"Then you saw the rockets?" demanded the young gentleman.
"Quite clear, sir," replied Hazlewood; "I got upon the highest point that I could find, and kept looking out over the sea, thinking I should see nothing; for though it was quite clear up so high, and the stars shining as bright as possible, yet all underneath was like a great white cloud rolled about; but suddenly, as I was looking over this way, I saw something like a star shoot up from the cloud and burst into a thousand bright sparks, making quite a blaze all round it; and then came another, and then another. So, being quite sure that it was Jack Harding at sea, I ran down as hard as I could to where I had left Peter by the pile of wood and the two old barrels, and taking the candle out of his lantern, thrust it in. As soon as it was in a blaze, I got outside my horse and galloped down; for he could not be more than two or three miles out when I saw the rockets."
"Then he must be close in now," answered Richard Radford; "and we had better get all the men down, and spread out."
"There will be time enough, sir, I should think," observed the man on foot, "for he'll get the big boats in, as near as he can, before he loads the little ones."
"I will fire a pistol, to let him know where we are," answered young Radford; and drawing one from his belt, he had cocked it, when the man on foot stopped him, saying, "There are two officers in Dymchurch, you know, sir, and they may send off for troops."
"Pooh--nonsense!" replied Richard Radford, firing the pistol in the air; "do you think we would have left them there, if we were not sure of them?"
In somewhat less than a minute, a distinct cheer was heard from the sea; and at the sound of the pistol, a crowd of men and horses, which in the mist and darkness seemed innumerable, began to gather down upon the shore, as near to the water's edge as they could come. A great many lanterns were produced, and a strange and curious sight it was to see the number of wild-looking faces which appeared by that dim, uncertain light.
"Ned Ramley!" cried young Radford.
"Here I am, sir," answered a voice close at hand.
"Where's the Major?"