THE SMUGGLER. 1 95 



" Well, Mr. Mowle," said the young officer, folding up and 

 sealing the note he had just concluded, " now let me hear what 

 you have discovered, and where you wish the troops to be." 



"I am afraid, sir, we have lost time," answered Mowle; 

 "for I can't tell at what time the landing will take place." 



"Not before midnight," replied his companion; "there is 

 no vessel in sight, and with the wind at this quarter they 

 can't be very quick in their movements." 



"Why, probably not before midnight, sir," answered 

 Mowle; "but there are not above fifty of your men within 

 ten miles round, and if you've to send for them to Folkestone 

 and Ashford, and out almost to Staplehurst, they will have no 

 time to make ready and march, and the fellows will be off into 

 the Weald before we can catch them." 



The young officer smiled. " Then you think fifty men will 

 not be enough?" he asked. 



" Not half enough," answered Mowle, beginning to set down 

 his companion as a person of very little intellect or energy. 

 " Why, from what I hear, there will be some two or three 

 hundred of these fellows down, to carry the goods after they 

 are run, and every one of them equal to a dragoon, at any 

 time." 



" Well, we shall seel" said the young officer, coolly. "You 

 are sure that Dymchurch is the place?" 



"Why, somewhere thereabouts, sir; and that's a long way 

 off," answered Mowle; " so if you have any arrangements to 

 make, you had better make them." 



"They are all made," replied the colonel; "but tell me, 

 Mr. Mowle, does it not frequently take place that, when smug- 

 glers are pursued in the marsh, they throw their goods into 

 the cuts and canals and creeks by which it is intersected?" 



"To be sure they do, sir," exclaimed the officer; "and 

 they'll do that to a certainty, if we can't prevent them land- 

 ing; and if we attack them in the Marsh " 



" To prevent them landing," said the gentleman, " seems to 

 me impossible in the present state of affairs ; and I do not 

 know whether it would be expedient, even if we could. Your 

 object is to seize the goods, both for your own benefit and that 

 of the state, and to take as many prisoners as possible. Now, 

 from what you told me yesterday, I find that you have no force 

 at sea, except a few miserable boats " 



