“Because I tasted it. No mistake about that, I can tell you. Then he was very eager to get me to go up yonder, and that looks bad. He knows all about it.”
“Nonsense! If he knew that the smuggled goods were up there he wouldn’t send us to find them.”
“How do you know? That may have been his artfulness, to keep us from searching. If he’d as good as said don’t go up there, and tried to stop us, we should have gone at once.”
“But we can’t go back and search, Gurr. Suppose we did go and ransacked the place, and hurt everybody’s feelings, and then found nothing, what should we look like then?”
“Silly,” said the master laconically, and for a time he was silent, marching on behind the men. “All comes of being sent on such dooty,” he burst out with. “It isn’t right to send gentlemen and officers to do such dirty work. I’ve been ashamed of myself ever since I’ve been on the cutter. Hallo! Here’s the farmer again.”
For they had suddenly come upon Shackle driving an old grey horse before him as if going on some farming business, and he started apparently from a fit of musing as he came abreast.
“Ah, gentlemen,” he said; “going back?”
“Yes,” said Gurr smartly.
“Found the stuff?”
“No.”