They watched the lugger creeping slowly toward the harbour. The tide was on the ebb, and there was not enough depth of water upon the reef to allow the vessel to head straight for the jetty. As she crept into the fairway Dick was struck with the unusual appearance of her deck. Amidships it was almost clear except for two or three men; but, herded under the low bulwarks on the weather side, out of sight from the harbour, were a score or more of men whom he recognised by slight indications in their dress to be foreigners. Almost instinctively Dick slipped behind the boulder, pulling Sam with him.
"That's very curious," he whispered, standing so that he could see without being seen.
On the lee side of the vessel, he noticed arms, legs, and here and there a red-capped head protruding from beneath tarpaulins, thrown with apparent carelessness on the deck. Two or three heads also appeared in the hatchway, suggesting that other men were on the companion below. But what struck Dick most of all was the fact that although Nathan Pendry held the tiller, there lolled against the bulwarks near him a stranger whose hat and coat were manifestly Cornish, but whose lower garments were as unmistakably of foreign cut. He was a short, stout man, and he held a pistol, which was pointed at the helmsman.
Dick was so much fascinated and wonderstruck by this extraordinary spectacle that for a few moments he neither spoke nor stirred.
"Be it Boney at last?" whispered Sam, his eyes wide with alarm.
"No, no: Boney would bring thousands. But I can't make it out. We'll run home, Sam, and tell Father."
Creeping round the boulder, and dipping their heads as long as there was any chance of being observed from the lugger, they set off at a breakneck run for the Towers. Dick dashed up to the Squire's room, and knocked at the door.
"Come in," said the Squire. He was awake—had indeed lain sleepless almost all night, thinking miserably of his affairs.
"Father," said Dick, entering, "Tonkin's lugger has just put in with a gang of Frenchmen on board. Pendry is at the helm; there's a fellow standing over him with a pistol. I didn't see Tonkin."
"What on earth does that mean?" cried the Squire, starting up. "Get me my boots, Dick; I'll pull on some clothes, and go up on the roof to take a look at them."