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.