“I’ll try to manage better next time,” said the young officer; “but I had to look sharp to get away the best fashion I could.”
“Well, sir, the lads say as they’re all werry glad to see you again,” continued the gunner; “and they hopes you’re going to give them some fun.”
“I hope I am,” replied Hilary; “but I can’t feel sure, for they are slippery fellows we are after, and we may get there to find them gone.”
Meanwhile, in accordance with Hilary’s advice, which the lieutenant had adopted as his own idea, the cutter was sailing east in search of an opening in the cliff, through which the party could reach the higher ground; and, after going four or five miles, this was found, the party landed, and the cutter then sailed on to get rid of the boatload of prisoners she towed behind, some eight or ten miles farther away.
Hilary felt himself again, as, after he had said a few words to his men, they started off inland, mounting a rugged pathway, and then journeying due north.
It was rather puzzling, and the young officer did not anticipate finding the old hall without some trouble; but he had an idea that it lay to the east of the smugglers’ landing-place, as well as some miles inland.
Hilary’s first idea was to get upon one of the ridges, from which he hoped to recognise the hills which he had looked upon from his prison. Failing this he meant to search until he did find it, when a happy thought struck him.
He remembered the dam he had seen, and the great plashing water-wheel. There was, of course, the little river, and if he could find that he could track it up to the mill, from whence the old hall would be visible.
The place seemed singularly uncultivated, and it was some time before they came upon a cottage, where an old woman looked at them curiously.
“River? Oh, yes, there’s the little river runs down in the hollow,” she replied, in answer to Hilary’s questions. It was upon his tongue’s end to ask the old woman about the hall; but a moment’s reflection told him the cottagers anywhere near the sea would be either favourable to the smugglers, or would hold them in such dread that they would be certain to refuse all information. Even then he was not sure that the old woman was not sending them upon a false scent.