"Angus is right, father," said a tall lass with a shawl about her head, not hiding the bonny boyish face of her.
"Hooch ay, lass; Angus will be always right by your way of it,—it is in your bed you should be."
The wee boats were close inshore now, and the Gull well off, for the Clates is not a nice place if the wind will be shifting to the suthard. With the grating of the keel of the first boat on the beach the men made a start to be lifting the kegs, and carrying them to the boat and wading, for it is not very safe to let a boat go hard aground if there will be a hurry to be shoving her off again.
Into this mix-up of bending and hurrying folk came the voice of
Gilchrist the gauger.
"In the King's name," he roared, and his men sprang forward.
And these were the words that I heard when Helen and Margaret flung themselves from the horses and ran forward into the press of people.
There was the dropping of kegs and the straightening of folk at the voice, but I saw the great figure of Dan cooried beside the boat. Then came Gilchrist's voice again—
"Touch nothing—you scoundrels will touch nothing—I mak' seizure in the King's name. Get roon' them, lads, with your pieces ready," and the excisemen made a circle of the smugglers. The second small boat was nearing the shore.
The lass McKinnon, with the bonny boyish face, stooped to pick up her shawl, and Gilchrist was jumping and shouting. "A bonny catch," he cried—"a bonny catch," and at that the boyish lass straightened herself. "The boats ahoy," she cried, "ahoy, the boat; the gaugers are on us."
"Stop the bitch," screamed Gilchrist, and sprang at the lass with his fist raised.