THE SMUGGLERS ARE "TREATED" TO GIN AND ASTONISHMENT
They found the lieutenant and Captain Ogilvy stretched on the grass,
smoking their pipes together. The daylight had almost deepened into
night, and a few stars were beginning to twinkle in the sky.
"Hey! what have we here--smugglers'!" cried the captain, springing up
rather quickly, as Ruby came unexpectedly on them.
"Just so, uncle," said Minnie, with a laugh. "We have here some gin,
smuggled all the way from Holland, and have come to ask your opinion
of it."
"Why, Ruby, how came you by this?" enquired Lindsay in amazement, as
he examined the kegs with critical care.
"Suppose I should say that I have been taken into confidence by the
smugglers and then betrayed them."
"I should reply that the one idea was improbable, and the other
impossible," returned the lieutenant.
"Well, I have at all events found out their secrets, and now I reveal
them."
In a few words Ruby acquainted his friends with all that has just
been narrated.
The moment he had finished, the lieutenant ordered his men to launch
the boat. The kegs were put into the stern-sheets, the party
embarked, and, pushing off, they rowed gently out of the bay, and
crept slowly along the shore, under the deep shadow of the cliffs.
"How dark it is getting!" said Minnie, after they had rowed for some
time in silence.
"The moon will soon be up," said the lieutenant. "Meanwhile I'll cast
a little light on the subject by having a pipe. Will you join me,
captain?"
This was a temptation which the captain never resisted; indeed, he
did not regard it as a temptation at all, and would have smiled at
the idea of resistance.
"Minnie, lass," said he, as he complacently filled the blackened
bowl, and calmly stuffed down the glowing tobacco with the end of
that marvellously callous little finger, "it's a wonderful thing that
baccy. I don't know what man would do without it."
"Quite as well as woman does, I should think," replied Minnie.
"I'm not so sure of that, lass. It's more nat'ral for man to smoke
than for woman. Ye see, woman, lovely woman, should be 'all my fancy
painted her, both lovely and divine'. It would never do to have baccy
perfumes hangin' about her rosy lips."
"But, uncle, why should man have the disagreeable perfumes you speak
of hanging about _his_ lips?"
"I don't know, lass. It's all a matter o' feeling. 'Twere vain to
tell thee all I feel, how much my heart would wish to say;' but of
this I'm certain sure, that I'd never git along without my pipe.
It's like compass, helm, and ballast all in one. Is that the moon,
leftenant?"
The captain pointed to a faint gleam of light on the horizon, which
he knew well enough to be the moon; but he wished to change the
subject.
"Ay is it, and there comes a boat. Steady, men! lay on your oars a
bit."
This was said earnestly. In one instant all were silent, and the boat
lay as motionless as the shadows of the cliffs among which it was
involved.
Presently the sound of oars was heard. Almost at the same moment, the
upper edge of the moon rose above the horizon, and covered the sea
with rippling silver. Ere long a boat shot into this stream of
light, and rowed swiftly in the direction of Arbroath.
"There are only two men in it," whispered the lieutenant.
"Ay, these are my good friends Swankie and Spink, who know a deal
more about other improper callings besides smuggling, if I did not
greatly mistake their words," cried Ruby.
"Give way, lads!" cried the lieutenant.
The boat sprang at the word from her position under the cliffs, and
was soon out upon the sea in full chase of the smugglers, who bent to
their oars more lustily, evidently intending to trust to their speed.
"Strange," said the lieutenant, as the distance between the two began
sensibly to decrease, "if these be smugglers, with an empty boat, as
you lead me to suppose they are, they would only be too glad to stop
and let us see that they had nothing aboard that we could touch. It
leads me to think that you are mistaken, Ruby Brand, and that these
are not your friends."
"Nay, the same fact convinces me that they are the very men we seek;
for they said they meant to have some game with you, and what more
amusing than to give you a long, hard chase for nothing?"
"True; you are right. Well, we will turn the tables on them. Take the
helm for a minute, while I tap one of the kegs."
The tapping was soon accomplished, and a quantity of the spirit was
drawn off into the captain's pocket-flask.
"Taste it, captain, and let's have your opinion."
Captain Ogilvy complied. He put the flask to his lips, and, on
removing it, smacked them, and looked at the party with that
extremely grave, almost solemn expression, which is usually assumed
by a man when strong liquid is being put to the delicate test of his
palate.
"Oh!" exclaimed the captain, opening his eyes very wide indeed.
What "oh" meant, was rather doubtful at first; but when the captain
put the flask again to his lips, and took another pull, a good deal
longer than the first, much, if not all of the doubt was removed.
"Prime! nectar!" he murmured, in a species of subdued ecstasy, at the
end of the second draught.
"Evidently the right stuff," said Lindsay, laughing.
"Liquid streams--celestial nectar,
Darted through the ambient sky,"
said the captain; "liquid, ay, liquid is the word."
He was about to test the liquid again:--
"Stop! stop! fair play, captain; it's my turn now," cried the
lieutenant, snatching the flask from his friend's grasp, and applying
it to his own lips.
Both the lieutenant and Ruby pronounced the gin perfect, and as
Minnie positively refused either to taste or to pronounce judgment,
the flask was returned to its owner's pocket.
They were now close on the smugglers, whom they hailed, and commanded
to lay on their oars.
The order was at once obeyed, and the boats were speedily rubbing
sides together.
"I should like to examine your boat, friends," said the lieutenant as
he stepped across the gunwales.
"Oh! sir, I'm thankfu' to find you're not smugglers," said Swankie,
with an assumed air of mingled respect and alarm. "If we'd only
know'd ye was preventives we'd ha' backed oars at once. There's
nothin' here; ye may seek as long's ye please.
The hypocritical rascal winked slyly to his comrade as he said this.
Meanwhile Lindsay and one of the men examined the contents of the
boat, and, finding nothing contraband, the former said--
"So, you're honest men, I find. Fishermen, doubtless?"
"Ay, some o' yer crew ken us brawly," said Davy Spink with a grin.
"Well, I won't detain you," rejoined the lieutenant; "it's quite a
pleasure to chase honest men on the high seas in these times of war
and smuggling. But it's too bad to have given you such a fright,
lads, for nothing. What say you to a glass of gin?"
Big Swankie and his comrade glanced at each other in surprise. They
evidently thought this an unaccountably polite Government officer,
and were puzzled. However, they could do no less than accept such a
generous offer.
"Thank'ee, sir," said Big Swankie, spitting out his quid and
significantly wiping his mouth. "I hae nae objection. Doubtless it'll
be the best that the like o' you carries in yer bottle."
"The best, certainly," said the lieutenant, as he poured out a
bumper, and handed it to the smuggler. "It was smuggled, of course,
and you see His Majesty is kind enough to give his servants a little
of what they rescue from the rascals, to drink his health."
"Weel, I drink to the King," said Swankie, "an' confusion to all his
enemies, 'specially to smugglers."
He tossed off the gin with infinite gusto, and handed back the cup
with a smack of the lips and a look that plainly said, "More, if you
please!"
But the hint was not taken. Another bumper was filled and handed to
Davy Spink, who had been eyeing the crew of the boat with great
suspicion. He accepted the cup, nodded curtly, and said--
"Here's t' ye, gentlemen, no forgettin' the fair leddy in the
stern-sheets."
While he was drinking the gin the lieutenant turned to his men--
"Get out the keg, lads, from which that came, and refill the flask.
Hold it well up in the moonlight, and see that ye don't spill a
single drop, as you value your lives. Hey! my man, what ails you?
Does the gin disagree with your stomach, or have you never seen a
smuggled keg of spirits before, that you stare at it as if it were
a keg of ghosts!"
The latter part of this speech was addressed to Swankie, who no
sooner beheld the keg than his eyes opened up until they resembled
two great oysters. His mouth slowly followed suit. Davy Spink's
attention having been attracted, he became subject to similar
alterations of visage.
"Hallo!" cried the captain, while the whole crew burst into a laugh,
"you must have given them poison. Have you a stomach-pump, doctor?"
he said, turning hastily to Ruby.
"No, nothing but a penknife and a tobacco-stopper. If they're of any
use to you----"
He was interrupted by a loud laugh from Big Swankie, who quickly
recovered his presence of mind, and declared that he had never tasted
such capital stuff in his life.
"Have ye much o't, sir?"
"O yes, a good deal. I have _two_ kegs of it," (the lieutenant
grinned very hard at this point), "and we expect to get a little more
to-night."
"Ha!" exclaimed Davy Spink, "there's no doot plenty o't in the coves
hereaway, for they're an awfu' smugglin' set. Whan did ye find the
twa kegs, noo, if I may ask?"
"Oh, certainly. I got them not more than an hour ago."
The smugglers glanced at each other and were struck dumb; but they
were now too much on their guard to let any further evidence of
surprise escape them.
"Weel, I wush ye success, sirs," said Swankie, sitting down to his
oar. "It's likely ye'll come across mair if ye try Dickmont's Den.
There's usually somethin' hidden there-aboots."
"Thank you, friend, for the hint," said the lieutenant, as he took
his place at the tiller-ropes, "but I shall have a look at the Gaylet
Cove, I think, this evening."
"What! the Gaylet Cove?" cried Spink. "Ye might as weel look for
kegs at the bottom o' the deep sea."
"Perhaps so; nevertheless, I have taken a fancy to go there. If I
find nothing, I will take a look into the Forbidden Cave."
"The Forbidden Cave!" almost howled Swankie. "Wha iver heard o'
smugglers hidin' onything there? The air in't wad pushen a rotten."
"Perhaps it would, yet I mean to try."
"Weel-a-weel, ye may try, but ye might as weel seek for kegs o' gin
on the Bell Rock."
"Ha! it's not the first time that strange things have been found on
the Bell Bock," said Ruby suddenly. "I have heard of jewels, even,
being discovered there."
"Give way, men; shove off," cried the lieutenant. "A pleasant pull to
you, lads. Good night."
The two boats parted, and while the lieutenant and his friends made
for the shore, the smugglers rowed towards Arbroath in a state of
mingled amazement and despair at what they had heard and seen.
"It was Ruby Brand that spoke last, Davy."
"Ay; he was i' the shadow o' Captain Ogilvy and I couldna see his
face, but I thought it like his voice when he first spoke."
"Hoo _can_ he hae come to ken aboot the jewels?"
"That's mair than I can tell."
"I'll bury them," said Swankie, "an' then it'll puzzle onybody to
tell whaur they are."
"Ye'll please yoursell," said Spink.
Swankie was too angry to make any reply, or to enter into further
conversation with his comrade about the kegs of gin, so they
continued their way in silence.
Meanwhile, as Lieutenant Lindsay and his men had a night of work
before them, the captain suggested that Minnie, Ruby, and himself
should be landed within a mile of the town, and left to find their
way thither on foot. This was agreed to; and while the one party
walked home by the romantic pathway at the top of the cliffs, the
other rowed away to explore the dark recesses of the Forbidden Cave.