“I’ll get Susan Rudall to stow me away. She’ll be grateful to me for bringing her the money, and, as I’ve got a few guineas in my pocket, I can pay her well for keeping me, and it will be an advantage to her,” he said to himself. “I must take care that no one sees me going into her cottage, and I don’t suppose the young lord or that fellow Voules will think of looking for me there.”
The night was dark, but Dick, who knew the way, ran on, stopping every now and then to listen if any one was approaching. He had got close to Keyhaven, when it became necessary to use more caution, as people who knew him might probably be about, and should an inquiry be set on foot they might state that they had met him. He had almost reached Susan’s cottage when, turning up an angle of the road, he found himself close to several men who were coming up it. He stopped, he could not go on without passing between them. Acting on the impulse of the moment, he turned and ran back, hoping to find some place where he might conceal himself until they had passed.
“Stop that fellow, whoever he is!” shouted a voice, in an authoritative tone.
A couple of men darted forward, and before Dick had got many paces away he found himself seized by the shoulder.
“Halloa, my fine fellow! who are you? and what are you about?” asked one of the men.
“I am going to visit a neighbour,” answered Dick, trying to free himself.
“You must come back to our officer first, and give an account of yourself,” said the first speaker, whom Dick recognised as a man-of-war’s man.
Resistance was useless, and he made no further attempt to escape. The officer and the rest of the men soon came up, and Dick repeated the account he had given of himself.
“Very fine!” was the answer; “but you must come up to the station, and if Lieutenant Hilton knows you he will be able to state how far what you tell us is true.”
Dick, making no answer, walked on between his two captors. From what he could make out, the men belonged to a revenue cutter, which had dropped anchor off Hurst that evening, in consequence of information received of some smuggling work likely to take place in the neighbourhood.