"Tide serves, and she can't be long now. But two o' your chaps keep whispering for'ard, and it comes back off the cliff. No, no--don't shout at 'em. We daren't have a sound."

"No," replied the lieutenant; and he went softly forward toward where a group of men were leaning over the bulwarks, peering into the darkness and listening to the tide as it gurgled in and out of the rocks, little more than a hundred yards away.

"Strict silence, my lads, and the moment you get the word, over into your boats and lay ready. Are those rowlocks m.u.f.fled?"

"Ay, ay, sir!" said the boatswain, who was to be in command of one of the boats.

"No bloodshed, my lads. Knock any man down who resists. Five minutes after you leave the side here ought to make the smuggler ours. Hush!

Keep your cheering till you've taken the boat."

A low murmur ran round the side of the cutter, and every eye was strained as the little officer whispered,--

"A crown for the first man who sights her."

After a while, the lieutenant mentally said,--

"I wish Mr Raystoke was here, he and Gurr could go in the other boat.

I wonder where the lad can be!"

He went cautiously aft along the starboard side of his vessel, looking hard at the frowning ma.s.s of darkness under which they lay, and thinking how dangerous their position would have been had the wind blown from the opposite quarter. But now they were in complete shelter, with the little cutter rising and falling softly on the gentle swell and drifting slowly with the tide, so that the _White Hawk's_ head was pointing seaward.

He glanced over the side to see that the boats were in readiness, and then went aft without a sound, till all at once he kicked against something in the darkness beneath the larboard bulwark, to which he had crossed, and nearly fell headlong.

"What's--here? Who was--Oh, it's those confounded boots. Hush, there; silence!"

He said the last words hastily, for the crew made noise enough to startle any one within range, and the sound: were being followed by the hurried whisper of those who came running aft.

"Back to your places, every one," he said; and then the men drew off, becoming invisible almost directly, for the darkness was now intense, the lanthorns carefully hidden below, and once more all was still, and the little office rested his gla.s.s on the bulwark and carefully swept the sea.

"Stupid idiot!" he said to himself. "Lucky for him he isn't one of the crew. No, not a sign of anything."

But knowing that seeing was limited enough, he put his hand to his ear and stood leaning over the side, listening for a full ten minutes, before, with an impatient e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n, he turned to speak to the informer, who was not aft but probably forward among the men.

He walked forward.

"Where's that man?" he whispered to the first sailor he encountered, who, like the rest, was eagerly watching seaward.

"Went aft, sir."

The little officer went aft, but the fisherman was not there, and he pa.s.sed back along the starboard side, going right forward among the crew.

"Where is the fisherman?" he said.

"Went aft, sir," came from every one he encountered; and, feeling annoyed at the trouble it gave him, Mr Brough went aft again, to notice now that there was no man at the helm.

He walked forward again.

"Here!" he cried in an angry whisper, "who was at the helm?"

"I, your honour," said a voice.

"Then why are you here, sir?"

"That fisherman chap told me you said I was to go forward, sir, as he'd take a spell now, ready for running her round the head into the bay."

"Where is that man?"

There was no reply, and more quickly than he had moved for months, the lieutenant trotted aft, and looked over the stern for the fisherman's boat.

It was gone.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

Lieutenant brough went into a fit of pa.s.sion. Not a noisy, sea-going fit of pa.s.sion, full of loud words, such as are not found in dictionaries, but a rising and falling, swelling and collapsing, silent fit of pa.s.sion, as moment by moment he realised more and more that he had been victimised, and that he had been sent forward to quiet the men so as to give the big rough fellow an opportunity to creep over into his boat and cut the painter by which it was made fast, and let it glide away on the tide till it was safe to thrust an oar over astern, and, using it like a fish does its tail, paddle softly away close under the rocks to some hole, or perhaps round into the bay.

For a moment the lieutenant thought of manning the boats and sending in pursuit, but he knew that such an act would be madness; and, accepting his position, he suddenly gave the order for four men to go into each boat, and begin to tow the cutter, while a few of the crew put out the sweeps to get her a little farther from the cliff to catch the breeze.

Half an hour later the boats were ordered in, sail was being set, and the cutter was again moving swiftly through the water.

But the wind was dead ahead now, and though the _White Hawk_ could use her wings well even in such a breeze, and sail very close, it was far different work getting back to coming away.

The men were not forbidden to talk, and they were not long in grasping the situation, while their commanding officer went up and down the deck, fuming and taking himself to task more seriously than any captain had done since he first went to sea.

"Only to think of me, after what I have learned of their shifts and tricks, letting myself be taken in by such a transparent dodge. Oh, it's maddening!"

He looked up at the sails, and longed to clap on more, but it was useless. The little craft was doing her best, and the water surged under her bow as she took a long stretch seaward, before tacking for the land.

"There's not a doubt of it," muttered the lieutenant. "I know it--I'm sure of it. I deserve to lose my rank. How could I have been such a blind, idiotic baby!"

He was obliged to confess, though, that the trick, if such it proved to be, had been well planned and executed, and the stipulation of the man that he should be paid fifty pounds if the boat was captured had completely thrown dust into his eyes.

More than once, as the cutter rushed on through the darkness, he found himself wondering whether, after all, he was wrong, and that the man had slipped away, so as to avoid being recognised when the smuggling vessel was captured, for, if seen, he would be a marked man.

"And, perhaps, in a few minutes, the smuggler would have been coming into the little bay, I should have taken her, redeemed my reputation, been looked upon as a smart officer, my crew would have got a nice bit of prize money, and the fellow would have come stealthily some night for his reward.--I've done wrong. Would there be time to go back?"

He was on the point of bidding the men "'bout ship," when a firm belief in his having been cheated came over him, and he kept on.

Then there was another season of doubt--and then of a.s.surance--another of doubt, till the poor little fellow grew half bewildered, and gazed around, longing for the daylight and his old moorings, so that he might send a boat ash.o.r.e, and carefully examine the ground, to see if he could trace any signs of landing having gone on.

At last, just at daybreak, the cutter was about to make a dash, and run right down for her old berth, when one of the men shouted "Sail ho!"

He raised his gla.s.s, and there, hull down, were the three masts of a lugger, a Frenchman without a doubt, and his suspicions had their just confirmation.

His immediate thought was to give chase, but the swift sailing vessel was well away with a favourable wind, and she would most probably get across the Channel before he could overtake her, and even if he were so lucky as to catch up to her, what then? She would not have a keg or bale on board which would give him an excuse for detaining her; and wrinkling up his brow, he went on more satisfied that he had been deluded away, so as to give the _cha.s.se maree_ an opportunity to come in and rapidly run her cargo.

He saw it all now. No sooner had he pa.s.sed round the race, than lights had been shown, and the lugger was run in. He felt as certain as if he had seen everything, and he ground his teeth with vexation.