The Lighthouse, R. M. Ballantyne [well read books TXT] 📗

and Captain Ogilvy stretched on the grass, smoking their pipes together. The daylight had almost deepened into night, and a few stars were beginning to twinkle in the sky.

“Hey! what have we here—smugglers?” cried the captain, springing up rather quickly, as Ruby came unexpectedly on them.

“Just so, uncle,” said Minnie, with a laugh. “We have here some gin, smuggled all the way from Holland, and have come to ask your opinion of it.”

“Why, Ruby, how came you by this?” enquired Lindsay in amazement, as he examined the kegs with critical care.

“Suppose I should say that I have been taken into confidence by the smugglers and then betrayed them.”

“I should reply that the one idea was improbable, and the other impossible,” returned the lieutenant.

“Well, I have at all events found out their secrets, and now I reveal them.”

In a few words Ruby acquainted his friends with all that has just been narrated.

The moment he had finished, the lieutenant ordered his men to launch the boat. The kegs were put into the stern-sheets, the party embarked, and, pushing off, they rowed gently out of the bay, and crept slowly along the shore, under the deep shadow of the cliffs.

“How dark it is getting!” said Minnie, after they had rowed for some time in silence.

“The moon will soon be up,” said the lieutenant. “Meanwhile I’ll cast a little light on the subject by having a pipe. Will you join me, captain?”

This was a temptation which the captain never resisted; indeed, he did not regard it as a temptation at all, and would have smiled at the idea of resistance.

“Minnie, lass,” said he, as he complacently filled the blackened bowl, and calmly stuffed down the glowing tobacco with the end of that marvellously callous little fingers, “it’s a wonderful thing that baccy. I don’t know what man would do without it.”

“Quite as well as woman does, I should think,” replied Minnie.

“I’m not so sure of that, lass. It’s more nat’ral for man to smoke than for woman. Ye see, woman, lovely woman, should be ‘all my fancy painted her, both lovely and divine.’ It would never do to have baccy perfumes hangin’ about her rosy lips.”

“But, uncle, why should man have the disagreeable perfumes you speak of hanging about his lips?”

“I don’t know, lass. It’s all a matter o’ feeling. ‘’Twere vain to tell thee all I feel, how much my heart would wish to say;’ but of this I’m certain sure, that I’d never git along without my pipe. It’s like compass, helm, and ballast all in one. Is that the moon, leftenant?”

The captain pointed to a faint gleam of light on the horizon, which he knew well enough to be the moon; but he wished to change the subject.

“Ay is it, and there comes a boat. Steady, men! lay on your oars a bit.”

This was said earnestly. In one instant all were silent, and the boat lay as motionless as the shadows of the cliffs among which it was involved.

Presently the sound of oars was heard. Almost at the same moment, the upper edge of the moon rose above the horizon, and covered the sea with rippling silver. Ere long a boat shot into this stream of light, and rowed swiftly in the direction of Arbroath.

“There are only two men in it,” whispered the lieutenant.

“Ay, these are my good friends Swankie and Spink, who know a deal more about other improper callings besides smuggling, if I did not greatly mistake their words,” cried Ruby.

“Give way, lads!” cried the lieutenant.

The boat sprang at the word from her position under the cliffs, and was soon out upon the sea in full chase of the smugglers, who bent to their oars more lustily, evidently intending to trust to their speed.

“Strange,” said the lieutenant, as the distance between the two began sensibly to decrease, “if these be smugglers, with an empty boat, as you lead me to suppose they are, they would only be too glad to stop and let us see that they had nothing aboard that we could touch. It leads me to think that you are mistaken, Ruby Brand, and that these are not your friends.”

“Nay, the same fact convinces me that they are the very men we seek; for they said they meant to have some game with you, and what more amusing than to give you a long, hard chase for nothing?”

“True; you are right. Well, we will turn the tables on them. Take the helm for a minute, while I tap one of the kegs.”

The tapping was soon accomplished, and a quantity of the spirit was drawn off into the captain’s pocket-flask.

“Taste it, captain, and let’s have your opinion.” Captain Ogilvy complied. He put the flask to his lips, and, on removing it, smacked them, and looked at the party with that extremely grave, almost solemn expression, which is usually assumed by a man when strong liquid is being put to the delicate test of his palate.

“Oh!” exclaimed the captain, opening his eyes very wide indeed.

What “oh” meant, was rather doubtful at first; but when the captain put the flask again to his lips, and took another pull, a good deal longer than the first, much, if not all of the doubt was removed.

“Prime! nectar!” he murmured, in a species of subdued ecstasy, at the end of the second draught.

“Evidently the right stuff,” said Lindsay, laughing.

“Liquid streams—celestial nectar,

Darted through the ambient sky,—”

Said the captain; “liquid, ay, liquid is the word.”

He was about to test the liquid again:—

“Stop! stop! fair play, captain; it’s my turn now,” cried the lieutenant, snatching the flask from his friend’s grasp, and applying it to his own lips.

Both the lieutenant and Ruby pronounced the gin perfect, and as Minnie positively refused either to taste or to pronounce judgment, the flask was returned to its owner’s pocket.

They were now close on the smugglers, whom they hailed, and commanded to lay on their oars.

The order was at once obeyed, and the boats were speedily rubbing sides together.

“I should like to examine your boat, friends,” said the lieutenant as he stepped across the gunwales.

“Oh! sir, I’m thankfu’ to find you’re not smugglers,” said Swankie, with an assumed air of mingled respect and alarm.

“If we’d only know’d ye was preventives we’d ha’ backed oars at once. There’s nothin’ here; ye may seek as long’s ye please.”

The hypocritical rascal winked slyly to his comrade as he said this. Meanwhile Lindsay and one of the men examined the contents of the boat, and, finding nothing contraband, the former said—

“So, you’re honest men, I find. Fishermen, doubtless?”

“Ay, some o’ yer crew ken us brawly,” said Davy Spink with a grin.

“Well, I won’t detain you,” rejoined the lieutenant; “it’s quite a pleasure to chase honest men on the high seas in these times of war and smuggling. But it’s too bad to have given you such a fright, lads, for nothing. What say you to a glass of gin?”

Big Swankie and his comrade glanced at each other in surprise. They evidently thought this an unaccountably polite Government officer, and were puzzled. However, they could do no less than accept such a generous offer.

“Thank’ee, sir,” said Big Swankie, spitting out his quid and significantly wiping his mouth. “I hae nae objection. Doubtless it’ll be the best that the like o’ you carries in yer bottle.”

“The best, certainly,” said the lieutenant, as he poured out a bumper, and handed it to the smuggler. “It was smuggled, of course, and you see His Majesty is kind enough to give his servants a little of what they rescue from the rascals, to drink his health.”

“Weel, I drink to the King,” said Swankie, “an’ confusion to all his enemies, ’specially to smugglers.”

He tossed off the gin with infinite gusto, and handed back the cup with a smack of the lips and a look that plainly said, “More, if you please!”

But the hint was not taken. Another bumper was filled and handed to Davy Spink, who had been eyeing the crew of the boat with great suspicion. He accepted the cup, nodded curtly, and said—

“Here’s t’ye, gentlemen, no forgettin’ the fair leddy in the stern-sheets.”

While he was drinking the gin the lieutenant turned to his men—

“Get out the keg, lads, from which that came, and refill the flask. Hold it well up in the moonlight, and see that ye don’t spill a single drop, as you value your lives. Hey! my man, what ails you? Does the gin disagree with your stomach, or have you never seen a smuggled keg of spirits before, that you stare at it as if it were a keg of ghosts!”

The latter part of this speech was addressed to Swankie, who no sooner beheld the keg than his eyes opened up until they resembled two great oysters. His mouth slowly followed suit. Davy Spink’s attention having been attracted, he became subject to similar alterations of visage.

“Hallo!” cried the captain, while the whole crew burst into a laugh, “you must have given them poison. Have you a stomach-pump, doctor?” he said, turning hastily to Ruby.

“No, nothing but a penknife and a tobacco-stopper. If they’re of any use to you—”

He was interrupted by a loud laugh from Big Swankie, who quickly recovered his presence of mind, and declared that he had never tasted such capital stuff in his life.

“Have ye much o’t, sir?”

“O yes, a good deal. I have two kegs of it” (the lieutenant grinned very hard at this point), “and we expect to get a little more to-night.”

“Ha!” exclaimed Davy Spink, “there’s no doot plenty o’t in the coves hereaway, for they’re an awfu’ smugglin’ set. Whan did ye find the twa kegs, noo, if I may ask?”

“Oh, certainly. I got them not more than an hour ago.”

The smugglers glanced at each other and were struck dumb; but they were now too much on their guard to let any further evidence of surprise escape them.

“Weel, I wush ye success, sirs,” said Swankie, sitting down to his oar. “It’s likely ye’ll come across mair if ye try Dickmont’s Den. There’s usually somethin’ hidden thereaboots.”

“Thank you, friend, for the hint,” said the lieutenant, as he took his place at the tiller-ropes, “but I shall have a look at the Gaylet Cove, I think, this evening.”

“What! the Gaylet Cove?” cried Spink. “Ye might as weel look for kegs at the bottom o’ the deep sea.”

“Perhaps so; nevertheless, I have taken a fancy to go there. If I find nothing, I will take a look into the Forbidden Cave.”

“The Forbidden Cave!” almost howled Swankie. “Wha iver heard o’ smugglers hidin’ onything there? The air in’t wad pushen a rotten.”

“Perhaps it would, yet I mean to try.”

“Weel-a-weel, ye may try, but ye might as weel seek for kegs o’ gin on the Bell Rock.”

“Ha! it’s not the first time that strange things have been found on the Bell Rock,” said Ruby suddenly. “I have heard of jewels, even, being discovered there.”

“Give way, men; shove off,” cried the lieutenant. “A pleasant pull to you, lads. Good night.”

The two boats parted, and while the lieutenant and his friends made for the shore, the smugglers rowed towards Arbroath in a state of mingled amazement and despair at what they had heard and seen.

“It was Ruby Brand that spoke last, Davy.”

“Ay; he was i’ the shadow o’ Captain Ogilvy and I couldna see his face, but I thought it like his voice when he first spoke.”

“Hoo can he hae come to ken aboot the jewels?”

“That’s mair than I can tell.”

“I’ll bury them,” said Swankie, “an’ then it’ll puzzle onybody to tell whaur they are.”

“Ye’ll please yoursell,” said Spink.

Swankie was too angry to make any reply, or to enter into further conversation with his comrade about the kegs of gin, so they continued their way in silence.

Meanwhile, as Lieutenant Lindsay and his men had a night of work before them, the captain suggested that Minnie, Ruby, and himself should be landed within a mile of the town, and left to find their way thither on