Many and deep were the maledictions uttered, as the smugglers climbed
on board their vessel; but their captain said cheerily:
"Never mind, lads, it might have been worse. It was only the first
cargo of tubs, and half of those weren't ashore. The lace and silk are
all right, so no great harm is done. Set to work, and get up sail as
soon as you can. Likely enough there is a cutter in the offing; that
blue light must have been a signal. They seem to have got news of our
landing, somehow."
The crew at once set to work to get up sail. Three or four of the
countrymen, who had, like James, got on board the boats, stood in a
group looking on, confused and helpless; but James lent his assistance,
until the sails were hoisted and the craft began to move through the
water.
"Now, then," the captain said, "let us go below and look at the wounds.
We daren't show a light, here on deck."
The wounds were, for the most part, slashes and blows with cutlasses;
for in the darkness and confusion of the fight, only two of the bullets
had taken effect. One of the smugglers had fallen, shot through the
head, while one of those on board had his arm broken by a pistol ball.
"Now for our passengers," the captain said, after the wounds had been
bandaged.
"Who are you?" and he lifted a lantern to James's face.
"Why, it is young Mr. Walsham!" he exclaimed in surprise.
James knew the man now, for the lugger had several times put in at
Sidmouth, where, coming in as a peaceable trader, the revenue officers,
although well aware of the nature of her vocation, were unable to touch
her, as vessels could only be seized when they had contraband on board.
"Why, what brings you into this affair, young master?"
James related the conversation he had overheard, and his determination
to warn the smugglers of their danger.
"I should have managed it, in plenty of time, if I had known the exact
spot on which you were going to land; but I saw a signal light, two
miles down the coast, and that kept me there for half an hour. It
struck me, then, it was a ruse to attract the officers from the real
spot of landing, but though I ran as hard as I could, I was only just
before them."
"Thank you heartily," the smuggler said. "I expect you saved us from a
much worse mess than we got into. I have no doubt they meant to capture
the tubs, as they were loaded, without raising an alarm; and the
fellows on the shore would have come up quietly, and taken us by
surprise as we were landing the last boat loads. Thanks to you, we have
got well out of it, and have only lost one of our hands, and a score or
so of tubs."
"You can't put me ashore, I suppose?" James said.
"That I can't," the smuggler replied. "I have no doubt that cutter from
Weymouth is somewhere outside us, and we must get well off the coast
before morning. If we give her the slip, I will send you off in a boat
sometime tomorrow. I must go ashore, myself, to make fresh arrangements
for getting my cargo landed."
James went on deck again. The breeze was light, and the lugger was
slipping along quietly through the water. He could faintly see the loom
of the cliffs on his right, and knew that the lugger was running west,
keeping as close inshore as she could, to avoid the cutter watching for
her outside. He wondered what they would say at home, when it was found
that he was missing; but consoled himself by thinking that his mother,
who was still up at the Hall, would no doubt suppose that he had gone
out for a night's fishing, as he had often done before, and that, as
she was away, he had forgotten to leave word with the servant.
Suddenly, a blue light burned out on the top of the cliff. An angry
exclamation broke from the captain, who was standing at the helm.
"Confound it!" he exclaimed. "They have caught sight of us from the
cliff, and are signalling our whereabouts to the cutter."
As he spoke, he turned the vessel's head seaward, and, for a quarter of
an hour, sailed straight out.
"Now," he said quietly, "I think we must be out of sight of those
fellows on shore. Get her on the other tack, lads, but be as quiet as
you can about it. There's no saying how close the cutter may be to us."
The great sails were lowered, as the boat's head paid off to the east.
The yards were shifted to the other sides of the masts, and the sails
hoisted again, and the lugger began to retrace her way back along the
coast.
"It's just a chance, now," the captain said to James, who was standing
close by him, "whether the commander of the cutter guesses, or not,
that we shall change our course. He will know we are likely enough to
do it."
"What should you do if you were in his place?" James said.
"I should run straight out to sea, and lay to, eight or ten miles off.
He would be able to make us out then at daylight, whichever course we
take; whereas, by trying to follow in the dark, he would run the chance
of missing us altogether. I wish the wind would get up a bit. We are
not moving through the water more than three knots an hour, and it's
dying away. However, I fancy it will blow up again in the morning."
"Do you know whether she is faster than you are?" James asked.
"There is not much difference," the captain replied. "If the wind is
strong, we have the legs of her; but in a light breeze, she is the
fastest. She has chased us half a dozen times already, but we have
always given her the slip."
"Then, even if she does run out to sea, as you say," James said, "we
ought to be safe, as we should be a dozen miles or so along the coast."
"Yes, but not that ahead of her," the captain answered, "for she would
be so much to the seaward. Still, that would be far enough; but she
will begin to fire long before we are in range, and will bring any
other king's ship within hearing down on us. However, I daresay we
shall give her the slip, as we have done before."
The hours passed slowly. The wind continued to drop, until the vessel
scarcely moved through the water, and, after a while, the sweeps were
got out, and were worked until the day broke. All eyes were on the
lookout for the cutter, as the day dawn began to steal over the sky.
"There she is, sure enough," the captain exclaimed at length, "lying to
on the watch, some eight miles to the west. She must have seen us, for
we are against the light sky; but, like, ourselves, she is becalmed."
It was a quarter of an hour, however, before the position of the cutter
was seen to change. Then her head was suddenly turned east.
"She has got the wind," the captain said. "Now we only want a good
breeze, and you'll have a lively day of it, lads."
From the time when she had turned, the lugger had made only about eight
miles along the coast to the east, and an equal distance seaward, for
the tide had set against her. The morning was bright and clear, the sea
was perfectly smooth. As yet, the sails hung idly down, but there were
dark lines on the water that showed that a breeze was coming.
"We shall have plenty of wind presently," the skipper said. "See how
light the sky is to the south. There will be white tops on the waves in
an hour or two.
"Here comes a flaw. Haul in your sheets, lads, now she begins to move."
The puff did not last long, dying away to nothing in a few minutes, and
then the lugger lay immovable again. The men whistled, stamped the deck
impatiently, and cast anxious glances back at the cutter.
"She is walking along fast," the skipper said, as he examined her
through a glass. "She has got the wind steady, and must be slipping
along at six knots an hour. This is hard luck on us. If we don't get
the breeze soon, it will be a close thing of it."
Another quarter of an hour passed without a breath of wind ruffling the
water. The cutter was fully two miles nearer to them than when she had
first been seen, and was holding the wind steadily.
"Here it comes, lads," the skipper said cheerfully. "Another ten
minutes, and we shall have our share."
The time seemed long, indeed, before the dark line on the water reached
the lugger, and there was something like a cheer, from the crew, as the
craft heeled slightly over, and then began to move through the water.
It was the true breeze this time, and increased every moment in force,
till the lugger was lying well over, with a white wave at her bow.
But the cutter had first gained by the freshening breeze, and James
Walsham, looking back at her, judged that there were not more than four
miles of water between the boats. The breeze was nearly due west, and,
as the lugger was headed as close as she would lie to it, the cutter
had hauled in her sheets and lay up on the same course, so that they
were now sailing almost parallel to each other.
"If we could change places," the skipper said, "we should be safe. We
can sail nearer the wind than she can, but she can edge away now, and
has all the advantage of us."
James had already perceived this, and wondered that the lugger did not
pay off before the wind, so as to make a stern chase of it.
"I want to get a few miles farther out," the skipper said. "Likely
enough there is another cutter somewhere inshore. It is quite enough to
have one of these fellows at one's heels."
Another half hour and the cutter, edging in, was little over three
miles distant. Then the skipper gave the word, the helm was put down,
the sheets slackened off, and, in a minute, the lugger was running dead
before the wind with her sails boomed out, one on either side. The
cutter followed her example, and hoisted a large square sail.
The wind was blowing fresh now, and the sea was getting up. Not a cloud
was to be seen in the sky, and the sun shone brightly on the white
heads which were beginning to show on the water. The lugger was tearing
along, occasionally throwing a cloud of spray over her bows, and
leaving a track of white water behind her.
"I think she still gains on us," the captain said to the mate, who had
taken the helm.
"Ay, she is gaining," the sailor agreed, "but the wind is freshening
every minute. She can't carry that topsail much longer. It's pressing
her bows under now."
"She will go almost as fast without it," the skipper said.
The commander of the cutter seemed to be of the same opinion, for, just
as he spoke, the topsail was seen to flutter, and then descended to the
deck. It was a quarter of an hour before the skipper spoke again.
"I think we just about hold our own," he said. "I didn't think the
Polly could have held her running."
"She couldn't, in a light wind," the mate replied; "but with this wind,
it will want a fast boat to beat her."
The hands were now set to work, shifting the kegs further aft.
"That's better," the skipper said presently. "I am sure we are gaining
ground, and our masts will stand it, if the cutter's will."
With her stern low in the water, the lugger was now tearing along at a
tremendous pace. Stout as were her masts, and strong the stays, James
Walsham wondered at their standing the strain of the great brown sails,
as they seemed, at times, almost to lift her bodily out of the water.
Buoyant as the craft was, the waves broke over her bows and flooded her
decks, and sheets of spray flew over her.
The cutter, with her sharper bows and all her sail forward, was feeling
it still more severely, and the spirits of all on board the lugger rose
rapidly, as it was evident that they were dropping their pursuers.
Suddenly, the gaff of the cutter's mainsail was seen to droop, and the
boom was hauled on board.
"I thought it would be too much for them," the skipper said exultantly.
"They are going to reef."
"We had better reef down too, I think," the mate said. "She has had as
much as she could bear for some time."
"I'll hold on ten minutes longer," the skipper said. "Every half mile
counts."
But before that time was up, the sails were one after another reefed,
for the wind continued to freshen. The sky was still cloudless, but
there was a misty light in the air, and a heavy sea was beginning to
run.
Suddenly, a gun flashed out from the cutter. The skipper uttered an
oath. Their pursuer was more than three miles astern, and he knew that
she could only be firing as a signal.
There were several large ships in sight on their way up or down the
Channel. To these, little attention had been paid. The skipper shaded
his eyes with a hand, and gazed earnestly at a large ship on the
weather beam, some four miles away.
"That is a frigate, sure enough," he exclaimed. "We are fairly caught
between them.
"Haul in the sheets, lads, we will have a try for it yet."
The lugger was brought sharp up into the wind, and was soon staggering
along seaward, with the lee bulwark almost under water. The cutter
instantly lowered her square sail, and followed her example, continuing
to fire a gun every minute. All eyes were turned towards the frigate,
which was now on the port beam.
"We shall cross two miles to windward of her," the skipper said. "If
she keeps on her course, a quarter of an hour will do it, but she is
sure to notice the guns. The wind will take them down to her.
"Ah, there she goes."
As he spoke, a puff of smoke darted out from the frigate's bow. Her
sails fluttered, and her head bore round, until she was on the same
tack as the lugger.
The latter was now about equidistant from her two pursuers. The cutter
and the lugger were nearly abreast, but the former, being to windward,
could edge down. The frigate was three miles to leeward, but she was
fully a mile ahead.
"There is no way out of it," the skipper said bitterly. "In a light
wind we could run away from the frigate, but with this breeze we have
no chance with her. Look how she is piling on sail!"
The crew shared the captain's opinion. Some shook their fists and
cursed vainly at their pursuers, some stood sullenly scowling, while
the French portion of the crew gave way to wild outbursts of rage.
Rapidly the three vessels closed in towards each other, for the cutter
edged in so rapidly that the lugger was obliged to bear off towards the
frigate again. As a last hope, the lugger's course was changed, and she
again tried running, but the superior weight and power of the frigate
brought her rapidly down. Presently a heavy gun boomed out, and a shot
came dancing along the water, a hundred yards away.
"Lower the sails," the skipper said. "It is no use going farther. The
inside of a prison is better than the bottom of the sea, anyhow."
Down came the sails, and the lugger lay rolling heavily in the waves,
as the frigate bore down upon her with a white roll of water on her
stem.
"Get ready, lads," the skipper said. "There is just one chance yet. She
will run by us. The instant she is past, up sail again. We shall be a
mile away before they can get her round into the wind again. If she
doesn't cripple us with her shot, we may weather her yet. We needn't
mind the cutter."
The frigate came foaming along, the crew busy in taking sail off her.
The instant she had passed, and was preparing to round to, the sails of
the lugger flew up like magic, and she was soon tearing along almost in
the eye of the wind, as if to meet the cutter, which was running down
towards her.
"Down below, lads, every man of you," the captain shouted. "We shall
have a broadside in a minute."
In a moment, the deck was clear of all save the skipper and his mate,
who stood at the tiller. The frigate swept slowly round, and then, as
her guns came to bear, shot after shot was fired at the lugger, already
three-quarters of a mile to the windward. The shot hummed overhead, one
struck the water alongside, a yard or two away, but still she was
untouched.
"Some of her shots went as near the cutter as they did to us," the
skipper said. "She won't fire again."
They were now fast approaching the cutter, which, when she was within a
quarter of a mile, changed her course and was brought up again into the
wind, firing the four guns she carried on her broadside as she came
round. The lugger's head was paid off, and this placed the cutter on
her starboard quarter, both going free. The former was travelling the
faster, but a gun was fired from the cutter's bow, and the shot struck
splinters from the lugger's quarter. The crew were on deck again now.
"Train that gun over the stern," the skipper said. "If we can knock her
mast out of her, we are saved. If not, they will have us yet."
He had scarcely spoken when there was a crash. A shot from the cutter
had struck the mizzen mast, a few feet above the deck, and the mast and
sail fell over to leeward. There was a cry of rage and dismay.
"Luck's against us," the skipper said bitterly. "Down with the sail,
lads. This time it is all up with us."
The sail was lowered, and the lugger lay motionless in the water, until
the cutter came up and lay within fifty yards of her. A boat was at
once lowered, and an officer was rowed to the lugger.
"So we have caught you, my friends, at last," he said, as he sprang on
board.
"You wouldn't have done it, if it had not been for the frigate," the
skipper said.
"No; I will say your craft sails like a witch," the officer replied. "I
wish we could have done it without her. It will make all the difference
to us. The frigate will get the lion's share of the prize. What is the
value of your cargo?"
"Two hundred kegs of brandy," the skipper replied, "and fifteen hundred
pounds' worth of lace and silks."
"A good prize," the officer said. "Not your own, I hope, for you have
made a brave chase of it."
"No," the skipper answered. "Fortunately, I only took a very small
share this time. It's bad enough to lose my boat; I own two-thirds of
her."
"I am sorry for you," the officer said, for he was in high spirits at
the success of the chase, and could afford to be pleasant. "Here comes
a boat from the frigate. You played them a rare trick, and might have
got off, if it hadn't been for that lucky shot of ours.
"I see you were just getting out a stern chaser," and he pointed to the
gun. "It is well for you that you didn't fire it, as you can't be
charged with armed resistance."
"I wish I had fired it, for all that. It might have been my luck to
cripple you."
"It would have made no difference if you had," the officer replied.
"The frigate would have overhauled you. With this wind she would sail
five feet to your four."
The boat from the frigate now came alongside.
"How are you, Cotterel?" the officer said, as he stepped on board.
"That was a lucky shot of yours; but I think it's lucky for the lugger
that you hit her, for the captain was so savage, at that trick they
played him, that I believe he would have sunk her when he came up to
her again. I heard him say to the first lieutenant, 'I won't give her a
chance to play me such a trick again.'"
"What orders have you brought?" the other asked.
"We are outward bound, so you are to put a crew on board and take her
into port; but, as we are very short of hands, we will relieve you of
the prisoners."
All on board the lugger were at once ordered into the frigate's boat,
and were rowed off to the ship. On gaining the deck, they were drawn up
in line, and the captain and first lieutenant came up. The good humour
of the former had been restored by the capture of the lugger.
"Hallo!" he said, looking at the bandaged heads and arms of some of the
men, "so you have been having a fight trying to run your cargo, I
suppose. That will make it all the worse for you, when you get on
shore. Now, I might press you all without giving you a choice, but I
don't want unwilling hands, so I will leave it to you. Which is it to
be--an English prison for two or three years, or a cruise on board the
Thetis?"
The greater part of the men at once stepped forward, and announced
their willingness to volunteer.
"Who have we here," the captain asked, looking at the three countrymen.
"They are passengers, sir," the skipper of the lugger said, with a half
smile.
A few questions brought to light the facts of the surprise while the
cargo was being landed.
"Well, my lads," the captain said, "you are in the same boat with the
rest. You were engaged in an unlawful enterprise, and in resisting his
majesty's officers. You will get some months in prison anyhow, if you
go back. You had better stay on board, and let me make men of you."
The countrymen, however, preferred a prison to a man o' war.
James Walsham had been turning over the matter in his mind. He had
certainly taken no part in the fray, but that would be difficult to
prove, and he could not account for his presence except by
acknowledging that he was there to warn them. It would certainly be a
case of imprisonment. Surely, it would be better to volunteer than
this. He had been longing for the sea, and here an opportunity opened
for him for abandoning the career his mother intended for him, without
setting himself in opposition to her wishes. Surely she would prefer
that he should be at sea for a year or two to his being disgraced by
imprisonment. He therefore now stepped forward.
"I do not belong to the lugger's crew, sir, and had nothing to do with
running their cargo, though I own I was on the spot at the time. I am
not a sailor, though I have spent a good deal of time on board fishing
boats. Mr. Horton, whom I see there, knows me, and will tell you that I
am a son of a doctor in Sidmouth. But, as I have got into a scrape, I
would rather serve than go back and stand a trial."
"Very well, my lad," the captain said. "I like your spirit, and will
keep my eye on you."
The three countrymen and four of the French sailors, who declined to
join the Thetis, were taken back to the cutter, and the Thetis at once
proceeded on her way down channel. James had given a hastily scribbled
line, on the back of an old letter which he happened to have in his
pocket, to the men who were to be taken ashore, but he had very little
hope that it would ever reach his mother. Nor, indeed, did it ever do
so. When the cutter reached Weymouth with the lugger, the men captured
in her were at once sent to prison, where they remained until they were
tried at assizes three months afterwards; and, although all were
acquitted of the charge of unlawful resistance to the king's officers,
as there was no proof against any of the six men individually, they
were sentenced to a year's imprisonment for smuggling.
Whether Jim's hurriedly written letter was thrown overboard, or whether
it was carried in the pocket of the man to whom he gave it until worn
into fragments, James never knew, but it never reached his mother.
The news that James was missing was brought to her upon the day after
the event by Mr. Wilks. He had, as usual, gone down after breakfast to
report how Aggie was getting on, with a message from his mother that
her charge was now so completely restored that it was unnecessary for
her to stay longer at the Hall, and that she should come home that
evening at her usual time. Hearing from the girl that James had not
returned since he went out at nine o'clock on the previous evening, the
old soldier sauntered down to the beach, to inquire of the fishermen in
whose boat James had gone out.
To his surprise, he found that none of the boats had put to sea the
evening before. The men seemed less chatty and communicative than
usual. Most of them were preparing to go out with their boats, and none
seemed inclined to enter into a conversation. Rather wondering at their
unusual reticence, Mr. Wilks strolled along to where the officer of the
revenue men was standing, with his boatswain, watching the fishermen.
"A fine morning, lieutenant."
"Yes," the latter assented. "There will be wind presently. Have you
heard of the doings of last night?"
"No," Mr. Wilks said in surprise, "I have heard nothing. I was just
speaking to the fishermen, but they don't seem in as communicative a
mood as usual this morning."
"The scamps know it is safest for them to keep their mouths shut, just
at present," the officer said grimly. "I have no doubt a good many of
them were concerned in that affair last night. We had a fight with the
smugglers. Two of my men were shot and one of theirs, and there were a
good many cutlass wounds on each side. We have taken a score of
prisoners, but they are all country people who were assisting in the
landing; the smugglers themselves all got off. We made a mess of the
affair altogether, thanks to some fellow who rushed down and gave the
alarm, and upset all the plans we had laid.
"It is too provoking. I had got news of the exact spot and hour at
which the landing was to take place. I had my men all up on the cliff,
and, as the fellows came up with kegs, they were to have been allowed
to get a hundred yards or so inland and would there have been seized,
and any shout they made would not have been heard below. Lieutenant
Fisher, with his party from the next station, was to be a little way
along at the foot of the cliffs, and when the boats came with the
second batch, he was to rush forward and capture them, while we came
down from above. Then we intended to row off and take the lugger. There
was not wind enough for her to get away.
"All was going well, and the men were just coming up the cliff with the
tubs, when someone who had passed us on the cliff ran down shouting the
alarm. We rushed down at once, but arrived too late. They showed fight,
and kept us back till Fisher's party came up; but by that time the
boats were afloat, and the smugglers managed to get in and carry them
off, in spite of us. We caught, as I tell you, some of the countrymen,
and Fisher has taken them off to Weymouth, but most of them got away.
There are several places where the cliff can be climbed by men who know
it, and I have no doubt half those fishermen you see there were engaged
in the business."
"Then the smuggler got away?" Mr. Wilks asked.
"I don't know," the lieutenant said shortly. "I had sent word to
Weymouth, and I hope they will catch her in the offing. The lugger came
down this way first, but we made her out, and showed a blue light. She
must have turned and gone back again, for this morning at daylight we
made her out to the east. The cutter was giving chase, and at first ran
down fast towards her. Then the smugglers got the wind, and the last we
saw of them they were running up the Channel, the cutter some three
miles astern.
"I would give a couple of months' pay to know who it was that gave the
alarm. I expect it was one of those fishermen. As far as my men could
make out in the darkness, the fellow was dressed as a sailor. But I
must say good morning, for I am just going to turn in."
Mr. Wilks had been on the point of mentioning that James was missing,
but a vague idea that he might, in some way, be mixed up with the
events of the previous night, checked the question on his lips; and yet
he thought, as the officer walked away, it was not probable. Had James
been foolish enough to take part in such a business, he would either
have been taken prisoner, or would, after he escaped, have returned
home. He had evidently not been taken prisoner, or the officer would
have been sure to mention it.
Much puzzled, he walked slowly back to the fishermen. Some of the boats
had already pushed off. He went up to three of the men, whose boat,
being higher up than the rest, would not be afloat for another quarter
of an hour.
"Look here, lads," he said. "My young friend Jim Walsham is missing
this morning, and hasn't been at home all night. As none of the fishing
boats put out in the evening he cannot have gone to sea. Can any of you
tell me anything about him?"
The men gave no answer.
"You need not be afraid of speaking to me, you know," he went on, "and
it's no business of mine whether any of the men on the shore were
concerned in that affair. The lieutenant has just been telling me of
last night; but hearing of that, and finding Jim is missing, I can't
help thinking there is some connection between the two things. Nothing
you say to me will go further, that I can promise you; but the lad's
mother will be in a terrible way. I can't make it out, for I know that,
if he had anything to do with this smuggling business, he would have
told me. Again, if he was there and got away, he would naturally have
come straight home, for his absence would only throw suspicion upon
him."
"Well, Mr. Wilks," the youngest of the sailors said, "I don't know
nothing about it myself. No one does, so far as I know, but I have
heard say this morning as how he was there or thereabouts; but don't
you let out as I told you, 'cause they would want to know who I heard
it from."
"You can rely upon my silence, my lad, and here's half a guinea to
drink my health between you. But can't you tell me a little more?"
"Well, sir, they do say as how it war Mr. Jim as came running down into
the middle of them on the beach, shouting the alarm, with the revenue
men close at his heels. I don't say as it were he--likely enough it
weren't--but that's the talk, and that's all I have heared about the
matter. How he came for to know of it, or how he got there, no one
knows, for sartin he has had nought to do with any landings afore. He
was a lot among us, but I know as he never was told about it; for,
though everyone would have trusted Jim, still, seeing how he was
placed, with his mother up at the Hall, and the squire a magistrate, it
was thought better as he shouldn't be let into it. Everyone on the
shore here likes Jim."
"But if he was there, and he hasn't been taken prisoner--and I am sure
the lieutenant would have told me if he was--why shouldn't he have got
home?"
"We didn't know as he hadn't got home, did us, Bill?" the fisherman
appealed to one of his comrades.
"No," the other said. "We thought likely he had got safely away with
the rest. It war a dark night, and I expect as everyone was too busy
looking after himself to notice about others."
"He may have been wounded," the old soldier said anxiously, "and may be
in hiding in some house near the place."
The fisherman was silent. Such a thing was, of course, possible.
"He might that," one of the sailors said doubtfully, "and yet I don't
think it. The chase was a hot one, and I don't think anyone, wounded so
bad as he couldn't make his way home, would have got away. I should say
as it wur more likely as he got on board one of the boats. It seems to
me as though he might have come to warn us--that is to say, to warn
them, I mean--just to do em a good turn, as he was always ready to do
if he had the chance. But he wouldn't have had anything to do with the
scrimmage, and might have been standing, quiet like, near the boats,
when the other lot came along the shore, and then, seeing as the game
was up, he might, likely enough, have jumped on board and gone off to
the lugger."
"That is possible," Mr. Wilks said. "Anyhow, I will go off at once, and
make inquiries at all the houses within a mile or so of the landing
place."