THE SMUGGLER. 1 8 1 



"Why, who the one was, he could never be sure," answered 

 the beldam, " a nasty-looking, ugly brute, all tattooed in the 

 face, like a wild Indian ; but the other was the colonel of dra- 

 goons, that's certain, so Nighty says, he is the shrewdest boy 

 that " 



Richard Radford and his companions gazed at each other 

 with very meaning and very ill-satisfied looks; but the former 

 at length said, "Well, we shall see, we shall see; and if he 

 does, he shall rue it. In the mean time, major, what we must 

 do is, to have force enough to set them, dragoons and all, at 

 defiance. My father has got already a hundred men, and I'll 

 beat up for more to-morrow. I can get fifty or sixty out of 

 Sussex. We'll all be down with you, early. The soldiers 

 are scattered about in little parties, so they can never have 

 very many together; and the devil's in it if we can't beat a 

 handful of them." 



" Give us a hundred men," said Ned Ramley, "and we'll 

 beat the whole regiment of them." 



" Why, there are not to be found twenty of them together 

 in any one place," answered young Badford, "except at Folke- 

 stone, and we shan't have the run within fifteen or sixteen 

 miles of that, so we shall easily do for them; and I should 

 like to give those rascals a licking." 



"Then, what's to be done with Harding?" asked Ned 

 Ramley. 



" Leave him to me, leave him to me, Ned," replied the young 

 gentleman; "I'll find a way of settling accounts with him." 



"Why the old woman was talking something about it," 

 said the major. "Come, speak up, old brute 1 What is it 

 you've got to say?" 



"Oh! Til tell him quietly when he's a going," answered 

 Galley Ray. " It's no business of yours, major." 



" She hates him like poison," said the major, in a whisper 

 to young Radford, " so that you must not believe all she says 

 about him." 



The young man gave a gloomy smile, and then, after a few 

 words more, unceremoniously turned the old woman out of her 

 own hovel, telling her he would come and speak to her in a 

 moment. As soon as the hut was clear of her presence, he 

 proceeded to make all his final arrangements with the lawless 

 set who were gathered together within. 



