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.