"As to being afraid, that I am not," answered Harding; "and having undertaken the run, I"ll do it. I"m not half so much afraid as you are: for I"ve not near so much to lose--only my life or liberty and three hundred pounds. But still, Mr. Radford, I do not like to think that if anything goes wrong you"ll be so much hurt; and it makes a man feel queer. If I have a few hundreds in a boat, and nothing to lose but myself and a dozen of tubs, I go about it as gay as a lark and as cool and quiet as a dogfish; but if anything were to go wrong now, why it would be----"
"Ruin--utter ruin!" said Mr. Radford.
"I dare say it would," rejoined the smuggler; "but, nevertheless, your coming down here every other day, and sending for me, does no good, and a great deal of harm. It only teazes me, and sets me always thinking about it, when the best way is not to think at all, but just to do the thing and get it over. Besides, you"ll have people noticing your being so often down here, and you"ll make them suspect something is going on."
"But it is necessary, my good fellow," answered the other, "that we should settle all our plans. I must have people ready, and horses and help, in case of need."
"Ay, that you must," replied the smuggler, thoughtfully. "I think you said the cargo was light goods."
"Almost all India," said Radford, in return. "Shawls and painted silks, and other things of great value but small bulk. There are a few bales of lace, too; but the whole will require well nigh a hundred horses to carry it, so that we must have a strong muster."
"Ay, and men who fight, too," rejoined Harding. "You know there are Dragoons down at Folkestone?"
"No!--when did they come?" exclaimed Hadford, eagerly. "That"s a bad job--that"s a bad job! Perhaps they suspect already. Perhaps some of those fellows from the other side have given information, and these soldiers are sent down in consequence--I shouldn"t wonder, I shouldn"t wonder."
"Pooh--nonsense, Mr. Radford!" replied Harding; "you are always so suspicious. Some day or another you"ll suspect me."
"I suspect everybody," cried Radford, vehemently, "and I have good cause. I have known men do such things, for a pitiful gain, as would hang them, if there were any just punishment for treachery."
Harding laughed, but he did not explain the cause of his merriment, though probably he thought that Mr. Radford himself would do many a thing for a small gain, which would not lightly touch his soul"s salvation. He soon proceeded, however, to reply, in a grave tone--"That"s a bad plan, Mr. Radford. No man is ever well served by those whom he suspects. He had better never have anything to do with a person he doubts; so, if you doubt me, I"m quite willing to give the business up, for I don"t half like it."
"Oh, no!" said Radford, in a smooth and coaxing tone, "I did not mean you, Harding; I know you too well for as honest a fellow as ever lived; but I do doubt those fellows on the other side, and I strongly suspect they peached about the other two affairs. Besides, you said something about Dragoons, and we have not had any of that sort of vermin here for a year or more."
"You frighten yourself about nothing," answered Harding. "There is but a troop of them yet, though they say more are expected. But what good are Dragoons? I have run many a cargo under their very noses, and hope I shall live to run many another. As to stopping this traffic, they are no more good than so many old women!"
"But you must get it all over before the rest come," replied Mr.
Radford, in an argumentative manner, taking hold of the lappel of his companion"s jacket; "there"s no use of running more risk than needful.
And you must remember that we have a long way to carry the goods after they are landed. Then is the most dangerous time."
"I don"t know that," said Harding; "but, however, you must provide for that, and must also look out for _hides_[1] for the things. I wont have any of them down with me; and when I have landed them safely, though I don"t mind giving a help to bring them a little way inland, I wont be answerable for anything more."
[Footnote 1: It may be as well to explain to the uninitiated reader, that the secret places where smugglers conceal their goods after landing, are known by the name of "Hides."]
"No, no; that"s all settled," answered his companion; "and the hides are all ready, too. Some can come into my stable, others can be carried up to the willow cave. Then there"s Sir Robert"s great barn."
"Will Sir Robert consent?" asked Harding, in a doubtful tone. "He would never have anything to do with these matters himself, and was always devilish hard upon us. I remember he sent my father to gaol ten years ago, when I was a youngster."
"He must consent," replied Radford, sternly. "He dare as soon refuse me as cut off his right hand. I tell you, Harding, I have got him in a vice; and one turn of the lever will make him cry for mercy when I like. But no more of him. I shall use his barn as if it were my own; and it is in the middle of the wood, you know, so that it"s out of sight. But even if it were not for that, we"ve got many another place.
Thank Heaven, there are no want of hides in this county!"
"Ay, but the worst of dry goods, and things of that kind," rejoined the smuggler, "is that they spoil with a little wet, so that one can"t sink them in a cut or ca.n.a.l till they are wanted, as one can do with tubs. Who do you intend to send down for them? That"s one thing I must know."
"Oh, whoever comes, my son will be with them," answered Mr. Radford.
"As to who the others will be, I cannot tell yet. The Ramleys, certainly, amongst the rest. They are always ready, and will either fight or run, as it may be needed."
"I don"t much like them," replied Harding; "they are a bad set. I wish they were hanged, or out of the country; for, as you say, they will either fight, or run, or peach, or anything else that suits them: one just as soon as another."
"Oh, no fear of that--no fear of that!" exclaimed Mr. Radford, in a confident tone, which seemed somewhat strange to the ears of his companion, after the suspicions he had heard him so lately express; but the other instantly added, in explanation, "I shall take care that they have no means of peaching, for I will tell them nothing about it, till they are setting off with fifty or sixty others."
"That"s the best way, and the only way with such fellows as that,"
answered Harding; "but if you tell n.o.body, you"ll find it a hard job to get them all together."
"Only let the day be fixed," said Mr. Radford; "and I"ll have all ready--never fear."
"That must be your affair," replied Harding; "I"m ready whenever you like. Give me a dark night and a fair wind, and my part of the job is soon done."
"About this day week, I should think," said Mr. Radford. "The moon will be nearly out by that time."
"Not much more than half," replied the smuggler; "and as we have got to go far,--for the ship, you say, will not stand in,--we had better have the whole night to ourselves. Even a bit of a moon is a bad companion on such a trip; especially when there is so much money risked. No, I think you had better give me three days more: then there will be wellnigh nothing left of her, and she wont rise till three or four. We can see what the weather"s like, too, about that time; and I can come up, and let you know. But if you"ll take my advice, Mr.
Radford, you"ll not be coming down here any more, till it"s all over at least. There"s no good of it, and it may do mischief."
"Well, now it"s all settled, I shall not need to do so," rejoined the other; "but I really don"t see, Harding, why you should so much wish me to stay away."
"I"ll tell you why, Mr. Radford," said Harding, putting his hands into the pockets of his jacket, "and that very easily. Although you have become a great gentleman, and live at a fine place inland, people haven"t forgot when you kept a house and a counting-house too, in Hythe, and all that used to go on in those days; and though you are a magistrate, and go out hunting and shooting, and all that, the good folks about have little doubt that you have a hankering after the old trade yet, only that you do your business on a larger scale than you did then. It"s but the other day, when I was in at South"s, the grocer"s, to talk to him about some stuff he wanted, I heard two men say one to the other, as they saw you pa.s.s, "Ay, there goes old Radford. I wonder what he"s down here for!" "As great an old smuggler as ever lived," said the other; "and a pretty penny he"s made of it.
He"s still at it, they say; and I dare say he"s down here now upon some such concern." So you see, sir, people talk about it, and that"s the reason why I say that the less you are here the better."
"Perhaps it is--perhaps it is," answered Mr. Radford, quickly; "and as we"ve now settled all we can settle, till you come up, I"ll take myself home. Good night, Harding--good night!"
"Good night, sir," answered Harding, with something like a smile upon his lip; and finding their way down again to the court below, they parted.
"I don"t like that fellow at all," said Mr. Radford to himself, as he walked away upon the road to Hythe, where he had left his horse; "he"s more than half inclined to be uncivil. I"ll have nothing more to do with him after this is over."
Harding took his way across the fields towards Sandgate, and perhaps his thoughts were not much more complimentary to his companion than Mr. Radford"s had been to him; but in the meantime, while each followed his separate course homeward, we must remain for a short s.p.a.ce in the green, moonlight court of Saltwood Castle. All remained still and silent for about three minutes; but then the ivy, which at that time had gathered thickly round the old walls, might be seen to move in the neighbourhood of a small aperture in one of the ruined flanking towers of the outer wall, to which it had at one time probably served as a window, though all traces of its original form were now lost. The tower was close to the spot where Mr. Radford and his companion had been standing; and although the aperture we have mentioned looked towards the court, joining on to a projecting wall in great part overthrown, there was a loop-hole on the other side, flanking the very parapet on which they had carried on their conversation.
After the ivy had moved for a moment, as I have said, something like a human head was thrust out, looking cautiously round the court. The next minute a broad pair of shoulders appeared, and then the whole form of a tall and powerful man, who, after pausing for an instant on the top of the broken wall, used its fragments as a means of descent to the ground below. Just as he reached the level of the court, one of the loose stones which he had displaced as he came down, rolled after him and fell at his side; and, with a sudden start at the first sound, he laid his hand on the b.u.t.t of a large horse-pistol stuck in a belt round his waist. As soon as he perceived what it was that had alarmed him, he took his hand from the weapon again, and walked out into the moonlight; and thence, after pacing quietly up and down for two or three minutes, to give time for the two other visitors of the castle to get to a distance, he sauntered slowly out through the gate. He then turned under the walls towards the little wood which at that time occupied a part of the valley; opposite to which he stood gazing for about five minutes. When he judged all safe, he gave a whistle, upon which the form of a boy instantly started out from the trees, and came running across the meadow towards him.
"Have you heard all, Mr. Mowle?" asked the boy in a whisper, as soon as he was near.
"All that they said, Little Starlight," replied the other. "They didn"t say enough; but yet it will do; and you are a clever little fellow. But come along," he added, laying his hand on the boy"s shoulder, "you shall have what I promised you, and half-a-crown more; and if you go on, and tell me all you find out, you shall be well paid."
Thus saying, he walked on with the boy towards Hythe, and the scenery round Saltwood resumed its silent solitude again.
CHAPTER VII.
To a very hungry man, it matters not much what is put upon the table, so that it be eatable; but with the intellectual appet.i.te the case is different, and every one is anxious to know who is to be his companion, or what is to be in his book. Now, Sir Edward Digby was somewhat of an epicure in human character; and he always felt as great a curiosity to enjoy any new personage brought before him, as the more ordinary epicure desires to taste a new dish. He was equally refined, too, in regard to the taste of his intellectual food. He liked a good deal of flavour, but not too much: a soupcon of something, he did not well know what, in a man"s demeanour gave it great zest, as a soupcon of two or three condiments so blended in a salmi as to defy a.n.a.lysis must have charmed Vatel; and, to say the truth, the little he had seen or heard of the house in which he now was, together with his knowledge of some of its antecedents, had awakened a great desire for a farther taste of its quality.
When he went down stairs, then, and opened the dining-room door, his eye naturally ran round in search of the new guests. Only two, however, had arrived, in the first of whom he recognised Mr. Zachary Croyland. The other was a venerable looking old man, in black, whom he could not conceive to be Mr. Radford, from the previous account which he had heard of that respectable gentleman"s character. It turned out, however, that the person before him--who had been omitted by Sir Robert Croyland in the enumeration of his expected visitors--was the clergyman of the neighbouring village; and being merely a plain, good man, of very excellent sense, but neither, rich n.o.ble, nor thrifty, was n.o.body in the opinion of the baronet.