Cutlass and Cudgel Part 26

She pressed her hands to her temples, and tried to think about the business of the past night, and by degrees she collected her thoughts, and recalled that the smugglers had come to take up their kegs and bales from the temporary store to carry them further inland, that she had discovered the young midshipman watching, and to save her father she had shut their enemy in the lower corner room.

Celia stood with her cheeks burning, trembling and anxious, and after bathing her face and arranging her hair, she went out into the broad pa.s.sage and listened at her father's door.

It was too soon for him to be stirring yet, and determining at last to go and declare his innocency, and make an appeal to the frank-looking lad, she crept timidly down the grand old flight of stairs, trying to think out what she would say.

There were two flights to descend, and the first took a long time; but she worked out a nice little speech, in which she would tell the cutter's officer that her father had once been rich, but he had espoused the young Pretender's cause, and the result had been that he had become so impoverished that there had been a time when they had had hardly enough to keep them and the old maid-servant who still clung to their fallen fortunes.

By the time she was at the bottom of the second flight she was ready and quite hopeful, and, with the tears standing in her eyes, she felt sure that the frank, gentlemanly lad would be merciful, forgive her, and save her father from a terrible disgrace.

She had, then, her speech all ready, but when she spoke everything was condensed in the one exclamation--

"Oh!"

For as she reached the hall where her coming and going had so startled the midshipman in the darkness, she found that the door was wide open and the window shut.

She looked about bewildered, but there was no sign of the room having been occupied.

"Did I dream it all?" she said in an awe-stricken whisper. "No: the men came to take away the brandy and silk, and I saw them here."

She pressed her hands to her temples, for the surprise had confused her, and in addition her head ached and throbbed.

"Could I have dreamed it?" she asked herself again. "No, I remember the men coming to fetch away the things and then I found him watching."

She stood gazing before her, with her puzzled feeling increasing, till a thought struck her.

She saw the men come to fetch the kegs. If she really did see that, the kegs would be gone.

The proof was easy. If the brandy and silk were gone, the door of the vault would be open. If the things were not fetched away, it would be locked up; and if she tapped on the door with her knuckles, there would be a dull sound instead of a hollow, echoing noise.

She ran quickly down, and the door was locked.

She tapped with her knuckles, and the sound indicated that the place was full, for all was dull and heavy and no reverberation in the place.

"I must have dreamed it all," she cried joyously. "I have thought so much about it that I have fancied all this, and made myself ill. Why, of course he could not have got in there to watch or the men would have seen him come."

It is very easy to place faith in that which you wish to believe.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Lieutenant brough was out for a long walk. That is to say, he had his gla.s.s tucked under his arm, and was trotting up and down his cleanly holystoned deck, pausing from time to time to raise his gla.s.s to his eye, and watch the top of the cliff, ending by gazing in the direction of the cove.

The men said he had been putting them through their facings that morning, and he had been finding more fault in two hours than in the previous week, for he was getting fidgety. He had not enjoyed his breakfast, and it was getting on toward the time for his mid-day meal.

Suddenly he stopped short by the master, who had also been using a gla.s.s, and was evidently waiting to be spoken to.

"Seemed in good spirits last night, Mr Gurr, eh?"

"Mr Raystoke, sir? Oh yes."

"I mean liked his job?"

"Yes, sir; determined on it."

"Humph! Time we had some news of him, eh?"

"Yes, sir; but he may turn up on the cliff at any moment."

"Yes. Men quite ready?"

"Yes, sir."

"That's right. Of course, well-armed?"

"Yes, sir; you did tell me. Soon as the signal comes, we shall push off. Awkward bit o' country, sir; six miles' row before you can find a place to land."

"Very awkward, but they have to find a place to land their spirits, Mr Gurr, and if we don't soon have something to show we shall be called to account."

"Very unlucky, sir. Seems to me like going eel-fishing with your bare hand."

"Worse. You might catch one by accident."

"So shall we yet, sir. These fellows are very cunning, but we shall be too many for them one of these days."

"Dear me! Dear me!" said the little lieutenant after a few more turns up and down. "I don't like this at all I don't think I ought to have let a boy like that go alone. You don't think, Mr Gurr, that they would dare to injure him if he was so unlucky as to be caught?"

"Well, sir," said the master, hesitating, "smugglers are smugglers."

"Mr Gurr," said the little lieutenant, raising himself up on his toes, so as to be as high as possible, "will you have the goodness to talk sense?"

"Certainly, sir."

"Smugglers are smugglers, indeed. What did you suppose I thought they were? Oysters?"

"Beg pardon, sir; didn't mean any harm."

"Getting very late!" said the little officer after another sweep of the top of the cliff, especially above where the French lugger landed the goods. "I shall be obliged to send you on sh.o.r.e, Mr Gurr. You must go and find him. I'm getting very anxious about Mr Raystoke."

"Start at once, sir?"

"No, wait another half-hour. Very ill-advised thing to do. I cannot think what you were doing, Mr Gurr, to advise me to do such a thing."

"Me, sir?" said the master, looking astonished.

"Yes. A great pity. I ought not to have listened to you; but in my anxiety to leave no stone unturned to capture some of these scoundrels, I was ready to do anything."

"Very true, sir."