"Poor lad!" said the doctor kindly. "Why, he was as brave as a lion. I
talked nonsense to keep up his spirits and make him indignant while I
hurt him in that cruel way. Poor lad! Poor lad!"
"Doctor Chowne," I cried with the tears in my eyes, "I felt just now as
if I hated you!"
"Just you say that again!" he cried, laughing grimly. "You forget, you
young dog, that I have you by the hip. You are my patient, and I have
as tight a hold of you as an old baron in the good old times had of his
prisoners. There! He is coming to, and I sha'n't have to hurt him any
more to-day."
"Will he have to lose his leg, doctor?" I whispered.
"What! Because of that hole? Pshaw, boy! The bullet is out, and
nature has begun already to pour out her healing stuff to make it grow
together. I'll make him as sound as a roach before I have done. Now we
must see to getting our wounded under cover. I didn't think the Gap
would ever be turned into such a hospital as this. Why, Sep, it's quite
a treat to get such a morning's practice in surgery. There! I'll go
and wash my hands, and I must have some breakfast or I shall starve."
Breakfast! Starve! At such a time as this! I looked at him in horror,
and he read my thoughts and laughed.
"Why, you young goose!" he exclaimed, "do you think I can afford to be
miserable and have the horrors because other people suffer? Not a bit
of it. I'm obliged to be well and hearty and--unfeeling--eh? Ah, well,
Sep! I'm not such an unfeeling brute as I seem; and I'd give fifty
pounds now to be able to find those poor fellows breakfast and shelter
at once."
The doctor was able to supply his patients with refreshments without the
expenditure of fifty pounds, for Mother Bonnet had just come up to
announce that she had been back to the cottage to find it untouched,
after going away in alarm when the Frenchmen landed, and she said that
she had the fire lit and coffee and tea on the way for every one who
wanted it.
"Mother Bonnet, you're a queen!" cried the doctor; and then turning to
me: "Rather strange that they should have spared the cottage and old
Jonas's goods, eh, Sep? There's something behind all this."
We were not long in finding out what was behind all this. I had my own
suspicions without the doctor's, and they were soon confirmed by the
coming of the big three-masted lugger, which was brought close in by the
man-o'-war's men, who landed with a lieutenant at their head, and came
up the Gap to see our condition.
He was a bright, manly fellow, and my father and he became friends at
once, while he was quite humorous in his indignation.
"The cowardly scoundrels!" he cried. "Oh, if we had only been here!
How delighted my Jacks would have been to have a go at them!"
"Do you think so?" said my father smiling.
"Think so, sir? Why, my boys have been half mad with disappointment.
Poor fellows! Just about a dozen of you. Well, there's no mistake
about your having made a brave defence, Captain Duncan. Not a man
unhurt. Sir, I'm proud to know you."
"My men behaved better than I did, sir," said my father modestly.
"Oh, of course, sir," cried the lieutenant laughing; "but avast talking.
What can we do for you? I'm here ashore with the lugger and prisoners
till my ship comes back, so what shall we do? You don't want doctoring,
I see?"
"We want covering in first of all, sir," said the doctor, pointing to
the unroofed shed.
"Of course you do," cried the lieutenant; "and all your men wounded.
Here, heave ahead, my lads, and half of you run back to the lugger and
bring up all the spare sails and spars you can get hold of. If there
are no spars bring the sweeps."
"Ay, ay, sir," cried the sailors; and half of them went off at the
double back along the valley, while the others, under the command of
their officer, set to work and shovelled and brushed out all the burnt
charcoal and smouldering wood from the long shed, and then from the
counting-house, and after that they were busy at work cutting ling and
heath with their cutlasses, when the men despatched to the lugger came
back loaded with sails and spars.
At it they went, and in a very short time had rigged up a roof over the
shed for our poor fellows, carried in a quantity of ling, and spread
over that more sail-cloth, making quite a comfortable bed with room for
a dozen men, and ample space for the doctor to go between.
Then, with the tenderness of women, the great bronzed fellows lifted the
wounded men who could not walk, slipped under them a hammock, and one at
each corner carried them in and laid them down.
"There you are, messmates," said the biggest of the men; "now, then, a
quid apiece for you to keep down the pain. Make ready: pockets, 'bacco
boxes," he shouted, and his comrades laughingly obeyed.
"Thank you, my lads, thank you," cried the doctor, going round and
shaking hands with all in turn; "why, it would be a pleasure to have to
do with such men as you. But there, you're safe and sound."
"At present, sir," said the big sailor; "but hark! They're at it
yonder."
We listened and sure enough there was the distant sound of heavy firing
coming from the west.
"And we not in it, mates," said the big sailor dolefully.
The wounded being cared for and the miners' wives beginning to come
back, we left them in the doctor's charge, and, in response to the
lieutenant's invitation, went back with him to the lugger.
"I'll send your fellows up all I can," he said, "but you two come to the
lugger cabin, and I think I can scrape you up a bit of a meal."
We were ready enough to go for many reasons, one of them being
curiosity; and having shaken hands with Bigley, and asked my father to
do the same, for the poor fellow was very miserable and despondent, away
we went.
"The rascals!" said the lieutenant, "they've got all your silver then?
How much was it worth?"
"Nearly two thousand five hundred pounds' worth," said my father.
"What a haul!" exclaimed the lieutenant, "and so compact and handy.
Never mind, captain, hark at our guns talking to them. They'll have to
disgorge. But, I say, some one must have told them where to come."
"I'm afraid so," said my father.
"Who was likely to know?--this smuggling rascal that we have got in the
French lugger?"
"Who is he? An Englishman?"
"No, sir, a Frenchman who speaks English pretty well. The officer on
the revenue cutter knows him. A Captain Gualtiere, I believe."
"Oh!" I exclaimed.
"You know him then?" said the officer sharply.
"Yes," said my father; "he picked up my son and two companions one day
after their boat had been blown out to sea."
"He seems to have picked up something else beside, sir," cried the
officer--"knowledge of where you kept your silver. And you may depend
upon it his lugger has been playing leader to the French sloop, and
showed the captain where to land. Two thousand five hundred pounds in
bars of silver! We must have that back."
"I'm afraid you are not quite right, sir," said my father sadly. "I
think we shall find that the betrayal of my place was due to a smuggler
who used to live in yonder cottage, information respecting whose cargo
landing I was compelled, as a king's officer, to give to the commander
of the cutter. It has been an old sore, and it has doubtless rankled."
"Oh, father!" I said sadly, "do you think this really is so?"
"Yes, Sep," he replied, "and so do you; but don't be alarmed, I shall
not visit it upon his son. The poor lad thinks the same, I am sure, and
he is half broken-hearted about it." We reached the beach soon after,
where a couple of Jacks were in charge of the boat, and soon after we
were pulled alongside of the lugger, to find that the men left on board,
in charge of a midshipman of about my own age, had been busy repairing
damages, _fishing_, as they called it, the broken spar, while the
lugger's crew sat forward smoking and looking on, in company with their
skipper, who rose smiling, and saluted.
"Aha! Le Capitaine Dooncaine," he cried; "and m'sieu hees sone. I
salute you both."
"Salute me?" cried my father angrily. "After this night's work?"
"This night's work, mon capitaine?" he said lightly. "Vy node. I am
prisonaire; so is my sheep, and my brave boys. But it ees ze fortune of
var."
"Yes; the fortune of war," said my father bitterly.
"I do node gomplaine myself. You Angleesh are a grand nation; ve are a
grand nation. Ve are fighting now. If ze sloop sail vin she vill come
for me. If she lose ze capitaine vill be prisonaire, and behold encore
ze fortune of war."
"Sir," said my father, "it is the act of pirates to descend upon a set
of peaceful people as your countrymen did last night, thanks to your
playing spy."
"Spy? Espion? Monsieur insults a French gentleman. I am no spy."
"Was it not the work of a spy to bring that French sloop here to ravage
my place and steal the ore that had been smelted down?"
"True, saire, it vas bad; but ze espion was your own countrymen, saire.
Ze Capitaine Gualtiere does no do such not you calls dirty vorks as
zat."
"Jonas Uggleston! It was he, then?" cried my father. "I felt sure of
it; but I believed you to have had a hand in it, Captain Gualtiere."
"A hand in him, sair. Ze Capitaine Ugglee-stone ask me to join him, it
there is months ago, sair; but I am a smugglaire, and a shentilhomme,
node a pirate."
"Captain Gualtiere," said my father, "you once saved my boy's life, and
I have insulted you--a prisoner. Sir, I beg your pardon."
My father took off his hat, and before he realised what was about to
take place, the Frenchman had thrown his lithe arms about him and kissed
his cheek.
"Sair," he exclaimed with emotion, "I am a prisonaire, but I look upon
ze Capitaine Dooncaine as a friend."
They then shook hands, and my father coloured up as he saw the officer
of the frigate look on as if amused.
"Monsieur," said Captain Gualtiere; "I am no longer the maitre here; but
you vill entaire my cabine, and I pray you to take dejeuner--ze
breakezefast vis me."
The result was that we had a surprisingly good meal, and very refreshing
it proved, though I was in terrible pain all the time, and kept on
wondering whether I ought to eat and drink.
The lieutenant from the frigate kept getting up and going on deck to
listen to the firing, which was very heavy in the distance, though
nothing could be seen, and he exclaimed once against the great headland,
the Ram's Nose, which shut off the view.
"It's so hard," he said; "here have I been longing for an engagement,
and the first one that turns up I am away from my ship, and cannot even
see the fun."
I saw my father, who was wincing with pain, smile at the lieutenant's
idea of fun.
"Why, you are safer here," he said.
"Safer!" exclaimed the lieutenant contemptuously. "Now, Captain Duncan,
would you have liked it when you were on active service?"
"That I certainly should not, sir."
"Ah, well," said the lieutenant, "I suppose I must be contented with our
little prize here. This Gualtiere has long been wanted. A most
successful smuggler, sir."
The conversation was ceasing to interest me, so I went on deck, when the
middy came up to me directly from where he was standing listening to the
firing.
I looked at him with the eyes of admiration, for his uniform, dirk, and
pistols gave him a warlike aspect, and besides he was in temporary
command of the sturdy Jacks who were overawing the smuggler's men.
"Won't you sit down?" he said, turning up a little keg.