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In the King's Name: The Cruise of the "Kestrel", a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 35. A Risky Watch |
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_ CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE. A RISKY WATCH Lieutenant Lipscombe was so dissatisfied with the result of Hilary's expedition that he landed himself the next day with a party of the _Kestrels_ and went over and searched the old hall. From thence he followed the lane down to the cliffs, where, as Billy Waters afterwards told Hilary, they found the place where the smugglers had been in the habit of landing their goods, and the cottage he had described. But the people seemed stupid and ignorant, professing to know nothing, and it was not until after a search that the rope was found with the tackle and block lying amongst some stunted bushes; and by means of this tackle the party descended, afterwards signalling to the cutter and getting on board. The next thing was to take the prize into port and report to the superior officer what had been done, when orders were at once received to put out to sea and watch the coast. For the emissaries of the Pretender had, it seemed, been busy at work, and there were rumours of risings and landings of men from France. In spite of the watchfulness of the various war-vessels on the coast messengers seemed to come and go with impunity. So angry were the authorities that, instead of the lieutenant receiving praise for what he had done, he only obtained a severe snubbing. He was told that the capture of a lugger with some contraband cargo was nothing to the taking of the political emissaries. These, it seemed, he had allowed to slip through his fingers, and he returned on board with his sailing orders, furious with the treatment he had received. "Look here, Mr Leigh," he said sternly; "out of consideration for your youth I refrained from reporting your late desertion." "I was taken prisoner, sir." "Well, there, call it taken prisoner if you like," said the lieutenant impatiently. "I say I did not report it; but I consider that you are to blame for our late ill success." "Thank you, sir," said Hilary in an undertone. "It seems," continued the lieutenant, "that there is a Sir Henry Norland who comes and goes with fishermen and smugglers, and I am as certain as can be that we had him once on board that fishing lugger when you were stupid enough to let him go; I mean that ill-looking scoundrel with the girl. There, there; it is of no use for you to try and defend yourself. You were in fault, and the only way for you to amend your failing is by placing this man in my hands." "But really, sir--" began Hilary. "Go to your duty, sir!" exclaimed the lieutenant sternly; and, biting his lips as he felt how awkwardly he was situated, Hilary went forward, and soon after the cutter was skimming over the waves with a brisk breeze abeam. Time glided on, with the young officer fully determined to do his duty if he should again have an opportunity of arresting the emissary of the would-be king; but somehow it seemed as if the opportunity was never to come. They cruised here and they cruised there, with the usual vicissitudes of storm and sunshine. Fishing-boats were rigorously overhauled, great merchant ships bidden to heave-to while a boat was sent on board, but no capture was made. They put into port over and over again, always to hear the same news-- that the young Pretender's emissaries were as busy as ever, and that they came and went with impunity, but how no one could say. The lieutenant always returned on board, after going ashore to see the port-admiral, in a furious temper, and his junior and the crew found this to their cost. Days and nights of cruising without avail. It seemed as if the _Kestrel_ was watched out of sight, and then, with the coast clear, the followers of the young Pretender's fortunes landed in England with impunity. Hilary heard from time to time that Sir Henry had grown more daring, and had had two or three narrow escapes from being taken ashore, but he had always been too clever for his pursuers, and had got away. Of Adela he had heard nothing, and he frequently hoped that she was safe with some of their friends, and not leading a fugitive life with her father. It was on a gloomy night in November that the _Kestrel_ was well out in mid-channel on the lookout for a small vessel, of whose coming they had been warned by a message received the day before from the admiral. A bright lookout was being kept, in spite of the feeling that it might be, after all, only a false scent, and that while they were seeking in one direction the enemy might make their way to the shore in another. There was nothing for it but to watch, in the hope that this time they might be right, and all that afternoon and evening the cutter had been as it were disguised. Her sails had been allowed to hang loosely, her customary smartness was hidden, and the carpenter had been over the bows with a pot of white paint, and painted big letters and a couple of figures on each side, to give the _Kestrel_ the appearance of a fishing-boat. This done, the jollyboat was allowed to swing by her painter behind, and thus they waited for night. As the darkness came on, in place of hoisting the lights they were kept under shelter of the bulwarks, and then, in spite of the preparations, Hilary saw and said that their work would be in vain, for the night would be too dark for them to see anything unless it came within a cable's length. It was not likely; and the young officer, as he leaned over the side, after some hours' watching, talking in a low voice to the gunner, who was with him, began to think how pleasant it would be to follow the lieutenant's example and go below and have a good sleep, when he suddenly started. "What's that, Billy?" he whispered. "Don't hear nothing, sir," said the gunner. "Yes, I do. It's a ship of some kind, and not very far-off. I can hear the water under her bows." "Far-off?--no. Look!" cried Hilary, in a hoarse whisper. "Down with the helm! hard down!" he cried. "Hoist a light!" But as he gave the orders he felt that they were in vain, for they had so well chosen their place to intercept the French vessel they hoped to meet, that it was coming, as it were, out of a bank of darkness not fifty yards away; and in another minute Hilary, as he saw the size and the cloud of sail, knew that the _Kestrel_ would be either cut down to the water's edge or sunk by the coming craft. _ |
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