“Worse. You might catch one by accident.”
“So shall we yet, sir. These fellows are very cunning, but we shall be too many for them one of these days.”
“Dear me! Dear me!” said the little lieutenant after a few more turns up and down. “I don’t like this at all I don’t think I ought to have let a boy like that go alone. You don’t think, Mr Gurr, that they would dare to injure him if he was so unlucky as to be caught?”
“Well, sir,” said the master, hesitating, “smugglers are smugglers.”
“Mr Gurr,” said the little lieutenant, raising himself up on his toes, so as to be as high as possible, “will you have the goodness to talk sense?”
“Certainly, sir.”
“Smugglers are smugglers, indeed. What did you suppose I thought they were? Oysters?”
“Beg pardon, sir; didn’t mean any harm.”
“Getting very late!” said the little officer after another sweep of the top of the cliff, especially above where the French lugger landed the goods. “I shall be obliged to send you on shore, Mr Gurr. You must go and find him. I’m getting very anxious about Mr Raystoke.”
“Start at once, sir?”