What did it mean?
CHAPTER XVII.
A SURPRISE FOR ALL HANDS.
Through the long and weary day and far into the night Percy and the earl worked hard and unremittingly in the search for the missing ones.
During the afternoon the former ventured down to the shore of the cove, at the point where he had once been in the habit of keeping a boat of his own, and there remained until he had succeeded in attracting the attention of Donald Rodney.
It was a considerable time before the old smuggler could get away from the keen and suspicious watch of Ralph Tryon’s partisans; but his patient endeavors were finally rewarded.
He took a boat and pulled to the shore, ostensibly for the purpose of responding to a signal, which he professed to have received from Margery Maitland.
“In mercy’s name!” he ejaculated, when he met the agonized look of his young friend, “what has happened?”
“Donald, where is Ralph Tryon?”
“I believe he is somewhere in the neighborhood of Burton, and I rather think there is mischief afoot. Leastwise, one of our friends heard Abel Jackman, when he was talking with Gurt Warnell, say something about a lord’s house over there which they intended to visit.”