Two faces scowled at them over the bulwarks of the boat, and the captain waiting on the shore, a man of foreign appearance, with a shaggy black beard and a sou'-wester, glanced disapprovingly at Marjorie.
Somewhat alarmed, she turned and discovered Duncan standing beside her.
The butler was more disturbed at the encounter than seemed to Marjorie at all necessary, and her astonishment was completed when Rob MacLean and the lighthouse-keeper appeared, rolling a heavy barrel between them.
'Here, lend a hand,' they cried to Duncan; then they stopped short on observing Allan and Marjorie.
'Why, they are all smugglers!' Marjorie was on the point of exclaiming; but Allan seized her arm and gripped it warningly.
'We've come to see Neil, and to try to make him go with you,' he said, addressing himself to the men in a body.
Immediately the faces became less grim.
'That iss ahl right, Mr. Allan,' said Rob MacLean; 'you will pe finding him in a cave right opposite. Speak to him, Miss Marjorie; he iss ferry foolish and he will not pe wanting to come.'
Marjorie was still looking in a surprised way at Duncan, whom she hardly seemed to recognise in his new character of a smuggler; but Allan renewed his pressure upon her arm.
'Tell him he must go, Mr. Allan and Miss Marjorie,' said Duncan, 'and he must not be long, ta captain cannot be waiting or he will miss the tide. He iss a ferry impatient man iss ta captain, whateffer.'