"Who is there?" said a voice from within, without opening the door. "What do you want, at this time of night?"
"It is I, Hailes. It is I," said Charles Tyrrell "Let me in, quick."
The door was immediately opened, and closed as soon as Charles Tyrrell had entered. He now found himself once more in the fisherman's cottage, surrounded by the family group that he had left there, but with the sad absence of the mother.
"Thank you, Hailes, thank you," he said, shaking the honest fisherman by the hand, "thank you for all that you have done for me. But, indeed, indeed, I am grieved that your wife should put herself in such circumstances, on my account."
"You are out, you are out!" said Hailes, "and that's quite enough. Here you are a free man upon the seashore, and they'll not keep her in above a day. My neighbour's wife'll take care of the babies, and I'm sure the ladies up at the house will be kind to them. But I thought Master Morrison was coming with you."
"He will be here in a short time, Hailes, I trust," replied Charles Tyrrell; "he is only waiting for Miss Effingham."
"Ay, I thought how it would be," said Hailes; "I thought she would not let you go alone. But none of us'll be obliged to stay in foreign parts long."
"Why, my poor fellow, what chance is there of your returning?" said Charles Tyrrell. "I'm afraid you do not understand the law upon that matter. You'll be looked upon quite as guilty as the other, for in such cases the law makes no distinction. But has there been no inquiry made yet? Has there been no examination into the affair; if not, why have you not both of you, got away sooner?"
"Why, as to this business," replied Hailes, "there has been no inquiry at all yet, and I could get away when I liked; but then, you see, they're watching him there like cats, about that smuggling business. They well know I had nothing to do with it, and could pay nothing if they were to skin me; but they think if they can once get him into the exchequer they'll squeeze him till he's as dry as the skin of a dog-fish; so he cannot walk a step without having some ill-looking fellow at his heels in a minute, and he dare not put out his boat for fear of their being after him."
"And where is Miss Longly?" demanded Charles Tyrrell. "I wish to God we could persuade Morrison, before we go, to think differently of her conduct."