'How are your blockaders coming forward, sir?' inquired the captain.
'They are very sparsely settled at present, and they are not coming forward. I doubt if there's half-a-dozen preventives betwixt this and St. Ives. It must grow into a considerable force if it is to protect the revenue. They keep their few best men about Folkestone and Ramsgate; and there the fighting is mostly going on. Calais is near; so is Dunkirk. The Goodwins are convenient for dodging.'
'What could have made them construct such caves as Miss Conway and I were locked up in?' asked the captain.
'They probably had an idea. In the middle of it they found that it would not work out, so they dropped it with the dexterity of men accustomed to rapidity of thought and action.'
'I believe there are similar caves some leagues round the coast—Cornwall way—perhaps in Cornwall,' said the captain.
The girl, looking at him a little expressively, said, 'You had better take two candles with you next time.'
He smiled and bowed, whilst she was all geniality and kindness, in arch humour of fair face of gipsy cast.
'I do not believe, madam,' said he, 'that I shall disturb the silence of another smuggler's cell.'
'Booty or no booty?'