Dacia shuddered.
"All this is news to me," said the baronet. "Dacia, my dear, you were talking the other day about going for a ramble along the sands, but after what your husband has told us about them I hope you will think twice before doing so."
"I shall indeed, uncle." Then, turning to Burgo, she said, "You have told us a great deal about this old building and the uses to which it was put in days gone by. I suppose you will be telling us next that Mr. Marchment was a smuggler?"
Burgo laughed. "That's just what he was, my dear--after a fashion. Singularly enough, Marchment and I tumbled across each other yesterday at the London terminus. He had half an hour to spare and we spent it together. Now, when I said this morning that I had a special object in asking you to explore the tower with me, it was that I might tell you here on the spot, in order that you might be able to realise the facts more clearly, that which he told me yesterday. Of course it was he who introduced the subject, not I. He began by asking after each of you, and he did not fail to congratulate me on my marriage. Then he went on to say that doubtless we had often wondered and speculated as to the nature of the business in which he was engaged at the time he made our acquaintance after so singular a fashion. Although the affair was still a secret from the world and would continue to be so, the necessity for the same amount of secrecy no longer existed--at least, as far as we three were concerned although he was desirous that whatever he might confide to us should go no further. It appears, then, that the Naiad's errand at Crag End was to take on board, secretly of course, a considerable quantity of arms and ammunition which for some time past had been stored up in that chamber in the cliff which I showed you just now, awaiting Marchment's arrival."
"Arms and ammunition! God bless my heart!" ejaculated Sir Everard.
"I may say at once that he did not tell me by whose or what agency the arms and ammunition had first been stored in the chamber, nor did I conceive it my business to ask him. His part of the affair was to convey the articles in question to some pre-arranged point on the Irish coast and there land them with the same amount of secrecy with which he had taken them on board."
"But why couldn't he do all that quite openly? demanded Dacia.
"Because it is forbidden to land arms and ammunition in Ireland except at certain specified ports, and then only with the knowledge and sanction of the Customs officials. As Marchment explained, they were needed for the 'Cause'--whatever the term may mean--and could only be obtained secretly and surreptitiously."
"We owe a great deal to our friend Marchment, Burgo, my boy," said Sir Everard, "but for all that I shall consider it my duty to take such steps as will secure the tower from being used as a depot for the storage of any kind of contraband goods in time to come."
"I hope you made Mr. Marchment promise to come and see us when we get back to town?" said Dacia.