*Hahn*. My lord, he has escaped.
*Otto*. Have thou no fear; he shall be prisoner.
I know the bird, his ways, where he frequents;
And I shall lime a twig, upon the which
I'll easily entice him to alight.--_Oldenheim_.
The noise of the footsteps passing out of the door brought from the
cellar a tall and slender elderly man, with black eyes, and dark hair
thickly interspersed with grey. This individual seemed to be in a state
of much excitement.
"What is the matter, Captain Vance?" he asked. "What has happened?"
"Nothing of much importance," answered the dark man with the black
slouched hat, who was again leaning, as when first seen by John Alvan
Coe, against the door, which opened upon the sands. "I caught sight of
a man looking in upon us just now through the back window."
"Do you consider that fact as of not much importance?" said the elderly
man from the cellar. "If you were in my position, I think that you
would entertain a different opinion."
"Oh!" exclaimed the captain in a careless manner, "he was only `A chiel
amang us takin' notes.' I am very sure that he will never `prent 'em.'
I shall take especial pains that he shall never have a chance of doing
so."
"The men who went out just now then," remarked the elderly man, in an
interrogative manner, "were sent to catch him?"
"Yes," was the laconic reply.
"God grant that they may catch him!" exclaimed the grey-headed man, in
an earnest tone.
"If I were you, I would not call upon God in such a case," said Captain
Vance, whose coolness and self-possession afforded a complete contrast
to the excitement and alarm conspicuous in the bearing of his elder
companion. "You had better turn your face downward than upward when you
call for help; for you are more likely to have sympathy, in the present
business, from the powers below than from the powers above. If prayer
is the longing of the heart rather than the speech of the lips--as I
heard the man who was looking in at the window say a year or so ago--you
would have more chance for help by praying to the devil, Mr Ashleigh;
that is, if his infernal majesty should think that any more assistance
to you is needed to buy you."
"It is evident, captain," retorted Mr Ashleigh, "that you are now in
one of your philosophical moods, as Billy Bowsprit calls them. I cannot
see, however, that, even in the view of our relative positions which you
are now taking, you have any advantage of me. I have long been familiar
with the saying that `the receiver is as bad as the thief;' but I have
never heard, if my memory serves me rightly, that the receiver is worse
than the thief."
"Nevertheless, I have the advantage of you," quietly answered Captain
Vance. "I do not pretend to be any better than I am; I do not `wear the
livery of heaven to serve the devil in.'"
"Not in `your vocation, Hal,'" said Mr Ashleigh; "that is, not here, on
shipboard; but at home you are, I am sure, just as much a hypocrite as I
am."
"There is some pith in that retort," replied Captain Vance, in a
somewhat yielding tone. "Ah! we are all more or less hypocrites, Mr
Ashleigh; as the poet says, `we are all shadows to each other.'"
"Besides," continued Mr Ashleigh, "nobody in this neighbourhood would
recognise you in that disguise and by this light; whereas, this building
is known to belong to me, and the discovery of the business which is
carried on here would, therefore, ruin me."
"Pardon the lightness of my manner of speaking," said the young man, in
an earnest tone of voice. "My real reason for speaking so was not on
account of want of concern in your interests, but because there is, in
fact, no danger to you, or to any one of us, in any discovery made by
the individual who just now peeped in upon us."
"I think that you intimated, a few moments ago," remarked Ashleigh,
"that you know the person who was reconnoitring us. Who is he?"
"John Alvan Coe," was the answer; "son of old Mr Coe, who owns a
plantation at the head of Saint John's Creek, a few miles from this
place."
"Then I am lost," exclaimed Ashleigh, in increased alarm. "No man in
this county--I may say in this State--can surpass him in ferreting out a
secret, when once he has obtained a hint of it."
"I am as familiar with that peculiarity in his character as you are,"
remarked Captain Vance. "But I have a plan partly formed in my head,
which, I am almost sure, will not only render him harmless, but will
also add a very brave and intelligent member to my ship's company. I
have but little hope that those who have gone in pursuit of him will
overtake him. He is the fleetest runner that I ever knew; and sailors
make but poor comparative headway on land."
"What is your plan?" asked Ashleigh.
"It is not yet perfectly formed," answered Vance. "It is still in the
crucible of the brain; and I cannot tell what shape it will take until
it has come out complete."
"You had better be in a hurry then," said the elder speaker. "There is
but little time to act; when he has once told what he has witnessed here
to another, the information will spread and spread, and there will be no
stopping it. And then the consequences--ah! `that way madness lies.'"
"Feel no uneasiness," said Captain Vance, in a tone of perfect
confidence. "He shall take his breakfast on board of the _Falcon_
to-morrow morning."
"It is some relief to me to hear you speak so confidently," remarked
Ashleigh. "Still I cannot help fearing that trouble will grow out of
this thing. I wish that my advice in one respect had been followed, and
that we had waited for a few days, until the moon will set before
daylight, so that we might have had an hour or two of absolute darkness
for our work."
"I have before represented to you," replied Captain Vance, "that we
should have run still greater risk by such a course, perhaps have had
the revenue officer down upon me, while I had all these men on board,
and such a quantity of goods for which I have no bill of lading. What
suspicions would have been aroused by my lingering round here for a week
at least, with no excuse on account of stress of weather for the delay!"
"Well," observed Ashleigh, with an uneasy sigh, "there is some force in
what you say; and it is too late now to discuss the matter."
"Oh!" said Vance, in a light and cheerful manner, "there is no need of
sighing, I assure you. This affair of young Coe does not disturb me at
all. It only determines me to do at once what I have often thought of
undertaking. I have no doubt, as I said before, that it will only
result in adding a new and unusually valuable member to our force. He
is remarkably intelligent, and as brave as a lion."
"I hope that your impressions may prove correct," remarked Ashleigh, in
a manner that still expressed uneasiness.
At this moment the door was opened from the outside, giving entrance to
a male individual of a somewhat comical appearance. He was rather under
five feet in height, and was what is called "square built," that is, his
form and limbs were very stout, or rather, perhaps, thick; and his waist
was nearly as wide as his shoulders or his hips. His hair was of a
reddish-brown or tawny colour, of exuberant growth, and worn in long,
clustering curls which swept his shoulders. His face was deeply tanned
by sun and weather; and the scar of a sabre-cut above his left eye
caused the eyebrow on that side to be below the line of its fellow. The
eyes were of a reddish hazel colour, and their expression showed that
their possessor had an appreciation of the humorous, but that there was
also "a lurking devil" in his composition. He was dressed in the
ordinary sailor costume of that as well as of the present period, of
blue cloth roundabout, with many small brass buttons, coarse Osnaburg
trowsers, considerably soiled, light pumps, and a tarpaulin hat.
"Well, Billy," said the captain, "what luck?"
"No luck at all, as far as I am concerned," was the answer. "A short,
broad-beamed lugger like me has no more chance of overhauling a trim,
well-rigged craft like that long-legged fellow, who has been taking
liberties with our harmless secrets, than a Dutch drogger has to beat
upon a wind a Baltimore clipper."
Baltimore was even then, the reader will recollect, famed for the
fleetness of her vessels.
"Where are the other two?" asked Captain Vance.
"I don't know, indeed, captain," replied Billy. "When I got to the top
of the hill they were all hull down; and I thought that I had better
steer for port before I had lost all my bearings. So here I am. I
think, by-the-bye, that that long-legged fellow will get the
weather-guage of all of them. Do you know his name, captain?"
Billy was a privileged character with his captain, who, in fact, was
generally more familiar with his men than is usual with officers in
chief command.
"Yes," answered Captain Vance; "his name is Coe."
"That's just the very name for him," said the sailor. "I have often
heard that, in the merchant-houses, `Co.' sometimes stands for more than
one man; and I know that this fellow is fully equal to two. Indeed, I
think that he'll prove himself too much for all of us to-night. He runs
like a clipper before the wind."
The door again opened, and two seamen entered, both dressed in costumes
similar to that of the last-comer before them. One was evidently a
common sailor; the other was a stout, compactly-built man, about five
feet six or seven inches in height, of a swarthy complexion, with dark
and lowering eyes, and a generally stern and forbidding expression of
countenance. His dark hair, somewhat mingled with grey, was, contrary
to the usual sailor fashion, cut closely to his head; but he wore all of
his grizzled, straight, and uncurling beard long. He seemed to be about
forty years of age.
This man interlarded his talk with many oaths of the rudest character.
I prefer to omit them in reporting his conversation.
"Well, Mr Afton," said Captain Vance, in a pleasant tone, addressing
this individual, "where is your prisoner?"
"Prisoner?" was the rough answer, "I once was told of a man who was such
a fool as to undertake to run a race with the moon; but he had a sight
more chance of winning his race than we had of winning ours. We
overtook, in the pursuit, two stupid negroes carrying a load of fish. I
thought that they had probably seen him, and could, therefore, give us
some information with regard to our chase; but though I cut some tough
hickory rods, and they were both well thrashed, we could get nothing out
of them."
"That was useless, to say the least of it," said the captain, with some
sternness. "Of course, if they had seen him, they would have told you
without having been cruelly beaten."
Mr Afton indulged himself in a few more oaths, and a heavy frown came
upon his face. The captain seemed to take but little notice, however;
and there was silence for a few moments. This silence was broken by Mr
Afton.
"If I knew who that spying fellow is, and where he lives, captain," he
said, with more respect in his tones and manner, "I would, with your
consent, take a few of the men, storm the house, capture him, and bring
him aboard."
"I know the man," replied Captain Vance, "and also where he is to be
found. But there is no need of resorting to the violent means which you
recommend--which, by-the-bye, would destroy our trade here, by making it
unsafe for us to visit this harbour or its neighbourhood any more. I
think that I have a better plan. I know well the character of the man
who was watching us, and since you started in pursuit of him, have
thought of a plan by which I shall have him peaceably on board of the
brig early to-morrow morning, before he shall have an opportunity of
communicating with any one. Trust the matter to me; I feel not the
least doubt of my success. I will speak to you further on the subject
presently."
From the time that Afton, Billy, and the other sailor had gone in
pursuit of young Coe, the process of removing the bales and boxes of
goods to the cellar had been unremittingly continued. Soon after Billy
Bowsprit's return, Mr Ashleigh had gone down into the cellar again, to
resume the superintendence of the storage of the merchandise. Shortly
after the close of the conversation recorded above, between the captain
and the first-mate, the merchant reascended to the store-room, and
announced that the goods were all safely put away. He was followed by
the sailors who had been engaged in carrying down the packages.
"Come, boys," said the store-keeper, addressing those who had come with
him out of the cellar; "let us put the slide and the counter back into
their places, and put the store-room again in order. Our night's work
will then be finished. I, for one, shall be glad of it, for I am both
tired and sleepy."
In a few moments afterwards, and while Captain Vance was holding a
short, whispered conversation with Mr Afton, his first-mate, the doors
and windows of the store-room were made fast. Then the merchant took
his way up the hill to his house, and the seafaring people, all but one,
returned to the brig.