Fortunately this remark pa.s.sed unnoticed amid the hubbub.

'They aren't going away altogether, are they?' asked Tricksy, her eyes becoming large with dismay.

Allan made a rush for the door, and ran up against his father, who was coming in.

'Hard luck,' said Mr. Stewart, holding out the letter; 'the _Heroic_ has received unexpected orders, and they have to sail northward without delay. No sh.o.r.e leave, so they take this opportunity of saying good-bye.'

'Aw--w--w,' said Harry, Gerald, and Tricksy, while the others had difficulty in repressing an inclination to cheer.

'When are they coming back again?' asked Gerald.

'Next year, perhaps,' said Mr. Stewart, smiling.

The faces became if possible more blank than before.

'She's out of sight,' said Harry in a dejected tone, going to the window.

'Is she?' said Gerald, looking out too; 'why, so she is.'

'If you fellows want to see her,' said Allan, 'why don't you go to the top of the hill? You'll get a first-cla.s.s view from there.'

Without a word the boys darted from the room and out at the front door, Harry with his bootlaces untied and flapping about his ankles, and Gerald without a hat. In scrambling over the wall Harry became caught, and fell sprawling on the ground, but picked himself up and ran on as if nothing had happened.

'Come, you two,' said Allan, 'now that we've got them safely out of the way we've got to do something.'

Marjorie ran for her bridle and put it on Cheeky, who was cropping gra.s.s by the stream.

'Go on,' shouted Allan; 'don't wait for us, we'll soon catch you up.

Let's go and catch Dewdrop and Daisy, Reggie; bicycles are no good for the moors.'

In a short time Marjorie was overtaken by the two boys, perched upon bridleless, bare-backed ponies.

The wind whistled past as they galloped over the level ground, and they were almost too breathless to speak as they urged their ponies up the slopes of the hill.

'Oh, gee up, Daisy; gee-up!' cried Allan, 'we have no time to lose to-day!'

'Glad we got away all right,' he panted as they stood breathing their ponies on the summit; 'it would never do to have these two dragging about and asking questions. We've just got to get Neil out of there before anything more happens,' he continued. 'The boat is waiting about, watching for an opportunity to leave as soon as the _Heroic_ goes; and we must make Neil promise to leave with her.'

The st.u.r.dy little ponies descended the slopes with the sure-footedness of cats; then sprang pluckily over the moss-hags which covered the greater part of the peninsula.

Suddenly, without warning, they became entangled in a treacherous piece of bog, from which they did not struggle into safety until Marjorie's pony had lost a shoe.

'Look out,' cried Allan, as they were about to spring forward once more; 'it's here that there are those holes that go down into the caves, and you don't see them until you've nearly fallen into them.'

Curbing their impatience, they dismounted and walked, leading the ponies by the bridle.

'There,' said Marjorie as they neared the cliff, 'the tide's rising, and they're shaking out the sails on the smugglers' vessel.'

'Shall we all go down?' asked Reggie.

'No,' said Allan, 'the fewer the better. You stay here with the ponies, and I'll go down with Marjorie.'

'Me?' said Marjorie, surprised.

'Yes, you. You've got to speak to him and get him to leave. Come along.'

They lowered themselves over the edge of the cliff, and clambered to the beach.

Two faces scowled at them over the bulwarks of the boat, and the captain waiting on the sh.o.r.e, a man of foreign appearance, with a s.h.a.ggy black beard and a sou'-wester, glanced disapprovingly at Marjorie.

Somewhat alarmed, she turned and discovered Duncan standing beside her.

The butler was more disturbed at the encounter than seemed to Marjorie at all necessary, and her astonishment was completed when Rob MacLean and the lighthouse-keeper appeared, rolling a heavy barrel between them.

'Here, lend a hand,' they cried to Duncan; then they stopped short on observing Allan and Marjorie.

'Why, they are _all_ smugglers!' Marjorie was on the point of exclaiming; but Allan seized her arm and gripped it warningly.

'We've come to see Neil, and to try to make him go with you,' he said, addressing himself to the men in a body.

Immediately the faces became less grim.

'That iss ahl right, Mr. Allan,' said Rob MacLean; 'you will pe finding him in a cave right opposite. Speak to him, Miss Marjorie; he iss ferry foolish and he will not pe wanting to come.'

Marjorie was still looking in a surprised way at Duncan, whom she hardly seemed to recognise in his new character of a smuggler; but Allan renewed his pressure upon her arm.

'Tell him he must go, Mr. Allan and Miss Marjorie,' said Duncan, 'and he must not be long, ta captain cannot be waiting or he will miss the tide. He iss a ferry impatient man iss ta captain, whateffer.'

All right,' said Allan; 'we'll talk to him. You go in first, Marjorie.'

A short way from the entrance Marjorie came upon Neil; but what a change in her old playmate! Pale, and looking still paler in the dim light; with worn and soiled clothing, and his former bright, pleasant expression changed into sullen despair.

Marjorie's heart sank.

'Neil,' she began, 'we've come to see you, Allan and I.'

'Indeed, Miss Marjorie, it is ferry good of you,' said the lad, rising and looking down upon her with a grateful expression, 'but wa.s.s it not ferry unwise of you to come? That sea-captain iss a rough character and he might----'

'Never mind us, Neil,' said Marjorie, 'we're all right. We only wanted to say that we are your friends, whatever happens, and we hope that things will come right for you. And now, Neil, you will go away for a little while, will you not? Don't stay here while you are in such danger of being found.'

Neil looked down upon her, and his face darkened again.

'I cannot be leaving Inchkerra just now, Miss Marjorie,' he said.

'Oh, Neil, do go away. Think what it would be to your mother if you were found--think what it would be to _all_ of us, Neil----'

'Schooner's beginning to weigh anchor,' cried a gruff voice outside.

'Come, Neil, don't waste time,' said Marjorie.