Cormorant Crag, a Tale of the Smuggling Days, by George Manville Fenn.
_______________________________________________________________________
In this excellent book of smuggling life on the south coast of England,
dating about 1830, from some of the passing comments made by the author,
we read of the adventures of two boys living on a small off-shore
island. One is the son of the local doctor, the other the son of the
squire, or owner of the land round about. The boys are friendly with an
old fisherman called Daygo. It is thought that he is of Spanish
descent, from the Armada, but despite his name and appearance, he denies
it. He likes taking the boys out fishing, but feeds then a load of
yarns about the safety of a particular part of the cliffs, saying that
vessels getting too close to it have been known to disappear. This is
actually quite true in a way because there is a huge cave, quite big
enough to accommodate a small vessel.
The boys borrow Daygo's boat, without his leave, and explore the
forbidden cave. Of course they discover all the recently smuggled
goods. But a few days later they are in there, having discovered another
way in by land, and are captured by the smugglers, who are French, and
kidnapped. After that there are all sorts of exciting and perilous
situations, and it looks likely that the boys will not come out of it
alive.
But they do, of course! A good read.
NH
_______________________________________________________________________