CHAPTER TWENTY.
THE SMUGGLERS ARE "TREATED" TO GIN AND ASTONISHMENT.
They found the lieutenant and Captain Ogilvy stretched on the grass,smoking their pipes together. The daylight had almost deepened intonight, and a few stars were beginning to twinkle in the sky.
"Hey! what have we here--smugglers?" cried the captain, springing uprather 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 ofit."
"Why, Ruby, how came you by this?" enquired Lindsay in amazement, as heexamined the kegs with critical care.
"Suppose I should say that I have been taken into confidence by thesmugglers and then betrayed them."
"I should reply that the one idea was improbable, and the otherimpossible," returned the lieutenant.
"Well, I have at all events found out their secrets, and now I revealthem."
In a few words Ruby acquainted his friends with all that has just beennarrated.
The moment he had finished, the lieutenant ordered his men to launch theboat. The kegs were put into the stern-sheets, the party embarked, and,pushing off, they rowed gently out of the bay, and crept slowly alongthe shore, under the deep shadow of the cliffs.
"How dark it is getting!" said Minnie, after they had rowed for sometime in silence.
"The moon will soon be up," said the lieutenant. "Meanwhile I'll cast alittle light on the subject by having a pipe. Will you join me,captain?"
This was a temptation which the captain never resisted; indeed, he didnot regard it as a temptation at all, and would have smiled at the ideaof resistance.
"Minnie, lass," said he, as he complacently filled the blackened bowl,and calmly stuffed down the glowing tobacco with the end of thatmarvellously 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 thanfor woman. Ye see, woman, lovely woman, should be `all my fancy paintedher, both lovely and divine.' It would never do to have baccy perfumeshangin' about her rosy lips."
"But, uncle, why should man have the disagreeable perfumes you speak ofhanging about _his_ lips?"
"I don't know, lass. It's all a matter o' feeling. `'Twere vain totell thee all I feel, how much my heart would wish to say;' but of thisI'm certain sure, that I'd never git along without my pipe. It's likecompass, helm, and ballast all in one. Is that the moon, leftenant?"
The captain pointed to a faint gleam of light on the horizon, which heknew 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 abit."
This was said earnestly. In one instant all were silent, and the boatlay as motionless as the shadows of the cliffs among which it wasinvolved.
Presently the sound of oars was heard. Almost at the same moment, theupper edge of the moon rose above the horizon, and covered the sea withrippling silver. Ere long a boat shot into this stream of light, androwed 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 moreabout other improper callings besides smuggling, if I did not greatlymistake their words," cried Ruby.
"Give way, lads!" cried the lieutenant.
The boat sprang at the word from her position under the cliffs, and wassoon out upon the sea in full chase of the smugglers, who bent to theiroars more lustily, evidently intending to trust to their speed.
"Strange," said the lieutenant, as the distance between the two begansensibly to decrease, "if these be smugglers, with an empty boat, as youlead me to suppose they are, they would only be too glad to stop and letus see that they had nothing aboard that we could touch. It leads me tothink that you are mistaken, Ruby Brand, and that these are not yourfriends."
"Nay, the same fact convinces me that they are the very men we seek; forthey said they meant to have some game with you, and what more amusingthan to give you a long, hard chase for nothing?"
"True; you are right. Well, we will turn the tables on them. Take thehelm for a minute, while I tap one of the kegs."
The tapping was soon accomplished, and a quantity of the spirit wasdrawn off into the captain's pocket-flask.
"Taste it, captain, and let's have your opinion." Captain Ogilvycomplied. He put the flask to his lips, and, on removing it, smackedthem, and looked at the party with that extremely grave, almost solemnexpression, which is usually assumed by a man when strong liquid isbeing 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 putthe flask again to his lips, and took another pull, a good deal longerthan the first, much, if not all of the doubt was removed.
"Prime! nectar!" he murmured, in a species of subdued ecstasy, at theend 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 thelieutenant, snatching the flask from his friend's grasp, and applying itto his own lips.
Both the lieutenant and Ruby pronounced the gin perfect, and as Minniepositively refused either to taste or to pronounce judgment, the flaskwas returned to its owner's pocket.
They were now close on the smugglers, whom they hailed, and commanded tolay on their oars.
The order was at once obeyed, and the boats were speedily rubbing sidestogether.
"I should like to examine your boat, friends," said the lieutenant as hestepped across the gunwales.
"Oh! sir, I'm thankfu' to find you're not smugglers," said Swankie, withan 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 apleasure to chase honest men on the high seas in these times of war andsmuggling. But it's too bad to have given you such a fright, lads, fornothing. What say you to a glass of gin?"
Big Swankie and his comrade glanced at each other in surprise. Theyevidently thought this an unaccountably polite Government officer, andwere puzzled. However, they could do no less than accept such agenerous offer.
"Thank'ee, sir," said Big Swankie, spitting out his quid andsignificantly wiping his mouth. "I hae nae objection. Doubtless it'llbe 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 seeHis Majesty is kind enough to give his servants a little of what theyrescue from the rascals, to drink his health."
"Weel, I drink to the King," said Swankie, "an' confusion to all hisenemies, 'specially to smugglers."
He tossed off the gin with infinite gusto, and handed back the cup witha 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 toDavy Spink, who had been eyeing the crew of the boat with greatsuspicion. He accepted the cup, nodded curtly, and said--
"Here's t'ye, gentlemen, no forgettin' the fair leddy in th
estern-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 singledrop, as you value your lives. Hey! my man, what ails you? Does thegin disagree with your stomach, or have you never seen a smuggled keg ofspirits 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 soonerbeheld the keg than his eyes opened up until they resembled two greatoysters. His mouth slowly followed suit. Davy Spink's attention havingbeen 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?" hesaid, turning hastily to Ruby.
"No, nothing but a penknife and a tobacco-stopper. If they're of anyuse to you--"
He was interrupted by a loud laugh from Big Swankie, who quicklyrecovered his presence of mind, and declared that he had never tastedsuch capital stuff in his life.
"Have ye much o't, sir?"
"O yes, a good deal. I have _two_ kegs of it" (the lieutenant grinnedvery 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 coveshereaway, for they're an awfu' smugglin' set. Whan did ye find the twakegs, 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 werenow too much on their guard to let any further evidence of surpriseescape 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'susually somethin' hidden thereaboots."
"Thank you, friend, for the hint," said the lieutenant, as he took hisplace 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 kegsat the bottom o' the deep sea."
"Perhaps so; nevertheless, I have taken a fancy to go there. If I findnothing, 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 onthe Bell Rock."
"Ha! it's not the first time that strange things have been found on theBell Rock," said Ruby suddenly. "I have heard of _jewels_, even, beingdiscovered there."
"Give way, men; shove off," cried the lieutenant. "A pleasant pull toyou, lads. Good night."
The two boats parted, and while the lieutenant and his friends made forthe shore, the smugglers rowed towards Arbroath in a state of mingledamazement 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 tellwhaur they are."
"Ye'll please yoursell," said Spink.
Swankie was too angry to make any reply, or to enter into furtherconversation with his comrade about the kegs of gin, so they continuedtheir way in silence.
Meanwhile, as Lieutenant Lindsay and his men had a night of work beforethem, the captain suggested that Minnie, Ruby, and himself should belanded within a mile of the town, and left to find their way thither onfoot. This was agreed to; and while the one party walked home by theromantic pathway at the top of the cliffs, the other rowed away toexplore the dark recesses of the Forbidden Cave.