THE SMUGGLER. 207 



" That must be near Postling," he said. " We have no 

 party there. It must be some signal of their own." And as 

 he rode on, he thought, "It is not impossible that poor Mowle's 

 rashness may have put these men on their guard, and thus 

 thwarted the whole scheme. That is clearly some warning 

 to their boats." 



But ere a quarter of an hour more had passed, he saw the 

 probability of still more disastrous effects, resulting from the 

 lighting of the beacon on Tolsford Hill ; for another flame shot 

 up, casting a red glare through the haze from the side of Bur- 

 marsh, and then another and another, till the dim air seemed 

 all tinged with flame. 



"An unlucky error,'' he said to himself. " Serjeant Jack- 

 son should have known that we have no party in that quarter ; 

 and the beacons were only to be lighted, from the first, towards 

 Hythe. It is very strange how the clearest orders are some- 

 times misunderstood." 



He rode on, however, at a quick pace, till he reached Al- 

 dington Knowle, and had found the highest ground in the 

 neighbourhood, whence, after pausing for a minute or two to 

 examine the country, as marked out by the various fires, he 

 despatched three of the dragoons in different directions, with 

 orders to the parties in the villages round to disregard the 

 lights they saw, and not to act upon the orders previously 

 given, till they received intimation that the smugglers were on 

 the march. 



It was now about midnight, and during nearly two hours 

 the young officer remained stationed upon the hill without any 

 one approaching, or any sound breaking the stillness of the 

 night but the stamping of the horses of his little force and 

 the occasional clang of the soldiers' arms. At the end of that 

 period, the tramp of horse coming along the road at a quick 

 pace from the side of Hythe, was heard by the party on the 

 more elevated ground at a little distance from the highway. 

 There was a tightening of the bridle and a movement of the 

 heel amongst the men, to bring their chargers into a more 

 regular line; but not a word was said, and the colonel re- 

 mained in front, with his arms crossed upon his chest and his 

 rein thrown down, while what appeared from the sound to be 

 a considerable body of cavalry, passed before him. He could 

 not see them, it is true, from the darkness of the night; but 



