THE SMUGGLER. 249 



Mr. Radford is disarmed and brought upon his knee, with a 

 very unpleasant and un gentleman-like bump upon his forehead, 

 bestowed, with hearty good- will, by the hilt of Master Digby's 

 sword. Well, when he had got him there, instead of quietly 

 poking a hole through him, as any man of common sense 

 would have done, your friend let's him get up again, and ride 

 away, just as a man might be supposed to pinch a cobra that 

 had bit him, by the tail, and then say, ' Walk off, my friend.' 

 However, so stands the matter; and young Radford rode away, 

 vowing all sorts of vengeance. He'll have it, too, if he can 

 get it, for he's as spiteful as a baboon ; so I hope youVe caught 

 him, as he was with these smuggling vagabonds, that's certain.'' 



Sir Henry Layton shook his head. " He has escaped, I 

 am sorry to say/' he replied. " How, I cannot divine ; for I 

 took means to catch him that I thought were infallible. All 

 the roads through Harbourne Wood were guarded, but yet in 

 that wood all trace of him was lost. He left his horse in the 

 midst of it, and must have escaped by some of the by- paths." 



"He's concealed in my brother's house, for a hundred 

 guineas 1" cried Mr. Croyland. ''Robert's bewitched to a 

 certainty; for nothing else but witchcraft could make a man 

 take an owl for a cock pheasant. Oh ! yes ; there he is, snug 

 in Harbourne House, depend upon it, feeding upon venison 

 and turbot, and with a magnum of claret and two bottles of 

 port to keep him comfortable: a drunken, beastly, vicious 

 brute 1 A cross between a wolf and a swine, and not without a 

 touch of the fox either, though the first figure is the best; for his 

 father was the wolf, and his mother the sow, if all tales be true." 



4 'He cannot be in Harbourne House, I should think,'' re- 

 plied the colonel, "for my dragoons searched it, it seems; 

 violating the laws a little, for they had no competent authority 

 with them ; and besides he would not have put himself within 

 Digby's reach, I imagine." 



" Then he's up in a tree, roosting in the day, like a bird of 

 prey," rejoined Mr. Croyland, in his quick way. "It's very 

 unlucky he has escaped, very unlucky indeed." 



"At all events," answered the young officer, "thus much 

 have we gained, my dear friend: he dare not show himself in 

 this county for years. He was seen, by competent witnesses, 

 at the head of these smugglers, taking an active part with 

 them in resistance to lawful authority. Blood has been shed, 



