A Friend in Need—Margery escapes—Margery’s Mission.
Tom and Charley had gone through so much that they could not calculate at all what hour of the night it then was. They had not noted the hour when they commenced their adventure, but remembered that it was then daylight; they had had no dinner, and they felt very hungry. They were hurrying along a path which led through a hollow, when on the hill above them they saw a female figure. She stopped and looked about, either to find the path or in expectation of some one. What could she want at that hour of the night, in so lone a place? They were under the shadow of a stone wall, and she evidently did not see them. They hesitated whether to remain concealed, as it occurred to both that her appearance there was in some way or other connected with the smugglers. However, after waiting a minute, she came down the hill with the light step of a young girl; when, catching sight of them, instead of retreating she came boldly forward. “Oh, Tom, oh, Mr Charles, I am so glad to see you all right!” she exclaimed, as she got near enough for them to recognise the features of Polly Herring, the smuggler’s daughter. “I heard that something dreadful was going to happen, and I came along to try and stop it.”
“And you thought, Polly, that your father was in it, and may be James Trevany, and you did not wish them to get into trouble. Was not that it, Polly?”
“Yes! Tom, that was one reason,” answered the girl, frankly; “another was that I wanted to save you and Mister Charles from coming to harm; and now I’ll ask you, if father or James get into trouble, to speak a good word to the captain to help them out of it.”
“The captain is a just man, and will return kindness with kindness, no doubt of that,” answered Tom. “But I say, Polly, if any one can find out where Miss Margery is, you can, for I am as certain as I stand here that your father, or James, or some of your friends, had a hand in carrying her off. Come, speak the truth, girl; you’ll gain more by helping us to find her than by any other way.”
“Yes! it was a cruel shame to carry her away,” she muttered, in a low voice; “but I dare not indeed I dare not.”
“Dare not do what, Polly?” asked Tom, in a soothing tone.
“Tell where she is, or help you to get her,” answered the girl, promptly.
“Then you do know where she is, Polly, and may be who took her away, and all about her,” said Tom. “Now what I’ve got to say is this, that just do you do what’s right, and never do you fear what any one can do to you.”
The girl still hesitated.