"Where are you from?"

"From? Nowheres. We been out all night fishing."

"What's your port?"

"Sh.o.r.eham."

"And what have you on board? Who are those people?"

Those two people had been seen on the instant by Hilary Leigh, as they sat below the half-deck of the lugger, shrinking from observation in the semi-darkness. He had noticed that, though wearing rough canvas covering similar to those affected by a crew in stormy weather, they were of a different cla.s.s; and as the lieutenant was in converse with the skipper of the lugger, he climbed over the lowered sail between, and saw that one of the two whom the other tried to screen was quite a young girl.

It was but a momentary glance, for she hastily drew a hood over her face, as she saw that she was noticed.

"Jacobites for a crown!" said Hilary to himself, as he saw a pair of fierce dark eyes fixed upon him.

"Who are you?" he exclaimed.

"Hush, for heaven's sake!" was the answer whispered back; "don't you know me, Leigh? A word from you and they will shoot me like a dog."

At the same moment there was a faint cry, and Hilary saw that the young girl had sunk back, fainting.

CHAPTER TWO.

A STRICT SEARCH.

"Sir Henry!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Hilary Leigh; and for the moment his heart seemed to stand still, for his duties as a king's officer had brought him face to face with a dear old friend, at whose house he had pa.s.sed some of his happiest days, and he knew that the disguised figure the Jacobite gentleman sought to hide was his only daughter, Adela, Hilary's old playmate and friend, but so grown and changed that he hardly recognised her in the momentary glance he had of her fair young face.

"Hush! silence! Are you mad?" was the reply, in tones that set the young man's heart beating furiously, for he knew that Sir Henry Norland was proscribed for the part he had take in the attempt of the Young Pretender, and Leigh had thought that he was in France.

"Who are they, Mr Leigh?" said the lieutenants striding over the lumber in the bottom of the boat.

"Seems to be an English gentleman, sir," said Leigh, in answer to an agonised appeal from Sir Henry's eyes.

"I am an English gentleman, sir, and this is my daughter. She is very ill."

"Of course she is," cried the lieutenant testily. "Women are sure to be sick if you bring them to sea. But look here, my good fellow, English gentleman or no English gentleman, you can't deceive me. Now then, what have you got on board?"

"Fish, I believe," said Sir Henry.

"Yes, of course," sneered the lieutenant; "and brandy, and silk, and velvet, and lace. Now then, skipper, you are caught this time. But look here, you scoundrel, what do you mean by pretending to be a Frenchman?"

"Frenchman? Frenchman?" said the skipper with a look of extreme stupidity. "You said I was a Dutchman."

"You lie, you scoundrel. Here, come forward and move that sail and those nets. Now no nonsense; set your fellows to work."

He clapped his hand sharply on the skipper's shoulder, and turned him round, following him forward.

"Take a man, Mr Leigh, and search that dog-hole."

Hilary Leigh was astounded, for knowing what he did he expected that the lieutenant would have instantly divined what seemed patent to him--that Sir Henry Norland was trying, for some reason or another, to get back to England, and that although the lugger was commanded by an Englishman, she was undoubtedly a French _cha.s.se maree_ from Saint Malo.

But the lieutenant had got it into his head that he had overhauled a smuggling vessel laden with what would turn into prize-money for himself and men, and the thought that she might be bound on a political errand did not cross his mind.

"I'll search fully," said Leigh; and bidding the sailor with the long pigtail stay where he was, the young officer bent down and crept in under the half-deck just as the fainting girl recovered.

As she caught sight of Hilary she made a s.n.a.t.c.h at his hand, and in a choking voice exclaimed:

"Oh, Hilary! don't you know me again? Pray, pray save my poor father.

Oh, you will not give him up?"

The young man's heart seemed to stand still as the dilemma in which he was placed forced itself upon him. He was in his majesty's service, and in the king's name he ought to have called upon this gentleman, a well-known Jacobite, to surrender, and tell the lieutenant who he was.

On the other hand, if he did this unpleasant duty he would be betraying a dear old companion of his father, a man who had watched his own career with interest and helped him through many a little trouble; and, above all, he would be, as the thought flashed upon him, sending Adela's father--his own old companion's father--to the scaffold.

These thoughts flashed through his mind, and with them recollections of those delightful schoolboy days that he had pa.s.sed at the Old Manor House, Sir Henry's pleasant home, in Suss.e.x, when boy and girl he and Adela had roamed the woods, boated on the lake, and fished the river hard by.

"No," he muttered between his teeth; "I meant to be a faithful officer to my king; but I'd sooner jump overboard than do such dirty work as that."

There was an angry look in the young girl's eyes; and as Hilary read her thoughts he could not help thinking how bright and beautiful a woman she was growing. He saw that she believed he was hesitating, and there was something scornful in her gaze, an echo, as it were, of that of her grey-haired, careworn father, whose eyebrows even seemed to have turned white, though his dark eyes were fiery as ever.

There was no doubt about it; they believed that he would betray them, and there was something almost of loathing in Adela Norland's face as her hood fell back, and the motion she made to place her hands in her father's brought her head out of the shadow into the bright morning light.

"Thank ye, ma'am," said Hilary in a rough, brisk voice; "I was just going to ask you to move. You'd better come in, Tom Tully, there's a lot of things to move. P'r'aps this gentleman will stand outside."

"Ay, ay, sir," growled Tom Tully, as Hilary darted one meaning look at the proscribed man.

"Look here, sir," continued Hilary, as he heard the lieutenant approaching, "you may just as well save us the trouble by declaring what you have hidden. We are sure to find it."

"Got anything, Mr Leigh?" said the lieutenant briskly.

"Nothing yet, sir. Have you?"

"Not a tub, or a package."

"If you imagine, sir, that this boat is laden with smuggled goods you may save yourselves a great deal of trouble, for there is nothing contraband on board, I feel sure."

"Thank you," said the lieutenant politely, and with a satirical laugh; "but you'd hardly believe it, my dear sir, when I tell you that dozens of skippers and pa.s.sengers in boats have said the very same thing to me, and whenever that has been the case we have generally made a pretty good haul of smuggled goods. Go on, my lads; I can't leave a corner unsearched."

Sir Henry gave his shoulders a slight shrug, and turned to draw his daughter's hood over her head.

"You'll excuse my child, gentlemen," he said coldly. "She is very weak and ill."

"Oh! of course," said Hilary; "we've searched here, sir; she can lie down again."

Adela uttered a low sigh of relief, and she longed to dart a grateful look at the young officer, but she dared not; and knowing that in place of looking pale and ill a warm flush of excitement was beaming in her cheeks, she hastily drew her hand closer over her face, and let her father place her upon a rough couch of dry nets.