"Yes, yes, of course," said Vine hastily. "Look here, my man; you have a boat."

"Third share master, just going out now. My mates are waiting yonder."

"In the harbour?"

"Ay. That's their lantern."

"Look here, Perrow," said Vine excitedly, as he held the man tightly by the arm, "you are going fishing?"

"Going to have a try, master."

"And you will perhaps earn a pound a-piece."

"If we are lucky. P'r'aps naught."

"Perrow," whispered the old man, with his lips close to the man's face, "will you do me a service--a great service?"

"Sarvice, sir?--Ay, sure I will."

"Then look here. Your boat would sail across to France?"

"To France?" said the great bluff fellow, with a chuckle. "Why didn't some of our mates sail to Spain in a lugger a foot shorter than ours, and not so noo a boot! France, ay, or Spain either."

"Then look here; take a pa.s.senger over for me to-night; and I'll give you fifty pounds."

"Fifty pounds, Master Vine?"

"Yes. Be ready; take him safely over, and bring me back word from him that he's safe, and I'll pay you a hundred."

"Will you shake hands on that, master?"

"Will you do it?"

"Do it for you, Master Vine? Why, sir, bless you, we'd ha' done it for five. But if you tempt poor men wi' a big lump o' money like that--Do it? I should think we will."

"But your partners?" said Louise excitedly.

"Never you mind about them, miss. I'm cap'n of our boat. Where's our pa.s.senger? Lor', miss, don't do that."

The man started, for Louise had caught his rough hand and kissed it.

"I'll soon bring him to you," said the old man, with his voice trembling; "but look here, my man--you must ask no questions, you will not be put off, you will not refuse at the last moment?"

"Look here, Master Vine, sir," said the man stolidly, "I aren't a fool.

Hundred pound's a lot o' money, and of course it's to smuggle some one away on the quiet. Well, so be it."

"Hah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Vine.

"It's to 'blige you as I've knowd for a kind-hearted gent these ever so many years, though there was that bit o' trouble 'bout my brother's la.s.s, as I don't believe took that there money."

"No, no, she was innocent," cried Louise.

"Thanks for that, miss, and--say, has young Master Harry been up to some game?"

There was no reply.

"Never mind. Don't you speak without you like, Master Vine, sir.

Yonder's our boot, and I'll go down to her, and she shall lie off just outside, and I'll wait in our little punt down by the harbour steps.

Will that do?"

"Yes; and you will trust me to pay you a hundred pounds?"

"Trust _you_?"

The man uttered a low chuckle.

"How long will he be, master?"

"I don't know. Wait till he comes."

"Master Harry?" whispered the man.

"Yes."

"All right, sir. You trust me. I'll trust you. Night, miss. I'll wait there if it's a week."

"Hah!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Vine, as the man's heavy step went on before them.

"There is a way of escape for him. I am a father, and what I ought to do by my friend pales before that. Now to find him, my child, to find him. He _must_ escape."

Louise clung to his arm, and they stood there on the cliff path listening, and each mentally asking the question, what to do?

"If I could only get the faintest clue of his movements," muttered Vine.

"Louise, my child, can you not suggest something?"

She did not answer, for a terrible dread was upon her now. Her brother might have been taken; and if so, there was no need to hesitate as to the way to go.

As if the same thoughts had impressed him, Vine suddenly exclaimed:

"No, no, they would not have taken him. The man was a stranger, and Harry would be too quick."

For the next hour they hurried here and there, pa.s.sing Van Heldre's house, where a dim light in the window showed where the injured man lay.

There was a vague kind of feeling that sooner or later they would meet Harry, but the minutes glided slowly by, and all was still.

Out beyond the harbour-light the faint gleam of a lantern could be seen, showing that Bob Perrow had kept faith with them, and that the lugger was swinging in the rapid current, fast to one of the many buoys used by the fishermen in fine weather. But there was no sign or sound apparent; and with their hearts, sinking beneath the impression that Harry had been taken, and yet not daring to go and ask, father and daughter still wandered to and fro along the various streets of the little town.

"Can he have taken boat and gone?" whispered Vine at last.

"No," said Louise, "there would not have been time, and we should have seen the lights had a boat gone out."