"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."