“My ill luck!” thought Dick. “If it hadn’t been for that I should have got down to Susan’s without difficulty, and now, because I am known to have been on board the Nancy, they’ll accuse me of being concerned in this matter, of which I never so much as heard, until this moment.”
Dick was perfectly right in his conjectures. Lieutenant Hilton, who had just returned from visiting the neighbouring posts, no sooner set eyes on Dick, than he exclaimed, “Why, that’s young Hargrave, the very fellow Lord Reginald Oswald was speaking to me about, not an hour ago, a deserter from the Wolf, a desperate young ruffian, by all accounts. I’ll hand him over to you Mason, to carry on board your cutter, but you must take good care that he doesn’t escape.”
The commander of the cutter laughed. “I’ll clap him in irons, and he’ll be clever if he gets his wrists out of them,” he answered.
Dick was led down to the beach by the cutter’s crew, who at once pulled on board. Being hauled up the side without ceremony, he was handed down below, and a pair of handcuffs were placed on his wrists.
“You’ve had a long run on shore, my lad, and it is to be hoped you enjoyed yourself,” said the seaman who was fastening them on. “I wouldn’t stand in your shoes for something, let me tell you. You’ve heard tell of Tim Macarthy, who three times ran from his ship, and got hanged. You must look out that the same doesn’t happen to you if you play that trick again.”
Dick made no reply; his spirit was so utterly broken that he could have burst into tears, had he not made a strong effort to restrain himself.
“They shan’t see me play the woman, if I can help it,” he said to himself; “but if ever I have the chance I’ll make that Lord Reginald pay for it. If he hadn’t informed against me, the chances are I should have got off. He and his messmate hadn’t the courage to stop me by themselves, and so they must needs gallop off and tell that lieutenant that they had seen me. What a fool I was to go down to Keyhaven, instead of striking away inland, where I should have been safe from them. Now, I suppose I shall be flogged and branded as a deserter, and perhaps be hung, as that fellow says. I shouldn’t care if I had changed my name, I should not like to bring disgrace on my father and mother. It would break their hearts to know such had been my fate.”
These, and if possible, still more gloomy thoughts passed through Dick’s mind, until, leaning his head against the side of the vessel, near which he had been placed, he fell off into a troubled slumber.