194 THE SMUGGLER. 



the day were over; and then, proceeding to his own room, he 

 rang the bell and ordered dinner. 



" I thought there was a bit of a bustle, sir?" said the land- 

 lord, inquiringly, as he put the first dish upon the table. 



"Oh dear, nol" replied the colonel. "Did you mean about 

 these men who have escaped?" 



"I didn't know about what, colonel," answered the landlord, 

 " but seeing Mr. Mowle waiting for you " 



"You thought it must be about them," added the officer* 

 " but you are mistaken, my good friend. There is no bustle 

 at all. The men will, doubtless, soon be taken, one after the 

 other, by the constables, At all events, that is an affair with 

 which I can have nothing to do." 



The landlord immediately retreated, loaded with intelligence, 

 and informed two men who were sipping rum-and-water in 

 the tap- room, that Mowle had come to ask the colonel to help 

 in apprehending "the major," and others who had been rescued, 

 and that the colonel would have nothing to do with it. 



The men finished their grog much more rapidly than they 

 had begun it, and then walked out of the house, probably to 

 convey the tidings elsewhere. Now, the town of Hythe is 

 composed, as every one knows, of one large and principal street, 

 nearly at the bottom of the hill, with several back streets, or 

 perhaps lanes we might call them, running parallel to the first, 

 and a great number of shorter ones running up and down the 

 hill, and connecting the principal thoroughfare with those be- 

 hind it. Many, nay, I might say most, of the houses in the 

 main street had, at the time I speak of, a back as well as a 

 front entrance. They might sometimes have even more than 

 one, for there were trades carried on in Hythe, as the reader 

 has been made aware, which occasionally required rapid and 

 secret modes of exit. Nor was the house in which the young 

 commander of dragoons resided without its conveniences in 

 this respect; but it so happened that Mowle, the officer, was 

 well acquainted with all its different passages and contrivances, 

 and, consequently, he took advantage, on his return at the 

 end of an hour, of one of the small lanes which led him by a 

 back way into the inn. Then ascending a narrow staircase 

 without disturbing anybody, he made his way to the room he 

 sought, where he found the colonel of the regiment quietly 

 writing some letters after his brief meal was over. 



