392 THE SMUGGLER. 



ance ; "not for sucli villains as you! Give me the spit, 

 Madge; I've a great mind to run him through." Ned Ramley 

 drew a pistol from his pocket ; but at that moment the window 

 was thrown up, the back door of the house was cast open, and 

 half-a-dozen of the stout yeomanry rushed in. The smugglers 

 saw that resistance would be vain ; but still they resisted ; and 

 though, in the agitation of the moment, Ned Ramley's pistol 

 was discharged innocuously, he did not fail to aim it at the 

 head of young William Harris, who was springing towards 

 him. The stout farmer, however, instantly levelled him with 

 the ground by a thundering blow upon the head; and the 

 other two men, after a desperate struggle, were likewise taken 

 and tied. 



" Lucky for you it was me, and not my father, Master 

 Kamley," said William Harris. "He'd have blown your 

 brains out; but you're only saved to be hanged, anyhow. 

 Ay, here he comes I Stop, stop, old gentleman ! he's a pri- 

 soner; don't you touch him. Let the law have the job, as 

 the gentleman said." 



"Oh, you accursed villain! oh, you hellish scoundrel 1" 

 cried old Harris, kept back with difficulty by his son and the 

 rest. " You were one of the foremost of them. But where 

 is the greatest villain of them all? Where's that limb of the 

 devil, young Eadford? I will have himl Let me go, Will; 

 I will have him, I say!" 



Ned Ramley laughed aloud: "You won't, though," he 

 answered, bitterly; "he's been gone this half hour, and will 

 be at the sea, and over the sea, before you can catch him. 

 You, may do with me what you like, btt^ he's safe enough." 



" Some one ride off and tell the officer Vhat he says!" cried 

 the farmer. But when the intelligence was conveyed to Sir 

 Henry Layton, he was already aware that some of the men 

 must have made their escape unobserved; for his servant had 

 met Cornet Joyce and the party of dragoons by the way, and 

 with the aid of a number of farm servants from Iden Green 

 and its neighbourhood, the wood had been searched with such 

 strictness, that the pheasants, which were at that time nume- 

 rous there, had flown out in clouds, as if a battue had been 

 going on. He mistrusted Ned Ramley's information, how- 

 ever; knowing that the hardened villain would find a sort of 

 pride in misleading the pursuers of young Radford, even 



