“’Cause father and mother used to pretty well keep ’em. I had to be always going without father knowing, and taking ’em bread and butter and bacon and eggs. They just are poor. Mother used to send me, and she often used to tell me that they was ’most starved to death.”
“Then Sir Risdon didn’t get anything by the smuggling?”
“Him!” cried Ram. “Why, father sent me up one day with a keg of brandy for him, and a piece of silk for her ladyship; I did get hot that day carrying of ’em up the hill. It was last summer.”
“Yes; and what did Sir Risdon say?”
“Say? He ’most shied ’em at me, and I had to carry ’em back. My! That was a hot day and no mistake.”
Somehow Archy felt relieved about the Graemes, and, after a little consideration, he went and reported all he had heard to the lieutenant, who nodded his head, looked severe, and ordered the two boats to be manned.
The midshipman took the order on deck, and Ram stared.
“I say,” he said, “what’s the good of going now? You’ll have to row all the way to the cove and walk all the way along by the cliffs. If you wait till the tide’s right out, you can get in through Grabley’s hole.”
Archy reported this, and in due time Gurr was left in charge of the cutter, the lieutenant went off in one boat, and the other was in Archy’s charge.
It all seemed very matter of fact now, as they rowed in through the opening, left the boats in the little pool, climbed the zigzag; and a halt was called, during which the little lieutenant wiped his streaming face, and recovered his breath.