The direction of the second boat was altered at once, the men began to pull hard; and just as a dull thud from seaward told that the White Hawk was still well on the heels of her quarry, the first boat turned smartly and began to chase.
“I hope you’re right, Mr Raystoke,” said the master. “I should like to have one little bit o’ fun before we go back aboard. Ah, look at her! She don’t mean us to overhaul her. Be smart, my lads. Don’t cheer, but seem to be taking it coolly. You’re right, Mr Raystoke,” he added a minute later; “there’s something wrong with that boat, or she would not want to run away.”
For the direction of the little yawl they were making for was suddenly changed, and it was evident that, seeing how the second boat, commanded by the boatswain, was going to head her off from the west, she was being put on the other course, so as to run east.
But the first boat was going rapidly through the water now, and a turn of the helm changed her course, so that it would be easy to cut the yawl off from going in the new direction, while an attempt to pass between the boats and head straight for sea was also met by the steersmen of the pursuers.
“Why, what’s she going to do?” said Gurr. “Ah, my lad, it’s all a flam. Only a lobster-boat after all. She’s going to run in under the cliffs where there’s no wind, and of course it’s to take up her lobster-pots.”
“If she was only going to take up lobster-pots she wouldn’t have tried to run,” said Archy sharply. “I’d overhaul her, Mr Gurr.”
“Going to, my lad. Don’t you be scared about that. I’ll overhaul her, if it’s only to get some fresh lobsters for breakfast. There, I told you so,” he continued, after a few minutes’ interval, during which the boat was sailing straight in for the cliffs, about five hundred yards away from the landing ledge, away to the west; and as the master spoke the mainsail was rapidly lowered, the jib dropped, and those in the White Hawk’s leading boat saw that there was a good deal of busy work on board; and before they had recovered from their surprise, several men rose up, oars were thrust over now that the wind had failed, and, with eight men pulling, they were going straight for the cliff.
“Smugglers!” shouted Gurr excitedly. “Jump up, Mr Raystoke, and signal the bo’s’n to come on. We shall have a prize after all, though it’s only a little one. Pull my lads, pull?”
The smugglers’ boat was now about half a mile away, the men in her pulling with all their might, but the King’s boat was the more swift, though after a few minutes’ chase it was evident that the start was in the smugglers’ favour.
“Hang them! They’re going to run ashore. They’ve got a nook there, I’ll be bound, and as soon as they’re landed they’ll be scuffling up the side of the cliff. Pull, my lads, and as we reach the rock, out with you and chase them; you can climb as well as they can. If they’re getting away, cover them with your pistols, and tell ’em they shall have it if they don’t surrender.”