, the man sprang up, pulled out his cutlass and made at the
+prisoner.
+
+Active as a leopard, Hilary sprang down to avoid him, when the pieces of
+the broken plate--the remains of that which had thrown the young officer
+down into the burning spirit--this time befriended him, for Allstone
+stepped upon a large fragment, slipped, fell sprawling, and the cutlass
+flew from his hand with a loud jangling noise in the far corner upon the
+stone floor.
+
+Quick as lightning, and while the other men were roaring with laughter,
+Hilary dashed at the cutlass, picked it up, and, assuming now the part
+of aggressor, he turned upon Allstone, presenting the point of his
+weapon, and drove the ruffian before him out of the place, turning the
+next moment upon his companions, who offered not the slightest
+resistance, but retreated before him laughing with all their might.
+
+Hilary was about to seize the opportunity to chase them onward through
+the passage and try to escape, but Allstone was too quick for him.
+
+On being driven out the man had taken refuge behind the door, and as the
+last man of his companions passed he dashed it to, striking Hilary full
+and driving him backwards into the chapel, as it slammed against the
+post with a heavy echo, and was locked and bolted.
+
+"Stop there, and starve and rot," the ruffian cried through the keyhole
+furiously, as Hilary stood panting and shaking first one hand and then
+the other, against which the door, to the saving of his face, had come
+with tremendous force.
+
+"We'll see about that," said Hilary to himself, as he gave the cutlass a
+flourish; and then, as the steps died down the passage and he heard the
+farther door close, with the steps of the men passing over the empty
+boarded room, he laughed at the change that had come over the scene
+during the last quarter of an hour.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+TEMPTATION.
+
+There was something ludicrous in the struggle that had taken place,
+especially as Hilary had so thoroughly won the day; but at the same time
+there was a very unpleasant side to his position.  It was in the middle
+of the night and very dark, save in one corner of the stone-floored
+place where the remains of the heap of straw displayed a few sparks, and
+sent up a thin thread of smoke, which rose to the ceiling and there
+spread abroad, the rest having passed away, driven out by the draught
+caused by the open door.  He had not a scrap of furniture; the straw was
+all burned, and the floor of his prison was stone.
+
+Still there was one good thing upon his side--one which afforded Hilary
+the most intense satisfaction, and this was the fact that he had secured
+the cutlass.  Not that he wanted it for fighting, though it might prove
+useful in case of need for his defence; but it suggested itself to him
+as being a splendid implement for raising one of the stones in the
+floor, with which help he might possibly get into the cellars or vaults
+below, and so escape.
+
+"But I don't like going to sleep on the stones," said Hilary to himself,
+and tucking the cutlass under his arm, he felt the flooring in different
+places.
+
+To his surprise he found it perfectly dry, for the intensely strong
+spirit had burned itself completely out, leaving not so much as a humid
+spot; and after climbing up to look out at the dark night, Hilary saw
+that the fire was as good as extinct, and ended by sitting down.
+
+The stones were very cold, but he felt weary, and at last so intense a
+desire to sleep came upon him that he lay down, and in spite of the
+hardness of his couch and the fact that he had no pillow but his arm, he
+dropped off into a heavy sleep, from which he did not awaken till the
+sun was shining in through the window upon the smoke-blackened walls.
+
+Hilary's first thought was concerning his cutlass, which was safe by his
+side, and jumping up, he listened.  Then he went to the door and
+listened again, but all was perfectly still.
+
+What was he to do? he asked himself.  He felt sure that Allstone would
+come before long, and others with him, to obtain possession of the
+weapon, and he was equally determined not to give it up.  He might fight
+for it, but, now that he was cool, he felt a repugnance against shedding
+blood; and, besides, he knew that he must be overcome by numbers,
+perhaps wounded, and that would make a very uncomfortable state of
+things ten times worse.
+
+The result was that he determined to hide the cutlass; but where?
+
+He looked around the place, and, as far as he could see, there was not a
+place where he could have hidden away a bodkin, let alone the weapon in
+his hand.
+
+Certainly he might have heaped over it the black ashes of the straw and
+the few unburned scraps; but such a proceeding would have been childish
+in the extreme.
+
+It was terribly tantalising, for there was absolutely no place where he
+could conceal it; and at last, biting his lips with vexation, he
+exclaimed, after vainly looking out for a slab that he could raise:
+
+"I must either fight for it or throw it out of the window; and I'd
+sooner do that than he should have it back.  Hurrah!  That will do!" he
+cried eagerly, as a thought struck him.
+
+Laying down the cutlass, he leaped up to the window, pressed his face
+sidewise against the bars, and looked down, to see that the grass and
+weeds grew long below him.
+
+He was down again directly and seated upon the floor, where, after
+listening for a few moments, he stripped down one of his blue worsted
+stoutly-knitted stockings, sought for a likely place, cut through a
+thread, and, pulling steadily, it rapidly came undone.  This furnished
+him with a line of worsted some yards long.
+
+Leaping up, he rapidly tied one end round the hilt of the cutlass,
+climbed to the window, and lowered the weapon down outside, till it lay
+hidden amongst the grass close to the wall.  Then he tied the slight
+thread close down in the rusted-away part of one of the bars, descended
+again, and raked up some ashes, with which he mounted and sprinkled them
+over the thread, making it invisible from inside; after which he
+descended, feeling quite hopeful that the plan would not be discovered.
+
+This done, he seemed to have more time for a look round at the effects
+of the fire; but beyond a little blackening of the ceiling and the heap
+of ashes, there was nothing much to see.  The strong spirit had burned
+itself out without doing more than scorch the bottom of the door; but he
+had a lively recollection of the strange scene as the little blue
+tongues of fire seemed to be fluttering and dancing all over the place.
+
+Just then he noticed the corner where he had placed the remains of his
+previous night's meal, and there were the empty plates--for not a scrap
+of the food was left; and this satisfactorily indorsed his ideas
+respecting the touch that had so startled him into wakefulness.
+
+"Better be awakened by that than by the blaze of fire," he said half
+aloud.  "Oh, won't I give Sir Henry a bit of my mind about the treatment
+I meet with here, and--here he is."
+
+For just then he heard the tramp of feet over the boarded floor, the
+flinging open of the first door, then the steps in the passage, and he
+altered his opinion.
+
+"No!" he exclaimed; "it's old Allstone coming after his cutlass."
+
+He was quite right, for, well-armed, and followed by four men, Hilary's
+jailer entered the place, glanced sharply round, and exclaimed:
+
+"I've come for that cutlass."
+
+"Have you?" said Hilary coolly.
+
+"Hand it over."
+
+"I have not got it," said Hilary coolly.
+
+"Don't tell me lies," said the fellow roughly.  "Here, lay hold."
+
+Five to one was too much for resistance, so Hilary submitted patiently
+to the search that was made, to see if he had it concealed beneath his
+clothes.
+
+"There's nothing here," said one of the men; and Allstone tried himself,
+flinching sharply as the prisoner made believe to strike at him.
+
+Then he carefully looked all round the place, which was soon done, and
+the fellow turned to him menacingly:
+
+"Now then," he cried, "just you speak out, or it will be the worse for
+you.  Where's that cutlass?"
+
+Hilary looked at him mockingly.
+
+"I'll tell you the strict truth," he thought; and he replied, "I dropped
+it out of the window."
+
+"It's a lie," cried the ruffian savagely; "I don't believe you."
+
+"I knew you would not," said Hilary laughing.  "Where is it then?"
+
+"I swallowed it."
+
+"What!" said the fellow staring.
+
+"Hilt and all if you like.  Now, do you believe that?"  The man stared
+at him.
+
+"Because you would not believe the truth, so there's what you asked
+for--a lie."
+
+The fellow stared at him again, seized hold of him, and felt him all
+over in the roughest way.  Then, satisfied that the weapon was not
+concealed about the lad's person, he looked round the place once more,
+walked to the side of the room so as to get a view of the window-ledge,
+and then he turned to Hilary once more.
+
+"When did you drop it out?" he said sharply.
+
+"As soon as I awoke this morning," replied Hilary.  "Just before you
+came."
+
+"Come along, my lads," said the fellow, who then withdrew with his
+followers.  The door clanged to, was locked, and as Hilary listened he
+heard them all depart, securing the farther door behind them; and,
+satisfied that they were gone, he nimbly climbed up to the window,
+raised the cutlass by means of the worsted, and having taking it in he
+descended once more, unfastened and rolled up the thread for further
+use, and then thrust the weapon down under his vest and into the left
+leg of his trousers, feeling pretty sure that they would not search him
+again.
+
+A few minutes later he heard voices, and going beneath the window, and
+raising himself up till his ear was level with the ledge, he could hear
+all that was said, and he knew that the men were searching for the
+sword.
+
+"Don't seem to be about here," said one of the men.
+
+"Look well," Hilary heard Allstone say.
+
+"That's just what we are doing.  Think he did throw it over?"
+
+"Must have done so," said Allstone; "there isn't a place anywhere big
+enough to hide a knife."
+
+"Then some one's been by this morning and picked it up," said one of the
+men, "for it don't seem to be anywhere here."
+
+"Turn over that long grass," said Allstone, "and kick those weeds
+aside."
+
+Hilary heard the rustling sounds made by the men as they obeyed their
+leader; but of course there was no result.
+
+"Somebody come by and picked it up," said the man again; and, apparently
+satisfied, the party went away, Hilary raising his eyes, saw the
+smugglers go round the corner of the house below the ivied gable,
+leaving him wondering whether they would come back.
+
+"They may," he thought; "and if they do, they will see that I've got
+this thing tucked in here."
+
+Quickly taking out the worsted he secured it to the cutlass, and
+lowering it once more out of the window, tied the thread to the bar.
+
+"It's safest there, I'll be bound," he muttered; and he had hardly made
+his arrangements for concealment when he heard the steps coming, and
+began walking up and down as the door was opened, and, staring at him
+doubtfully, Allstone came in with two men bearing some breakfast for the
+prisoner, while their leader went round Hilary again, searchingly noting
+every fold of his garments before once more withdrawing.
+
+"He must have seen it if I had it on," said Hilary, as he once more
+found himself alone, when he eagerly attacked the provisions that had
+been left.
+
+After satisfying his hunger, he was a good deal divided in his mind as
+to what to do about the weapon, which might prove to be so valuable an
+implement in his attempt to escape.  If left outside and searched for
+again, the smugglers must find it; but the chances were that they would
+not go and look again, so he decided to leave it where it was.
+
+The morning wore on without a single incident to take his attention, and
+he spent the time in examining the floor of his prison, giving a tap
+here and a tap there, and noting where it sounded most hollow.
+
+It was a long task, but he had plenty of time upon his hands, and he at
+last decided that he would make his attack upon a small stone in the
+corner by the wall which contained the window, that was not only the
+darkest place, the light seeming to pass over it, but there was a
+hollower echo when he struck the stone, from which he hoped that the
+slab was thinner than the rest.
+
+He drove the knife in all round and found that it passed in without
+difficulty; and as he examined the place, he found to his great delight
+that some time or other there had evidently been a staple let into the
+slab, probably to hold a great ring for raising the stone, and
+undoubtedly this was a way down to the vaults below.
+
+What he wanted now was a good supply of straw to lay over that part of
+the floor to conceal any efforts he might make for raising the stone,
+and meanwhile dusting some of the ashes and half-burned straw-chaff over
+the spot, he awaited Allstone's next appearance with no little anxiety.
+
+Towards afternoon he heard steps, and evidently his jailer was coming;
+but to his surprise, instead of Allstone being accompanied by two or
+three men, his companion was Sir Henry Norland, who had evidently just
+returned from a journey.
+
+"Ah, my dear Hilary," he exclaimed, "I have just been hearing of your
+narrow escape.  My dear boy, I cannot tell you how sorry I am.  You are
+not in the least hurt, I hope?"
+
+"No, Sir Henry, not in body," said the young man distantly; "but you see
+all my prison furniture has been destroyed.  Will you give orders that I
+am to be supplied with a little more straw?"
+
+"I gave orders that a mattress and blankets, with a table and chairs,
+should be brought here before I went out," said Sir Henry, "with a few
+other things.  Good gracious!  I had no idea the fire had been so bad.
+Did it burn everything?"
+
+"My furniture was what I asked to be replaced--a little straw," said
+Hilary bitterly.  "I had nothing else."
+
+Sir Henry turned frowning to the man, and said a few words in a low but
+commanding tone to him which made him scowl; but he went off growling
+something to himself in a sulky manner.
+
+"My dear Hilary," said Sir Henry, "I did not know you had been so badly
+treated.  I am so much engaged upon His Majesty's business that I am
+afraid I have neglected you sadly."
+
+"Indeed, Sir Henry?  And now you have come to say that I am at liberty
+to go free and attend to His Majesty's business?" said Hilary with a
+sarcastic ring in his words.
+
+"Will you?" said Sir Henry eagerly.
+
+"Yes, of course," said Hilary.  "I serve the king, and I am ready to do
+anything in the king's name."
+
+Sir Henry smiled pityingly.
+
+"We misunderstand each other, Hilary.  But come, my boy, let us waste no
+words.  Listen.  I come to you armed with powers to make you a great and
+honoured man.  Join us, Hilary.  We know that you are a skilful officer,
+a clever sailor.  You are the merest subordinate now; but throw yourself
+heart and soul into the Stuart cause, help to restore the king to his
+rights, and you shall rise with him.  Young as you are, I have a
+splendid offer to make you.  As you are, you serve under a miserable
+officer, and in time you may rise to a captaincy.  Join us, and, as I
+say, young as you are His Majesty gives you through me the rank of
+captain, and knighthood shall follow if you serve him well."
+
+"Have you nearly done, Sir Henry?" said Hilary coldly.
+
+"Done, my dear boy, I want to introduce you to a band of truly
+chivalrous noblemen and gentlemen who will receive you with open arms.
+I want you to be my friend and fellow patriot--to aid me with your
+advice and energy.  I want you to leave this wretched prison, and to
+soar above the contemptible task of putting down a few miserable
+smugglers.  I want you to come out of this place with me at once, to
+become once more the companion of my little Adela, who sends her message
+by me that she is waiting to take you by the hand.  Come: leave the
+wretched usurper's chains, and be free if you would be a man.  Adela
+says--Hark!  There she is."
+
+As he spoke there came in through the window, bearing with it the
+memories of bright and happy times, the tones of the girl's sweet young
+voice, and as Hilary listened he closed his eyes and thought of the
+bright sunny country, the joys of freedom, the high hopes of ambition,
+and a warm flush came into his cheeks, while Sir Henry smiled in the
+satisfaction of his heart as he whispered to himself the one
+word--"_Won_!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+A SURPRISE FOR SIR HENRY.
+
+It was very tempting.  The country looked so bright and beautiful from
+his prison window; the voice of his old companion brought up such a host
+of pleasant recollections, and it would have been delightful to renew
+the old intimacy.  Then, upon the other hand, what would he give up?  A
+dull monotonous life under a tyrannical superior, with but little chance
+of promotion, to receive honour, advancement, and no doubt to enjoy no
+little adventure.
+
+It was very tempting, and enough to make one with a stronger mind than
+Hilary Leigh waver in his allegiance.
+
+As he stood there thinking the song went on, and Hilary felt that did he
+but say yes, and swear fealty to one who believed himself to be the
+rightful king of England, he would be at liberty to join Adela at once.
+There would be an end to his imprisonment, and no more wretched anxiety.
+
+He had done his duty so far, he argued, and he was doing his duty when
+fortune went against him, and he was made a prisoner, so to a certain
+extent his changing sides might be considered excusable.  He had had
+little else but rough usage and discomfort since he went to sea, and the
+offers now made to him by Sir Henry were full of promise, which he knew
+the baronet was too true to hold out without perfect honesty.
+
+Taken altogether--that is in connection with his position, and the
+probability that he might be kept here a prisoner for any length of
+time, and that most likely he had already been reported by Mr Lipscombe
+as a deserter--there was such a bright prospect held out that Hilary
+felt for the time extremely weak and ready to give up.
+
+Meanwhile the song went on outside, for all these thoughts ran very
+quickly through the young man's brain.  Then Adela's voice died away,
+and Hilary opened his eyes to see Sir Henry standing there, with a smile
+upon his handsome face, and his hand extended.
+
+"Well, Captain Leigh," he said, laughing, "I am to clasp hands with my
+young brother in the good cause?"
+
+"You will shake hands with me, Sir Henry," said Hilary, "for we are very
+old friends, and I shall never forget my happy days at the old hall,"
+and he laid his hand in that of the baronet.
+
+"Forget them!  No, my dear boy," cried Sir Henry enthusiastically.  "But
+there will be brighter days yet.  Come along and join Adela; she will be
+delighted to have you with her again.  Come along!  Why do you hang
+back?  Why, Hil, my boy, you have not grown bashful?"
+
+"You love the young Pre--I mean Charles Stuart," said Hilary quietly, as
+he still held his old friend's hand.
+
+"Love, my boy?  Yes, Heaven bless him!  And so will you when you meet
+him.  He will take to you with your frank young sailor face, Hilary."
+
+"No, Sir Henry," Hilary replied sadly.  "I have heard that he is
+generally frank, and an honourable gentleman."
+
+"All that, Hilary," cried Sir Henry enthusiastically.  "He is royal in
+his ways, and I am sure he will like you."
+
+"If he is what you say, Sir Henry," replied the young man, "he would
+look with coldness and contempt upon a scoundrel and a traitor."
+
+"To be sure he would," said Sir Henry, who in his elation and belief
+that he had won Hilary over to the Pretender's cause was thrown off his
+guard.
+
+"Then why do you talk of his liking me, if, after signing my adhesion to
+him whom I look upon as my rightful king, I deserted him at the first
+touch of difficulty?  No, Sir Henry, I could not accept your offer
+without looking upon myself afterwards as a traitor and a villain, and I
+am sure that you would be one of the first men to think of me with
+contempt."
+
+Sir Henry dropped the hand he held in astonishment, completely taken
+aback, and a heavy frown came upon his brow.
+
+"Are you mad, Hilary?" he exclaimed.  "Do you know what you are
+refusing?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Henry, I know what I am refusing; but I hope I am not mad."
+
+"Honour, advancement, liberty, in place of what you are enduring now."
+
+"Yes, Sir Henry, I can see it all."
+
+"Adela's friendship--my friendship.  Oh, my dear boy, you have not
+considered all this."
+
+"Yes, Sir Henry, I have considered it all," said Hilary firmly; "and
+though you are angry now, I am sure that the time will come when you
+will respect me for being faithful to my king, just as you would have
+learned to despise me if I had broken my word."
+
+Sir Henry did not reply, but turned short upon his heel and walked to
+the door, rapped loudly till the key was turned, and then without
+glancing at Hilary again he left the place.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+HILARY'S WAY OF ESCAPE.
+
+Hilary stood in the centre of the old chapel, gazing at the closed door,
+and listening to the rattle of the bolts.  He was full of regrets, for,
+left early an orphan, he had been in the habit of looking up to Sir
+Henry somewhat in the way that a boy would regard a father; and he was
+grieved to the heart to think that so old and dear a friend should look
+upon him as an ingrate.
+
+But at the same time he felt lighter at heart, and there was the
+knowledge to support him that he had done his duty at a very trying
+time.
+
+"I should have felt that every right-thinking man had looked down upon
+me," he said, half aloud, "and little Adela would have been ashamed when
+she knew all, to call me friend."
+
+He stood with his eyes still fixed upon the door thinking, and now his
+thoughts were mingled with bitter feelings, for he was still a prisoner
+at the mercy of a set of lawless men, Sir Henry being no doubt merely a
+visitor here, and possessed of but little authority.
+
+"And I know too much for them to let me go and bring a few of our lads
+to rout out their nest," he said, half aloud.  "Never mind, they won't
+dare to kill me, unless it is by accident," he added grimly, and then he
+ran to the window to see if Adela were in sight.
+
+Practice had made him nimble now, and leaping up, he caught the bars,
+drew himself into the embrasure, and peered between the bars.
+
+"Pst!  Adela!" he cried eagerly, for he could just see her light dress
+between the trees.
+
+She looked up, and came running towards the window, looking bright and
+happy, and there was an eager light in her eyes.
+
+"Why, Hil!" she cried.  "I did not think you would be there now.  Papa
+said he thought you would soon be at liberty, and that perhaps you would
+stay with us a little while before you went away."
+
+"And should you like me to stay with you?" he said, gazing down.
+
+"Oh, yes; so much!" she said naively.  "This old place is so dull and
+lonely, and I am so much alone with an old woman who waits upon us.  Why
+don't you come out?"
+
+"Because I am a prisoner," he said quietly.
+
+"But I thought--I hoped--papa said you were going to give your parole
+not to escape," said Adela; "or else that you were going to join our
+cause and fight for the true king."
+
+He shook his head mournfully.
+
+"No, Addy.  I cannot give my word of honour not to escape," he said;
+"because I hope to get away at the first opportunity."
+
+"Then join our cause," cried Adela.
+
+"No," he said, shaking his head, "I cannot join your cause, Addy,
+because I am an officer appointed in the king's name to serve in one of
+King George's vessels.  I should be a traitor if I forsook my colours."
+
+"But I want you to come," cried Adela, with the wayward tyranny of a
+child.  "It seems so stupid for you to be shut up there like a wild
+beast in a cage.  Oh, Hil, you must come on our side!  Do!"
+
+"Adela!  Adela!" cried an imperious voice.
+
+"Yes, papa, I am coming," she cried; and looking up quickly at the
+prisoner, she nodded and laughed, and the next moment she had
+disappeared.
+
+Hilary sat watching as if in the hope that she would come back; but he
+knew in his heart that she would not, and so it proved at the end of
+quite a couple of hours.
+
+"He has told her that she is to hold no communication with such a
+fellow," he said to himself.  "Poor little Addy! what a sweet little
+thing she is growing, and what an impetuous, commanding way she has!"
+
+He sat watching the place still, but without hope.  Now and then the
+girl's words came to him.
+
+"I seem like a wild beast in a cage, do I?" he said laughing.  "Very
+good, Miss Addy; then I must gnaw my way out."
+
+As he spoke his eyes fell upon the bit of worsted that was secured to
+the cutlass, and he was about to draw it up when he heard footsteps
+approaching from the interior, and he leaped lightly down and began
+walking about the place as the door was opened, and Allstone held it
+back for some of his men to enter with a couple of trusses of straw, a
+couple of blankets, a rough three-legged table, and a rougher stool,
+which were unceremoniously thrown or jerked down, and then, after a
+suspicious look at his prisoner, Allstone motioned to the men to go.
+
+"Is there anything else your lordship would like?" he said with a sneer.
+"The best feather-beds are damp, and the carpets have been put away by
+mistake.  What wines would your lordship like for your dinner and would
+you like silver cups or glass?"
+
+"Now then, old Allstones, or Allbones, or Nobones, or whatever your name
+is," cried Hilary, putting his arms akimbo, and taking a step nearer to
+the jailer, "you are a big and precious ugly man of about forty, and I'm
+only a boy; but look here, if I had you on board my ship I'd have you
+triced up and flogged."
+
+"But you are not on board your ship, my young cockerel," said the man
+mockingly.
+
+"No," cried Hilary, "but I'm all here, and if you give me any of your
+sauce when you come in, I'll show you why some fellows are made officers
+and some keep common seamen to the end of their days."
+
+"And how's that?" said the ruffian with a sneer.
+
+"Because they know how to deal with bullies and blackguards like you.
+Now then, this is my room, so walk out."
+
+He took another step forward and gazed so fiercely in the man's eyes,
+that, great as was the disparity in their ages and strength, Allstone
+shrank back step by step until he reached the doorway, when, if not
+afraid of Hilary, he was certainly so much taken aback by the young
+man's manner that he was thoroughly cowed for the moment, and shrank
+away, slipping through the door and banging it after him, leaving the
+prisoner to his meditations.
+
+"Come, I've got a bed," he said, laughing, "and a chair and a table,
+and--hurrah! the very thing."
+
+He then seized the table and turned it upside down to gaze beneath, and
+then replacing it, ran to the window, pulled up the cutlass, and going
+to the table once more, turned it over and inserted the point of the
+weapon between the side and the top, with the result that it stuck there
+firmly, and upon the table being replaced upon its legs it was quite
+concealed.
+
+"There!" he cried, "that will be handy, and I daresay safe, for they
+will never think of searching that after bringing it in."
+
+This done, he proceeded to roll up his worsted for future use, and
+placed it in one pocket, the piece of cord with which he had drawn up
+the milk being in another.
+
+"Why, I might have used that instead of the worsted," he said, as he
+remembered it for the first time; but he recollected directly after that
+it would have been too easily seen.
+
+Then he inspected the two trusses of straw, and made his bed close
+beside the opening he hoped to make by raising the slab; and then,
+having carefully examined the spot, he listened to make sure that he was
+not heard, and taking out his pocket-knife, went down upon his knees and
+began to pick out the hard dirt and cement that filled the cracks around
+the broad, flat stone.
+
+It was rough work, but he had the satisfaction of feeling that he was
+making very fair progress, scraping up the pieces from the place around,
+and as fast as he secured a handful going to the window and throwing it
+out with a good jerk, looking out afterwards to see if it showed, and
+finding it was concealed by the long grass.
+
+He was well upon the _qui vive_, having placed the straw close to the
+place where he was at work, and holding himself in readiness at the
+slightest alarm to scatter a portion over the slab.
+
+But no one came, and he worked steadily on hour after hour till the
+crack all round was quite clear, and he had no need to do more till he
+tried to raise the stone by using the cutlass as a lever.
+
+To guard against surprise he now scattered about some of the chaff and
+small scraps that had been shaken out of the two bundles of straw, and
+after listening attentively, he could not resist the temptation of
+taking out the heavy sword and trying whether he could lift the slab.
+
+The point went in easily, and he was just about to press upon the handle
+when he snatched the weapon out and hastily thrust it back in its
+hiding-place, for there was the sound of an opening door, and a minute
+later Allstone walked in with a small loaf and a jug of water, placing
+them upon the table with a sour and malicious look at the prisoner, who
+did not even notice his presence, and then left the place.
+
+"Bread and water, eh!" thought Hilary.  "Well, the greater need for me
+to get away, for ship living will be better than this."
+
+His hearty young appetite, however, was ready to induce him to look with
+favour upon food of any kind, and he set to at once, munching the bread
+and refreshing himself with draughts of water.
+
+"If this is Sir Henry's doing," he said, "it is mean; but I'll put it
+down to the credit of our amiable friend Allstone.  Perhaps I may be
+able some day to return the compliment.  We shall see."
+
+At his time of life low spirits do not last long, and he was too full of
+his idea of escape to trouble himself now about the quality of his food.
+All being well, he hoped to get down into the cellar, where, among
+other things it was evident that the smugglers kept their store of
+spirits; he might, perhaps, find firearms as well.  At all events he
+hoped that the exit might prove easier than from the place where he now
+was.
+
+He was obliged to leave off eating to try to raise the slab with the
+cutlass, so taking the weapon from its hiding-place, he tried the edge
+of the stone, inserting the point of the sword with the greatest care,
+and then pressing down the handle he found, to his great delight, that
+he could easily prise up the slab, raising it now a couple of inches
+before he lowered it down.
+
+This was excellent, and the success of his project was far greater than
+he had anticipated; in fact, he had expected double the difficulty in
+loosening the stone.
+
+"They are not much accustomed to having prisoners," he said, with a
+half-laugh, as he replaced the cutlass beneath the table.  "Why, any
+fellow could get out of here."
+
+Then, thinking that his remark in his self-communing was too conceited,
+he added:
+
+"Down into the cellar or vaults; whether one could get out afterwards is
+another thing."
+
+Returning to his stool, he worked away at the bread, steadily munching,
+finding the result quieting to his hungry pains, and also a kind of
+amusement to pass away the time till he felt that he might set to work
+in safety, for he did not mean to commence till nearly dusk.
+
+As he expected, towards evening Allstone came again, not to bring more
+food, but to glance sharply round at the place and carefully scrutinise
+his prisoner as if looking for the missing sword.
+
+Hilary looked straight before him, whistling softly the while in the
+most nonchalant manner, completely ignoring his visitor's presence, to
+the man's evident annoyance, his anger finding vent in a heavy bang of
+the door.
+
+Hilary did not move for quite half an hour; then, all being perfectly
+still, and the evening shadows beginning to make his prison very dim, he
+rose with beating heart, listened, and all being silent as if there was
+not a soul within hearing, took the cutlass from its hiding-place, and
+proceeded to put his project in action.
+
+Bending down, he once more swept aside the straw, and inserted the point
+of the sword, to find that this time there was more difficulty in his
+task, for he had to try several times, and in fresh positions, finding
+the cutlass bend almost to breaking-point, before success crowned his
+efforts, and he raised the stone sufficiently far to get his fingers
+beneath, and then the task was easy, for with a steady lift he raised
+one side and leaned it right up against the wall.
+
+He had hardly accomplished this before he fancied he heard a slight
+noise outside, beneath the window, and the perspiration began to stand
+in a dew upon his face as he realised the fact that some one had just
+placed a ladder against the wall and was ascending to look in.
+
+If the stone was seen upraised his chance of escape was at an end, and
+there was not a moment to spare, nor the slightest chance of closing it.
+
+He glanced around, and, to his intense delight, noted that it was
+getting decidedly dark in the corner where he stood; but still detection
+seemed to be certain; and he had only one chance, that was--to throw
+himself down and pretend to be asleep.
+
+This he did at once, breathing heavily, and lying perfectly motionless,
+but with his eyes wide open, and his ears strained to catch the
+slightest sound.
+
+He was quite right; some one was ascending a short ladder placed by his
+window; and as he watched attentively he saw the opening suddenly
+darkened, and some man's face gazing straight in.
+
+It was too dark now for him to distinguish the features, and he hoped
+that the obscurity would favour him by preventing the intruder from
+seeing what had been done.
+
+It was a time of terrible suspense, probably only of a minute's
+duration, but it seemed to Hilary like an hour; and there he lay, with
+half-closed eyes, gazing at the head so dimly-seen, wondering whether it
+was Allstone, but unable to make out.
+
+Just then a thought flashed through his brain.
+
+Might it not be a friend?--perhaps a party from the _Kestrel_ arrived in
+search of him; and, full of hope, he gazed intently at the head.  But
+his hopes sank as rapidly as they had risen, for he was compelled to own
+that, if it had been a friend, he would have spoken or whistled, or in
+some way have endeavoured to catch his attention.
+
+At last, wearied with straining his attention, Hilary felt that he must
+speak, when it seemed to him that the window grew a little lighter, and
+as he gazed there was a faint scratching noise, telling that the ladder
+had been removed.
+
+He could bear it no longer, but, softly rising, he made for the window,
+climbed up, and gently raising his head above the sill, peered out, to
+be just able to distinguish a dark figure carrying a short ladder, which
+brushed against the branches of a tree, and then a low, husky cough,
+which he at once recognised, told him who his visitor had been.
+
+"A contemptible spy!" muttered Hilary, as he dropped back into the
+chapel.  "Now then, has he seen or has he not?"
+
+If he had it was useless to lower down the slab, so Hilary let it stay,
+and waited minute after minute to see if he would come.  But all
+remained perfectly still, and, to all appearance, the people who made
+the old place their rendezvous were now away.
+
+Hilary was divided in his mind as to what he should do.  To be
+precipitate might ruin his chance of getting away, while if he left it
+too long the smugglers might return, and his opportunity would again be
+gone.  He decided, then, on a medium course--to wait, as far as he could
+judge, for half an hour, and then make his attempt.
+
+Meantime he began to think of what course he should pursue when he was
+free, and it seemed that all he could do would be to strike inland at
+once, for that would be the safest plan.  If he tried to reach the coast
+the chances were that he would encounter one of the gang, or at all
+events some cottager who would most probably be in their pay.
+
+"The half-hour must be up now," he exclaimed; and, after listening at
+the door, he thrust the cutlass in his belt, and made for the hole
+formed by the raised flag.
+
+"I wonder how far it is down?" he muttered.  "Seven feet at the outside;
+and if I lower myself gently I shall be able to touch the floor, or
+perhaps I shall come down on some barrel or package."
+
+As he spoke he lowered himself gently down, with a hand on either side
+of the aperture, and then, swinging his legs about, one of them kicked
+the side, showing that the cellar or vault was a little smaller in
+dimensions than the place above.
+
+He lowered himself a little more, and a little more, his sea life having
+made the muscles of his arms as tough almost as iron, and at last,
+having a good hold of the stones on either side, he let himself steadily
+go down till his head was beneath the floor and he hung down at the full
+length of his hands.
+
+"Deeper down than I thought for," he muttered, as he swung himself to
+and fro.  "Shall I drop, or sha'n't I?  It can't be above a foot; but
+somehow one don't like to let go of a certainty, to drop no one can tell
+where--perhaps on to bottles, or no one knows what."
+
+He still swung in hesitation, for it seemed cowardly to go back, now he
+was so far down; but somehow the desire to be upon the safe side
+obtained the mastery, and he determined to go back.
+
+Easier settled upon than done.  His muscles were tough enough, but
+somehow his position was awkward, and his hold upon the stones so slight
+that, though he drew himself up twice, he did not get well above the
+opening till he managed to force one toe into the niche between a couple
+of the stones of the wall, when, by a sharp effort, he drew himself so
+far out of the hole that he was able to seat himself upon the edge, with
+his legs dangling down.
+
+"What a lot of trouble I am taking!" he said, laughing lightly, though
+at the same time he felt discomposed.  "I might just as well have
+dropped, but as I am up here again I may as well take soundings."
+
+His plan of taking soundings was to fish out his ball of worsted, and,
+after a moment's thought, to tie it to the handle of the brown
+water-jug, and this he lowered softly down the hole.
+
+"It's deeper down than I thought for," he said to himself, as he let the
+jug right down to the extent of the worsted thread, and then knelt down
+and reached as far as he could, but still without result.
+
+"Stop a moment," he said, pulling out his piece of line, "it's lucky I
+didn't leave go.  Why, that worsted's at least a dozen feet long."
+
+As he spoke he tied the end of the worsted to his piece of cord, and let
+the jug down lower still, to the extent of the cord as well, quite five
+yards more.
+
+"Phew!" he whistled, as, with the cord round his finger, he reached down
+as far as he could; "I should have had a drop! and--hang it, there goes
+the jug!"
+
+For at that moment the string suddenly became light, the worsted having
+parted; and as he knelt there, peering down into the darkness, the
+perspiration started once more from his forehead, and a curious
+sensation, as of a comb with teeth of ice passing through his hair,
+affected him while he listened moment after moment, moment after moment,
+till there came up a dull whispering splash from below, at a distance
+that was perfectly horrifying after the risk that Hilary had run.
+
+So overcome was he by his discovery that he shrank away from the opening
+in the floor completely unnerved, and unable for a time to move.  He
+was, in fact, like one who had received a stunning blow, and only after
+some minutes had elapsed was he able to mutter a few words of
+thankfulness for his escape, as he now thoroughly realised that he had
+uncovered an old well of tremendous depth.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+A STRANGE FISH IN THE NET.
+
+Hilary's first act on recovering himself was to creep back cautiously to
+the side, and lower down the stone over the open well, shivering still
+as he realised more fully the narrowness of his escape.
+
+"Old Allstone will be wanting to know what I have done with his jug," he
+said, as he seated himself upon the stool, and began to think what he
+should do.
+
+He was somewhat unnerved by his adventure, but recovering himself fast,
+and he had the whole night before him for making another attempt.  All
+the same, though, the time wore on without his moving; for the
+recollection of that horrible whispering plash and the echoes that had
+smitten his ear were hard to get rid of, try how he would; but at last,
+feeling that he was wasting time, he began upon hands and knees creeping
+about the place, and tapping the floor.
+
+There were plenty of hollow, echoing sounds in reply as he hammered away
+with the hilt of the cutlass, and, telling himself that there could not
+be wells beneath every stone, he made up his mind at last to try one
+which seemed to present the greatest facilities for his effort--that is,
+as far as he could tell by feeling the crack between it and the next.
+
+It proved a long and a tough job before he could move it.  Twice over he
+was about to give it up, for when at last he managed to make it move a
+little it kept slipping back into its place, and seeming to wedge itself
+farther in.
+
+The perspiration ran down his cheeks, and his arms ached; but he was
+toiling for liberty, and on the _nil desperandum_ principle he worked
+away.
+
+For, as he thought matters over, he was compelled to own that, however
+much Lieutenant Lipscombe might feel disposed to search for him, he had
+been spirited away so suddenly that it was not likely that success would
+attend the search.
+
+Under these circumstances there was nothing for it but that he should
+depend upon himself, and this he did to such a brave extent that at last
+he placed the point of the cutlass in so satisfactory a position that on
+heaving up the stone upon which he was at work it did not slip back, but
+was so much dislodged that a little farther effort enabled him to pull
+it aside; and then he sat down panting beside the black square opening
+in the floor.
+
+It was so dark that most of his work had to be done by the sense of
+touch, and consequently the toil was twice as hard, for he could not see
+where it was best to apply force.  All the same, though, perseverance
+was rewarded, and he had raised the stone.
+
+Hilary did not feel in any great hurry to try his fortune this time; for
+after his experience when he raised the last stone, he did not know what
+might be here.  Try to laugh it off as he would, there was a curious,
+creeping sensation of dread came over him.  He knew that this was a
+chapel, and what more likely than that the vault beneath might be the
+abiding place of the dead--of those who had occupied this old place in
+the past; and, mingled with this, Adela's words would come back about
+the place being haunted.
+
+"Bah!" he exclaimed at last.  "What a fool you are, Hil!"
+
+As he spoke he gave himself a tremendous blow in the chest with his
+doubled fist, hurting himself a great deal more than he intended, and
+this roused him once more to action.
+
+He was not going to lower himself down this time without trying for
+bottom; and pulling out his cord, he tied it to the hilt of the cutlass,
+lowered it into the hole, and began to fish, as he expressed it.
+
+Clang!  Jingle!
+
+Steel upon stone, as far as he could judge, just over six feet below
+where he was leaning over.
+
+He tried again, here, there, and everywhere within his reach, and the
+result was always the same, and there could be no mistake this time; he
+might drop down in safety.
+
+He could not help hesitation, for the hole was black and forbidding.
+But it was for liberty, and after pausing for a few moments while he
+leaned down and felt about as far as he could reach, he prepared to
+descend.
+
+His examination had taught him that the vault below was arched, for,
+close by him, he could feel the thickness of the floor, while at the
+other side of the square opening he could not reach down to the edge of
+the arch, try how he would.  In fact, his plan of sounding the floor had
+answered admirably, and he had raised a stone just in the right place.
+
+Hesitating no longer he thrust the cutlass into his waistband and
+proceeded to lower himself down.  His acts were very cautiously carried
+out, for his former experience had taught him care, and holding on
+tightly by the edge he gradually slid down, till at the full extent of
+his arms he felt firm footing.
+
+Still he did not leave hold, but passing himself along first one edge
+and then another of his hole till he had gone along all four sides, and
+always with the same result, he let go, and stood in safety upon a stone
+floor.
+
+Drawing his cutlass, he felt overhead the opening where the stone had
+been removed, and wondered what he was to do to find it again in the
+intense darkness; but he was obliged to own that he could do nothing.
+
+A thrust to right touched nothing; a thrust to left had no better
+result; and then he stood and wiped his brow.
+
+"I wonder what I shall find," he said to himself.  "Cases and tubs, or
+old coffins."
+
+He thrust out the sword once more straight in front of him, and this
+time it touched wood, and made him shiver.
+
+For a few moments he did not care to move and investigate farther; but
+rousing himself once more, he tried again with his hand, to find that he
+touched hoops and staves, and that it was a goodly-sized tub.
+
+He tried again, cautiously, feeling carefully with one foot before he
+attempted to move another, for the thought struck him that not very far
+from him the opening down into that terrible well must be yawning in the
+floor, and under these circumstances he moved most carefully.
+
+He found that he need not have been so cautious, for after a little more
+of this obscure investigation he learned that he was in a very
+circumscribed area, surrounded on all sides by a most heterogeneous
+collection of tubs, full and empty, rough cases, bales, ropes, blocks,
+and iron tackle, such as might be used in a fishing-boat; and the next
+thing his hands encountered was a pile of fishing-nets.
+
+It was as he had expected: the vault or cellar below the chapel was full
+of the stores belonging to the smugglers, and his task now was to find
+his way out.
+
+It was of no avail to wish for flint and steel, to try, if only by the
+light of a few sparks, to dispel this terrible darkness, which seemed to
+surround and close him in, prisoning his faculties, as it were, and
+preventing him, now he had got so far, from making his escape.
+
+There was always the dread of coming upon that terrible well acting like
+a bar to further progress.  Then there was the utter helplessness of his
+position.  Which way was he to go?
+
+"At all events," he said to himself at last, "I can't go down the well
+if I'm climbing over tubs;" and he felt his way to the place where he
+had first touched a cask, and climbing up, he found that he could
+progress a little way, always getting higher, with many an awkward slip;
+and then he had to stop, for his head touched the roof.
+
+A trial to right and left had no better result, and there was nothing
+for it but to return and begin elsewhere.
+
+This he did, crawling over nets and boxes and packages, whose kind and
+shape he could not make out, but he always seemed to be stopped, try
+where he would, and at last, panting and hot with his exertions, he lay
+down on some fishing-nets close by to rest himself and endeavour to
+think out what was best to do.
+
+Suddenly, and without the slightest warning, there was a heavy grating
+creak; a door was thrown open; and what to his eyes seemed to be a
+dazzling light shone into the place, revealing a narrow passage not ten
+feet from where he lay, but which he had passed over in the darkness
+again and again.
+
+"Better light two or three more candles," said a gruff voice.
+
+"All right," was the reply; and from just on the other side of a pile of
+merchandise that reached to the ceiling Hilary could hear some one
+blowing at the tindery fluff made by lighting the top of a fresh candle.
+
+What was he to do?  He could not see the men who had come down, for he
+was separated from them by the piled-up contents of the cellar; but any
+attempt to regain the chapel must result in discovery, so he lay
+motionless, hardly daring to breathe, till he heard more footsteps
+coming--heavy, shuffling footsteps, as if those who came were loaded;
+and, waiting till they came nearer and one of the first comers said
+something aloud, Hilary raised himself slightly, and, almost with the
+rapidity of thought, covered himself with some of the soft, loose
+fishing-nets, feet and legs first, then shoulders and head, finally
+throwing a few more folds over his head, and then lying down.
+
+"Wouldn't be a bad plan to give them a good dose of brimstone," said one
+of the men.
+
+"Give who a good dose?" said another.
+
+"Why, the rats.  Didn't you hear 'em?"
+
+"Oh, ay, yes; I did hear a bit of scuffling.  Let 'em bide; they don't
+do much mischief."
+
+"Not much mischief!" said the other as Hilary felt his hopes rise as he
+heard the noise attributed to rats.  "Why, there's a couple o' hundred
+fathom o' mack'rel net lying t'other side there gnawed full of holes."
+
+"What o' that?" said the other.  "Why, one such night as this, lad, is
+worth two months o' mack'rel fishing."
+
+"Well, yes, so it be.  Ah! that's better.  We shall see now what we're
+about.  I say, it was rather a near one with the cutter to-night.  I
+thought she'd ha' been down upon us."
+
+"Down upon us? ay!  I wish her skipper was boxed up safe along with
+young cockchafer yonder."
+
+"Hang his insolence!" thought Hilary.  "Young cockchafer, indeed!  He'll
+find me more of a wasp."
+
+"Think anyone sent word to the cutter?"
+
+"Nay, not they.  Who would?  She's hanging about after her boy."
+
+"Boy, eh?  That's I," said Hilary again to himself.  "Well, maybe I
+shall show 'em I can fight like a man!"
+
+"Here, I say," said another voice: "why don't you two begin to stow away
+these kegs?"
+
+"Never you mind.  You bring 'em down from the carts: we know what we're
+doing."
+
+There was a sound of departing footsteps, and Hilary listened intently.
+
+"Ah!" said one of the men, "if I was the skipper I'd send the young Tom
+chicken about his business; but the skipper says he knows too much."
+
+"How long's he going to keep him then?"
+
+"Altogether, I s'pose, unless he likes to join us."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed the other, who was evidently moving something
+heavy.
+
+"Well, he might do worse, my lad.  Anyhow, they ar'n't going to let him
+go and bring that cutter down upon us."
+
+"No, that wouldn't do.  Lend a hand here.  This bag's heavy.  What's in
+it?"
+
+"I don't know.  Feels like lead.  P'r'aps it is."
+
+"Think the cutter will hang about long?"
+
+"How should I know?  I say, though, how staggered them chaps was when
+they got up to the rock and found no one to fight!"
+
+"I wasn't there."
+
+"Oh, no--more you wasn't.  Come along, come along, lads.  Here we are
+waiting for stowage, and you talk about us keeping you waiting."
+
+"You mind your own job," growled the voice that Hilary had heard finding
+fault before.
+
+There was more scuffling of feet, and then the two men went on talking.
+
+"The cutter's sailors had come, of course, after the boy, and they
+stumbled on the way through the rocks, just same as the boy did; and we
+waited for 'em with a few sticks, and then give 'em as much as were good
+for 'em, and then retreated, big Joey keeping the way till we had all
+got up the rock, and then up he come in the dark, and you'd have laughed
+fit to crack your sides to hear them down below whacking at the stones
+with their cutlashes till they was obliged to believe we was gone, and
+then they went back with their tails between their legs like a pack of
+dogs."
+
+The other man laughed as Hilary drank in all this, and learned how the
+crew had been after him, and realised most thoroughly how it was that he
+had been brought there, and also the ingenious plan by which the
+smugglers and the political party with whom they seemed to be mixed up
+contrived to throw their enemies off the scent.  There was an interval,
+during which the two men seemed to be very busy stowing away kegs and
+packages, and then they went on again.
+
+"Skipper of the cutter come next day--that one-eyed chap we took in so
+with the lugger--and his chaps brought him up to the rocks, and then, my
+wig! how he did give it 'em for bringing them a fool's errand, as he
+called it!  It was a fine game, I can tell you."
+
+"Must have been," said the other, as Hilary drank in this information
+too, and made mental vows about how he would pay the scoundrels out for
+all this when once he got free.
+
+Then there was a cessation of the feet coming down the stairs, broken by
+one step that Hilary seemed to recognise.
+
+"How are you getting on?"
+
+Hilary was right; it was Allstone.
+
+"Waiting for more," was the reply.
+
+"They'll bring up another cart directly," said Allstone in his sulky
+tone of voice.
+
+"Sooner the better.  I'm 'bout tired out.  Fine lot o' rats here," said
+the man.
+
+"Ah, yes!  There's a few," said Allstone.
+
+"Heard 'em scuffling about like fun over the other side," said the man.
+
+Hilary felt the cold perspiration ooze out of him as he lay there, dimly
+seeing through the meshes of the net that he was in a low arched vault
+of considerable extent, the curved roof being of time-blackened stone,
+and that here and there were rough pillars from which the arches sprang.
+
+He hardly dared to move, but, softly turning his head, he saw to his
+horror that the square opening whence he had taken the stone was full in
+view, the light that left him in darkness striking straight up through
+the hole.
+
+If they looked up there, he felt that they must see that the stone had
+been moved, and he shivered as he felt that his efforts to escape had
+been in vain.
+
+"They're a plaguey long time coming," said the man who had been talking
+so much.  "Here, just come round here, my lad, and I'll show you what I
+mean about the nets."
+
+"It's all over," said Hilary as he took a firm grip of the hilt of his
+cutlass, meaning as soon as he was discovered to strike out right and
+left, and try to escape during the surprise his appearance would cause.
+
+As he lay there, ready to spring up at the smallest indication of his
+discovery, he saw the shadows move as the men came round by the heap of
+packages, and enter the narrow passage where he was.  The first, bearing
+a candle stuck between some nails in a piece of wood, was a fair,
+fresh-coloured young fellow, and he was closely followed by a burly
+middle-aged man bearing another candle, Allstone coming last.
+
+"There," said the younger man, "there's about as nice a mess for a set
+o' nets to be in as anyone ever saw;" and he laid hold of the pile that
+Hilary had drawn over his face.
+
+It was only a matter of moments now, and as he lay there Hilary's nerves
+tingled, and he could hardly contain himself for eagerness to make his
+spring.
+
+"Look at that, and that, and that," said the man, picking up folds of
+the soft brown netting, and seeming about to strip all off Hilary, but
+by a touch of fate helping his concealment the next moment, by throwing
+fold after fold over him, till the next thing seemed to be that he would
+be smothered.
+
+"Tell you what," he said.  "They nets are just being spoiled.  There's
+plenty of time before the next cart unloads.  Lend a hand here, and
+let's have 'em all out in the pure air.  I hate seeing good trade left
+down here to spoil in a damp--"
+
+He laid hold of the nets, and as he gave a drag Hilary felt the meshes
+gliding over his face, and prepared himself to spring up and make a dash
+for his liberty.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+'TWIXT CUP AND LIP.
+
+Another instant and Hilary must have been discovered; but just then the
+trampling of feet was heard, a shout or two, and Allstone said gruffly:
+
+"Let the nets alone, and come and get the stuff down."
+
+The man dropped the nets, and taking up his candle, which he had placed
+upon a chest, followed Allstone back along the narrow passage between
+the piled-up tubs and packages, and once more Hilary was left in
+comparative darkness, to lie there dripping with perspiration, and
+hesitating as to what he should do next, for if he stayed where he was,
+it was probable that the men would come back to remove the nets.  If, on
+the other hand, he attempted to move, the chances were that he would be
+heard.  In short he dare not move, for the slightest rustle would be
+sure to take their attention.
+
+And so he lay there in an extremely uncomfortable position, watching the
+shadows cast upon the dingy ceiling, as the distorted heads and
+shoulders of the men were seen moving to and fro.  Sometimes he could
+distinguish what they carried, whether it was bale or tub, and upon
+which shoulder it was carried, till by degrees, as he found that he was
+not discovered, his thoughts began to turn upon what a grand haul the
+crew of the _Kestrel_ could make in the way of prize-money if he only
+had the good fortune to escape, and could find his way back to the
+shore.
+
+There must have been at least six carts unloaded by slow degrees, and
+their contents brought down into that vault before Allstone, who was at
+the head of the steps leading down, suddenly shouted:
+
+"That's all.  Look alive up."
+
+"Ay, ay, we're coming," was the reply, and Hilary heard the men drag a
+case of some kind a little way along the floor with a loud scratching
+noise.
+
+"I don't like leaving those nets," said the one who had been round.  "We
+don't want 'em now, but the time may come when we shall be glad to go
+drifting again.  What are you doing?"
+
+"Only got a handful of this 'bacco, my boy.  I don't see any fun in
+buying it where there's hundredweights down here."
+
+"Bring me a handful too."
+
+Hilary could resist the temptation no longer, and rising softly, he
+peered over the piled-up boxes and tubs to get a better view of the
+place, and make out where the door of exit lay.  This he ascertained at
+a glance, and likewise obtained a pretty good idea of the shape and
+extent of the vault before the men took up their candles to go.
+
+Now was the critical moment.  Would they raise their eyes and see where
+there was a stone missing in the ceiling?  A few moments would decide
+it, and so excited was Hilary now that he could not refrain from
+watching the men, though the act was excessively dangerous, and if they
+had turned their heads in his direction they must have seen him.
+
+But they did not turn their heads as it happened, but went by within a
+yard of where the young officer was concealed.  Then he saw them mount
+some broad rugged old steps beneath a little archway, whose stones were
+covered with chisel-marks; there was a Rembrandtish effect as they
+turned round the winding stair, and then there was the clang of a heavy
+door, and darkness reigned once more in the vault, for Hilary was alone.
+
+For a few minutes he dared not stir for fear that some one or other of
+the men might return; but as the time wore on, and he could only hear
+the sounds of talking in a distant muffled way, he descended from his
+awkward position, reached the stone floor, and feeling his way along
+reached the opening through which the men had come, and then stumbling
+two or three times, and barely saving himself from falling, he found his
+way to where they had been at work, for his hand came in contact with
+one of the rough candlesticks thick with grease.
+
+Sure thus far, he was not long in finding the doorway, where he stood
+listening to dull sounds from above, and then crept back a little way so
+as to be able to retreat in case the men were coming back, and touching
+a keg with his foot he sat down upon it to think.
+
+If the door at the top of the stairs was locked he would be no better
+off than in the chapel, for it was not likely that there would be a
+window to this place, so that if he meant to escape he felt that it
+would be better not to leave it to daylight; though, on the other hand,
+if he did leave it to daybreak, and the door was unfastened, he would
+have an admirable opportunity of getting away, for by that time the men
+would have done their night's work, and would probably be fast asleep.
+
+"It is of no use for me to play the coward," said Hilary to himself at
+last.  "If I am to get away it must be by a bold dash."
+
+He burst out into a hearty fit of silent laughter here.
+
+"My word, what a game it would be!" he said.  "They say the place is
+haunted.  Suppose I cover myself with fishing-nets and march straight
+out."
+
+"Wouldn't do!" he said, decidedly.  "They would not be such noodles as
+to be frightened, and they would pop at me with their pistols."
+
+Meanwhile there was a good deal of talking going on up above, and at
+last, unable to restrain his curiosity longer, Hilary returned to the
+foot of the steps, felt the wall on either side, and began softly to
+ascend, counting the steps as he went, and calculating that there would
+be about twelve.
+
+He was quite right, and as he wound round and neared the top he found
+that there were rays of light coming beneath the door and through the
+keyhole, while the sound of voices came much plainer.
+
+Going down on hands and knees, he was able to peer under the door, which
+shut right upon the top step; and after a few seconds he had pretty well
+ascertained his position.
+
+He was looking under a door right at the end of a long stone-paved
+passage, and there was another door just upon his right, which evidently
+led into his prison; while straight before him, through an opening he
+could see into a large stone-paved kitchen where the talking was going
+on, the back of one man being visible as he seemed to be seated upon a
+stool, and changed his position from time to time.
+
+The next thing to ascertain was whether the door was unfastened; and he
+was about to rise and try, when the familiar sound of steps upon a
+boarded floor fell upon his ear, a door that he had not hitherto seen
+was opened, and Allstone, Sir Henry, and the sharp-looking captain of
+the lugger passed before him, and, entering the lit-up kitchen, were
+lost to sight.
+
+There was a louder burst of talking just now, and as it seemed a
+favourable opportunity Hilary rose to his feet, passed his hand up the
+side of the door, and touched the great solid hinges.  Trying the other
+side he was more successful, for his hand came in contact with a huge
+latch which rattled softly at his touch, and set his heart beating
+heavily.
+
+He paused for a few moments before he tried again, when, proceeding more
+carefully, he found that the latch rose easily enough; and then as he
+drew the door towards him it yielded slowly from its great weight; but
+there was the fact--the way was open for escape, and the place before
+him was clear.
+
+There was nothing to do then but wait, and he was in the act of closing
+the door and lowering the latch when he heard Sir Henry's voice
+speaking, and directly after steps in the passage.
+
+"Allstone has the keys," said a voice Hilary recognised as that of Sir
+Henry; "will you go and see him now?"
+
+"Look here, Sir Henry," was whispered, "you must get him on our side.
+The boy would be invaluable.  With such an ally on board the cutter we
+need never fear a surprise."
+
+"You are thinking of your smuggling ventures," said Sir Henry
+contemptuously.
+
+"I was thinking as much of your despatches.  Why, you could have run
+them across in safety then.  Come, Sir Henry, we won't quarrel about
+that.  He'll be useful to both.  Shall I go and see him?  I'll wager
+I'll soon bully or bribe him into agreement."
+
+"You don't know your man," said Sir Henry.
+
+"Or boy," laughed the skipper.
+
+"Give me time and I'll win him," said Sir Henry.
+
+"That's what I can't give you," was the reply.  "It isn't safe having
+prisoners here.  Suppose the boy escapes.  How long should we be before
+he brings a couple of dozen fellows from the cutter, if they've got so
+many; and then where shall we be?"
+
+"Do you think he could hear what we say?" asked Sir Henry in so low a
+voice that Hilary had hard work to catch the words.
+
+"Bah! not he.  That door's six inches thick," said the skipper.  "No,
+Sir Henry, there is no time to lose, and we must win him over, unless
+you'd rather--"
+
+Hilary could not catch the end of what was said, but he suspected what
+was meant, as he heard Sir Henry utter a sharp exclamation full of
+anger.
+
+"Leave it till to-morrow, and I think I can bring him to our wishes."
+
+"That is what you said last time, Sir Henry," replied the skipper
+insolently.  "Here, Allstone, give me the key and I'll soon bring the
+springald to reason."
+
+There was a clink of metal, a step forward, and Hilary's heart sank
+within him, for the discovery of his evasion was a matter of course.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+THE WAY TO ESCAPE.
+
+In a moment Hilary mentally saw Sir Henry and the skipper enter his
+prison, fancied the shout of alarm, and seemed to see himself, cutlass
+in hand, making a dash for his liberty; but the struggle was not then to
+be, for, with an angry voice, Sir Henry interposed.
+
+"Martin!" he exclaimed, "let us understand one another once and for all.
+Your duty, sir, is to obey me, and I'll be obeyed.  As to that boy, I
+tell you I'll win him to our side, but it will be at my own good time.
+Sir, I order you to come away from that door."
+
+"What!" exclaimed the skipper furiously; "do you know I have a dozen men
+ready to take my side if I raise my voice?"
+
+"I neither know nor care," cried Sir Henry hoarsely; "but I do know that
+you have sworn allegiance to King Charles Edward, sir, and that you are
+my inferior officer in the cause.  Disobey me, sir, at your peril."
+
+Hilary grasped his cutlass, and the fighting blood of the Englishman was
+making his veins tingle.
+
+"If it comes to a tussle," he thought, "there'll be one on Sir Henry's
+side they don't count upon;" and as he thought this he softly raised the
+latch, ready to swing open the door and dash out.
+
+But Martin, the skipper, evidently did not care to quarrel with Sir
+Henry, and his next words were quite apologetic.
+
+"Why, Sir Henry," he said with a rough laugh, "I believe we two were
+getting out of temper, and that won't do, you know."
+
+"I am not out of temper," said Sir Henry; "but I'll be obeyed, sir."
+
+"And so you shall be, Sir Henry.  It's all right, and I'll say no more
+about it, only that it's dangerous leaving a young fellow like that shut
+up.  These boys are as active as monkeys, and we might return at any
+time and find the young rascal gone.  But you'll do your best to bring
+him round?"
+
+"I will," replied Sir Henry, "for more reasons than one.  Look here,
+Martin, if I spoke too angrily to you just now I beg your pardon, but
+you touch upon a tender point when you talk of rough measures towards
+that boy.  I told you that he was my child's companion years ago--in
+fact, I used to look upon him quite as a son.  There," he added hastily,
+"you may trust me to do my best.  Good-night."
+
+"Good-night, Sir Henry, good-night," said the skipper effusively.  "I'll
+trust you.  Good-night."
+
+Sir Henry's steps were heard to die away, and so silent was everything
+that Hilary concluded that the skipper must have also gone; but just as
+he had made up his mind that this was the case some one uttered an oath.
+
+"Give me the keys, Allstone," Hilary heard the next moment; and once
+more he concluded that all was over, for there was the jingle of the
+iron, and it seemed that now he was left to himself Martin was about to
+visit the young prisoner, and try to frighten him into following out his
+wishes.
+
+Hilary was in despair, but he made up his mind what to do, and that was
+to fling open the door and walk swiftly across the place where the men
+were lying about, as soon as he heard the skipper and Allstone go into
+the old chapel.
+
+To his dismay, however, the man came straight to the door where Hilary
+was standing, raised the latch, opened it, and as the young officer drew
+back the heavy door struck him in the chest, but before he could recover
+from his surprise there was a sharp bang, with the accompanying rattle
+of the great latch, and as a dull echo came from below, the key was
+turned, and the lock shot into the stone cheek.
+
+"Curse him and his fine airs!"  Hilary heard the skipper say, hoarsely.
+"I shall have the young villain bringing the cutter's crew down upon us.
+I wish his neck was broken."
+
+"Put him in the top room, then," said Allstone; "he'll break his neck
+trying to get away."
+
+"Not he," said the skipper; "those middies can climb like cats.  He's
+safe enough now, I suppose."
+
+"Oh, yes," said Allstone, "I went and had a look at the window-bars
+to-night."
+
+"Safe enough, yes," muttered Hilary, as he heard the departing steps;
+"they've locked me up safe enough.  Was anything ever so vexatious?"
+
+As he heard the clang of a door he placed his eye to the open keyhole,
+and through it he could see into the great kitchen, which now seemed to
+be lit only by the glow from a great wood fire, for the shadows danced
+on the wall, and when now and then the fire fell together and the flames
+danced up more brightly he could make out quite definitely a pair of the
+shadows, which were evidently those of a couple of half-recumbent men.
+
+Just on one side too he could plainly see part of a man's leg.  No
+shadow this, but a limb of some one who had thrown himself upon the
+floor; and Hilary rightly judged that the crew of the lugger were
+snatching an hour or two's repose previous to being called up by their
+leader.
+
+The laughing and talking were silenced, and he could hear nothing but
+the occasional crackle of burning wood.
+
+He raised the latch softly, pressing against the door the while; but it
+was fast locked, and by running his fingers down the side he could feel
+where the great square bolt of the lock ran into the stone wall.  Escape
+that way was cut off, and ready to stamp with mortification Hilary stood
+upon the step at the top of the flight asking himself what he had best
+do.
+
+There was no chance of getting away that night, so he felt that he must
+give it up, and the sinking despondency that came over him was for the
+moment terrible; but reaction soon sets in when one is on the buoyant
+side of twenty, and he recalled the fact that, though he might be
+obliged to return to his prison, he had found a way of exit; and if he
+went back, lowered the stone and dusted it over, he might come down
+another time, night or morning, and find the door open; in fact, he
+might keep on trying till he did.
+
+It was very disheartening, but there seemed to be nothing else to be
+done, and he stood there thinking of how nearly he had escaped, but at
+the same he was obliged to own how happily he had avoided detection.
+
+Then the remembrance of the well came back, and the cold perspiration
+broke out on his hands and brow at the bare recollection.
+
+"Bah! what's the good of thinking about that?" he said to himself; and
+he was about to descend when he fancied he heard a faint rustling noise
+on the other side of the door, and then whispers.
+
+The sounds ceased directly, and he bent down so that his eye was to the
+keyhole, when, to his surprise, he found that something was between him
+and the light.
+
+Just then the whispers began again, and placing his ear this time to the
+great hole, he plainly heard two men speaking:
+
+"I think you can do it without a light," said one.
+
+"Ay, easy enough.  You stop, and if you hear Allstone coming, give just
+one pipe, and I'll be up directly."
+
+"All right.  Get the hollands this time.  Gently with that key."
+
+Hilary would have run down, but he was afraid of detection, for just
+then there was the harsh grating noise of a key being thrust into the
+big lock, the bolt creaked back, the latch was raised, and the door
+softly pushed open as he pressed himself back against the wall, and
+remained there in the darkness, almost afraid to breathe.
+
+It was intensely dark now, even when the door was opened, and as Hilary
+stood there behind the door he heard some one descend, while another
+stood at the top, breathing hard, and evidently listening to the
+rustling of the man down below.
+
+Several minutes passed, and then the man at the top of the stairs
+muttered impatiently, and went down two or three of the degrees.
+
+"Pst!  Dick!" he whispered.
+
+"Ay, ay."
+
+"Be quick, man!"
+
+"I can't find 'em," was the whispered reply.  "They've packed the cases
+atop of 'em."
+
+"Jolterhead!" muttered the other impatiently.  "Why, they're just at the
+back."
+
+"Come down," was whispered from below, and to Hilary's great delight he
+heard the man on the watch go softly below.
+
+Now was Hilary's opportunity, and gliding softly from behind the door,
+he stepped out into the stone passage, and saw before him a faint light
+shining under the bottom of the door which the men had evidently closed
+when they left the kitchen.
+
+He might have locked the two fellows in the vault, but that would have
+caused needless noise, and perhaps hindered his escape, so without
+further hesitation he stepped lightly along the passage, and softly
+pressed against the farther door.
+
+It yielded easily, and he found himself looking into a great low-ceiled
+kitchen, whose ancient black rafters shone in the glow from a huge
+fireplace, upon whose hearth the remains of a large fire flickered and
+sent forth a few dying sparks.
+
+Around it, and stretched in a variety of postures upon the floor, were
+some eight or ten men fast asleep; and what took Hilary's attention more
+than all was another door at the far corner, which it was now his aim to
+reach.
+
+But to do this he would have to step over two of the men, and there was
+the possibility that, though they all seemed to be asleep, one or more
+might be awake and watchful.
+
+It needed no little firmness to make the attempt; but if he were to
+escape, he knew it must be done.
+
+"If they wake they will only take me back," thought Hilary, "so I may as
+well try."
+
+He hesitated no longer, but stepping on tiptoe he passed on between two
+of the sleeping men, and was in the act of stepping over another, when a
+gruff voice from a corner exclaimed:--
+
+"Why don't you lie down.  You'll be glad of a nap by and by."
+
+Hilary felt as if his heart had leaped to his mouth, and he thought he
+was discovered; but the words were spoken in a sleepy tone, and from the
+sound that followed it was evident that the man had turned over.
+
+Hilary waited a few minutes, and once more resumed his progress towards
+the door, making every movement with the greatest caution; and he was
+already half way to his goal when he heard the grating of the lock at
+the top of the dark cellar stairs, and a low whispering told him that
+the men were about to return.
+
+There was not a moment to lose, and stepping lightly on, he reached the
+door, raised the great wooden latch by which it was secured, and passed
+in, while just as he closed it he saw through the opening the two men
+who had been below enter the place.
+
+The fire was throwing out but little light now, but he could see that
+they carried what looked like a little spirit keg, which they set down
+by the fire.  The closing door shut out the rest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+MANHOOD VERSUS SELFISHNESS--AND MANHOOD WINS.
+
+Hilary breathed more freely as he silently let fall the latch, and then
+waited for a few minutes to recover his equanimity before making a
+farther trial.  He had succeeded so far, and he felt that if he were
+patient and cautious he might regain his freedom; but he thought it
+better to let the men begin upon the spirits that two of the party had
+evidently been down to obtain.
+
+But as far as he could make out they did not seem to be in any hurry to
+awaken their companions, and at last after waiting for some minutes for
+the burst of conversation that he hoped would make his movements pass
+unheard, he began to feel his way cautiously about, expecting a door of
+exit to meet his hand, or else to find that he was in some large
+passage.  To his great disappointment he found that he could touch the
+wall on either side after making a step; and a very little investigation
+showed him farther that he was only in a stone-paved place that had
+probably been a dairy, for on one side there was an iron grating of very
+massive bars let into the stone, and there were stone benches along one
+side.
+
+In fact, if the key of the door had been turned, he would have only
+exchanged one prison for another.
+
+His heart sank within him as he realised his position, and found that
+there was only one door, upon which he raised his hand ready to return
+into the great kitchen; but a low creaking noise, suggestive of some one
+treading on a board, arrested him, and he stood there listening.
+
+After a few minutes he grew more confident, and opening the door
+slightly he once more gazed upon the Rembrandtish scene, all light and
+shadow, with the men stretched about asleep, and two more seated upon a
+bench busily trickling spirit from the little keg into a small horn,
+from which they drank in turn with a sigh of satisfaction.
+
+The others slept on, one now and then making an uneasy movement; but it
+was evident that there were to be no more partners in the coming
+drinking bout, and Hilary began to calculate how long it would be before
+they would have drunk enough to make them sleepy and ready to join their
+companions upon the floor.
+
+He had no means of judging, but he concluded that it must now be nearly
+three o'clock, and in an hour's time it would be getting light.  And
+yet, near as he was to safety, it seemed that he was to be disappointed,
+and to wait there till somebody or other came to the place and gave the
+alarm.
+
+By keeping the door just ajar he was able to watch the two men; but a
+couple of hours had passed before he saw them stretch themselves upon
+the floor, after carefully hiding away the little keg, and at last
+Hilary felt that he might venture to cross the great kitchen again and
+endeavour to find another outlet.
+
+The day had broken some time before, and the cold grey light that shone
+in through the iron grating showed him that he was correct in his
+surmises, and that the place had been a dairy; but the window was too
+strong for him to break through, and there was nothing for it but to
+cross the party of sleeping men.
+
+He was some little time before he could make up his mind to the effort,
+and when he did, and began to slowly open the door, he let it glide to
+once more, for one of the men suddenly uttered a loud yawn, jumped up
+and stretched himself, before giving a companion a kick in the side.
+
+It took several kicks to induce the man to get up; but when he did it
+was in a morose, angry disposition, and he revenged himself by going
+round and kicking every other man till the whole party was awake, and
+Hilary saw his chances fade away, while, to add to his misery, the next
+act of the party was to go to a great cupboard, from which a ham and a
+couple of loaves were produced, upon which they made a vigorous
+onslaught, each man opening his jack-knife and hewing off a lump of
+bread and cutting a great slice of ham.
+
+They ate so heartily that a feeling of hunger was excited in the
+prisoner's breast; but this soon passed off, and he sat there wondering
+how long it would be before one or other of the party would come into
+the old dairy, though, upon looking round, there seemed to be nothing to
+bring them there.
+
+Hour after hour glided by.  The meal had long been ended, and the men
+were gone outside, but never all at once; always one stayed, sometimes
+two.  Then Martin kept bustling in and giving orders.  Once too Sir
+Harry came in and entered into a discussion with the skipper,
+apparently, from the few words that Hilary could catch, concerning the
+advisability of making some excursion; but there seemed to be some
+hindrance in the way, and Hilary's heart beat high with hope as he heard
+the word "cutter" spoken twice.
+
+It was not much to hear; but it was good news for Hilary, who concluded
+that the vessel must still be lying off the coast, and in the smugglers'
+way.
+
+At last, however, the conversation ended, and Hilary saw Sir Henry leave
+the place just as Allstone came in.
+
+This made the young man's heart beat again, for either the fellow had
+come to announce his evasion, or else he was about to take food into the
+old chapel, when, of course, he would find his prisoner gone.
+
+But no: he spoke quite calmly to the skipper, and after a short
+consultation they went out.
+
+Just then the noise of wheels and the trampling of horses could be heard
+outside, facts which pointed to the leaving of one or more of the party.
+
+Two of the men were still hanging about, but at last they also went, and
+Allstone came in and seated himself thoughtfully upon a bench.
+
+By-and-by, though, he cut himself some food, hesitated, and proceeded to
+cut some more, which he placed in a coarse delf plate.
+
+"My breakfast!" said Hilary to himself, and he wondered how soon the man
+would go to the chapel to present it to his prisoner.
+
+This would be the signal for Hilary's escape, and, anxiously waiting
+till the man had finished his own repast, the young officer made up his
+mind to run to the window, climb out, and then trust to his heels for
+his liberty.
+
+The time seemed as if it would never come, but at last the surly-looking
+fellow, having apparently satisfied his own hunger, rose up slowly, and,
+taking the plate, went slowly out of the door, rattling his keys the
+while.
+
+He had hardly disappeared before Hilary glided out of his hiding-place,
+darted to the table and seized the remains of the bread, hesitated as to
+whether he should take the ham bone, but leaving it, climbed on to the
+window-sill, forced the frame open, and dropped outside amongst the
+nettles that grew beneath.
+
+"Free!" he exclaimed.  "Now which way?"
+
+He had not much choice in the first place, for he remembered that there
+would be the moat to cross, and the probabilities were that there would
+only be one path.  After that he saw his way clearly, and that was
+towards the sun, for he knew that if he made straight for that point he
+would be going by midday direct for the sea.
+
+That was his goal.  Once he could reach the cliffs and get down on the
+shore, he meant to seize the first boat he met with, get afloat, and
+trust to fortune for the rest.
+
+For the first few moments Hilary kept close to the house, but,
+considering that a bold effort was the only one likely to succeed, he
+walked out straight to the moat, hesitated a moment as to whether he
+should leap in and swim or wade across, and ended by walking sharply
+along its brink till it turned off at right angles, and he now saw a
+sandstone bridge facing the entry of a large, old-fashioned hall, that
+had evidently gone to ruin, and which, from the outside aspect, seemed
+to be uninhabited, for a more thorough aspect of desolation it was
+impossible to imagine.
+
+There was not a soul in view as he walked sharply away till he reached
+the crumbling bridge, which he crossed, and then, finding that the road
+led along by the far side of the moat, he did not pause to think, but,
+trusting to the high hedge by which it was bordered and the wilderness
+of trees that had sprung up between the road and the moat to conceal
+him, he went right on, his way being a little east of south.
+
+"I wonder whether old Allstone has given the alarm?" he said half aloud,
+as he placed the cutlass in his belt.  "They'll have to run fast to
+catch me now.  Hallo! what's that?"
+
+_That_ was a piercing scream, followed by loud cries of "Help!  Papa--
+help!"
+
+Hilary had made his escape, and he had nothing to do now but make
+straight for the sea; but that cry stopped him on the instant.  It
+evidently came from the moat behind him, and sounded to him as if some
+one had fallen in; he thought as he ran, for without a moment's
+hesitation he forced his way through the old hedge, dashed in amongst
+the clumps of hawthorn and hornbeam scrub, making straight for the moat,
+where he saw a sight which caused him to increase his pace and make a
+running dash right to the water, where the next moment he was swimming
+towards where Adela Norland was struggling feebly for her life.
+
+Hilary saw how it was in a moment.  The poor girl had apparently been
+tempted into trying to get at some of the yellow lilies and silvery
+water crowfoot which were growing abundantly in the centre of the wide
+moat, and to effect this she had entered a clumsy old boat that was
+evidently utilised for clearing out the weeds and growth from the
+stagnant water.  That it was a boat was sufficient for her, and she had
+pushed out into the middle, not heeding that the craft was so rotten and
+fragile that just as she was out in one of the deepest parts it began to
+fill rapidly, and sank beneath her weight, leaving her struggling in the
+water.
+
+Hilary had some distance to swim, for here, in the front of the house,
+the moat was double the width of the part by his prison window, and to
+his horror he saw the beating hands subside beneath the water while he
+was many yards away.  But he was a good swimmer, and redoubling his
+exertions he forced his way onward, as he saw Sir Henry, Allstone, and
+three more men come running out to the moat; but only one of them, Sir
+Henry himself, attempted to save the drowning girl's life.
+
+Long before Sir Henry could reach Adela, Hilary was at the spot where he
+had seen her go down, and, rising for a moment and making a dive, he
+went down, rose, dived again, and once again before he caught hold of
+the poor girl's dress, and then swam with her for the shore.
+
+The moat was deep right up to the grassy edge; and Hilary was in the act
+of placing Adela in the hands held down to catch her when a fresh cry
+for help assailed his ears, and, turning, it was to see that Sir Henry
+was a dozen yards away, swimming apparently, but making no progress.
+
+Hilary suspected the cause as he turned and swam to his old friend's
+help.  For Sir Henry was heavily dressed, and, in addition, booted and
+spurred.  The consequence had been that his heavy boots, with their
+appendages, were entangled in the long tough stems of the lilies, and
+his position was perilous in the extreme.
+
+For a moment Hilary wondered how he could help his old friend, and as he
+wondered the thought came.
+
+Swimming with one hand, he drew the cutlass from his belt, and telling
+Sir Henry to be cool, he swam up to him, thrust the cutlass down beneath
+the water, and after two or three attempts succeeded in dividing the
+tough stalks, ending by helping the nearly exhausted swimmer towards the
+shore.
+
+The men on the shore, and that little figure kneeling by them with
+clasped hands, seemed to be growing dim and indistinct, close as they
+were, and as if they were receding.  His arms felt like lead, and he
+could hardly make his strokes, while somehow Sir Henry now embarrassed
+him by being so close that he could not take hold, as it were, of the
+water.  But still he strove on, with the foam bubbling at his lips, then
+over his lips, then to his dim eyes; and then he felt something strike
+against his hand, and he clutched at a pole held out by Allstone, when
+Sir Henry and he were dragged out, to lie panting for the next minute or
+two upon the bank.
+
+"You're not dead, are you, Sir Henry?" said Allstone gruffly; and Hilary
+could not help, even then, feeling annoyed as he raised himself upon one
+elbow, but only to give place to other thoughts as he saw Adela kneeling
+there in speechless agony, holding her father's head in her lap.
+
+Poor girl!  She was white as ashes, and her beautiful hair hung long and
+dishevelled about her shoulders; but just then she seemed to have no
+thought of self, her whole feeling being concentrated upon the pale,
+motionless face before her, from which the life seemed to have passed
+away.
+
+But after a time Sir Henry shuddered and opened his eyes, smiling
+affectionately in his child's face, and, as he realised their position,
+he said something to her in a low voice.
+
+They had all been so long occupied in watching for the recovery of Sir
+Henry that Hilary had had time to regain breath and some of his
+strength, and now the knowledge of his own position came back to him.
+He had escaped from the net, and voluntarily returned to it to save
+Adela.  Her he had saved, and also her father.  Now it was time to save
+himself, and, jumping up, he gave a hasty glance round.
+
+"No, you don't!" said a hoarse voice.  "You're my prisoner."  And
+Allstone seized him by his wet jacket.
+
+Hilary was weak yet with his struggle in the water, but the dread of
+being once more a prisoner gave him strength, and, striking up the arm,
+he made for the bridge to cross once more for liberty; but a couple of
+men coming from the other direction, having just heard the alarm, cut
+off his retreat, and, exhausted as he was, he did not hesitate for an
+instant, but plunged once more into the moat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+A RACE FOR LIBERTY.
+
+It was a question of time.
+
+Could Hilary get across the moat before the men who ran off to stop him
+reached the bridge, crossed, then ran along the other side?
+
+Appearances were against Hilary, and he saw that they were.  In fact, so
+black was the lookout, that he half thought of finding a shallow place
+and standing there amongst the waterlilies, laughing at his pursuers.
+
+"Only it would look so stupid," he muttered; "and I should be obliged to
+come out at last."
+
+He was striking out pretty well, and, but for the fact that his late
+exertions had told upon him, he felt that he would have got across with
+ease.
+
+"It's too bad, though," he thought; "and Sir Henry isn't half the fellow
+I thought him if he allows me to be taken.  Hullo!  Hurrah!  Down they
+go!" he exclaimed, as, straining his eyes towards the bridge, he saw one
+man trip and fall out of sight behind the low wall and another go over
+him.
+
+This reanimated him; and, taking long, slow strokes, he was soon pretty
+close to the farther side, with the determination in him strong to get
+away.
+
+Fortunately he had retained the cutlass; and as he reached the bank and
+scrambled out, dripping like some huge Newfoundland dog, Allstone came
+panting up and seized him by the collar.
+
+"Not this time, my lad," he growled, showing his teeth.  "You thought
+you had done it, didn't you?"
+
+"Let go!" panted Hilary, as the water streamed down and made a pool.
+
+"Yes, when I've got you in a safer place," was the reply.
+
+"Here, come along, you two.  No; one of you fetch a rope."
+
+This was to his followers, one of whom was limping, and the other
+bleeding from a cut in the face caused by his fall.
+
+"Will you let go?" cried Hilary hoarsely, but fast regaining his breath.
+
+"There, it's no use for you to struggle, my boy," said Allstone.
+"Murder!  Here!  Help!"
+
+Hilary had glanced round and taken in his position.  Sir Henry was
+standing holding Adela, who had hidden her face in his breast so as not
+to see the struggle, while her father made no attempt to interfere.  The
+two men were close up; and as Allstone held him firmly he felt that he
+was about to be dragged back to his prison like some drowned rat, and he
+vowed that he would not give up if he died for it.
+
+For Hilary's blood was now up, and, wrenching himself round, he got hold
+of the hilt of the cutlass, where it stuck in his belt, dragged it out,
+and in doing so struck his captor beneath the chin with the pommel.
+
+So sharp was the blow that Allstone quitted his hold, uttering hoarse
+cries, and staggered back two or three yards, while Hilary drove him
+farther by making at him as if about to deliver point.
+
+The two injured men, in answer to their leader's call, now made an
+attempt to seize Hilary; but their effort was a faint-hearted one, for
+on the young officer making a dash at them they gave way, and, waving
+his hand to Sir Henry, he dashed across the road and along a winding
+lane.
+
+"A set of cowards!" he muttered.  "The cutlass would hardly cut butter,
+and it would want a hammer to drive in its point.  Yes; you may shout.
+You don't suppose I am coming back?"
+
+He looked over his shoulder, and saw that Allstone and four men were now
+after him, and that, if he meant to get away, he must use his last
+remaining strength, for, clumsily as they ran, he was so tired with his
+recent exertions that they were diminishing the distance fast.
+
+"I wonder how many pounds of water I've got to carry?" muttered Hilary,
+as he ran on, with the moisture still streaming from him, and making a
+most unpleasant noise in his boots.  "There's one good thing, though,"
+he said: "it keeps on growing less."
+
+It was a lonely, winding lane, with the trees meeting overhead, and the
+sunshine raining down, as it were, in silvery streams upon the dappled
+earth.  On either side were ancient hazel clumps, with here and there a
+majestic moss-covered oak or beech.  It was, in fact, such a place as a
+lover of nature would have been loath to quit; and even in his time of
+need Hilary was not insensible to the beauties of the spot, but he could
+not help feeling that the rutty roadway was atrocious.
+
+"Well, it's as bad for them as it is for me," he said to himself as he
+ran at a steady trot--now in full view, now hidden from his pursuers by
+the windings of the lane.
+
+"I wonder whether this is the lane they brought me along with that
+jackass," he thought; and then, as his clothes grew lighter and stuck
+less closely to his limbs, he began to wonder how long they would take
+to dry.
+
+"Well, that don't matter," he thought; "I shan't be allowed to sit down
+and rest just yet."
+
+He glanced back; and saw that his pursuers were out of sight, and he was
+just about to take advantage of the fact and spring over into the wood
+when they came in view again and uttered a shout.
+
+"Anyone would think I was a hare and they were trying to run me down,"
+he said.  "Get out, you yelping curs!"
+
+Hare-like, indeed; for he was looking back and thinking of his pursuers
+so intently that he did not cast his eyes ahead beyond his steps till
+another shout roused him, and he saw that his pursuers were calling to a
+party of men coming with a cart from the other direction, and who had
+started forward to join in the pursuit.
+
+His idea a minute before had been to wait his opportunity, leap into the
+wood, and hide while the men went by.  Now he saw that his only course
+was to dash in amongst the forest trees in full sight of his pursuers,
+and trust to his speed or the density of the way, for his retreat was
+cut off, and he had no other chance.
+
+There was no time for hesitation, so, catching at a pendent bough, he
+swung himself up the sandy bank, but slipped and fell back, losing part
+of the ground he had won by his greater speed; but his next effort was
+more successful, and pressing in amongst the low undergrowth he forced
+his way along.
+
+Hilary's desires went far faster than his legs, for it was very hard
+work here.  The low birch scrub and hazel, interspersed with sapling
+ash, mingled and were interlaced with the shade-loving woodland bramble,
+whose spiny strands wove the branches together, clung to his clothes and
+checked him continually.  Well might they be called briars, for it was
+as if a hundred hands were snatching at him.  But, keeping his hands
+well before his face, he struggled on, with the wood growing denser each
+moment and his pursuers close behind.
+
+"Ah, if I only had half a dozen of our lads here," he panted, "how I
+would turn upon these cowardly rascals!  Twelve against one, and hunting
+him down.  Never mind," he cried, making a vicious cut with his weapon
+at a bramble that met him breast high, "I'd rather be the hunted stag
+than one of a pack of miserable hounds."
+
+At another time the wild untrodden wood must have filled him with
+delight, so full was it of beauty.  The earth was carpeted with
+brilliant moss, which ran over the old stumps and climbed the boles of
+the great forest-trees; woodland flowers were crushed beneath his feet,
+and the sunlight danced amongst the leaves.  Every here and there a
+frightened rabbit rushed away, while the long forest arcades echoed with
+the cries of the startled birds.
+
+But Hilary was too hot and excited to notice any of the beauties around.
+His drenching was forgotten, and he was beginning to pant with heat,
+while the shouts of his pursuers made his eyes flash with rage.
+
+He was gaining somewhat, and increasing the distance between them, but
+not greatly; for so far the men, part of whom were those returning from
+the cliffs, were still pretty close, and he could hear the crashing of
+the boughs and twigs as they came on; but he had managed to get out of
+their sight, and coming now upon a more open part where the trees were
+bigger, he ran with all his might, dashed into another denser patch, and
+then feeling that to keep on running was only to grow more and more
+exhausted, and to make his capture a matter of time, he began to think
+whether he could not make his brains help his legs.
+
+There was no time to lose, for the smugglers had now entered the more
+open part, and were, as their shouts indicated, coming on fast.  What he
+was to do must be done quickly.
+
+Hilary crept on cautiously, making as little noise as possible, dividing
+the branches tenderly so as to leave no broken twigs, and finding that
+the ground which he had now reached rapidly descended into a deep ravine
+or gully--one of the many that drain that part of the country--in a few
+minutes he was down between the fern-hung sandstone rocks.
+
+There was a tiny stream at the bottom, now reduced to a mere thread that
+joined together a few pools, but the well-washed banks high above his
+head showed that in rainy times it must be a rushing torrent.
+
+Here was his road, then; for he argued that this stream, even if it did
+not lead right to the sea, would be sure to run into one that did; and
+besides, as he needed not rapid travelling, but the cautious creeping
+that should keep him concealed from his enemies, he could not have met
+with a better way.
+
+Leaping down, then, from stone to stone till he reached the bottom, he
+dived under a number of overhanging brambles, and went slowly on.
+
+His pursuers' cries had for the moment ceased, and his spirits rose as
+he began to feel that they had gone upon the wrong scent; when suddenly,
+as he was forcing his way cautiously along, he heard a loud halloo just
+below him, and not fifty yards away.
+
+To his horror, as he stopped short, there came an answering shout from
+above, and another from higher up the gully.
+
+"Send a couple down into the river bed!" shouted the voice below.  "I'll
+stop him here."
+
+Hilary ground his teeth, for cunning as he thought himself, it was
+evident that the same idea had occurred to his pursuers.
+
+What was he to do?  If he climbed up the banks he was certain to be
+seen; if he kept on along the bed of the stream he would walk right into
+an enemy's arms; and the same if he worked upward.
+
+He stopped, thinking, but no fresh idea struck him; and setting his
+teeth and drawing a long breath, he stepped on into a more open place.
+
+"I'll make a fight for it," he said sharply, "for I don't mean to be
+taken back."
+
+Just then he caught sight of a hollow that had evidently been tunnelled
+out of the rocks by centuries of floods.  There was a perfect curtain of
+thin stranded holly, ivy, and bramble hanging before it, and creeping
+cautiously forward he parted the hanging strands, passed in, and they
+fell back in place, almost shutting out the light of day.
+
+The hollow did not even approach the dimensions of a cave, but was the
+merest hollowing out of the soft sand rock; still, it was sufficient to
+conceal him from his pursuers, and, cutlass in hand, he crouched down,
+holding open one little place in the green curtain and listening for the
+next hint of the coming of his pursuers.  A dead silence ensued, during
+which he could feel the heavy throb, throb of his heart and the hard
+labouring of his breath, for his exertions had been tremendous.  But
+still no sound reached his ears; not a shout was heard, and he began to
+grow hopeful.
+
+Five minutes must have passed, and he had recovered his breath.  From
+out of the tiny opening he had left he saw a robin flit down and perch
+upon a twig.  Then came a blackbird to investigate the state of the
+commissariat department in the gully, turning busily over the leaves;
+and so calmly did the bird work that Hilary felt still more hopeful, for
+he knew that no one could be near.
+
+Vain hope!  All at once the bird uttered its sharp alarm note and flew
+like a streak of black velvet up into the dense growth above, but still
+there was not a sound to be heard.
+
+Hilary's heart began to beat again, for the excitement was intense.
+Then there came a faint rustle, and another.  Then silence again, and he
+felt that the men must have given up the chase.
+
+Just then there was another faint rustle, and through the screen of
+leaves Hilary saw the head and then the shoulders of a strongly-built
+man appear, whose eyes were diligently searching every inch of ground
+till he came nearer, and then, as his gaze lighted on the screen of
+leaves Hilary saw a look of intelligence come upon his stolid features,
+and stepping forward, he was about to drag the leafage aside, when there
+came a loud shout from below--
+
+"Ahoy! this way.  Here he is!"
+
+The man made a rush down the ravine, and the young officer's heart felt
+as if released from some tremendous pressure, for he had nerved himself
+for a tremendous struggle, and the danger had passed.
+
+A minute later there was a sudden outburst of voices and a roar of
+laughter, after which Hilary fancied he could hear Allstone shouting and
+angrily abusing the men.  Then once more came silence, and he lay there
+and waited.
+
+He half expected to see the men come back, but an hour passed and there
+was not a sound save that of the birds in the distance; and at last,
+after fighting down the intense desire to be up and doing till he could
+master himself no longer, Hilary parted the leaves and stepped out into
+the gully to continue his course downwards.
+
+He stopped in a stooping position to listen, for he fancied he had heard
+a rustle.
+
+"Rabbit," he muttered, directly after; and as he did so a tremendous
+weight fell upon his back, throwing him forward upon his face, where, as
+he struggled round and tried to get up, it was to find that the great
+sturdy fellow he had before seen was sitting upon his chest.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+BACK IN BONDS.
+
+"That's the way I do with the rabbuds, shipmet," said the man laughing.
+
+"You dog! you scoundrel!" panted Hilary, continuing his ineffectual
+struggle.
+
+"Better be still, boy," said the man coolly.  "You'll only hurt
+yourself."
+
+As he spoke he wrested the cutlass from the young man's hand, after
+which he coolly took out a tobacco-bag and helped himself to a quid.
+
+Hilary felt his helplessness, and after another furious effort, during
+which he partly raised his captor from his position of 'vantage, he lay
+still and looked in the man's face.
+
+"Look here!" he said; "what'll you take to let me go?"
+
+The man looked at him in an amused fashion, and then laughed.
+
+"Do you hear?" cried Hilary.  "Come, get off me; you hurt my chest."
+
+"Yes.  I hear," said the man coolly.
+
+"Then why don't you answer?  Quick, before the others come!  What will
+you take to let me go?"
+
+"What'll you take, youngster, to join us?"
+
+"What do you take me for?" cried Hilary.  "How dare you ask me such a
+question?"
+
+"Just by the same law that you ask me," said the man coolly.  "Do you
+think everybody is to be bought and sold?"
+
+"But look here," cried Hilary.  "I have been shut up there, and I want
+to get away; I must get away."
+
+"To bring the crew of the cutter to rout us up yonder, eh!" said the
+man, laughing.  "Now, come, I suppose you would call yourself a young
+gentleman; so speak the truth.  If I let you go, will you lead the
+cutter off on a false scent, or will you show the captain the way to our
+place?"
+
+Hilary remained silent.
+
+"Why don't you speak, youngster?  Which would you do?"
+
+"My duty," said Hilary sturdily.
+
+"And that is, of course, to point us out," said the man, smiling.  "Well
+youngster, I don't like you a bit the worse for speaking out like a man.
+I've got my duty to do as well, and here goes."
+
+He blew a shrill chirruping whistle twice over, and it was answered from
+a distance; while before many minutes had elapsed there was the sound of
+breaking twigs, voices talking hurriedly, and directly after, looking
+black and angry, Allstone came up with half-a-dozen men.
+
+Allstone's countenance changed into a look of malignant pleasure as soon
+as he saw Hilary lying amidst the bushes.
+
+"You've got him, then?" he cried.
+
+"Oh, yes," said Hilary's captor coolly.  "It only wanted time."
+
+"I thought we should get him again!" shouted Allstone, grinning in the
+captive's face.  "Here's that cutlass, too.  He's a liar, this fellow.
+He said he had thrown it out of the window."
+
+"So I did, idiot!" cried Hilary indignantly.  "But I tied a string to it
+to pull it back when I wanted it."
+
+The men burst out into a hearty laugh at the idea, as much as at someone
+calling Allstone, who had bullied them a good deal, an idiot.
+
+The man glanced at him savagely, and Hilary read in his eye so much
+promise of a hard time that he determined to make one more effort for
+his liberty, and this he did.
+
+"Who's got a bit o' cord?" said Allstone.  "Oh, here, I have.  Now then,
+up with him, and hold his hands behind his back."
+
+Hilary's captor rose, and a couple of men caught him by the arms, jerked
+him up and held him, dragging back his arms, which Allstone came forward
+to bind; but seeing the young man helpless before him, he could not
+resist the temptation offered to him.
+
+"I'm an idiot, am I?" he shouted.  "How do you like that for an idiot's
+touch?"
+
+He struck Hilary a brutal back-handed blow across the face as he spoke,
+and then went backwards into the gully with a crash.  For, his hands
+being secured, the young officer felt no compunction, under the
+circumstances, in making use of his foot, and with it he gave the bully
+so tremendous a kick in the chest that he went down breathless; and,
+wrenching his arms free, Hilary made a dash for liberty, but his former
+captor seized him as he passed.
+
+"No, my lad, it won't do," he exclaimed.  "It was too much trouble to
+catch you, so we'll keep you now."
+
+Allstone struggled up, but Hilary's captor interfered as he was about to
+strike at him with his doubled fist.
+
+"No, no, Master Allstone," he said sharply, "I'm sure the skipper and
+Sir Henry wouldn't let you do that."
+
+"You stand aside," roared Allstone.  "Who told you to interfere?"
+
+"No one," said the man coolly; "but I shall interfere, and if you touch
+that lad again it'll be through me."
+
+"Do you hear this, lads?" cried Allstone.  "He's breaking his oaths.
+Come on my side and we'll deal with him too."
+
+"This young fellow was about right when he called you an idiot, Jemmy
+Allstone," said the man quietly.
+
+"He's going to help him get away," cried Allstone, who was mad with
+passion.
+
+"Yes, that's it, boys," said the man laughing, "that's why I caught him
+and kept him till you came up, and that's why I'm going to tie his arms.
+Here, give me the rope."
+
+He snatched the cord from Allstone's hands, and turned to Hilary.
+
+"Hold up your arms, my lad, and I won't hurt you.  Come, it's of no use
+to try and run; we're too many for you.  Never fight your ship when you
+know you are beaten; it's only waste of strength.  Come, hold up."
+
+Hilary felt that he had done all that was possible, and, won by his
+captor's frank, manly way, he held up his wrists, to have them so
+tightly and ingeniously tied that he was a prisoner indeed.
+
+As they went back by a short cut through the wood, and one which brought
+them into a narrow lane, Allstone once found an opportunity to
+maliciously kick his prisoner, as if by accident; but Hilary's friend
+saw the act, and took care that he did not again approach too near; and,
+after what seemed a weary walk, the little party crossed the moat of the
+handsome old place.  Hilary was led into the great kitchen, and then
+up-stairs, past flight after flight, to a room at the top with a
+strongly-bound door.  Into this place he was thrust, and Allstone was
+about to leave him as he was; but the friendly smuggler stepped forward,
+and began to unfasten the bonds.
+
+"Never mind that," cried Allstone; "let him stay bound."
+
+The man paid no heed whatever, but undid the cord, set Hilary free, and
+then retired, the door being banged to, locked loudly, and secured by a
+heavy bar thrust clanging across.
+
+The young officer stood staring at the door for a few minutes, and then
+stamped his foot upon the floor.
+
+"Was ever fellow so unlucky!" he exclaimed.  "Lipscombe might have found
+me out by this time; and when I do get out, I'm caught and brought back.
+But never mind; if they think I'm beaten they are wrong, for I'll get
+out, if only to show Sir Henry what a mean-spirited fellow he is."
+
+He looked round his room, which was a bare old attic, with dormer
+windows and casements, from which, on flinging one open, he saw that he
+was far too high from the ground for a descent without a rope; but a
+second glance showed him that it would be possible to climb upon the
+roof, and when there he might perhaps manage to get somewhere else.
+
+Just then he heard a window opened on the floor below, and, looking
+down, he saw Adela, evidently gazing towards the moat.
+
+For a few moments he felt too indignant to speak, for he thought Sir
+Henry was behaving very ill to him; but a little reflection told him
+that his old companion was not to blame, and what she might even then be
+feeling very grateful to him for what he had done.
+
+"Well, I'll give her a chance to show it," he thought; and, leaning out
+a little more he said lightly, "Well, Addy, are you any the worse for
+your dip?"
+
+"Oh, Hil!" she exclaimed looking up, "are you there?"
+
+"Yes, and locked up safely.  I say, your people are behaving very badly
+to me."
+
+"Oh, Hil," cried the girl with the tears in her eyes, "I am so sorry.
+I've been begging papa not to have you caught, and he says he could not
+help it."
+
+"Then he ought to help it," replied Hilary warmly.
+
+"But he says he's bound to keep faith with his friends; and that if you
+would only give your word not to escape and betray our hiding-place you
+might come and live with us; and oh, Hil dear, it would be like old
+times, and we could have such walks together.  Do be a good boy, and
+promise what papa wishes!  I should like you to come and be with us
+again, for I have no companion now."
+
+Hilary looked down at the bright little face, and as the thoughts of how
+pleasantly the time would pass in her company came upon him, as compared
+with the miseries he had to endure, he felt sorely tempted to give his
+parole; he might do that, he argued.
+
+"Do come, Hil," she said again, as if she were reading his hesitation.
+"Papa will be so pleased."
+
+"And try his best to make me turn traitor," thought Hilary.
+
+"No," he exclaimed, "I cannot do it, Addy; and I'm sure you would not
+wish me to break faith with those to whom I owe duty.  I should like to
+come, but--ah, Sir Henry, you there?"
+
+He started, for a hand was laid upon his shoulder, and turning, there
+stood Sir Henry, holding out his hand.
+
+"I have come to thank you, my brave, true lad, for what you have done,"
+he exclaimed warmly.  "You saved my darling's life and then mine."
+
+"And for which you had me hunted down," said Hilary bitterly.
+
+"It was no act of mine, my boy," said Sir Henry sadly.  "Why will you
+ignore the fact that I am not master of your position?  Hilary, my dear
+boy, once more, will you join us?"
+
+"No, Sir Henry; and even if I did you would only despise me."
+
+"No, no.  Nothing of the kind."
+
+"Then I should despise myself," cried Hilary.  "Once more, Sir Henry, I
+am a king's officer, and refuse your proposals."
+
+"Then give me your parole not to escape."
+
+"I give you my word of honour that I will escape as soon as I possibly
+can," said Hilary smiling.  "So take my advice, and take Adela away.
+Save yourself, too, for if I find you here I shall be obliged to arrest
+you."
+
+"Why, you foolish fellow," said Sir Henry smiling, "you are a prisoner,
+and you have found out that you cannot get away."
+
+"Not so, Sir Henry.  I found that I could not get away this first time;
+but you don't know me if you think I am going to sit down quietly here
+without an effort to escape."
+
+"But it is impossible here, my good lad," said Sir Henry.
+
+"So your people thought when you locked me up in that old chapel.  I
+tell you, Sir Henry, I mean to get back to my ship."
+
+"Then, for the safety of my child, and for my own safety, Hilary, you
+force me to show myself the stern officer of his majesty our rightful
+king, and I must see that you are kept fast.  However, I will try to
+temper justice with some show of kindness, and I have had dry clothes
+brought up for your use till the others are right."
+
+"Oh, they are pretty well right now," said Hilary carelessly.
+
+"Then is it to be war, Hilary?" said Sir Henry with a sad smile.
+
+"Yes, Sir Henry, war."
+
+"We shall keep you very close and very fast, my boy."
+
+"No, Sir Henry, you will not," cried Hilary cheerily, "for before many
+hours are over I mean to be free."
+
+"It is a game of chess, then," said Sir Henry laughing.
+
+"Yes, Sir Henry, and you have moved out your pawns and played your
+queen;" and he pointed below.
+
+"I have," said Sir Henry smiling.  "Now what do you mean to do?"
+
+"Well, Sir Henry, seeing how I am shut up, suppose we say that I am
+castled."
+
+"Very good," laughed Sir Henry going to the door and passing out.
+
+"Very good or very bad," muttered Hilary, "I mean to be out before many
+days are passed; and when once I am free the smugglers may look out for
+squalls."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+HILARY TRIES AGAIN.
+
+Soon after Sir Henry had gone, Hilary went to the window, but drew back
+directly.
+
+"No," he said to himself, "if I go there I shall be tempted into giving
+my parole or joining the Pretender's party.  Sir Henry seems to think he
+can win me over; so let us see."
+
+He began to walk up and down his prison.  Then it struck him that his
+clothes had pretty well grown dry again, and he went over in his mind
+the incidents of the day and the past night, thoughts which were
+interrupted by the coming of Allstone, who bore some bread and meat, and
+a mug of beer, while a man behind him dragged in a table and chair, and
+afterwards carried in a straw mattress and a pillow, Allstone looking
+grimly on.
+
+The man went out, but Allstone still waited, and at last the man came
+back with a bundle of sheets and blankets, which he threw upon the bed.
+
+"There," said Allstone, "that will do;" and seeing the man out, he
+darted a surly look at Hilary, and then followed and banged the door.
+
+"Thank you," said Hilary, laughing.  "Perhaps a ladder would have been a
+little more convenient; but what donkeys people are--give a sailor
+sheets and blankets, and shut him up in a garret, and think he won't
+escape!  Ha! ha! ha!"
+
+The sight of the food changed the current of Hilary's thoughts, and
+sitting down he made a very hearty meal, felt that his clothes had grown
+thoroughly dry, and then did what was not surprising under the
+circumstances, began to nod, and then went off fast asleep.
+
+Before an hour had passed he awoke; but he was so drowsy that he threw
+himself upon the mattress, and falling asleep directly he did not awaken
+till early the next morning.
+
+No escape that day, and as he had to make up his mind to this, he waited
+until Allstone came with a rough breakfast, when he made a peremptory
+demand for some means of washing and making himself more presentable.
+
+"My orders be to bring you something to sleep on and your meals, that's
+all," growled the fellow.  "I had no orders about washing tackle."
+
+"Get out, you surly ill-conditioned ruffian," cried Hilary; and the
+fellow grinned.
+
+"Here's something for you," he said, contemptuously jerking a letter on
+to the floor, which Hilary picked up.
+
+"Look here, Master Allstone," he cried, shaking a finger at him; "one of
+these days I shall come here with a dozen or two of our brave boys, and
+if I don't have you flogged till you beg my pardon for all this, my name
+is not Hilary Leigh."
+
+"Bah!" ejaculated the man; and he went away making as much noise as he
+could with the lock and bar so as to annoy his prisoner, but without
+success, for that individual was reading the letter he had received.
+
+It was as follows:--
+
+  "My dear Hilary,--Fate has placed us on opposite sides, and though she
+  has now thrown us together, I am compelled to hold aloof until you can
+  say to me, `Here is my parole of honour not to betray you or to
+  escape!' or `I see that I am on the side of a usurper, and abjure his
+  service.  From henceforth I am heart and soul with you.'  When you can
+  send me either of those messages, Hilary, Adela and I are ready to
+  receive you with open arms.  Till then we must be estranged; but all
+  the same, my dear boy, accept my gratitude and love for your bravery
+  in saving our lives.--Affectionately yours, Henry Norland."
+
+"Then we shall have to remain estranged," said Hilary as he stood by the
+open window refolding the letter and thinking of his position.
+
+"Hil!  Hil!" came from below.
+
+"Ahoy!" he answered.  "Well, little lady?" and he leaned out.
+
+"Isn't it a beautiful morning, Hil," said Adela, looking up.  "Lovely."
+
+"Why don't you come down and have a run with me in the woods?"
+
+"For one reason, because I am locked up," said Hilary.  "For another,
+because I have not made my hands and face acquainted with soap and water
+since I was aboard the cutter; my hair is full of bits of straw and dead
+leaves, and my clothes are soaked and shrunken, and muddied and torn.
+Altogether, I am not fit to be seen."
+
+"Well, but Hil, dear, why don't you wash yourself?"
+
+"Because your esteemed friends here do not allow me soap, water, and
+towel.  I say, Addy, if I lower down a piece of string, will you send me
+a jug of water?"
+
+"Same as I did the milk?  Oh, of course!" said the girl laughing.
+
+"All right," said Hilary; "get it, please."
+
+He took out his knife, and without hesitation nicked and tore off the
+hem of one of his sheets, knotted two lengths together, lowered them
+down, and in turn drew up wash-hand jug, soap, brush and comb, and
+afterwards a basin, by having it tied up in a towel, and attaching the
+string to the knots.
+
+Adela seemed to enjoy it all as fun, but she turned serious directly
+after as she told her old companion how grateful she felt to him for his
+bravery on the previous day, remarks which made Hilary feel
+uncomfortable and go away from the window with the excuse that he wanted
+to attend to his toilet.
+
+For the next quarter of an hour Hilary was revelling in a good wash,
+with all the enjoyment of one who has been shut off from the use of soap
+and towel, with the result that after he had finished off with a brush,
+he felt more himself, and ready to stare his position more comfortably
+in the face.
+
+He went to the window in spite of his resolutions not to be tempted, and
+looked down; but Adela had gone, so he had a good look round at the
+country.
+
+Here he was facing due south, and before him, stretched in the bright
+sunshine, wave after wave as it were of hilly land, pretty well clothed
+with forest-trees.  In the far distance there was a range of hills with
+a church and a windmill, both of which he recognised as having seen from
+the other side when upon the deck of the cutter, and this gave him a
+good idea of where he was, and how to shape his course when he made his
+escape.
+
+That word set him thinking, and without more ado he proceeded to cut up
+the sheets, knot together some of the strips, and then to lay them up,
+sailor fashion, into a serviceable linen rope, for the sheets were
+coarse and strong.
+
+This he did with his ears attent to the coming of footsteps, and a place
+ready in the bed to throw his work and cover it over should Allstone or
+Sir Henry be at hand.  But he need not have troubled, for he completed
+about forty feet of good strong line from the pair of sheets, and coiled
+it up after securing the ends ready for use.
+
+His escape now was simplicity itself he thought, and his toil ended and
+the shreds carefully swept up and blown from the window, he seated
+himself upon the sill, and enjoyed the warmth of the afternoon sunshine,
+planning out how he would slip down after securing one end of his cord
+to the window-frame.
+
+Sir Henry would, he felt sure, provide for the safety of Adela and
+himself as soon as he found that the prisoner had escaped, for he felt
+that he could not bring peril upon them.  There was no cause for fear,
+though, and he sat thinking of how grand it would be if he could escape
+the moment it was dark and get down to the shore and find the _Kestrel_.
+
+That seemed hopeless, though, and too much to expect; for it was not
+likely that the cutter would be still cruising about and waiting for
+him.  If she was, though, he knew how he could bring a boat's crew
+well-armed ashore, and that was by making a signal with a light in a
+particular way.
+
+The sun was getting lower, and everything round the old place was still,
+nothing but a couple of fowls that were pecking about in what had once
+been a large garden between the old house and the moat, being visible.
+
+It had once been a goodly residence, no doubt, but all now was ruin and
+desolation, except that the warm sunshine made even the neglect and
+weeds look picturesque.  There were massive gables to right and left,
+and the old tiles were orange and grey with a thick coating of lichen.
+Just between his window and that of Adela there were the mouldering
+remains of a carved shield, with surmounting helmet and crest, and a
+decayed motto below, while to right and left the ivy had covered the
+front with its dark-green glossy leaves, among which the cable-like
+runners could be seen.
+
+Anywhere, almost, along the front of the venerable place he could have
+climbed down by the help of the ivy; in his neighbourhood, however, it
+had been cleared away.
+
+He wondered sometimes how it was that he had heard no more of Adela, and
+that everything about the place should be so still, and concluded that
+Sir Henry had forbidden her to hold counsel with him, and in this belief
+he sat on waiting until the sun went down in a flood of orange glory.
+
+Just then he heard Allstone's heavy step upon the stairs, and coming
+away from the window Hilary threw himself upon his bed over the hidden
+rope.
+
+But he need not have feared that it would be seen, for Allstone simply
+placed some food upon the table and went away directly after, locking
+the door.
+
+The repast though rough and plain was substantial, and very welcome.
+Hilary felt somewhat agitated at the attempt he was about to make; but
+he knew that he needed fortifying with food, and he ate heartily,
+placing the remains of his meal in his pockets as a reserve for
+by-and-by.
+
+As the sun went down the moon began to make its presence known; but it
+was early in its first quarter, and in the course of a couple of hours
+it too had set, leaving the sky to the stars, which twinkled brightly,
+doing little, though, to dispel the darkness.
+
+In fact, by about nine, as he guessed it to be, the night was as
+suitable as possible for such an enterprise as his, and after listening
+to some distant sounds of talking in the back of the house, Hilary
+proceeded with beating heart to take out and unroll his light coil of
+rope.
+
+By means of a little management he took one of the leaded panes from the
+bottom of the casement so as to allow the rope to be securely tied round
+the stout oak centrepiece of the window, and then, after watching
+attentively for a few minutes, he lowered down the other end until the
+full extent was reached, and as nearly as he could judge it touched the
+ground.
+
+Even if it did not, there was nothing to fear, for at the utmost he
+would have had but a few feet to drop, and after a few moments'
+hesitancy he passed one leg out of the window, took a good grip of the
+rope, climbed right out, twisted his legs round in turn, and directly
+after, while swinging gently, he let himself down foot by foot.
+
+It was nothing to him.  His sailor life made a descent by a rope one of
+the merest trifles.
+
+Down lower and lower, past Adela's window, and then coming into sight of
+a broad casement where a light was burning.
+
+The upper floors of the old building projected beyond the lower, so that
+he had not been aware of this lighted room, and as he hung there turning
+slowly round and round he could plainly see Sir Henry in a
+comfortably-furnished place, seated at a table writing, while Adela was
+gazing up into his face as she sat upon a low stool at his feet.
+
+For a few moments Hilary hung there motionless, feeling that if Sir
+Henry raised his eyes, as he was sure to do at the slightest sound, he
+could not help seeing him gently spinning round and round.
+
+Recovering himself though, directly, he let himself slide, and reached
+the ground, but made so much noise that he heard Sir Henry speak, and he
+had hardly time to dart aside, drawing with him the white rope, and
+crouch down close to the house, before the window was opened, and he
+knew that some one was looking out.
+
+"No, papa," said a well-known voice, "I can see nothing."
+
+"Look again," said Sir Henry.  "Stop; I'll come."
+
+There was the noise of a moving chair, and then Hilary felt that Sir
+Henry was looking out of the window, and wondered whether he was seen.
+
+He hardly dared to breathe, and it seemed like an hour before he heard a
+sigh, and Sir Henry said, softly--
+
+"What a lovely night, my child!"
+
+Then there was the sound of the casement being closed, steps faintly
+heard across the room, and, gliding from his place of concealment,
+Hilary made for the bridge, crossed it, and then darted amongst the
+bushes beside the narrow lane, for there was a buzz of voices behind
+him, and from the other side of the house he could see the light of a
+lantern, and then came the tramp of a horse and the sound of wheels.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+SIGNALLING THE KESTREL.
+
+Hilary knew that if he wished to escape he must achieve it with his
+brain perhaps as much as his heels.  He could pretty well tell which way
+to go, but his knowledge of the country was very small, and great care
+was necessary.  It was evident that there was a party leaving the old
+house, and most probably they were going to be present at some landing
+of goods upon the shore, whence the cart would bring the lading of some
+lugger back.  If he went on now, it would be with this party always
+ready to overtake him at any moment, for he did not know the road.  If,
+on the other hand, he kept hidden until the cart had gone by, their
+lantern would be a guide to him, and he could follow silently till he
+reached the cliffs.  After that he must be guided by circumstances.
+
+It was a wise idea, and lying _perdu_ for a few minutes, he found that a
+cart passed him slowly, attended by six men, one of whom bore the
+lantern.  They were all chatting and laughing, and so intent upon their
+business in hand that Hilary was able to follow them at a moderate
+distance, the lantern acting as his guide.
+
+He soon found that fortune had favoured him, for without their guidance
+the chances were that he would have wandered off into one of the rugged
+lanes through the woods, if he had not lost the track entirely, for it
+was hardly worthy of the name of road.
+
+He was going cautiously along, keeping the lantern well in sight, when,
+all at once, a faint glow appeared just in front; and he only stopped
+short just in time to avoid blundering over one of the party who had
+hung back to refill and light his pipe with a piece of touchwood, which
+he was now blowing up into a brisk glow before applying it to the bowl.
+
+Hilary stopped as if struck by lightning, and held his breath, so close
+was he to the man, who, fortunately, was too much occupied with the task
+he had in hand to notice the young officer's proximity; and, after
+getting his pipe well alight, he started off after his companions.
+
+This adventure made Hilary, if possible, more cautious, and for the next
+two hours he kept at a greater distance, wondering the while how much
+farther it was, when all at once he noticed that the lantern had become
+stationary.  Directly after another light approached, and then a broad
+glare shone out, evidently from an open door.  Then there was a good
+deal of talking and the rattle of a cart; then of another; and Hilary,
+finding that he could progress no farther by the track, struck off
+amongst the bushes and ferns on his left, finding now that the trees
+were left behind; and as the next minute he found even the bushes had
+given place to heather and turf, he concluded that he must be nearing
+the sea.
+
+It had grown so dark that he had to proceed with caution or he would
+have tripped over some patch of furze or fern.
+
+But he escaped pretty well; and seeing that the lanterns were once more
+in motion, he determined to proceed, as well as he could, parallel with
+the party, watch their proceedings, and learn all he could for future
+service if he succeeded in getting away.
+
+Once he thought that he had better devote himself to his escape; but he
+could do no more until daybreak, and if he could see how the smugglers
+landed their cargoes such knowledge would be invaluable.
+
+Going cautiously on, then, he must have proceeded for a couple of
+hundred yards when he found that the bearers of the lanterns had
+stopped, and there was a low buzz of talking, and someone seemed to be
+giving orders.
+
+Then the noise ceased, and he fancied he could hear footsteps going
+away, while the lanterns burned close together, apparently on the
+ground.
+
+He was too far-off still, he thought, and in his eager curiosity he bent
+down and took a few steps forward, felt one foot give way, threw himself
+back, and lay upon the turf, wet with a cold, chilling perspiration, and
+clutching the short turf with his fingers driven in as far as he could.
+
+As he lay there trembling he heard a familiar sound from far below, and
+as his vision cleared and he grew calmer he could just make out a faint
+line of light where the waves were breaking amongst the stones, for he
+had been within an inch of a terrible death.  The little patch of turf
+upon which he had trod grew right on the verge of the cliff, and but for
+his spasmodic effort to throw himself back as the earth gave way, he
+must have pitched headlong on to the rocks a couple of hundred feet
+below.
+
+"What an escape!" he muttered; and then, after a calm feeling of
+thankfulness had pervaded him for a time, he lay there enjoying the soft
+salt breeze that blew gently upon his cheeks, and listening with delight
+to the murmurous plash of the waves.
+
+As he gazed out to sea, where all was exceedingly dark, his heart gave a
+great leap, for not a couple of miles away, as he judged, a vessel was
+lying, and there was something in the position of the lights that made
+him feel certain it was the _Kestrel_.
+
+He would not believe it at first, but told himself it was his fancy--the
+suggestion of that which he fondly wished; but as he shaded his eyes and
+watched he became more and more certain that it was his ship, and in his
+elation it was all he could do not to utter a joyous shout by way of a
+hail.
+
+He checked himself, however, in the mad idea, and lay thinking.  There
+was the old _Kestrel_, and the idea of getting back to his stuffy
+quarters and the ill-temper of Lieutenant Lipscombe seemed delightful;
+but he knew that the greatest caution was needed, or he would fail in
+his attempt.
+
+Then, again, he thought it impossible that it could be the _Kestrel_,
+for the smugglers would never have the hardihood to run a cargo just
+under the very nose of a king's ship; but directly afterwards he was
+obliged to own that it was by these very acts of daring that they were
+able to carry on with such success; and the more he gazed out at those
+lights, the more certain he felt that they belonged to his vessel.
+
+"Yes," he thought, "it's the old lass sure enough, and the lads will be
+as glad as can be to see me back.  I know they will.  Oh, if I could
+only signal to them and bring a boat's crew ashore."
+
+He lay thinking, and then, with beating heart, began to crawl cautiously
+along close to the edge of the cliff till he was abreast of the
+lanterns, which, as he had half suspected, lay in a depression, with a
+high bank of rush and bushes between them and the sea.  There was no one
+with them, and all was very silent.
+
+Where were the smugglers, then?
+
+That was soon solved; for on crawling a little farther he found his
+hands go down suddenly where the cliff made a rapid slope, and as he lay
+upon his chest he could hear the hum of voices, the trampling of feet
+upon the shingle, and though he could hardly distinguish moving figures,
+his imagination supplied the rest; and, as plainly as if he could see it
+all, there, he knew, was a large lugger ashore and a party of men
+landing her cargo, carrying it up the beach and among the rocks, where
+it was being drawn up by a rough pulley, and yonder, all the while, lay
+the king's ship in utter ignorance of what was going on.
+
+There it all was, the soft murmur of the sea--he could almost fancy he
+heard it lap the lugger's sides; and certainly as he gazed more intently
+down, there was a dark break in the line of foam.  That, then, must be
+the lugger.
+
+If it had only been a little lighter he could have seen all--the busy
+party like so many ants running to and fro with their loads, while
+others were drawing them up the rocks ready for the loading of the
+carts.  Yes, there was the creak of a pulley from a heavier load than
+usual; and this was the way it was done on these dark fine nights.
+Perhaps in another hour the whole cargo would be drawn up on the cliff,
+the carts would be loaded at their leisure, and as the tide rose the
+lugger would push off once more, and all, as he had before said, just
+under the nose of his majesty's cutter.
+
+"No wonder," thought Hilary, "that we are so often unsuccessful; but
+we'll checkmate them now!  What can I do?"
+
+He lay thus thinking and listening, and then an idea came to him.  The
+men were all busy down below, and they had left their lanterns in that
+hollow.
+
+As the thought occurred to him he began to crawl back cautiously but
+quickly till he was close up to where the lanterns were hidden.
+
+"If there is anyone there," he argued, "I can dash off into the darkness
+and escape."
+
+But he felt sure that there was no one.  Still he tested the question by
+saying suddenly in a gruff voice:
+
+"Now, my lads, you're wanted below."
+
+It was a bold stroke, but it satisfied him that all was right, and that
+all hands were away.
+
+Now, then, was his time.  He could not help the _Kestrel's_ men, they
+must do the work; but if they came ashore they would know why it was,
+and the possibilities were that they would surprise the lugger--perhaps
+be in time to capture half her cargo.
+
+Hilary did not hesitate now, but creeping down into the hollow, he
+extinguished the candle in one lantern and took off his jacket and
+wrapped it round the other, completely hiding its light.  Then, taking
+the first in his hand, he crept up once more to the higher part of the
+cliff.
+
+Here he ould see the lights of the _Kestrel_ plain enough, but even when
+stooping down he could not help seeing the black patch upon the shore.
+
+That would not do, so he crept back a few yards, finding the cliff rise
+in a sharp slope, going to the top of which he found that he could see
+the light in what was apparently a cottage.
+
+Descending again, he cautiously chose a spot where he could easily see
+the cutter's lights but not the shore below the cliff, and then he
+paused and listened.
+
+The dull murmur was fainter now, but he could make out the men at work,
+and for a few moments he hesitated.  Suppose he should be surprised and
+taken back!
+
+"Never mind," he thought, "I am only doing my duty.  They dare not kill
+me, and, in the king's name, here goes."
+
+He uncovered the lantern and placed it upon the turf, where it burned
+steadily and well; then opening the door, he took the candle from the
+extinct lantern, lit it, replaced it, and closed it in, put on his
+jacket, and then, taking a couple of steps to the left, he stood there
+holding the second lantern breast high, making a signal that he knew
+would be understood on board if the diagonal lights were seen by anyone
+of the watch.
+
+Hilary's heart beat fast.  He was concealed by the cliff from the busy
+party below, and by the rise behind him from those inland, but at any
+moment some one might come up to where the lanterns had been placed,
+miss them, and see what he was about.
+
+It was risky work, but he did not shrink, although he knew that he was
+lessening his chances of escape.  Still, if he could only bring the
+_Kestrel's_ boats down upon the scoundrels it would be so grand a _coup_
+that his hesitation was always mastered, and he stood firm, gazing out
+to sea.
+
+How long the minutes seemed, and what a forlorn hope it was!  The
+chances were that the watch might not notice the lights; and even if
+they were seen, it might not be by anyone of sufficient intelligence to
+report them to the lieutenant, or to the boatswain or gunner.
+
+Every now and then he fancied he heard steps.  Then his imagination
+created the idea that some one was crawling along the ground to push him
+over the cliff; but he set his teeth and stood his post, keenly alive,
+though, to every real sound and such sights as he could see, and ready
+at any moment to dash down the lanterns and run inland for liberty, if
+not for life.  How dark the lanterns seemed to make it, and how hot the
+one grew in his hands!  Would those on board ever see it, and was he to
+stand there in vain?
+
+"Ah! if I had only been on board," he muttered, as the time wore on,
+till what seemed to him a couple of hours had passed, but what was
+really only about a fourth of that time; "I would have seen it.
+Somebody ought to have seen it."
+
+Still the lights from the cutter burned out brightly, like a couple of
+stars, and at last, in a hopeless mood, he began to think that the
+signal he was displaying was too feeble to be seen so far.
+
+"I may as well give it up," he muttered despairingly; "the rascals will
+be up directly now, and I shall be caught, and the _Kestrels_ could
+never get ashore in time.--Yes--no--yes--no--yes," he panted.
+
+For, as he stared out at the cutter's lights, all at once they
+disappeared.
+
+He gazed till his eyes seemed starting, but there was no doubt about it;
+they had been put out or covered; and turning sharply round, he hid the
+lantern he carried, and turned over the other with his foot prior to
+stooping and blowing it out.
+
+The signal had been seen.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+HILARY GETS IN A QUEER FIX.
+
+With his heart throbbing with joy Hilary now proceeded to reverse his
+performance, for, taking off his jacket once more, he enveloped the
+burning lantern, picked up the other that was emitting an abominable
+odour, and hastily carried them back to the hollow where he found them.
+
+It was so dark that he was doubtful whether he had found the right
+place, but he kicked against another lantern, and that convinced him.
+
+Placing the burning one on the ground, he relit the other, his hands
+trembling so that he hardly knew what he did, and impeded himself to no
+slight degree.  He succeeded, however, and had just set the second
+lantern down as nearly as he could remember, when he fancied he heard a
+sound as of some one snoring, and glancing in the direction, he saw to
+his horror that a man was lying there asleep.
+
+For a few moments he felt paralysed, and stood there holding his jacket
+in his hand unable to move, as he asked himself whether that man had
+been there when he spoke and took the lights.
+
+As he stood there wondering, he heard a voice call "Jem!" in a low tone;
+and this roused Hilary, who dropped down and crept away, glancing to
+seaward as he did so, where the cutter's lights--if it was she--once
+more brightly burned.
+
+He did not dare to go far, but lay flat upon the turf, listening as
+someone came up; and then there was a dull noise as of a man kicking
+another.
+
+"Get up, Jem!  Do you hear!  Why, what a fellow you are to sleep!"
+
+"Hullo!  Oh, all right," said another voice; and now Hilary could see
+two men standing, their figures plainly shown against the lantern's
+light.  "Oh, yes; it's all very well to say `Hullo!' and `All right!'"
+grumbled the first voice; "I never see such a fellow to sleep."
+
+"Have you done?" said the sleepy one yawning.
+
+"Done?  No; nor half done; she's got a heavy cargo.  If we get done in
+three hours we shall have worked well.  Put out them candles, and come
+and haul."
+
+The lights were extinguished; and Hilary, wondering at his escape, felt
+his heart bound with joy, for by that time the crews of a couple of
+boats must have been mustered on the _Kestrel's_ deck, and in another
+five minutes they would be pulling, with muffled oars, towards the
+shore.
+
+"Ah! if I were only in command of one!" cried Hilary to himself; "but as
+I am not, can I do anything more to help our fellows besides bringing
+them ashore?"
+
+It was a question that puzzled him to answer, and he lay there on the
+turf wondering what it would be best to do, ending by making up his mind
+to creep down as cautiously as he could in the direction taken by the
+two men.
+
+"The worst that could happen to me," he thought, "would be that I should
+be taken; and if I am made prisoner once more, it will only be in the
+cause of duty--so here goes."
+
+The darkness favoured him as far as concealment was concerned, but it
+had its disadvantages.  A little way to his left was the edge of the
+cliff, and Hilary knew that if he were not careful he would reach the
+shore in a way not only unpleasant to himself, but which would totally
+spoil him for farther service; so he exercised as much caution for
+self-preservation as he did to keep himself hidden from his enemies.
+
+There was a well-beaten track, and, following this, he found the descent
+was very rapid into a little valley-like depression, from the bottom of
+which came the faint creak of a pulley now and then, with mingled sounds
+of busy men going to and fro with loads, which they seemed to be, as he
+judged, carrying up to carts somewhere at the head of the ravine.
+
+He could see very little, the darkness was so great; but his keen sense
+of hearing supplied the want of sight; and as he lay beside a clump of
+what seemed to be furze, he very soon arrived at a tolerably good idea
+of what was going on.
+
+Still he was not satisfied.  He wanted to realise more thoroughly the
+whole procedure of the smugglers, so that if the present attempt should
+prove a failure he might be in a position to circumvent them another
+time.
+
+It was a great risk to go any nearer, and it might result in capture,
+perhaps in being knocked down; but he determined to go on, especially as
+it grew darker every minute, the stars being completely blotted out by a
+curtain of cloud that came sweeping over the sky.
+
+He hesitated for a few moments, and then crept on, listening intently
+the while.
+
+The smugglers were still some distance off, down towards the edge of the
+lower cliff; and he crept nearer and nearer, till to his horror he found
+that the clearness of the part about him was only due to the cessation
+of the carrying for a few minutes, and now a party seemed to be coming
+up from the cliff edge, apparently loaded, while, when he turned to
+retreat, he found by the sound of voices that another party was coming
+down.
+
+His manifest proceeding then was to get out of the track, but, to his
+horror, he found that he was down in a rift between two high walls of
+rock, and his first attempt to climb up resulted in a slip back,
+scratching his hands, and tearing his clothes.
+
+Before he could make a second attempt he was seized by a pair of strong
+arms and forced down upon his knees; and dimly in the gloom he could
+make out that he was pretty well surrounded by rough-looking men.
+
+"Caught you, have I?" said a deep voice.
+
+Hilary remained silent.  It was of no avail to struggle, and he reserved
+his strength for a better opportunity to escape.
+
+He thought of shouting aloud to the boats, which he hoped were now well
+on their way; but he restrained himself, as he felt that the success of
+their approach depended upon their secrecy, so he merely hung down his
+head, without offering the slightest resistance.
+
+He had his reward.
+
+"Get up, you lazy, skulking lubber!" cried his captor, "or I'll
+rope's-end you."  This, by the way, was rather cool language, especially
+after forcing the captive down upon his knees.
+
+"Here are we to work like plantation niggers at the oars, rowing night
+and day, and you 'long-shore idlers leave us to do all the work."
+
+"Why, he takes me for one of their party," thought Hilary; and, dark
+though it was, he felt astonished at the man's stupidity, for it did not
+occur to him then that he was hatless, that his hair was rough, his face
+and hands anything but clean, and his old uniform shrunken by his
+immersion, and so caked with mud and dirt, and withal so torn and
+ragged, that even by broad daylight anyone would have strongly doubted
+that he was a king's officer, while in the gloom of that ravine he could
+easily be taken for a rough-looking carrier belonging to their gang.
+
+"Come on," said the man hauling him along, "I've got a nice little job
+for you.  I don't care for your sulky looks.  Go it, my lads.  Got the
+lot?" he continued, as a line of loaded men filed past them, they having
+to stand back against the rock to let the burdened party pass.
+
+"All? no; nor yet half," was the reply.  "There, get on."
+
+"All right.  Take it easy," was the reply; and, trying hard to make out
+the surroundings, Hilary made no resistance, but let himself be hurried
+along down the declivity they were in, till he found himself on a
+platform of trampled earth, where, as far as he could make out against
+the skyline, a rough kind of shears was rigged up, and, by means of a
+block, a couple of men were hauling up packages, and another was landing
+them upon the platform, and unfastening and sending down the empty
+hooks.
+
+"Here, one of you carry now," said Hilary's captor, "and let this joker
+haul.  I found him trying to miche, and nipped him as he was skulking
+off.  Lay hold, you lazy lubber, and haul."
+
+One of the men left the rope, and assuming a sulky, injured manner,
+Hilary took his place at the rope, and, upon the signal being given,
+hauled away with his new companion, who gave a grunt indicative of
+satisfaction, as he found how well Hilary kept time with him, bringing
+his strength to bear in unison with the other's, so that they worked
+like one man.
+
+"Ah, that's better!" he said.  "I've been doing all the work."
+
+They had brought a keg above the cliff edge, and this being detached,
+Hilary's captor mounted it upon his shoulders, and the man who had been
+hauling in Hilary's place took up a package and they began to move off.
+
+"Let me know if he don't work," said the rough-voiced man.
+
+"I'll soon be back.  Mind he don't slip off."
+
+"All right," said Hilary's companion.
+
+"Haul," said a voice, and they pulled up another keg, while the tramping
+of men could be plainly heard below, telling Hilary of what was going
+on.
+
+"Why," he thought, as he worked steadily on, "this is where they hauled
+me up, the rascals; and now--"
+
+He could not help laughing to himself at the strange trick Fate had
+played him in setting him, a naval officer, helping a party of smugglers
+to land their cargo; but all the same, he gloried in the amount of
+information he was picking up for some future time.
+
+"I don't seem to know you," said the man beside him at last, after they
+had hauled up several packages and kegs.  "Did old Allstone send you to
+help?"
+
+This was a poser, and Hilary paused for a moment or two before saying
+frankly:
+
+"No; he didn't want me to come."
+
+"Ah! he's a nice 'un," growled the other.  "I wish I'd my way; I'd make
+him work a little harder.  He's always skulking up at the old manor."
+
+Hilary uttered a low grunt, and in the intervals of hauling he strained
+his eyes to grasp all he could of his surroundings; but there was very
+little to see.  He could make out that he was at the edge of a lower
+part of the cliff; that the rock-strewn beach was, as far as he could
+make out by the hauling, some forty feet below; that the platform where
+he stood was the sea termination of a gully, where probably in wet
+weather a stream ran down and over the edge in a kind of fall, while on
+either side the cliff towered up to a great height.
+
+There was not much to learn, but it was enough to teach him what he
+wanted to know, and it quite explained the success of the smugglers in
+evading capture.
+
+Hilary had strained his eyes again and again seaward; but, save that the
+cutter's lights were burning brightly in the darkness, there was no sign
+of coming help, though, for the matter of that, a fleet of small boats
+might have landed and been unseen from where he stood.
+
+The man's suspicions seemed to have been lulled, and Hilary kept on
+hauling.  The men came and went from where they were to the carts that
+he judged to be waiting, and those below, like dim shadows just seen now
+and then, toiled on over the rocks, but still no sign of the cutter's
+boats, and in despair now of my such capture as might have been made,
+Hilary was thinking that when a suitable opportunity occurred he would
+seize hold of the hook with one hand, retain the hauling rope in the
+other, and let himself rapidly down, when there was a shrill chirruping
+whistle from below, the scrambling of feet, and a voice from the beach
+said sharply:
+
+"Quick there!  Luggers ahoy!  Look out!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+TOM TULLY ACTS AS GUIDE.
+
+Lieutenant Lipscombe's eye had grown rapidly better, and his temper
+rapidly worse.  He had grumbled at Chips for being so long over his task
+of repairing the deck and hatchway, and Chips had responded by leaving
+off to sharpen his tools, after which he had diligently set traps to
+catch his superior officer, who never went near the carpenter without
+running risks of laming himself by treading upon nails half buried in
+the deck, or being knocked down by pieces of wood delicately poised upon
+one end so that the slightest touch would send them over with a crash.
+
+Chips never trod upon the upright nails, cut himself against the tools,
+or touched the pieces of wood or planks to make them fall.  He moved
+about slowly, like a bear, and somehow seemed to be charmed; but it was
+different with the lieutenant: he never went near to grumble without
+putting his foot straight upon the first upright clout-nail, or leaning
+his arm or hand upon some ticklishly-balanced piece of plank.  The
+consequences were that he was several times a good deal hurt, and then
+Chips seemed exceedingly sorry, and said he was.
+
+But the lieutenant forgot his little accidents next day, and went
+straight to the carpenter, bullied him again, and after bearing it for
+awhile Chips's adze would become so blunt that he was obliged to go off
+to the grindstone, where he would stop for a couple of hours, a good
+deal of which time was spent in oiling the spindle before he began.
+
+At last, though he was obliged to finish his task, and after waiting for
+the deck to be done as the time when he would go straight into harbour
+and report Hilary's desertion, as he persisted in calling it, Lieutenant
+Lipscombe concluded that he would not go, but give the young officer a
+chance to come back.
+
+Meanwhile he had cruised about, chased and boarded vessels without there
+being the slightest necessity, put in at one or two places where he
+heard rumours that the Young Pretender was expected to land off the
+coast somewhere close at hand, heard the report contradicted at the next
+place he touched at, and then went cruising up and down once more.
+
+One day he chased and boarded a lugger that bore despatches from France
+to certain emissaries in England; but the lieutenant did not find the
+despatches, only some dried fish, which he captured and had conveyed on
+board the cutter.
+
+His men grumbled, and said that Master Leigh ought to be found, and
+there was some talk of petitioning the lieutenant to form another
+expedition in search of the missing man; but the lieutenant had no
+intention of going ashore in the dark to get his men knocked about by
+invisible foes without the prospect of a grand haul of prize-money at
+the end; so he turned a deaf ear to all suggestions for such a
+proceeding, and kept on cruising up and down.
+
+"I tell you what it is," said Tom Tully on the evening of Hilary's
+escape, as the men were all grouped together in the forecastle enjoying
+a smoke and a yarn or two, "it strikes me as we're doing a wonderful lot
+o' good upon this here station.  What do you say, Jack Brown?"
+
+"Wonderful!" said the boatswain, falling into the speaker's sarcastic
+vein.
+
+"Ah!" said Chips, "we shall never get all our prize-money spent, boys."
+
+"No," said the corporal of marines, "never.  I say, speaking as a
+orsifer, oughtn't we to have another one in place of Master Leigh?"
+
+"No," said Tom Tully.  "We couldn't get another like he."
+
+"That's a true word, Tommy," said Billy Waters, who did not often agree
+with the big sailor.  "We couldn't get another now he's lost."
+
+"But that's all werry well," said Chips; "but it won't do.  If I lost my
+adze or caulking-hammer overboard, I must have another, mustn't I?"  No
+one answered, and he continued:
+
+"If you lost the rammer of the big gun, Billy Waters, or the corporal
+here hadn't got his bayonet, he'd want a new one; so why shouldn't we
+have a new orsifer?"
+
+"Don't know," said Billy Waters gruffly; and as the carpenter looked at
+each in turn, the men all shook their heads, and then they all smoked in
+silence.
+
+"I wishes as we could find him again," said Tom Tully; "and as he'd
+chuck the skipper overboard, or send him afloat in the dinghy, and
+command the cutter hisself, and I don't kear who tells the luff as I
+said it."
+
+"No one ain't going to tell on you, Tommy," said Billy Waters
+reprovingly; for the big sailor had looked defiantly round, and ended by
+staring him defiantly in the face.  "We all wishes as the young chap
+could be found, and that he was back aboard; and I think as it ought to
+be all reported and another expedition sent."
+
+There was a growl of approval at this as there had been before when
+similar ideas were promulgated; but the lieutenant sat in his cabin, and
+nothing was done.
+
+The lights were burning brightly, and as it was a dead calm the anchor
+had been let go, so that the cutter should not be swept along the coast
+by the racing tide.  The night had come on very dark since the moon had
+set, and the watch scanned the surface of the sea in an idle mood, that
+task being soon done, for there was very little sea visible to scan,
+and, coming to the conclusion that it was a night when they would be
+able to watch just as well with their ears, they made themselves
+comfortable and gazed longingly at the shore.
+
+There was nothing to tempt them there but that it _was_ shore, and they
+would have preferred being there to loitering on shipboard, though there
+was not so much as a cottage light to be seen from where they lay.
+
+A large lugger propelled by a dozen sweeps passed them in the darkness,
+but so silently that they did not hear so much as the splash of an oar,
+and a drowsy feeling seemed to pervade the whole crew.
+
+"I'll be bound to say if we was to set up a song with a good rattling
+chorus he'd kick up a row," said Billy Waters, getting up from where he
+was seated upon the deck, going to the side, and leaning over.  "For my
+part I'd--Hullo!  Lookye here, Jack Brown; what do you make of them
+there lights?"
+
+He pointed as he spoke to a couple of dim stars high up on the cliff and
+placed diagonally.
+
+"Signal," said the boatswain decidedly.
+
+"For us?" said Tom Tully.
+
+"No," said the gunner; "for some smuggling craft.  Beg pardon, your
+honour," he continued as the lieutenant came forward, "but what do you
+make o' them there lights?"
+
+The lieutenant had a long look, and then, with a display of energy that
+was unusual with him, he exclaimed, "It is a signal for boats; there's a
+landing going on."
+
+His words seemed to electrify everyone on board, and the men watched the
+lights on shore with intense eagerness, seeing prize-money in them, as
+they did in every boat sent from the cutter; while, to test the lights
+ashore as to whether they really formed a signal, or were only an
+accidental arrangement of a shepherd's lanterns, the lieutenant had the
+two riding lamps suddenly lowered and covered.
+
+Then there were a few moments of intense excitement, every eye being
+directed to the dim diagonally-placed stars on the cliff, both of which
+suddenly disappeared.
+
+"Right," said the lieutenant.  "Up with our lights again.  That's either
+Mr Leigh signalling to be fetched off or else there's going to be a
+cargo run.  Man the two boats!  Gunner, serve out arms!  No pipe,
+boatswain.  Quietly, every man, and muffle the oars!"
+
+The men needed no pipe to call them to their places, for every man was
+in a state of intense excitement, and ready to execute a kind of
+war-dance on the deck, till the lieutenant, who had been to fetch his
+sword and pistols, returned on deck in a dubious state of mind.
+
+"I don't know," he said.  "Perhaps it is only a dodge to get us away.
+Somebody is tricking us; and while we are going one way they'll run a
+cargo in another direction."
+
+The men dared not murmur, but they grumbled in silence.
+
+"Give up your arms again, my men," said the lieutenant, "and we'll be
+watchful where we are.  I'm tired of being tricked."
+
+The men were unwillingly giving up their weapons when, as Billy Waters
+put it, the wind veered round again.
+
+"Serve out the arms, my man!  Now then, be smart!  Tumble into the
+boats!"
+
+For fear their commander should change his mind again the men did
+literally tumble into the boats, and, giving the boatswain charge of the
+vessel and putting the gunner in charge of the smaller boat, the
+lieutenant descended into the other, gave orders that not a word should
+be spoken, and they pushed off into the black night.
+
+"When we land," whispered the lieutenant, "two men are to stop in the
+boats and keep off a dozen or so yards from the shore.  No getting them
+stove-in, or--"
+
+He did not finish his sentence, and in its mutilated form it was passed
+to the other boat, which was close behind.
+
+For the first part of the distance they rowed pretty swiftly, but when
+they were about halfway the lieutenant slackened speed, and, after
+nearly running into them, the second followed the example, and they went
+softly on.
+
+It seemed to grow darker and darker, and but for the fact that they
+could hear the wash of the water upon the shore, and see the lights of
+the cutter, it would have been impossible to tell which way to go.  They
+steered, however, straight for the land, every ear being attent, and the
+men so anxious to make the present expedition a success that their oars
+dipped without a sound.
+
+All at once, as it seemed to them, they could hear something above the
+soft wash of the water that made every man's heart beat, and roused the
+lieutenant to an intense state of excitement.  For, plainly enough,
+there came from out of the pitchy darkness right ahead the tramp of feet
+hurrying to and fro across the sands, and there could be only one
+interpretation of such a sound, namely, the fact that a party of men
+were unloading a boat.
+
+The lieutenant ordered his men to wait so that the second boat might
+come up alongside, and then they advanced together in perfect silence,
+with the keenest-eyed men in the bows, ready to signal by touch if they
+saw anything ahead.
+
+The sound was still going on upon the beach, and the people were
+evidently very busy, when, at the same moment, the crews of the two
+boats caught sight of a large lugger run ashore, and not twenty yards
+away.
+
+The lieutenant's orders to the gunner were short and sharp.
+
+"Board her on the larboard side; I'll take this!  Off; give way, my
+lads!  Close in; out cutlasses and up and have her!"
+
+Softly as his whisper was uttered it was heard upon the lugger by the
+watchful smugglers.  A shrill whistle rang out; there was a rush of feet
+to get back aboard, and men sprang to their arms.
+
+But the _Kestrels_ were too close in this time.  The boats were run one
+on either side; the crews pulled out their cutlasses and sprang up,
+racing as to who should be first on board; and after a short sharp
+struggle the smugglers were beaten down, and the lugger was taken.
+
+"Now, Waters, make sure of the prisoners, and don't trust them below!"
+cried the lieutenant.  "Come, my lads.  Crew of the first boat head for
+the shore."
+
+"Would you like lanterns, sir?" said the gunner.
+
+"What! to show the rascals where to shoot!" said the lieutenant.  "No,
+sir.  We could take the lugger in the dark, and now we'll have the rest
+of the gang and the cargo.  Look here, my men," he said, turning to the
+prisoners, "fifty pounds and a free pardon to the man who will act as
+guide and show us the way to the place where the lugger's cargo has been
+placed."
+
+There was no answer.
+
+"Do you hear there, my men?  Don't be afraid to speak.  Fifty pounds,
+liberty, and my protection to the man who will act as guide."
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"A hundred pounds, then," said the lieutenant, eagerly.
+
+"Come, be quick; there is no time to lose."
+
+There was not the slightest notice taken of the offer.
+
+"Look here," cried the lieutenant, "I promise you that the man who will
+tell where the cargo is carried shall be amply protected."
+
+Still no reply.
+
+"Come, come, come!" cried the lieutenant; "who is going to earn this
+money?  There, time is valuable; I'll give two hundred pounds if we
+capture the rest of the cargo."
+
+"If you'll give me two hundred pounds I'll tell you where it is," said a
+voice out of the darkness; and a groan and a hiss arose from the
+prisoners.
+
+"Bravo! my lad," cried the lieutenant.  "I give you my word of honour
+you shall have the two hundred pounds.  Now, then; where is it?  Which
+way shall we go?  Quick! where is it?"
+
+"Where you and your lot won't never find it," said the man; and there
+was a tremendous roar of laughter.
+
+"Come, my lads," said the lieutenant angrily, "follow me."
+
+As the men followed him down into the boat another shrill chirruping
+whistle rang out upon the dark night-air, a whistle which the lieutenant
+knew well enough to be a warning to the men ashore that there was
+danger.
+
+"Never mind," he said; "we shall find the bags this time, and with
+plenty of honey too, my lads.  Let's see, who was here last and went up
+among the rocks?"
+
+"Me, your honour," said Tom Tully.  "I can show you the way."
+
+"Come to my side, then," said the lieutenant, leaping ashore.  Tom Tully
+ranged up alongside, and together they hurried over the sand and
+shingle.
+
+There was no doubt about their being upon the right track, for they
+stumbled first against a keg, directly after upon a package, then upon
+another and another, just as the smugglers had thrown them down to race
+back and defend the lugger; and with these for their guides they made
+right for the rocks, where, after a little hesitation, Tom Tully led the
+party through a narrow opening.
+
+"I should know the place, sir," he said, "for I got a hawful polt o' the
+side of the head somewheres about here; and--ah! this here's right, for
+there's another little keg o' spirits."
+
+He had kicked against the little vessel, and, to endorse his opinion, he
+had come upon a small package, which, with the keg, was placed upon a
+block of rock ready for their return.
+
+But in spite of his recollection of the blows he had received in the
+struggle amongst the rocks Tom Tully's guidance was not very good.  It
+was horribly dark, and, but for the scuffling noise they kept hearing in
+front and beyond the chaos of rocks amongst which they were, the
+lieutenant would have ordered his men back, and tried some other way, or
+else, in spite of the risks, have waited while some of his men went back
+for lights.
+
+There was, however, always the noise in front, and partly by climbing
+and dragging one another up over the rocks they managed to get nearer
+and nearer without once hitting upon the narrow and comparatively easy
+but maze-like track that was the regular way, and which was so familiar
+to the smuggling party that they ran along it and surmounted the various
+barriers with the greatest ease.
+
+"Come, come, Tully, are you asleep?" cried the lieutenant impatiently;
+"push on."
+
+"That's just what I am a doing of, your honour," said the great fellow;
+"but they seem to have been a moving the rocks, and altering the place
+since we was here last, and its so plaguy dark, too, I don't seem to hit
+it at all."
+
+"Give way, there, and let another man come to the front," said the
+lieutenant.
+
+Tom Tully did give way, and another and another tried, but made worse of
+it, for the big fellow did blunder on somehow, no matter what obstacles
+presented themselves; and at last, quite in despair, just as the sounds
+in front were dying right away, almost the last man being up the cliff,
+the great sailor clambered over a huge block of rock and uttered a shout
+of joy.
+
+"Here's the place, your honour, here's the place!" he shouted, and the
+lieutenant and the men scrambled to his side.
+
+"Well," cried the lieutenant, "what have you found?  Where are we?"
+
+"We're here, your honour," cried Tom Tully eagerly.  "We're all right.
+Oh lor', look out! what's that 'ere?"
+
+For just at that moment there was the whizz made by a running out rope,
+a rushing sound, a heavy body came plump on Tom Tully's shoulders, and
+he was dashed to the ground.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+ON BOARD ONCE MORE.
+
+There was an attempt at flight on the part of the _Kestrels_, but there
+was no room to fly, though the general impression was that the smugglers
+were about to hurl down pieces of rock upon them from above, but their
+dread was chased away by a well-known voice exclaiming:
+
+"All right, my lads: I'm not killed."
+
+"But you've 'most killed me," growled Tom Tully.
+
+"Never mind, Tom.  You shall have some grog when we get back aboard.
+Who's in command?"
+
+"I am, sir," exclaimed the lieutenant from somewhere at the back; "and I
+beg to know what is the meaning of this indecorous proceeding."
+
+"Well, sir," said Hilary, "I was in a hurry to rejoin the ship's
+company, and I was coming down a rope when some one above cast it off."
+
+"Three cheers for Muster Leigh!" cried a voice.
+
+"Silence!" roared the lieutenant.  "Now, Mr Leigh, if you are not
+joined to the band of rascals show us the way to them."
+
+"There's no way here, sir, unless we bring a long spar and rig up some
+tackle.  The rock's forty feet high, and as straight as a wall.  Will
+you let me speak to you, sir?"
+
+The lieutenant grunted, and Hilary limped to his side.
+
+"Now, Mr Leigh," he said, "I will hear what you have to say; but have
+the goodness to consider yourself under arrest."
+
+"All right, sir," replied Hilary; "I'm used to that sort of thing now."
+
+"Where have you been, sir?"
+
+"Made prisoner by the smugglers, sir.  And now, if you will take my
+advice, sir, you will draw off the men and secure the lugger.  By
+daylight I can, if we find a way up the cliffs, conduct you to the place
+they make their rendezvous."
+
+"I repeat, Mr Leigh, that you must consider yourself under arrest,"
+said the lieutenant stiffly.  "Your plans may be very good, but I have
+already made my own."
+
+Hilary said nothing, for he knew his officer of old; and that, while he
+would profess to ignore everything that had been said, he would follow
+out the advice to the letter.
+
+And so it proved; for, drawing off the men, they were led down to the
+boats, the lugger was pushed off, and those of her crew left on board
+made to handle the sweeps till she was secured alongside of the cutter,
+where the smugglers to the number of eight were made prisoners below.
+
+The men were in high glee, for it proved next morning that there was
+still enough of the cargo on board to give them a fair share of
+prize-money, and there was the hope of securing more of the cargo at the
+old hall of which Hilary spoke.
+
+"I am quite convinced of the existence of that place, Mr Leigh," said
+the lieutenant pompously, "and I have been questioning the prisoners
+about it.  If you give your promise not to attempt an escape, I will
+allow you to accompany the expedition under the command of the gunner,
+as I shall be obliged to stay on board."
+
+To his intense astonishment, Hilary, who longed to head the party and
+try to capture the rest of the smuggling crew, drew himself up.
+
+"Thank you, sir, no," he replied; "as I am a prisoner, I will wait until
+I have been before a court-martial.  Shall I go below, sir?"
+
+The lieutenant was speechless for a few moments.
+
+"What, sir? go below, sir? and at a time like this when the ship is
+shorthanded, and we have eight prisoners to guard?  This is worse and
+worse, Mr Leigh.  What am I to think of such conduct?"
+
+"What you please, sir," said Hilary quietly.
+
+"Then, sir, in addition to deserting, which you try to hide by
+professing to have been made a prisoner, you now mutiny against my
+orders!"
+
+"Look here, Lieutenant Lipscombe," cried Hilary, who was now in a
+passion; "if you want me to take command of the expedition, and to lead
+the men to the smugglers' place, say so like a man.  If you do not want
+me to go, send me below as a prisoner.  I'm not going to act under our
+gunner."
+
+"Mr Leigh," said the lieutenant, "I shall report the whole of your
+insubordinations in a properly written-out despatch.  At present I am
+compelled to make use of your assistance, so take the gunner and six
+men."
+
+"Six will not be enough, sir."
+
+"Then take seven," said the lieutenant, impatiently.
+
+"Seven will not be enough, sir," replied Hilary.  "I must have at least
+a dozen."
+
+"Bless my soul, Mr Leigh! hadn't you better take command of the cutter,
+and supersede me altogether?"
+
+"No, sir; I don't think that would be better," said Hilary.
+
+"I have eight prisoners on board, and they must be well guarded."
+
+"Yes, sir, of course."
+
+"Then I am obliged to have four or five men in the lugger."
+
+"Yes, sir; so under the circumstances I think it will be best to place
+the eight prisoners in the lugger's boat, and send them ashore."
+
+"What! to join the others?"
+
+"No, sir; I should take care to land them after the expedition party
+were well on the way."
+
+"Bless me, Mr Leigh! this is beyond bearing.  How dare you dictate to
+me in this way?" cried the lieutenant.
+
+"And," continued Hilary, "I would disable them for a few hours by means
+of the irons.  There are five or six sets on board."
+
+"Ah! yes, yes; but what do you mean?"
+
+"I'd let the gunner rivet them on, sir, joining the men two and two.
+They could not get them off without a blacksmith; and it would disable
+them for some hours."
+
+"Well, yes, I had some such an idea as that," replied the lieutenant.
+"Under the circumstances, Mr Leigh, I will humour you in this."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Hilary quietly, for he was so much in earnest as
+to the duty required at this special moment, that he would not let his
+annoyance keep him back.
+
+"Perhaps, too, you had better take command of the expedition, Mr Leigh.
+Duty to the king stands first, you know."
+
+"Certainly, sir."
+
+"And, by the way, Mr Leigh, I would certainly change my uniform; for,
+you will excuse my saying so, you look more like a scarecrow than an
+officer."
+
+Hilary bowed, and soon after he was inspecting the men detailed for the
+duty in hand, one and all of whom saluted him with a grin of
+satisfaction.
+
+"Well, Tom Tully," he said, "how is your shoulder?"
+
+"Feels as if it was shov'd out, sir," growled the big sailor; "but lor'
+bless your 'art, sir, I don't mind."
+
+"Tom wishes you'd fell on his head, sir," said Billy Waters, laughing;
+"it's so thick, it wouldn't have hurt him a bit."
+
+"I'll try to manage better next time," said the young officer; "but I
+had to look sharp to get away the best fashion I could."
+
+"Well, sir, the lads say as they're all werry glad to see you again,"
+continued the gunner; "and they hopes you're going to give them some
+fun."
+
+"I hope I am," replied Hilary; "but I can't feel sure, for they are
+slippery fellows we are after, and we may get there to find them gone."
+
+Meanwhile, in accordance with Hilary's advice, which the lieutenant had
+adopted as his own idea, the cutter was sailing east in search of an
+opening in the cliff, through which the party could reach the higher
+ground; and, after going four or five miles, this was found, the party
+landed, and the cutter then sailed on to get rid of the boatload of
+prisoners she towed behind, some eight or ten miles farther away.
+
+Hilary felt himself again, as, after he had said a few words to his men,
+they started off inland, mounting a rugged pathway, and then journeying
+due north.
+
+It was rather puzzling, and the young officer did not anticipate finding
+the old hall without some trouble; but he had an idea that it lay to the
+east of the smugglers' landing-place, as well as some miles inland.
+
+Hilary's first idea was to get upon one of the ridges, from which he
+hoped to recognise the hills which he had looked upon from his prison.
+Failing this he meant to search until he did find it, when a happy
+thought struck him.
+
+He remembered the dam he had seen, and the great plashing water-wheel.
+There was, of course, the little river, and if he could find that he
+could track it up to the mill, from whence the old hall would be
+visible.
+
+The place seemed singularly uncultivated, and it was some time before
+they came upon a cottage, where an old woman looked at them curiously.
+
+"River?  Oh, yes, there's the little river runs down in the hollow," she
+replied, in answer to Hilary's questions.  It was upon his tongue's end
+to ask the old woman about the hall; but a moment's reflection told him
+the cottagers anywhere near the sea would be either favourable to the
+smugglers, or would hold them in such dread that they would be certain
+to refuse all information.  Even then he was not sure that the old woman
+was not sending them upon a false scent.
+
+This did not, however, prove to be the case, for after a walk of about a
+couple of miles, through patches of woodland and along dells, where the
+men seemed as happy as a pack of schoolboys, a ridge was reached, from
+which the little streamlet could be seen; and making their way down to
+it, Hilary found that they were on the wrong side, a fact which
+necessitated wading, though he went over dry-shod, Tom Tully insisting
+upon carrying him upon his back.
+
+Another couple of miles along the winding course brought them to the
+mill, where a heavy-looking man stood watching the unwonted appearance
+of a dozen well-armed sailors; but neither party spoke, and after a bit
+of a rest for the discussion of a few biscuits, Hilary prepared for his
+advance to the old hall.
+
+They were just about to start when the heavy-looking man lounged up.
+
+"Going by Rorley Place?" he said.
+
+"Rorley Place?" said Hilary; "where's that?"
+
+"Yon old house," was the reply.  "Don't go in; she's harnted!"
+
+"Oh! is she?" said Hilary.
+
+"Ay, that she be," said the man.  "She's been empty this hundred year;
+but you can see the lights shining in the windows of a night, and hear
+the groans down by the gate and by the little bridge over Rorley
+stream."
+
+"Thank you," said Hilary, "we'll take care.  Now, my lads, forward.
+Now, Tom Tully, what's the matter?"
+
+"I'm a man as 'll fight any man or any body any day," said the big
+sailor; "but if we're going again that there place I'm done.  I can't
+abide ghosts and them sort o' things."
+
+"Stuff!" said Hilary.  "Forward.  Why, what are you thinking about, man?
+That's where I was shut up night after night."
+
+"And did you see 'em, sir?"
+
+"See what?" replied Hilary.
+
+"Them there as yon chap talked about, sir."
+
+"I saw a good many very substantial smugglers, and I saw a cellar full
+of kegs and packages, and those are what we are going to get."
+
+Tom Tully seemed a bit reassured, and tightening his belt a little, he
+kept step with the others, as Hilary led the way right across country,
+so as to come out of the wood suddenly after a curve, just in front of
+the entrance to the narrow bridge over the moat.
+
+Hilary managed well, and his men following him in single file, he led
+them so that, apparently unseen by the occupants of the old hall, they
+were at last gathered together in the clump of trees, waiting the order
+to advance.
+
+The moat, as Hilary knew, was too deep to think of wading, and there was
+the old bridge quite clear, temptingly offering itself as a way to the
+front of the old house; but this tempting appearance rather repelled the
+young officer.  He was no coward, but he was good leader enough to
+shrink from subjecting his men to unnecessary risk.
+
+The smugglers would be, under the present circumstances, as desperate as
+rats in a corner; and as they would certainly expect an attack through
+his escape, and the events of the past night, it was not likely that
+they would have neglected to protect the one entrance to their
+stronghold.
+
+"I say, wot are we awaiting for?" growled Tom Tully.
+
+"Hold your noise!" said Waters; "don't you see the orsifer as leads you
+thinks there's a trap?"
+
+"Wheer?  I don't see no trap.  Wot sorter trap?" growled Tom Tully.
+
+"Will yer be quiet, Tommy!" whispered the gunner.  "What a chap you
+are!"
+
+"Yes, ar'n't I?" said the big sailor, taking his messmate's remark as a
+compliment; and settling himself tailor-fashion upon the ground, he
+waited until the reconnaissance was over.
+
+For Hilary was scanning the front of the old house most carefully.
+There was the room in which he had been imprisoned, with the window
+still open, and the thin white cord swinging gently in the air.  There
+was Adela's room, open-windowed too, and there also was the room where
+he had seen Sir Henry busy writing, with his child at his knee.
+
+Where were they now? he asked himself, and his heart felt a sudden throb
+as he thought of the possibility of their being still in the house and
+in danger.
+
+But he cast the thought away directly, feeling sure that Sir Henry, a
+proscribed political offender, would not, for his own and his child's
+sake, run the slightest risk of being taken.
+
+"But suppose he trusts to me, and thinks that I care too much for them
+to betray their hiding-place?"
+
+His brow turned damp at the thought, and for a moment, as he saw in
+imagination his old companion Adela looking reproachfully at him for
+having sent her father to the block, he felt that at all costs he must
+take the men back.
+
+Then came reaction.
+
+"No," he thought, "I gave Sir Henry fair warning that I must do my duty,
+and that if we encountered again I should have to arrest him in the
+king's name.  He tried to tempt me to join his party, but I refused, and
+told him I had my duty to do.  He must, I am sure he must, have made his
+escape, and I shall lead on my men."
+
+He hesitated a moment, and then thought that he was come there to
+capture smugglers, not political offenders, and that after all he would
+find a way out of his difficulty; but colouring the next moment, he felt
+that he must do his duty at all hazards; and he turned to Waters.
+
+"I can see no trace of anything wrong, gunner," he said, "but I feel
+that those rascals have laid a trap for us.  They'll open fire directly
+we attempt to cross that bridge."
+
+"Then let me and Tom Tully and some one else try it first," said the
+gunner in reply.
+
+"No, no, Waters; that would never do," said Hilary.  "If anyone goes
+first it must be I.  Look all along the bottom windows.  Can you see any
+gun barrels?"
+
+"Not ne'er a one, sir," replied the gunner; "and I ar'n't seen anything
+but two or three pigeons and an old lame hen since we've come."
+
+"Then they must be lying in wait," said Hilary.  "Never mind, it must be
+done.  Here, I shall rush over first with Tom Tully.  Then, if all's
+right, you bring the rest of the men.  If I go down, why, you must see
+if you can do anything to take the place; and if you cannot, you must
+take the men back."
+
+"Hadn't we better all rush it together, sir?"
+
+"No; certainly not."
+
+"Then hadn't I best go first, sir?  I ar'n't so much consequence as
+you."
+
+"No, Waters, I must go first.  I can't send my men to risks I daren't
+attempt myself.  Now then, are you ready, Tully?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"Let me go first, sir," pleaded the gunner.
+
+"Silence, sir," cried Hilary.  "Now, Tully--off."
+
+Cutlass in hand and closely followed by the elephantine seaman, Hilary
+ran from his place of concealment across the open space to the bridge,
+and then without a moment's hesitation he bounded across it, and on to
+the rough, ill-tended patch of grass.
+
+To his intense surprise and delight he got over in safety, and then
+pausing he held up his sword, and with a cheer Billy Waters raced across
+with the rest of the men.
+
+"Now, quick, Waters, take half the lads and secure the back--no, take
+four.  Two of you keep the bridge.  We must capture them all to a man."
+
+Not a shot was fired.  There was no answering cheer.  All was as silent
+as if there had never been a soul there for years, and after carefully
+scanning the window Hilary went up to the front door and battered it
+loudly with his sword-hilt.
+
+This knocking he had to repeat twice over before he heard steps, and
+then a couple of rusty bolts were pushed back, the door was dragged
+open, and a very venerable old lady stood peering wonderingly in their
+faces as she screened her eyes with her hand.
+
+"Ye'd better not come in," she said in a loud, harsh voice.  "The place
+is harnted, and it isn't safe."
+
+"Where's Allstone?" cried Hilary as he led his men into the
+desolate-looking hall.
+
+"Hey?"
+
+"I say where's Allstone, the scoundrel?" shouted Hilary.
+
+"I'm very sorry, but I can't hear a word you say, young man.  I've been
+stone-deaf ever sin' I came to take care o' this house five year ago.
+It's a terrifying damp place."
+
+"Where are the men?" shouted Hilary with his lips to her ear.
+
+"Men?  No, no; I ar'n't feared o' your men," said the old lady.  "They
+won't hurt a poor old crittur like me."
+
+"There, spread out and search the place," said Hilary.  "She's as deaf
+as a post.  Whistle for help whoever finds the rascals."
+
+Detaining four men Hilary made his way to the kitchen, and then to the
+passage by the vault-door and the chapel, to find all wide open; and
+upon a light being obtained Hilary was about to descend, but, fearing a
+trap, he left two of his men on guard and went down into the vault, to
+find it empty.  There was some old rubbish and the nets, but that was
+all.  Short as had been the time the smugglers had cleared the place.
+
+He went into the chapel and to Sir Henry and Adela's rooms, to find the
+old furniture there, but that was all; and at the end of a good
+half-hour's search the party of sailors stood together in the hall, with
+the deaf old woman staring at them and they staring at each other,
+waiting their officer's commands.
+
+"Ar'n't there not going to be no fight?" growled Tom Tully.
+
+Evidently not; and after another search Hilary would have felt ready to
+declare that there had not been a soul there for months, and that he had
+dreamed about his escape, if the white cord had not still hung from the
+window.
+
+Further investigation proving to be vain, for they could get nothing out
+of the deaf old woman, and a short excursion in the neighbourhood
+producing nothing but shakes of the head, Hilary had to lead his men
+back to the shore, where they arrived at last, regularly tired out and
+their commander dispirited.  All the same, though, he could not help
+feeling glad at heart as he signalled to the cutter for a boat, that Sir
+Henry and his daughter were safe from seizure, for had he been bound to
+take them prisoners he felt as if he could have known no peace.
+
+But Hilary had no time to give to such thoughts as these, for a boat was
+coming from the cutter, and in a very short time he knew that he would
+have to face the lieutenant and give his account of the unsuccessful
+nature of his quest; and as he thought of this he began to ask himself
+whether the injuries his commander had received at different times had
+not something to do with the eccentricity and awkwardness of his
+behaviour.
+
+Hilary was still thinking this when he climbed to the deck of the cutter
+and saluted his officer with the customary "Come on board."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE.
+
+A RISKY WATCH.
+
+Lieutenant Lipscombe was so dissatisfied with the result of Hilary's
+expedition that he landed himself the next day with a party of the
+_Kestrels_ and went over and searched the old hall.
+
+From thence he followed the lane down to the cliffs, where, as Billy
+Waters afterwards told Hilary, they found the place where the smugglers
+had been in the habit of landing their goods, and the cottage he had
+described.  But the people seemed stupid and ignorant, professing to
+know nothing, and it was not until after a search that the rope was
+found with the tackle and block lying amongst some stunted bushes; and
+by means of this tackle the party descended, afterwards signalling to
+the cutter and getting on board.
+
+The next thing was to take the prize into port and report to the
+superior officer what had been done, when orders were at once received
+to put out to sea and watch the coast.
+
+For the emissaries of the Pretender had, it seemed, been busy at work,
+and there were rumours of risings and landings of men from France.  In
+spite of the watchfulness of the various war-vessels on the coast
+messengers seemed to come and go with impunity.  So angry were the
+authorities that, instead of the lieutenant receiving praise for what he
+had done, he only obtained a severe snubbing.  He was told that the
+capture of a lugger with some contraband cargo was nothing to the taking
+of the political emissaries.  These, it seemed, he had allowed to slip
+through his fingers, and he returned on board with his sailing orders,
+furious with the treatment he had received.
+
+"Look here, Mr Leigh," he said sternly; "out of consideration for your
+youth I refrained from reporting your late desertion."
+
+"I was taken prisoner, sir."
+
+"Well, there, call it taken prisoner if you like," said the lieutenant
+impatiently.  "I say I did not report it; but I consider that you are to
+blame for our late ill success."
+
+"Thank you, sir," said Hilary in an undertone.
+
+"It seems," continued the lieutenant, "that there is a Sir Henry Norland
+who comes and goes with fishermen and smugglers, and I am as certain as
+can be that we had him once on board that fishing lugger when you were
+stupid enough to let him go; I mean that ill-looking scoundrel with the
+girl.  There, there; it is of no use for you to try and defend yourself.
+You were in fault, and the only way for you to amend your failing is by
+placing this man in my hands."
+
+"But really, sir--" began Hilary.
+
+"Go to your duty, sir!" exclaimed the lieutenant sternly; and, biting
+his lips as he felt how awkwardly he was situated, Hilary went forward,
+and soon after the cutter was skimming over the waves with a brisk
+breeze abeam.
+
+Time glided on, with the young officer fully determined to do his duty
+if he should again have an opportunity of arresting the emissary of the
+would-be king; but somehow it seemed as if the opportunity was never to
+come.  They cruised here and they cruised there, with the usual
+vicissitudes of storm and sunshine.  Fishing-boats were rigorously
+overhauled, great merchant ships bidden to heave-to while a boat was
+sent on board, but no capture was made.
+
+They put into port over and over again, always to hear the same news--
+that the young Pretender's emissaries were as busy as ever, and that
+they came and went with impunity, but how no one could say.
+
+The lieutenant always returned on board, after going ashore to see the
+port-admiral, in a furious temper, and his junior and the crew found
+this to their cost.
+
+Days and nights of cruising without avail.  It seemed as if the
+_Kestrel_ was watched out of sight, and then, with the coast clear, the
+followers of the young Pretender's fortunes landed in England with
+impunity.  Hilary heard from time to time that Sir Henry had grown more
+daring, and had had two or three narrow escapes from being taken ashore,
+but he had always been too clever for his pursuers, and had got away.
+
+Of Adela he had heard nothing, and he frequently hoped that she was safe
+with some of their friends, and not leading a fugitive life with her
+father.
+
+It was on a gloomy night in November that the _Kestrel_ was well out in
+mid-channel on the lookout for a small vessel, of whose coming they had
+been warned by a message received the day before from the admiral.
+
+A bright lookout was being kept, in spite of the feeling that it might
+be, after all, only a false scent, and that while they were seeking in
+one direction the enemy might make their way to the shore in another.
+
+There was nothing for it but to watch, in the hope that this time they
+might be right, and all that afternoon and evening the cutter had been
+as it were disguised.  Her sails had been allowed to hang loosely, her
+customary smartness was hidden, and the carpenter had been over the bows
+with a pot of white paint, and painted big letters and a couple of
+figures on each side, to give the _Kestrel_ the appearance of a
+fishing-boat.  This done, the jollyboat was allowed to swing by her
+painter behind, and thus they waited for night.
+
+As the darkness came on, in place of hoisting the lights they were kept
+under shelter of the bulwarks, and then, in spite of the preparations,
+Hilary saw and said that their work would be in vain, for the night
+would be too dark for them to see anything unless it came within a
+cable's length.
+
+It was not likely; and the young officer, as he leaned over the side,
+after some hours' watching, talking in a low voice to the gunner, who
+was with him, began to think how pleasant it would be to follow the
+lieutenant's example and go below and have a good sleep, when he
+suddenly started.
+
+"What's that, Billy?" he whispered.
+
+"Don't hear nothing, sir," said the gunner.  "Yes, I do.  It's a ship of
+some kind, and not very far-off.  I can hear the water under her bows."
+
+"Far-off?--no.  Look!" cried Hilary, in a hoarse whisper.  "Down with
+the helm! hard down!" he cried.  "Hoist a light!"
+
+But as he gave the orders he felt that they were in vain, for they had
+so well chosen their place to intercept the French vessel they hoped to
+meet, that it was coming, as it were, out of a bank of darkness not
+fifty yards away; and in another minute Hilary, as he saw the size and
+the cloud of sail, knew that the _Kestrel_ would be either cut down to
+the water's edge or sunk by the coming craft.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.
+
+WITHOUT LIGHTS.
+
+In those moments of peril Hilary hardly knew how it all happened, but
+fortunately the men with him were men-of-war's men, and accustomed to
+prompt obedience.  The helm was put down hard as the strange vessel came
+swiftly on, seeming to the young officer like his fate, and in an
+instant his instinct of self-preservation suggested to him that he had
+better run forward, and, as the stranger struck the _Kestrel_, leap from
+the low bulwark and catch at one of the stays.  His activity, he knew,
+would do the rest.
+
+Then discipline set in and reminded him that he was in charge of the
+deck, and that his duty was to think of the safety of his men and the
+cutter--last of all, of himself.
+
+The stranger showed no lights, a suspicious fact which Hilary afterwards
+recalled, and she came on as the cutter rapidly answered her helm,
+seeming at first as if she would go right over the little sloop of war,
+but when the collision came, so well had the _Kestrel_ swerved aside,
+the stranger's bowsprit went between jib and staysail, and struck the
+cutter just behind the figurehead.
+
+There was a grinding crash, a loud yell from the oncoming vessel; the
+_Kestrel_ went over almost on her beam-ends, and then the stranger
+scraped on by her bows, carrying away bowsprit, jibboom, and the sails.
+
+"Chien de fool Jean Bool, fish, dog!" roared a voice from the side of
+the large schooner, for such Hilary could now see it was.  "Vat for you
+no hoist light?  I run you down."
+
+"Hoist your own lights, you French idiot!" shouted back Hilary between
+his hands.  "Ahoy, there! heave-to!"
+
+There was a good deal of shouting and confusion on board the schooner,
+which went on several hundred yards before her way was stopped; but
+before this Hilary had ordered out the two boats; for there was no need
+to hail the men below, with "All hands on deck!"
+
+The men came tumbling up in the lightest of costumes, one of the
+foremost being the lieutenant, with his nether garments in one hand, his
+cocked hat in the other.
+
+"Quick!" he shouted.  "Into the boats before she goes down!"
+
+"No, no, sir!" cried Hilary excitedly.  "Let's see the mischief first.
+Is she making water, carpenter?"
+
+"Can't see as she is," replied that worthy.  "We've lost the bowsprit
+and figurehead, and there's some planks started; but I think we shall
+float."
+
+"Of course; yes," cried Lieutenant Lipscombe.  "Back from those boats,
+men!  I'll blow the brains out of the mutinous dog who dares to enter
+first.  Discipline must be maintained.  Here, Waters, let me lean
+against you."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir!" said the gunner; and the lieutenant proceeded to insert
+his legs in the portion of his uniform intended to keep his lower man
+warm.
+
+"Now, Mr Leigh," he shouted, as he stamped upon the deck with his bare
+feet; "what have you to say to this?"
+
+"Regular wreck forward, sir," replied Hilary, who had been examining the
+extent of the mischief.
+
+"My fate for leaving you in charge," cried the lieutenant.  "Where was
+the lookout?"
+
+"Two boats coming from the schooner, sir," said Tom Tully.  "They've got
+lanterns, and they're full of men."
+
+"Then it's the vessel we were looking for," cried Hilary.  "Quick, sir,
+give orders, or they'll board and take us before we can stir."
+
+"Mr Leigh," said the lieutenant, with dignity, "I command this ship."
+
+He walked slowly to the side, and peered at the coming boats, while
+Hilary stood fretting and fuming at his side.  There was, however,
+something so ominous in the look of the boats, dimly-seen though they
+were through the murky night, that the lieutenant did give orders, and
+cutlasses and boarding-pikes were seized, the men then clustering about
+their officers.
+
+"She ar'n't making a drop o' water," said the carpenter just then--an
+announcement which seemed to put heart into the crew, who now watched
+the coming of the boats.
+
+"Hey!  Hoop!" shouted a voice.  "What sheeps is that?  Are you sink?"
+
+"May I answer, sir?" whispered Hilary.
+
+"Yes, Mr Leigh; and be quick."
+
+"Ahoy!  What ship's that?" cried Hilary.
+
+There was no response, only a buzz of conversation reached their ears,
+and the boats came rapidly on, the occupants of the _Kestrel's_ deck
+seeing that they separated and changed position, so as to board on each
+bow, for the cutter now lay with her sail flapping, like a log upon the
+water.
+
+"She's an enemy, sir," whispered Hilary; and he did not alter his
+opinion as the boats neared.
+
+"All raight.  We come take you off, sailor boy," cried the same voice
+that had hailed.  "You shall be safe before you vill sink you sheep."
+
+The lieutenant seemed to have come to himself, and to be a little more
+matter-of-fact and sane in his actions, for he now ordered Waters to
+load the long gun, and the gunner eagerly slipped away.
+
+"There, that will do," cried the lieutenant now.  "We are not sinking.
+What ship's that?"
+
+The boats stopped for a moment, and there was again a whispering on
+board; but the next instant they came on.
+
+"Stop there, or I'll sink you!" cried the lieutenant.  But the boats now
+dashed on, and it was evidently a case of fighting and beating them off.
+
+Every man grasped his weapon, and a thrill of excitement ran through
+Hilary as he felt that he was really about to engage in what might be a
+serious fight.  Fortunately for the crew of the _Kestrel_, both of the
+boats were not able to board at once, for that on the larboard bow was
+driven right into the wreck of the jibboom and sail, which, with the
+attendant cordage, proved to be sufficient to hamper their progress for
+the time being, while the other boat dashed alongside with a French
+cheer, and, sword in hand, the crew swarmed over on to the deck.
+
+It was bravely done; and, had they met with a less stout resistance, the
+_Kestrel_ would have been captured.  But, as it was, they had Englishmen
+to deal with, and Hilary and about ten of the crew met them bravely,
+Hilary going down, though, from the first blow--one from a
+boarding-pike.  This, however, so enraged the _Kestrels_ that they beat
+back the attacking party, cutting down several and literally hurling
+others over into their boat, which hauled off, not liking its reception.
+
+Meanwhile, after a struggle, the crew of the other boat got itself clear
+of the tangle, and came on to the attack, to find themselves, after a
+sharp struggle, repulsed by the lieutenant and his party, the leader
+fighting bravely and well.
+
+It was evident that the commander of the schooner had realised the
+character of the vessel with which he had been in collision, and had
+hoped to make an easy capture of her, if she did not prove to be in a
+sinking state.  If she were, motives of humanity had prompted him to
+take off the crew, if they needed help.  The task, however, had proved
+more severe than he anticipated, and the two boats were now together,
+with their leaders evidently in consultation.
+
+The next minute an order was evidently given, and the boats turned,
+separated, and began to row back.
+
+The schooner could only be made out now by a light she had hoisted; but
+this was quite sufficient for Billy Waters, who stood ready by his gun
+waiting for orders.  Possibly he might have hit and sunk one of the
+boats, but the lieutenant did not seem to wish for this, but began
+giving his orders with unwonted energy, trying to make sail upon the
+_Kestrel_, which lay there upon the water, with one of her wings, as it
+were, so crippled that he found it would take quite half an hour before
+she could be cleared.
+
+"It's of no use, Mr Leigh," he cried excitedly.  "I wanted to board and
+take this schooner, and we cannot get alongside.  Take charge of the
+gun, sir, and try and bring down one of her spars.  Let's cripple her
+too.  I'll order out the boats to board her."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said Hilary, delighted at the energy shown by his chief.
+"Now, Billy Waters, send a shot through her mainmast.  I'd aim straight
+at her light."
+
+"Which on 'em, sir?" said the gunner drily.
+
+"Why, that one!  There's only one," cried Hilary sharply.
+
+"Look alive! and--ah--how provoking, the light's out!"
+
+"Ay, sir, they've dowsed their light now the boats know where to go, and
+it would be only waste o' good powder and round shot to go plumping 'em
+into that there bank o' blackness out yonder."
+
+"Well, Mr Leigh, why don't you fire?" shouted the lieutenant.
+
+"Beg pardon, sir, but there's nothing to fire at," replied Hilary.
+
+"Fire at the schooner's light, sir,--fire at her light," cried the
+lieutenant indignantly.  "Bless my soul, Mr Leigh," he said, bustling
+up.  "Here, let me lay the gun, and--eh?--what?--the light out?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Then why, in the name of common sense, Mr Leigh, didn't you fire
+before it went out?"
+
+"Didn't get no orders," growled Billy Waters.
+
+"Silence, sir; how dare you speak!" cried the lieutenant.  "But are you
+sure the light's out, Mr Leigh?"
+
+"There isn't a sign of it, sir."
+
+"Then--then how are we to manage about the boats?"
+
+There was a momentary silence, during which, as the men stood ready to
+man the two boats that had been lowered, the lieutenant and his junior
+tried to make out where the schooner lay, but on every side, as the
+_Kestrel_ lay softly rolling in the trough of the sea, a thick bank of
+darkness seemed to be closing them in, and pursuit of the schooner by
+boats would have been as mad a venture as could have been set upon by
+the officer of a ship.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
+
+REPAIRING DAMAGES.
+
+During the excitement, the bustle of the attack, the lieutenant had
+seemed more himself, and he had given his orders in a concise and
+businesslike way; but now that they were left to themselves all seemed
+changed, and he reverted to his former childish temper, turning angrily
+upon Hilary as the cause of all his misfortunes.
+
+"Never in the whole career of the English navy," he cried, stamping his
+bare foot upon the deck, "was officer plagued with a more helpless,
+blundering junior than I am.  Bless my heart! it is very cold, and I've
+no coat on.  Mr Leigh, fetch my coat and waistcoat."
+
+"Yes," he continued, as he put on the two garments, "as I said before,
+never was officer plagued with a more helpless, blundering, mischievous
+junior."
+
+"Very sorry, sir.  I do my best," said Hilary bluntly.
+
+"Exactly, sir.  You do your best," said the lieutenant; "and your best
+is to lay the _Kestrel_--His Majesty's ship _Kestrel_--right in the
+track of that French schooner, and but for my fortunate arrival upon
+deck we should have been sunk."
+
+Hilary recalled the fact that he had ordered the helm hard down, and
+saved the vessel himself, but he did not say so.
+
+"I'll be bound to say," continued the lieutenant, "that you were sailing
+slowly along without a light."
+
+"Yes, sir, we had no light hoisted," said Hilary, who, in spite of his
+annoyance, could not help feeling amused.
+
+"Exactly.  Just what I expected," continued the lieutenant.  "Then pray,
+sir, why, upon a dark night like this, was there no light?"
+
+"My superior officer gave me orders, sir, that we were to keep a sharp
+lookout for French boats cruising the channel, and burn no light."
+
+"Hah!  Yes, I think I did give some such orders, sir, but how was I to
+know that it would turn out so dark, eh, sir?  How was I to know it
+would turn out so dark?"
+
+"It was very dark, sir, certainly," said Hilary.
+
+"Yes, atrociously dark.  And I distinctly told you to keep a sharp
+lookout."
+
+"Yes, sir, and we did."
+
+"It looks like it, Mr Leigh," said the lieutenant, pointing forward.
+"Bowsprit gone, and all the forward bulwarks, leaving us helpless on the
+water, and you say you kept a good lookout.  Mr Leigh, sir, you will be
+turned out of the service."
+
+"I hope not, sir.  I think I saved the ship."
+
+"Saved? saved?  Good gracious me, Mr Leigh," said the lieutenant,
+bursting out laughing; "what madness!  Here, Waters--Tully--do you hear
+this?"
+
+"Ay, ay, your honour."
+
+"And what do you think of it?"
+
+"As we'd all have gone to the bottom, sir, if it hadn't been for Mr
+Leigh here," said Waters, pulling his forelock.
+
+"Oh!" said the lieutenant sharply; "and pray what do you think, Tully;
+and you, bo'sun?"
+
+"Think just the same as Billy Waters, your honour," said the boatswain.
+
+"And that 'ere's just the same with me," growled Tom Tully, kicking out
+a leg behind.  "He's a won'ful smart orsifer Muster Leigh is, your
+honour; and that's so."
+
+"Silence, sir!  How dare you speak like that?" cried the lieutenant
+furiously.  "Now, Mr Leigh," he added sarcastically, "if you will
+condescend to assist, there is a good deal to see to, for the forepart
+of His Majesty's ship _Kestrel_ is a complete wreck from your neglect.
+I am going below to finish dressing, but I shall be back directly."
+
+Hilary returned his officer's sarcastic bow, and then gave a stamp on
+the deck.
+
+"Which I don't wonder at it, your honour," said Tom Tully, in his low
+deep growl: "I ain't said not nowt to my messmates, but I'll answer for
+it as they'll all be willing."
+
+"Willing? willing for what?" cried Hilary.
+
+"Shove the skipper into the dinghy with two days' provision and water,
+sir, and let him make the shore, if you'll take command of the little
+_Kestrel_."
+
+"Why, you mutinous rascal," cried Hilary.  "How dare you make such a
+proposal to me?  Hold your tongue, and go forward, Tom Tully.  Duty on
+board is to obey your superiors, and if they happen to be just a little
+bit unreasonable, you must not complain."
+
+"All right, your honour," said Tom Tully, giving his loose breeches a
+hitch; "but if the skipper was to talk to me like he do to you--"
+
+"Well, sir, what?"
+
+"I'd--I'd--I'd--"
+
+Tom Tully had taken out his tobacco-box, and opened his jack-knife, with
+which he viciously cut off a bit of twist, exclaiming:
+
+"That I would!"
+
+He said no more, but it seemed probable that he meant cut off his
+commander's head; and he then rolled forward to help the carpenter, and
+the whole strength of the crew, whom the first rays of a dull grey
+morning found still at work hauling in the tangle of spar and rope; and
+soon after, a stay having been secured to the wreck of the cutwater, a
+staysail was hoisted, and the cutter pretty well answered her helm.
+
+Hilary felt less disposed to take the lieutenant's words to heart, for
+he knew that if he were charged with neglect of duty the evidence of the
+men would be quite sufficient to clear him; so, after turning the matter
+over and over in his mind, he had cheerily set to work to try and get
+the cutter in decent trim, and, as the morning broke, crippled as she
+was in her fair proportions, she sailed well enough to have warranted
+the lieutenant in making an attack, should the schooner have come in
+sight.
+
+But there was no such good fortune.  Both the lieutenant and he swept
+the horizon and the cliff-bound coast with their glasses, and the
+_Kestrel_ was sailed along close inshore in the hope that the enemy
+might be seen sheltered in some cove, or the mouth of one of the little
+rivers; but there was no result, and at last, very unwillingly, the
+cutter's head was laid for Portsmouth, and the lieutenant went below to
+prepare his despatch.
+
+"How long shall we be refitting, carpenter?" asked Hilary, after a long
+examination of the damages they had received, and a thorough awakening
+to the fact that if it had not been for that turn of the helm they must
+have been struck amidships, and sent to the bottom.
+
+"All a month, sir," said the carpenter.  "There'll be a deal to do, and
+if we get out of the shipwright's hands and to sea in five weeks I'll
+say we've done well."
+
+It was galling, for it meant four or five weeks of inaction, just at a
+time when Hilary was getting intensely interested in the political
+question of the day, and eagerly looking forward for a chance of
+distinguishing himself in some way.
+
+"Who knows," he said to himself, "but that schooner may have borne the
+Young Pretender and his officers to the English coast.  If it did I just
+lost a chance of taking him."
+
+Ah! he thought, if he could have taken the young prince with his own
+hand.  It would have been glorious, and he could have shown Sir Henry
+that he was on the way to honour and distinction without turning traitor
+to his king.
+
+And so he went on hour after hour building castles in the air, but with
+little chance of raising up one that would prove solid, till they passed
+by the eastern end of the Isle of Wight, went right up the harbour, and
+the lieutenant had a boat manned and went ashore to make his report to
+the admiral.
+
+To Hilary's great disgust he found that he was not to go ashore, but to
+remain in charge of the cutter during the repairs, for the lieutenant
+announced his intention of himself remaining in the town.
+
+But Hilary had one satisfaction--that of finding that the lieutenant had
+made no report concerning his conduct on the night of the collision.  In
+fact, the lieutenant had forgotten his mad words almost as soon as he
+had spoken them, for they were only the outcomings of his petty
+malicious spirit for the time being.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
+
+OFF HIS GUARD.
+
+The carpenter's four weeks extended to five, then to six, and seven had
+glided away before the cutter was pretty well ready for sea.  Urgent
+orders had been given that her repairs were to be hastened, and the crew
+was kept in readiness to proceed to sea at once, but still the dockyard
+artificers clung to their job in the most affectionate manner.  There
+was always a bit more caulking to do, a little more paint to put on, new
+ropes to reeve; and when at last she seemed quite ready, an overlooker
+declared that she would not be fit to go to sea until there had been a
+thorough examination of the keel.
+
+It was during these last few days that Hilary found a chance of going
+ashore, and gladly availed himself of his liberty, having a good run
+round Portsmouth, a look at the fortifications; and finally, the weather
+being crisp, sunshiny, and the ground hard with frost, he determined to
+have a sharp walk inland for a change.
+
+"I declare," he cried, as he had a good run in the brisk wintry air, "it
+does one good after being prisoned in that bit of a cutter."
+
+He had been so much on board of late that he experienced a hearty
+pleasure in being out and away from the town in the free country air.
+The frost was keen, and it seemed to make his blood tingle in his veins.
+He set off running again and again, just pausing to take breath, and it
+was only when he was some miles away from the port and the evening was
+closing in that he began to think it was time to turn back.
+
+As he did so he saw that three sailors who had been for some time past
+going the same way were still a short distance off, and as he passed
+them it seemed to him that they had been indulging themselves, as
+sailors will when ashore for a holiday.
+
+"What cheer, messmate!" said one of them in his bluff, frank way.  "Is
+this the way to London?"
+
+"No, my lad; you're on the wrong road.  You must go back three miles or
+so, and then turn off to the right."
+
+"I told you so, Joe," the man exclaimed in an injured tone.  "What's the
+good o' trusting to a chap like you?  Here, come along and let's get
+back."
+
+"I sha'n't go back," said the one addressed; "shall you, Jemmy?"
+
+"Not I," said the other.  "Can't us get to London this way, captain?"
+
+"Yes," said Hilary laughing; "if you go straight on, but you'll have to
+go all round the world first."
+
+"There!" cried the one addressed as Jemmy; "I told you so, matey.  Come
+along."
+
+"Don't be a fool," said the first sailor.  "Lay holt of his arm, Joe,
+and let's get him back; it'll be dark afore long."
+
+Hilary could not help feeling amused at the men; but as he trudged on
+back towards Portsmouth he saw that they were trying to make up for lost
+ground, and were following him pretty quickly.
+
+Once they made such good use of their legs that they got before him;
+then Hilary walked a little faster and passed them, and so on during the
+next two miles they passed and repassed each other, the sailors saying a
+cheery word or two and laughing as they went by.  But soon this was at
+an end; they seemed to grow tired, and during the next mile it had grown
+dark, and the sailors walked on one side of the road, Hilary on the
+other.
+
+At last the sailors seemed to have made up their minds to get right away
+from him, walking on rapidly, till all at once Hilary heard voices
+talking loudly, and as he came nearer he could distinguish what was
+said.
+
+"Come on.  Come, Jem, get up."
+
+"I want a glass," growled another voice.
+
+"Never mind.  Wait till we get on the London road," cried the man who
+had been addressed as Joe.
+
+"I want a glass," growled the man again; and as Hilary came close up he
+saw that one of the men was seated in the path just in front of a
+roadside cottage, and that his two companions were kicking and shaking
+him to make him rise.
+
+"I say, your honour," said one of the men, crossing to Hilary, "you're
+an officer, ar'n't you?"
+
+"Yes, my man."
+
+"Just come and order him to get up, quarterdeck fashion, sir, and I'd be
+obleeged to you.  He won't mind us; but if you, an officer, comes and
+orders him up, he'll mind what you say.  We want to get to the next town
+to-night."
+
+Hilary hesitated for a moment, feeling loath to trouble himself about
+the stupid, drunken sailor, but his good nature prevailed and he crossed
+the road.
+
+"Here, my lad," he said sharply, "get up directly."
+
+"Going to turn in!" said the fellow sleepily.
+
+"No, no.  Nonsense," cried Hilary, giving him a touch with his foot.
+"Get up and walk on."
+
+"Sha'n't," said the man.  "Going to sleep, I tell you."
+
+"Lookye here, Jemmy," said the sailor who had first spoken, "you'll get
+your back scratched, you will, if you don't get up when you're told.
+This here's a officer."
+
+"Not he," grumbled the man sleepily.  "He ar'n't no officer, I know.
+Going to sleep, I tell you."
+
+"Get up, sir," cried Hilary sharply.  "I am an officer."
+
+"Bah! get out.  Only officer of a merchant ship.  You ar'n't no reg'lar
+officer."
+
+"If you don't get up directly, you dog, I'll have the marines sent after
+you," cried Hilary.
+
+The man sat up and stared.
+
+"I say," he said, "you ar'n't king's officer, are you?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I am."
+
+"What ship?"
+
+"The _Kestrel_."
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" he grumbled.  "Beg your honour's pardon.  I'll
+get up.  Give's your hand."
+
+Half-laughing and at the same time proud of the power his rank gave him,
+Hilary held out his hands to the man, who took them tightly and was in
+the act of drawing himself up, when the young officer felt himself
+seized from behind and held, as it were, in a vice.  Just at the same
+moment the door of the cottage was opened, there was a bright light
+shone out, and before he could realise his position he was forced into
+the place, and awoke to the fact, as the door was banged to, that he had
+fallen into a trap.
+
+"You scoundrels!" he cried furiously; "do you want to rob me?"  And he
+saw that he was in the presence of half a dozen more men.
+
+"Silence, sir!" cried an authoritative voice.  "Stand back, my lads.  It
+was very cleverly done."
+
+"Cleverly done!" cried Hilary.  "What do you mean, sir?  I desire you
+let me go.  Are you aware that I am a king's officer?"
+
+"Yes, I heard you announce it, and you are the man we have been looking
+after for days," said the one who seemed to be in authority; and by the
+light of a bright wood fire Hilary could make out that he was a tall,
+dark man in a long boat-cloak, which he had thrown back from his breast.
+
+"Then I advise you to set me free directly," said Hilary.
+
+"Yes, we shall do that when we have done," said the leader, from whom
+all the others stood away in respect; and as the light burned up the
+speaker took off his cocked hat, and Hilary saw that he was a singularly
+handsome man of about forty.
+
+"When you have done!" cried Hilary.  "What do you mean?"
+
+"Be silent and answer my questions, my good lad," said the other.  "You
+are the young officer of the _Kestrel_, and your name is Hilary Leigh, I
+believe?"
+
+"Yes, that is my name," cried Hilary sharply.  "By what right do you
+have me seized?"
+
+"The right of might," said the man.  "Now look here, sir.  Your vessel
+is now seaworthy, and to-morrow you will get your sailing orders."
+
+"How do you know?" cried Hilary.
+
+"Never mind how I know.  I tell you the fact, my good lad.  You will be
+despatched to watch the port of Dunquerque, to stop the boat that is
+supposed to come to land from this coast on the king's business."
+
+"I suppose you mean the Pretender's business," cried Hilary quickly.
+
+"I mean His Majesty Charles Edward," said the man, "to whom I wish you
+to take these papers."  And he pulled a packet from his pocket.
+
+"I?  Take papers?  What do you suppose I am?"
+
+"One who will obey my orders," said the man haughtily, "and who will
+never be able to play fast and loose with his employers; for if he were
+false, no matter where he hid himself, he would be punished."
+
+"And suppose I refuse to take your papers and become a traitor?" said
+Hilary.
+
+"I shall make you," said the stranger.  "I tell you that the voyage of
+your cutter suits our convenience, and that you will have to take these
+papers, for which service you will be amply rewarded."
+
+"Then I do refuse," said Hilary firmly.
+
+"No; don't refuse yet," said the stranger with a peculiar look in his
+countenance.  "The despatches must be taken.  Think of the proposal, my
+good lad, and then reply."
+
+As he spoke Hilary saw him take a pistol from his breast-pocket, and, if
+physiognomy was any index of the mind, Hilary saw plainly enough that if
+he refused to obey this man's orders he would have no compunction in
+shooting him like a dog.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
+
+CAPTAIN CHARTERIS.
+
+Hilary felt the cold perspiration breaking out on his face, as he
+thought of the loneliness of the spot where he was, and of his
+helplessness here in the hands of these desperate men, who were ready to
+brave all for their cause.  He saw now that he had been watched almost
+from the outset, and that he had been marked as one likely to carry out
+their designs.  Perhaps, he thought, Sir Henry had had something to do
+with the seizure; but he gave up the idea directly, giving his old
+friend credit for too much honourable feeling towards him to have him
+trapped in so cowardly a manner.
+
+These thoughts came quickly as he stood watching the leader of the party
+by whom he was surrounded--men who were ready at the slightest movement
+to spring upon him, and secure him, should he attempt to escape.
+
+"I suppose," said Hilary's questioner, "you know what I am?" and he
+looked at the young officer sternly.
+
+"Personally, no," replied Hilary, boldly; "but your behaviour shows me
+that you are traitors to the king."
+
+"No, sir," cried the other fiercely; "we are faithful followers of the
+king, and enemies of the German hound."
+
+"How dare you speak like that of His Majesty!" cried Hilary quite as
+fiercely; and he took a couple of steps forward, but only to find
+himself seized and dragged back.
+
+"Hold the young rascal tightly," said the officer.
+
+"Yes, hold me tightly," cried Hilary, "you cowards!"
+
+"I am having you held tightly for your own sake," said the officer,
+taking up and playing with a large pistol he had laid on the table
+before him.  "I should be sorry to have to shoot so distinguished a
+follower of Hanoverian George."
+
+Hilary bit his lip and remained silent.  It was of no use to speak, of
+less account to struggle, and he stood facing his captors without
+flinching.
+
+"Now," continued the leader, "as you have got rid of your little burst
+of passion, perhaps you will be reasonable.  Listen to me, young man.
+Your position as second officer on board that despatch cutter will bring
+you frequently to both sides of the Channel, so that you will have ample
+opportunities for carrying messages for us without risk, and,"--he
+paused here, watching the young man intently--"greatly to your own
+profit.  Do you hear?"
+
+"Yes," said Hilary shortly.
+
+"We shall not have merely one despatch for you to take, to be paid for
+with so many guineas, my lad, but there will be a regular correspondence
+carried on, and you will make from it a handsome sum, for we recompense
+liberally; something different to your munificent pay as officer of the
+_Kestrel_."
+
+Hilary still remained silent, and his tempter pulled a bag of coin from
+his pocket and threw it heavily upon the table.
+
+"Of course the task is rather a risky one, and deserves to be paid for
+generously.  That I am ready to do.  In fact, you may name your own
+price, and anything in reason will be granted.  At the same time I warn
+you that we shall put up with no trifling, and I may as well say that it
+is impossible to escape us.  We have emissaries everywhere, whose duty
+it is to reward or punish as the case may require.  Come, I see you are
+growing reasonable."
+
+"Oh, yes!  I am quite reasonable," said Hilary smiling.
+
+"That's well," said the officer; "cast him loose, my lads, and stand
+more aside.  Now, Mr Hilary Leigh," he said, as his orders were obeyed,
+"I am glad to find so dashing and brave a young fellow as you finds
+himself ready to join the good cause.  I ask you to swear no oaths of
+fidelity.  I shall merely give you this despatch and a handful of gold
+coin, and you will bring the answer here at your earliest opportunity."
+
+"And suppose I refuse?" said Hilary.
+
+"Refuse?  Oh, you will not refuse," said the officer banteringly.  "It
+would be a pity to rob Hanoverian George of so brave and promising a
+young officer."
+
+"What do you mean," said Hilary.
+
+"Oh nothing--nothing," said the other coolly.  "We might, perhaps, think
+it necessary, as you know so much, to shoot you."
+
+"Shoot me!" cried Hilary.
+
+"Y-e-es; you see you know a good deal, my young friend, but we should
+bury you decently.  You broke up the rendezvous at Rorley Place, and
+spoiled the smuggler's landing, did you not?"
+
+"I did," said Hilary boldly.
+
+"Yes.  And you were kept a prisoner there, were you not?"
+
+"I was."
+
+"And escaped and made signals with the smuggler's lanterns to bring down
+the cutter's crew upon the party, did you not?"
+
+"I did.  It was my duty."
+
+"Yes, you thought it was, my good lad.  Let me see, you nearly captured
+Sir Henry Norland, too, did you not?"
+
+"I should have taken him if he had been there," replied Hilary; "but I
+was glad he was not."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because he was an old friend."
+
+"Let me see," continued the officer; "Sir Henry asked you to join us,
+did he not?"
+
+"Several times," said Hilary quietly.
+
+"Ah, yes!  I suppose he would.  Came to see you when you were a
+prisoner, I suppose?"
+
+"He did."
+
+"But he is not a good diplomat, Sir Henry Norland.  By the way, what did
+he offer you?"
+
+"The captaincy of a man-of-war."
+
+"Young as you were?"
+
+"Young as I am."
+
+"But that was in prospective.  Hard gold coin is much more satisfactory,
+Mr Hilary Leigh," said the officer, pouring out some bright golden
+guineas upon the table.  "Of course you thought that Charles Edward
+might not come to the throne, and that you would never get your--get
+your--"
+
+"Traitor's pay," said Hilary sharply, finishing the sentence.
+
+"Don't call things by hard names, young man," said the officer sternly.
+"And let me tell you that I know for a certainty that your position in
+Hanoverian George's service is a very precarious one.  Strange things
+have been told of you."
+
+"Very likely," said Hilary coldly.
+
+"I believe your officer has reported upon your conduct."
+
+"I can't help that," said Hilary coldly.  "I have always served his
+majesty faithfully and well."
+
+"Even to taking pay from the other side?" said the officer with a
+mocking smile.
+
+"It is a lie," cried Hilary angrily; "I never tampered with my duty to
+the king."
+
+"Till now," said the officer laughing.  "There, there, there, my lad,
+I'm not going to quarrel with you, and we will not use high-sounding
+phrases about loyalty, and fealty, and duty, and the like.  There, I am
+glad to welcome you to our side.  There are a hundred guineas in that
+bag.  Take them, but spend them sensibly, or you will be suspected.  If
+I were you I would save them, and those that are to come.  Here is your
+despatch, and you will see the address at Dunquerque.  Be faithful and
+vigilant and careful.  There, take them and go your way.  No one will be
+a bit the wiser for what you have done, and when you return to port
+bring your answer here, and give it to anyone you see.  One word more:
+do not trust your lieutenant.  I don't think he means well by you."
+
+"I know that," said Hilary scornfully.
+
+"Never mind," said the officer; "some day, when we are in power, we will
+find you a brave ship to command for your good services to Charles
+Edward.  But there, time presses; you must get back to your ship.
+Here!"
+
+He held out the bag of gold coin and the despatch, and he smiled
+meaningly as Hilary took them, one in each hand, and stood gazing full
+in the officer's face.
+
+There was a dead silence in the room, and the dancing flames lit up
+strangely the figures of the tall well-knit man and the slight boyish
+figure, while, half in shadow, the sailors stood with all the intentness
+of disciplined men, watching what was going on.
+
+"Look here, sir," said Hilary, speaking firmly, "if I did this thing,
+even if you came into power--which you never will--you would not find me
+a captain's commission, but would treat me as such a traitor deserved.
+There are your dirty guineas," he cried, dashing the bag upon the table,
+so that the coins flew jingling all over the room; "and there is your
+traitorous despatch," he continued, tearing it in half, and flinging it
+in the officer's face.  "I am an officer of his majesty.  God save the
+king!" he shouted.  "Now, shoot me if you dare."
+
+He gave one sharp glance round for a way of escape, but there was none.
+A dozen men stood there like statues, evidently too well disciplined to
+move till the appointed time.  Doors and windows were well guarded, and
+with such odds Hilary knew that it would be but a wretched struggle
+without avail.  Better, he thought, maintain his dignity.  And he did,
+as he saw the officer pick up the pistol from the table and point it at
+his head.
+
+A momentary sensation of horror appalled Hilary, and he felt the blood
+rush to his heart, but he did not flinch.
+
+"I am a king's officer," he thought, "and I have done my duty in the
+king's name.  Heaven give me strength, lad as I am, to die like a man!"
+
+He looked then straight at the pistol barrel without flinching for a few
+moments.  Then his eyes closed, and he who held the weapon saw the young
+man's lips move softly, as if in prayer, and he dashed the pistol down.
+
+"There, my lads!" he cried aloud to the men, "if ever you see a
+Frenchman stand fire like that you may tell me if you will.  Hilary
+Leigh," he cried, laying his hands smartly on the young man's shoulders,
+"you make me proud to be an Englishman, and in a service that can show
+such stuff as you.  Here, give me your hand."
+
+"No," cried Hilary hoarsely.  "Stand off, sir; cajolery will not do your
+work any more than threats."
+
+"Hang the work, my lad," cried the other.  "It was rather dirty work,
+but we want to know our men in times like these.  Give me your hand, my
+boy, I am no traitor, I am Captain Charteris, of the _Ruby_, and I have
+had to try your faith and loyalty to the king.  Here, my men, you did
+your work well.  Pick up those guineas; there should be a hundred of
+them.  You may keep back five guineas to drink his majesty's health.
+Bo'sun, you can bring the rest on to me."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir," said a thickset dark man, saluting, man-o'-war fashion.
+
+"Come, Mr Leigh, you and I will walk on, and you shall dine to-night
+with the admiral.  I told him I should bring you to dinner, but
+Lieutenant Lipscombe has given you so bad a character that the admiral
+declared you would take the bribe, and have to go to prison and wait
+your court-martial.  Here, you need not doubt me.  Come along."
+
+Hilary felt giddy.  The reaction was almost more than he could bear.  He
+felt hurt and insulted that such a trick should have been played upon
+him, and he was ready to turn from the captain in an injured way.
+
+The latter saw it and smiled.
+
+"Yes," he said, taking the young man's arm, "it was a dirty trick, but
+it was a necessity.  We have several black sheep in the navy, my lad,
+and we want to weed them out; but after all, I do not regret what I have
+done, since it has taught me what stuff we have got in it as well.
+Come, shake hands, my dear boy, you and I must be great friends from
+now."
+
+Hilary held out his hand as he drew it from the other's arm, and they
+stood there gripping each other for some seconds in a cordial grasp.
+
+"I don't think I could have stood fire like you did, Leigh," said the
+captain, as they were entering Portsmouth, the latter proving to be a
+man of a genial temperament that rapidly won upon his companion.
+
+"I hope you could, far better, sir," said Hilary frankly.
+
+"Why?  How so, my lad?"
+
+"I felt horribly frightened, sir."
+
+"You felt afraid of death?" said the captain sharply.
+
+"Yes, sir, terribly.  It seemed so hard to die when I was so young, but
+I would not show it."
+
+"Why, my dear boy," said the captain enthusiastically, as he clapped
+Hilary on the shoulder, "you are a braver fellow even than I thought.
+It takes a very brave man to confess that he was afraid; but don't you
+mind this.  There was never a man yet in the full burst of health and
+strength who did not feel afraid to die.  But come, we won't talk any
+more of that, for here is the admiral's dock."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY.
+
+AT THE ADMIRAL'S.
+
+It was with no little trepidation that Hilary entered the room where the
+admiral was waiting Captain Charteris' return, and as soon as he saw
+that he came with a young companion, the handsome grey-haired old
+gentleman came forward and shook hands with Hilary warmly.
+
+"I'm glad to see you," he said.  "If you have passed Captain Charteris's
+test I know that we have another officer in the service of whom we may
+well feel proud.  At the same time, Mr Leigh, I think we ought to beg
+your pardon."
+
+Hilary hardly knew whether he was upon his head or his heels that
+evening, and it was like a revelation to find how genial and pleasant
+the reputed stern and uncompromising port-admiral could be.  There was
+an excellent dinner, political matters were strictly tabooed, and the
+two officers talked a good deal aside.  No further allusion was made to
+the _Kestrel_ till it was time to go on board, a fact of which Hilary
+reminded the admiral.
+
+"To be sure, yes.  Keep to your time, Mr Leigh.  By the way, before you
+go will you tell me in a frank gentlemanly spirit what you think of
+Lieutenant Lipscombe."
+
+"No, sir, I can't," said Hilary bluntly.
+
+The admiral looked angry on receiving so flat a refusal, but he calmed
+down directly.
+
+Then, recollecting himself, Hilary exclaimed, "I beg your pardon, sir; I
+hope you will not ask me.  I would rather not say."
+
+"Quite right, Mr Leigh; I ought not to have asked you, for you are not
+the proper person to speak, but you will tell me this, I suppose," he
+added with a smile.  "You will not be sorry to hear that Lieutenant
+Lipscombe will be appointed to another vessel."
+
+"I am both sorry and glad, sir," replied Hilary, "for he is a brave
+officer, even if he is eccentric."
+
+"Eccentric!" said Captain Charteris.  "I think he is half mad."
+
+"But you do not ask who will be your new commander!"
+
+"No, sir," said Hilary; "I shall try and do my best whoever he may be."
+
+"Good!" said the admiral; "but I'll tell you all the same--shall I?" he
+said laughing.
+
+"Yes, sir, I should be glad to know," replied Hilary.
+
+The old admiral stood looking at him attentively for a few moments, and
+then said quietly:
+
+"You."
+
+Hilary half staggered back in his surprise.
+
+"Me? me, sir?  Do you mean that I shall be appointed to the command of
+the _Kestrel_?  I have not passed my examination for lieutenant yet."
+
+"No, but you will, Mr Leigh, and I have no doubt with credit.  I have
+been having a chat with my friend the captain here.  It is a novelty, I
+own, but the _Kestrel_ is a very small vessel, and for the present you
+will have with you a brother officer of riper years, who, pending his
+own appointment to a ship, will, as it were, share your command, and in
+cases of emergency give you his advice.  Of course all this is to be if
+I obtain the sanction of the Admiralty, but I think I may tell you this
+will come."
+
+Hilary was so overpowered by this announcement that he could only
+stammer a few words, and Captain Charteris took his hand.
+
+"You see, Mr Leigh," he said, "we want a dashing, spirited young
+officer of the greatest fidelity, a man who is brave without doubt;
+ready-witted, and apt to deal with the smuggling and fishing craft
+likely to be the bearers of emissaries from the enemy's camp.  We want
+such an officer at once for the _Kestrel_, and in the emergency, as we
+find those qualities in you, the admiral decides to set the question of
+years aside, while, as his spokesman and one to whom he often refers for
+counsel--"
+
+"And takes it," said the admiral smiling.
+
+"I cannot help giving my vote in your favour.  Mr Leigh," he said,
+speaking very sternly now, "in the king's name I ask you from this time
+forth to set aside boyish things and to be a man in every sense of the
+word, for you are entering upon a great responsibility; and Lieutenant
+Anderson, who comes with you, will never interfere, according to his
+instructions, unless he sees that you are about to be guilty of a piece
+of reckless folly, which in your case is, I am sure, as good as saying
+that he will never interfere."
+
+"The fact is, Mr Leigh," said the admiral kindly, "Lieutenant Lipscombe
+unwittingly advanced your cause, and it was solely on account of what
+has occurred coming to my ears that you were to-night put to so severe a
+proof.  Now, good-night.  You will receive your despatches to-morrow
+morning, and lieutenant Anderson will come on board.  Then make the best
+of your way to Dunkerque, and I need hardly say that I shall be glad to
+see you whenever you are in port on business or for pleasure."
+
+"And I as well, Leigh," said Captain Charteris.  "Some day let's hope
+that I shall be an admiral, and when I am I shall wish for no better
+luck than to have Captain Leigh in command of my flagship.  But that
+will be some time ahead.  Now, good-night."
+
+Hilary said good-night and made his way out into the fresh night-air,
+wondering if it was all true, and whether he was not suffering from some
+attack of nightmare; but the streets and the docks all looked very real,
+and when he reached the cutter and was saluted by the watch he began to
+think that there was no doubt about it, and he began, as he lay awake,
+to consider whether he ought not at once to take possession of the
+lieutenant's cabin.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY ONE.
+
+IN COMMAND.
+
+The memory of that dinner and the words that he had heard filled
+Hilary's dreams that night.  He was always waking up with a start,
+nervous and excited, and then dropping off again to dream of being
+lieutenant, captain, admiral, in rapid succession.  Then his dreams
+changed, and he was helping Sir Henry and saving Adela from some great
+danger.  Then he was in great trouble, for it seemed that he had been
+guilty of some gross blunder over his despatches, and he seemed to hear
+the voices of Captain Charteris and the admiral accusing him of neglect
+and ingratitude after the promotion given him.
+
+It was therefore weary and unrefreshed that he arose the next morning,
+glad to have a walk up and down the deck, which had just been washed;
+and as he soon began to revive in the cold fresh air, he felt a
+sensation of just pride in the smart little cutter now just freed from
+the workpeople and shining in her paint and polish.  New sails had been
+bent and a great deal of rigging had been newly run up.  The crew, glad
+to have the cutter clean once more, had made all shipshape.  Ropes were
+coiled down, Billy Waters' guns shone in the morning sun, and all that
+was wanted now was the order to start.
+
+Hilary went below and had his breakfast, which he had hardly finished
+when the corporal of marines came down with a despatch.
+
+"Boat from the shore, sir," he said, saluting.
+
+Hilary took the packet, which was addressed to him, and as he opened it
+the colour flushed into his face and then he became very pale.
+
+The despatch was very short.  It ordered him to take the cutter outside
+instantly and wait for the important despatches he was to take across to
+Dunkerque.  Above all, he was to sail the moment Lieutenant Anderson
+came on board with the papers and stop for nothing, for the papers were
+most urgent.
+
+But with the letter was something else which made his heart throb with
+joy--what was really his commission as lieutenant, and the despatch was
+addressed to him as Lieutenant Leigh.
+
+As soon as he could recover himself he rose from the table cool and
+firm.
+
+"Is the boat waiting, corporal?"
+
+"No, sir.  It went back directly."
+
+Hilary could not help it; he put on his hat with just the slightest cock
+in the world, went on deck, and gave his orders in the shortest and
+sharpest way.
+
+The men stared at him, but they executed his orders, and in a very short
+time the cutter was out of the basin, a sail or two was hoisted, and, as
+if rejoicing in her liberty, the _Kestrel_ ran lightly out to a buoy, to
+which, after what almost seemed like resistance, she was made fast, the
+sails being lowered, and the cutter rose and fell upon the waves,
+fretting and impatient to be off.
+
+The mainsail was cast loose, jib and staysail ready, and the gaff
+topsail would not take many minutes to run up in its place.  Then, as if
+fearing that the blocks might run stiff and that there would be some
+delay at starting, Hilary gave his orders and the mainsail was run up, a
+turn or two of the wheel laid the cutter's head to the wind, and there
+she lay with the canvas flapping and straining and seeming to quiver in
+her excitement to be off once more.
+
+"Poor old gal! she feels just as if she was just let out of prison,"
+said the boatswain affectionately.  "How well she looks!"
+
+"Ay, she do," said Billy Waters.  "Well, Tom Tully, my lad, how d'yer
+feel?"
+
+"Ready for suthin' to do, matey," said the big sailor.  "But when's old
+Lipscombe coming aboard?"
+
+"I d'no," said the gunner.  "Wish he wasn't coming at all.  Wonder where
+we're for.  I've a good mind to ask Master Leigh.  He'll tell me if he
+can."
+
+"Ay, lad, do," said the boatswain.
+
+Just then Hilary came out of the cabin with a red spot in each cheek,
+and began walking up and down the deck and watching for the coming boat.
+
+"Is all ready and shipshape, boatswain?" he said.
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"Your guns well lashed, Waters?"
+
+"Ay, ay, sir, and longing to have a bark.  Beg pardon, sir, shall I get
+the fishing-lines out?"
+
+"No!" said Hilary shortly.
+
+"All right, sir.  But beg pardon, sir."
+
+"What is it, Waters?"
+
+"Is the lieutenant soon coming aboard?  His traps ar'n't come yet."
+
+"No," said Hilary firmly.  "He's no longer in command."
+
+"Then I says three cheers, my lads," cried Billy Waters excitedly.
+"Leastwise, if I may."
+
+"No.  Stop.  No demonstrations now, my lads.  We are just off on
+important business, and I must ask you to be ready and smart as you have
+never been before."
+
+"Which, if it's Muster Leigh as asks us, sir," said Billy Waters, "I
+think I may say for the whole crew, from my mates here to the sojers, as
+there ar'n't one who won't do his best."
+
+"It is not Master Leigh who asks you," said Hilary flushing, as the
+whole of his little crew now stood grouped about the forward part of the
+deck.  "This is no time for speeches, my lads, but I must tell you this,
+that I ask you as your commander, the newly-appointed officer of the
+_Kestrel_, Lieutenant Leigh."
+
+Billy Waters bent down and gave his leg a tremendous slap; then, turning
+short round, he slapped the same hand into that of the boatswain, and
+the whole crew began shaking hands one with the other; the next moment
+every cap was flying in the air, and then came three hearty cheers.
+
+"Which, speaking for the whole crew, as I think I may," said Billy
+Waters, glancing round to receive encouragement in a murmur of
+acquiescence, "I says, sir, with my and our respex, success to the
+_Kestrel_ and her new commander, and--"
+
+"Hooroar!" cried Tom Tully.
+
+"Boat from the shore, sir," cried the man at the side.
+
+Hilary stepped quickly to the bulwark, to see that a boat well manned by
+a party of sailors was rapidly approaching, and, what took the young
+commander's attention, a naval officer seated in the stern sheets.
+
+"So that's my companion, is it?" said Hilary to himself, and he watched
+the officer very keenly as the boat came rapidly alongside, the officer
+sprang on board, waved his hand, and the boat pushed off at once.
+
+"Your despatches, Lieutenant Leigh," he said, quietly, as he saluted the
+young officer, who saluted in return.  "You have your orders, sir.  You
+stop for nothing."
+
+"For nothing," said Hilary, taking the packet from the newcomer's hands.
+"I presume sir, you are--"
+
+"Lieutenant Anderson, at your service," said the other rather stiffly.
+
+Then Hilary's voice rang out sharp and clear in the keen morning air.
+Up flew the staysail, and away and up ran the jib, bellying out as the
+rope that held the head of the cutter to the great ring of the buoy was
+slipped; the _Kestrel_ gave a leap, the great mainsail boom swung over
+to port, the cutter careened over, the water lapped her sides, and began
+as it were to run astern in foam, and away went the swift little craft,
+as if rejoicing in her freedom, and making straight for the eastern end
+of the Isle of Wight.
+
+The newcomer walked up and down, watching the proceedings for a time,
+glancing occasionally at the receding shore, and Hilary rapidly gave
+order after order, feeling a strange joy and excitement as for the next
+quarter of an hour he was busy, and kept pretty close to the sailor at
+the wheel.
+
+All at once there was a puff of smoke from one of the forts, and the
+deep roar of a gun.
+
+"Hullo!" cried Hilary.  "What does that mean?"
+
+"Practice, I should say," replied the newcomer.  "Nothing that concerns
+us.  You have your orders, sir."
+
+"Yes," said Hilary, "and I'll obey them;" and away sped the _Kestrel_,
+her young commander little thinking that he had been made the victim of
+a clever plot, and that he was bearing despatches to the enemy such as
+might set England in a blaze.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY TWO.
+
+A TROUBLESOME MENTOR.
+
+"Those sound to me like signals of recall," said Hilary to his
+companion, as gun after gun was fired, the last sending a shot skipping
+before the bows of the _Kestrel_.
+
+"Yes, they must be; but not for us," said Lieutenant Anderson coolly.
+
+"Why, there's a signal flying too," said Hilary, as he took his glass.
+
+"Yes, that's a signal of recall too," said the other coolly.  "I wonder
+what ship they are speaking to?  The _Kestrel_ sails well."
+
+"Gloriously," said Hilary, flushing with pleasure; "and I know how to
+sail her, too.  Well, Mr Anderson, now we're getting towards clear
+water, and there's time to speak, let's shake hands.  I'm very glad to
+see you, and I hope we shall be the best of friends."
+
+"I'm sure we shall," said the newcomer, shaking hands warmly.  "Ah! that
+shot fell behind us.  We're getting beyond them now."
+
+"Oh, yes; there's no fear of their hitting us," said Hilary laughing, as
+the _Kestrel_ careened over more and more as she caught the full force
+of the wind.  "If we go on at this rate it will almost puzzle a
+cannonball to catch us.  I know there is no vessel in Portsmouth harbour
+that could with this wind."
+
+"Do you think not?" said the lieutenant.
+
+"I'm sure not," said Hilary gaily; and they walked the deck chatting as,
+by degrees, they passed the Isle of Wight, making the open channel more
+and more, while Lieutenant Anderson--the real--was closeted with Admiral
+and Captain Charteris, all puzzled at the sudden flight of the
+_Kestrel_, which had set sail without her despatches, and also without
+what the old admiral called ballast for the young commander, namely,
+Lieutenant Anderson, who had gone off with his despatches directly after
+his counterfeit, only to find the cutter gone.
+
+Signal guns and flags proving vain, there was nothing for it but to send
+another vessel in chase of the _Kestrel_, but it was hours before one
+could be got off, and meanwhile the swift despatch boat was tearing on
+towards her destination, with poor Hilary happy in the blind belief that
+he was doing his best.
+
+There was something very delightful in feeling that he was chief officer
+of the _Kestrel_, that the duty of the swift little cutter was to be
+carried out without the wretched cavilling and fault-finding of the late
+commander.  Everything seemed to work so smoothly now; the men were all
+alacrity, and they saluted him constantly with a bright smile, which
+showed that they shared his pleasure.
+
+The breeze was brisk, the sun came out, and Lieutenant Anderson, the
+self-styled, proved to be a very pleasant, well informed man, who very
+soon showed Hilary that he had not the slightest intention of
+interfering in any way with his management of the cutter.
+
+"No," said Hilary to himself, "I suppose not.  As they told me, he is
+only to interfere in cases of emergency, or when I am doing any foolish
+thing; and that I don't mean to do if I can help it."
+
+Towards afternoon the wind fell light, and the great squaresail was
+spread, but it made little appreciable difference, and as evening came
+on, to Hilary's great disgust the wind dropped almost completely.
+
+"Did you ever know anything so unfortunate!" cried Hilary; "just when I
+wanted to show the admiral what speed there was in the little _Kestrel_
+as a despatch boat."
+
+"Unfortunate!" cried his companion, who had been struggling to maintain
+his composure, but who now broke out; "it is atrocious, sir.  Those
+despatches are of the greatest importance, and here your cursed vessel
+lies upon the water like a log!"  Hilary stared.
+
+"It is very unfortunate," he said; "but let's hope the wind will spring
+up soon after sundown."
+
+"Hope, sir!" cried the other.  "Don't talk of hope.  Do something."
+
+Hilary flushed a little at the other's imperious way.  He was not going
+to prove so pleasant a companion as he had hoped for, and there was that
+worst of all qualities for a man in command--unreason.
+
+"I am to take your advice, sir, in emergencies," said Hilary,
+restraining his annoyance; "what would you suggest for me to do?"
+
+"I suggest, Lieutenant Leigh!" exclaimed the other, stamping up and down
+the little deck.  "I am not in command of the cutter.  It is your duty
+to suggest and to act."
+
+"Yes, sir, and I will," replied Hilary.
+
+"It is a question of vital importance--the delivery of these
+despatches--and every moment lost means more than you can imagine.
+Come, sir, your position is at stake.  You command this cutter: do
+something to get her on."
+
+Hilary looked up at the flapping sails, which hung motionless; then out
+to windward in search of cats'-paws upon the water; then at his men, who
+were lounging about the lee side of the cutter; and then back at his
+companion.
+
+"Really, sir," he said at last, "I am quite helpless.  You are more
+experienced than I.  What would you advise me to do?"
+
+"And you are placed in command of this cutter!" said the other
+ironically.  "Why, a child would know better.  Have out the boats, sir,
+and let the men tow the cutter."
+
+"Tow, sir!" cried Hilary; "why, it would be exhausting the men for
+nothing.  We could not make head against the current we have here."
+
+"It will save something, sir," said the other; "and I order you to do it
+at once."  Hilary felt the hot blood flush into his face, and the order
+was so unreasonable and absurd that he felt ready to refuse, especially
+as he knew his own power, and that there was not a man on board who
+would not be at his back.  But he recalled his duty, and feeling that
+this was a case of emergency, where he ought to obey, he ordered out the
+two boats; lines were made fast, and soon after the men were bending
+well to their work, while the stout ash blades bent as they dipped in
+rhythmical motion, and sent the clear water plashing and sparkling back
+into their wake.
+
+The men worked willingly enough, but Hilary saw to his annoyance that
+they glanced at and whispered to one another, and it seemed very hard
+that he should be forced to inaugurate his first day in command by
+setting his men to an unreasonable task, for it was mere waste of
+energy.
+
+But even now it was done the officer seemed no better satisfied, but
+tramped up and down the little deck, uttering the most angry expressions
+of impatience, and at last abusing the cutter unmercifully.
+
+"Well," thought Hilary, "he has dropped the mask, and no mistake.  It is
+not going to be such smooth sailing as I expected.  Never mind; one must
+have some bitters with the sweet, and after all he is only angry from a
+sense of being unable to do his duty, while I was taking it as cool as
+could be."
+
+For quite five hours the boats were kept out, the men being relieved at
+intervals; and at the end of those five hours the cutter had not
+advanced a mile, when Hilary seized the speaking-trumpet, and hailed
+them to come on board.
+
+"Stop!" cried the officer.  "Why have you done that, sir, without my
+permission?"
+
+This was too much for Hilary, and he spoke out: "Because, sir, I am in
+command here, and there is no occasion for the men to row any longer."
+
+"I insist, sir, upon their keeping on with the towing."
+
+"And I insist, sir," replied Hilary, "on the men returning on board."
+
+"I shall report your conduct," cried his officer.
+
+"Do so, sir," replied Hilary, "if you think it your duty.  In with you,
+my lads.  Let go the halyards there, and down with that squaresail.
+Quick with those boats.  There will be a squall upon us directly."
+
+He had proved himself on the alert, guided as he had been by the signs
+of the weather, and the great squaresail had hardly been lowered, the
+boats made snug, and a reef or two taken in the mainsail, before the
+wind came with a sharp gust, and the next minute the _Kestrel_ was
+sending the water surging behind her in a long track of foam.
+
+"Ah! that's better," cried the officer, whose ill-humour seemed to
+vanish on the instant.  "How painful it is, Mr Leigh, to be lying like
+a log, and all the time with important despatches to deliver!"
+
+"It is, sir," said Hilary quietly.
+
+"I declare there were times when I felt disposed to jump overboard and
+to swim on with the despatches."
+
+"Rather a long swim," said Hilary drily; and he thought it rather odd
+that the other should think of swimming on with the papers that he had
+locked up in the cabin despatch-box, and that again in a locker for
+safety.
+
+"Well, yes," said the other, "it would have been a long swim.  But tell
+me, Mr Leigh, about what time do you think we shall make Dunkerque?"
+
+"If this wind holds good, sir, by eight o'clock to-morrow morning."
+
+"Not till eight o'clock to-morrow morning!" cried the other furiously.
+"Good heavens! how we crawl!  There, have the reefs shaken out of that
+mainsail, and send the cutter along."
+
+Hilary looked aloft, and then at the way in which the cutter lay over,
+dipping her bowsprit from time to time in the waves.
+
+"I think she has as much canvas upon her as she can bear, sir."
+
+"Absurd! nonsense!  You can get two or three knots more an hour out of a
+cutter like this."
+
+"I could get another knot an hour out of her, sir, by running the risk
+of losing one of her spars; and that means risking the delivery of the
+despatches."
+
+"Look here, Mr Leigh," said the officer; "you seem to be doing all you
+can to delay the delivery of these despatches.  I order you, sir, to
+shake out the reefs of that mainsail."
+
+Hilary took up the speaking-trumpet to give the order, but as he held it
+to his lips he felt that he would be doing wrong.  He knew the cutter's
+powers intimately.  He saw, too, that she was sailing her best, and he
+asked himself whether he would not be doing wrong by obeying what was,
+he felt, an insensate command.  Surely there must be some limit to his
+obedience, he thought; and more than ever he felt what a peculiar
+position was that in which he had been placed, and he wondered whether
+Captain Charteris could be aware of the peculiar temperament of his
+companion.
+
+Hilary lowered the speaking-trumpet, as the cutter rushed on through the
+darkness.
+
+"Well, sir," said his companion, "you heard my orders?"
+
+"I did, sir," replied Hilary.  "Here, bosun."
+
+"Ay, ay, sir."
+
+"How much more canvas will the cutter bear?"
+
+"Bear, sir?" said the experienced old salt; "begging your pardon, sir, I
+was going to ask you if you didn't think it time to take a little off if
+you don't want the mast to go."
+
+"Silence, sir!" said the officer.  "Mr Leigh, these despatches must be
+delivered at all hazards.  I order you again, sir, to risk more canvas."
+
+Hilary stood for a moment undecided, and his thoughts flashed rapidly
+through his brain.
+
+This man was unreasonable.  He did not understand the _Kestrel's_
+powers, for she was already dashing at headlong speed through the sea,
+and he wanted him to run an unwarrantable risk.  At all hazards he would
+refuse.  He knew his duty, he felt that he was a better seaman than his
+mentor, and he turned to him quietly:
+
+"My orders were, sir, to refer to you for advice in times of emergency;
+but I was not told to run risks that my commonsense forbids.  The cutter
+will bear no more canvas, sir, for the wind is increasing.  In half an
+hour we shall have to take in another reef."
+
+"If you dare!" said the officer, laying his hand upon his sword.
+
+"I dare do my duty, sir," replied Hilary, ignoring the gesture; and the
+cutter dashed on through the darkness of the night.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY THREE.
+
+DELIVERING DESPATCHES.
+
+The men had been witnesses of all that took place, and had heard the
+officer's angry words, respecting which they talked in a low tone, Billy
+Waters more than once saying that he didn't like the lookout forrard--
+the "forrard" being the future, and not the sea beyond the cutter's
+bows.
+
+As the night wore on the officer had become very friendly.  "I was
+wrong, Mr Leigh.  Put it down, please, to my anxiety.  I beg your
+pardon."
+
+"Granted," said Hilary frankly.  "I would not oppose you, sir, if I did
+not feel that I was right."
+
+"I am glad I am in the company of so clever a young officer," the other
+replied.  "Now about rest.  I am too anxious to lie down to sleep.  I
+will take charge of the deck while you go and get a few hours' rest."
+
+"Thank you, no," said Hilary quietly; "I, too, am anxious, and I shall
+not be able to sleep till we are in port and the despatches are
+delivered."
+
+"But there is no need for both of us to watch, my dear sir," said the
+other blandly.
+
+"Then pray go below, sir," said Hilary.  "You may depend on me."
+
+The officer did not reply, but took a turn or two up and down, and as
+the time glided on he tried again and again to persuade Hilary to go
+below, which, in his capacity of chief officer, holding his first
+command on a dark night and upon an important mission, he absolutely
+refused to do.
+
+Towards morning on two occasions the officer brought him glasses of
+spirits and water, which Hilary refused to take; and at last, fearing to
+make him suspicious, the officer desisted and stood leaning with his
+back against the side, wrapped in a cloak, for it was very cold.
+
+The light in front of the wheel shone faintly upon him as Hilary walked
+slowly fore and aft, visiting the lookout man at the bows and the man at
+the wheel; and at last, in the gloomy darkness of the winter's morning,
+Hilary saw the Dunkerque lights.
+
+"We're in sight of port, Mr Anderson," he said as he walked aft.
+
+"Indeed!" said the other starting, and the wind gave his cloak a puff,
+showing for a moment what Hilary saw was the butt of a pistol.
+
+"What does he want with pistols?" said Hilary to himself; and after a
+short conversation he again went forward, feeling curiously suspicious,
+though there seemed to be no pegs upon which his suspicions could hang.
+
+But he was not long kept in suspense and doubt.  When they were about a
+couple of miles from the entrance to the port a boat manned by eight
+rowers came towards them, and Hilary noticed it directly.
+
+"What does that boat mean?" he said sharply.
+
+"Don't know.  Can't say," the officer replied.  "Perhaps a man-o'-war's
+boat coming to meet us for the despatches."
+
+Hilary was not satisfied, but he said nothing.  He merely resumed his
+walk to and fro.
+
+"Now then, bosun," he said, "have your men up ready.  It will be down
+sails directly."
+
+"Not yet awhile, Mr Leigh," said the officer.  "The _Kestrel_ does not
+fly--she crawls."
+
+"Waters," said Hilary as he passed out of his companion's sight, "make
+no sign, but lay a bar or two and some pikes about handy for use if
+wanted, and give the men a hint to be ready if there's anything wrong.
+Quietly, mind."
+
+Billy Waters nodded, and as Hilary walked back to where the officer was
+standing he became aware that the gunner had taken his hint, but it was
+all done so quietly that it did not catch the officer's attention.
+
+"That boat means to board us," said Hilary, as their proximity to the
+land sheltered them from the wind and their progress became slow.
+
+"Offer to pilot us, perhaps," said the officer.  "No; it is as I said."
+
+"Ahoy, there!  Heave-to!" shouted the officer in command of the boat.
+
+"What boat's that?" cried Hilary.
+
+"The _Royal Mary's_.  Have you despatches on board?"
+
+"My orders were to deliver my despatches myself at a certain address,"
+thought Hilary; "this may be a trick."
+
+"On special business," cried Hilary back.
+
+"Nonsense, Mr Leigh!" cried the assumed Lieutenant Anderson.
+"Heave-to, sir.  I order you!  Hi, my lads there, down with the sails."
+
+"No sails don't go down for no orders like that," growled the boatswain;
+but by skilful management the boat was already alongside and the bowman
+had caught the bulwark with his hook.
+
+"Keep back!" cried Hilary sharply.
+
+"Are you mad?" cried the man by his side, now throwing off his cloak,
+and with it his disguise, for he caught Hilary by the collar and
+presented a pistol at his head.  "Quick, there, up with you!"
+
+Hilary struck up the pistol, but the next instant he received a heavy
+blow on the forehead and staggered back as, to his horror, the crew of
+the boat, well-armed and headed by Sir Henry Norland, leaped aboard and
+drove back the two or three of the crew who were near.
+
+"At last!" cried Sir Henry to the false lieutenant.  "I thought you
+would never come, Hartland.  Have you the papers?"
+
+"Yes, all right," said the gentleman addressed, "and all's right.
+Here."
+
+He had thrust his hand into his breast when there was a shout and a
+cheer as the stout crew of the _Kestrel_, headed by the gunner and armed
+with pikes and capstan-bars, charged down upon them.
+
+There was a shot or two.  Hilary was knocked down by his own men as he
+had struggled up; the false lieutenant was driven headlong down the
+companion hatch, and in less than a minute Sir Henry Norland and his men
+were, with two exceptions, who lay stunned upon the deck, driven over
+the side, to get to their boat as best they could.  Then as Hilary once
+more gained his feet the assailing boat was a quarter of a mile astern.
+
+"The treacherous scoundrel!" cried Hilary.  "Oh, my lads, my lads,
+you've saved the cutter.  But tell me, did that fellow get away?"
+
+"What! him as I hit down the hatchway for hysting your honour?" said Tom
+Tully.  "He's down below."
+
+Hilary and a couple of men ran to the hatchway, to find the false
+lieutenant lying below by the cabin door, with one arm broken, and his
+head so injured that he lay insensible, with the end of a packet of
+papers standing out of his breast.
+
+Hilary seized them at once, and then, as a light broke in upon his
+breast, he ran to the locker, opened it and the despatch-box, and longed
+to open the papers he held.
+
+But they were close in to the port, and, resolving to deliver the
+despatches, he left the false lieutenant well guarded, leaped into one
+of the boats, and was rowed ashore to the consul, to whom he told his
+tale.
+
+"It has been a trick," said that gentleman; "there is no such street in
+the town as that on the despatch, and no such officer known."
+
+"What should you do?" cried Hilary.  Then, without waiting to be
+answered, he cried, "I know," and, hurrying back to his boat, he was
+soon on board, and with the sails once more spread he was on his way
+back to Portsmouth with the despatches, and three prisoners in the hold.
+
+Before he had gone many miles he became aware of a swift schooner
+sailing across his track; and though, of course, he could not recognise
+her, he had a strong suspicion that it was the one that had nearly run
+them down.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.
+
+A GOOD FIGHT FOR IT.
+
+Before long he found that it evidently meant to intercept him, and he
+had the deck cleared for action and the men at quarters.
+
+"They want the despatches they tricked me into carrying," cried Hilary;
+"but they go overboard if I am beaten."
+
+To secure this he placed them in the despatch-box, in company with a
+couple of heavy shot, and placed all ready to heave overboard should
+matters go wrong.
+
+He knew what was his duty in such a case, though; and that was to run
+for Portsmouth with the papers, fighting only on the defensive; and
+this, to the great disappointment of his men, he kept to.
+
+The schooner commenced the aggressive by sending a shot in front of the
+cutter's bows, as an order to heave-to, but the cutter kept on, and the
+next shot went through her mainsail.
+
+"Now, Billy Waters," said Hilary, "train the long gun aft, and fire as
+fast as you can; send every shot, mind, at her masts and yards; she is
+twice as big as we are, and full of men."
+
+"But we'd lick 'em, sir," said the gunner.  "Let's get alongside and
+board her."
+
+"No," said Hilary sternly; "we must make Portsmouth before night."
+
+Then the long gun began to speak, and Hilary kept up a steady running
+fight, hour after hour, but in spite of his efforts to escape, the
+schooner hung closely at his heels, gradually creeping up, and doing so
+much mischief that at last the young commander began to feel that before
+long it would be a case of repelling boarders, and he placed the
+despatch-box ready to throw over the side.
+
+Closer and closer came on the schooner, and man after man went down; but
+still Billy Waters, aided by the boatswain, kept firing with more or
+less success from the long gun, till at last the time came when the
+schooner's crew were firing with small arms as well, and Hilary knew
+that in another minute they would be grappled and the enemy on board.
+
+He paused with the despatch-box in his hand, ready to sink it, while
+Billy Waters was taking careful aim with the long gun.  Then there was
+the puff of smoke, the bellowing roar, and apparently no result, when
+all at once there was a loud crack, a splash, and the cutter's crew
+cheered like mad, for the schooner's mainmast went over the side with
+its press of sail, and the foremast, that had been wounded before,
+followed, leaving the swift vessel a helpless wreck upon the water.
+
+She would have been easy of capture now, but under the circumstances
+Hilary's duty was to risk no severe fight in boarding her, but to
+continue his course, and this he did, passing a gunboat going in search
+of him, the despatches he had left behind having gone by another boat.
+
+Answering the hail, Hilary communicated with the commander, who in
+another hour had captured the schooner, and the next morning she was
+brought into Portsmouth harbour with her crew.
+
+Meantime Hilary had reached Portsmouth and been rowed ashore, where he
+went straight to the admiral's house.  Captain Charteris was with the
+admiral, and both looked very stern as he told his tale.
+
+"A bad beginning, Lieutenant Leigh," said the admiral, "but it was a
+clever ruse on the enemy's part.  But you are wounded.  Sit down."
+
+"Only a scratch or two, sir," said Hilary piteously, for he felt very
+weak and quite overcome as he handed his papers.
+
+Just then he became aware of the presence of a plainly-dressed
+gentleman, to whom the admiral, with great deference, handed the
+captured despatches.  He opened them--Hilary's first.
+
+"Yes," he said, "a clear case; all blank.  Now for the others."
+
+As he opened the packet he uttered a cry of joy.
+
+"This is news indeed.  My young officer, you have done more than you
+think for in capturing these.  Captain Charteris, instantly--marines and
+sailors, you can take them all."
+
+"Yes, young man," continued the stranger, "this is a proud day for you.
+It is a death-blow to the Pretender's cause.  You have done great
+things."
+
+"In the King's name--hurrah!" cried Hilary feebly, as he waved his hat;
+then he reeled and fell heavily upon the floor.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.
+
+MEETING OLD FRIENDS.
+
+Hilary Leigh's scratches were two severe wounds which kept him in bed
+for a couple of months, during which he learned that the despatches he
+had brought back after turning the tables on the Pretender's followers
+had, as the high official had said, given such information that by their
+means a death-blow was given to the plots to place Charles Edward upon
+the English throne; and when he was once more about, it was to join his
+little vessel, with his lieutenant's grade endorsed, and in a span new
+uniform, of which he was deservedly proud.
+
+The cutter had been pretty well knocked about in the fight, but she was
+once more in good trim, and her crew, who had received a capital share
+of prize-money for their part in the capture of the schooner, received
+him with three cheers.
+
+For years after, the _Kestrel_ swept the Channel pretty clear of
+smugglers and enemies, and continued so to do long after Hilary had
+joined Captain Charteris's ship, taking with him the principal members
+of his crew, Billy Waters rapidly becoming gunner of the great
+man-of-war, and Tom Tully remaining Tom Tully still, able seaman and
+owner of the biggest pigtail amongst five hundred men.
+
+Five years had elapsed before Hilary again saw Sir Henry Norland, and
+this was one day in a French port, when the greeting was most cordial.
+
+"No, Hilary, my boy," he said, as he led the lieutenant to a handsome
+house just outside the town.  "I shall not come back to England to live.
+Our cause failed, and I have given up politics now.  The English
+government have left me alone, or forgotten me, and I won't come back
+and tell them who I am."
+
+"And you don't feel any enmity against me, Sir Henry, for behaving to
+you as I did?"
+
+"Enmity, my dear boy!" cried Sir Henry, laying his hands affectionately
+upon the young man's shoulders; "I was sorry that we were on opposite
+sides, but I was more proud of you than I can tell.  Many's the time I
+said to myself, I would that you had been my son."
+
+Just then Hilary started, for a graceful woman entered the room, to gaze
+at him wonderingly for a moment, and then, with a mutual cry of
+pleasure, they ran forward to catch each other's hands.
+
+Sir Henry uttered a sigh of satisfaction, one that was not heard by the
+young people, who were too much wrapped up in each other's words, for
+this was a meeting neither had anticipated, and they had much to say.
+
+Who is it that needs to be told that Hilary saw Adela Norland as often
+as he could, and that being high in favour with the government, and soon
+after made captain of a dashing ship, he should ask for, and obtain
+permission, for Sir Henry Norland to return?
+
+This permit giving him free pardon for the past Hilary himself took to
+the French port, where he behaved very badly, for he told Adela Norland
+that he would not give it up unless she made him a certain promise, and
+this, with many blushes, she did, just as Sir Henry came into the room.
+
+"Ah!" he said laughing, "I expected all this.  Well, Hilary, I have no
+son, and you want to take away my daughter."
+
+"No, sir," said Hilary; "I only want to find you a son, and to take you,
+free from all political care, once more home."
+
+And this he did, making his name a brighter one still in the annals of
+his country, for many were the gallant acts done by the brave sailor
+Captain Hilary Leigh, for his country's good, and in the King's name.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's In the King's Name, by George Manville Fenn
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE KING'S NAME ***
+
+***** This file should be named 23386.txt or 23386.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/3/8/23386/
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+http://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.