394 THE SMUGGLER. 



the beer to his lips, and he had taken a deep draught, "you 

 will have your brains blown out, before ten days are over." 



"I am not afraid," replied Mowle, laughing. 



" That's right," answered Ned Ramley. " But it will hap- 

 pen; for fifty of us have sworn it. We have had our revenge 

 of your spy, Harding ; and we have only you to settle with 

 now." 



"Harding I" cried Mowle. "He's no spy of mine. It 

 was not he that peached, you young scoundrel; it was one of 

 those whom you trusted more than him.'* 



"Ah! well," answered Ned Kamley, indifferently; "then 

 he'll have a sore heart to-night that he didn't work for. 

 But you'll have your turn yet, Mr. Mowle, so look that you make 

 good use of your brains, for they won't be long in your skull." 



"You are a hardened villain,'' said Sir Henry Layton. 

 " You had better march them off as fast as you can, my good 

 friends; take them before a magistrate; and above all things, 

 get them to prison ere nightfall, or we may have another 

 rescue." 



"No fear; no fear!" answered farmer Harris. " To rescue 

 a smuggler is one thing. I never liked to see them taken my- 

 self; but bloodthirsty villains like these, that would ill use a 

 poor, dear, good girl, and murder her in cold blood, why there 

 is not a man in the county would not help to hang them. But 

 I wish, sir, you would go yourself, and see and stop that 

 other great villain. If he isn't hanged too, I don't think I 

 shall ever rest in my bed again." 



" I will do my best, depend upon it,'' replied Layton; "but 

 I must first, Mr. Harris, go to your house, and see the state 

 of that poor girl. I have known her since she was a child, 

 and feel for her almost as if she were a sister." 



"Thank you, sir; thank you!" cried old Harris, shaking 

 him by the hand. " There, boys,'' he continued, dashing 

 away the tears from his eyes; "make a guard, and take 

 these blackguards off in the middle of you. We'll have 

 them up to Squire Broughton's at once; and then I must go 

 back, too." 



On his way to the farm, Layton desired Mowle to return to 

 Woodchurch, and to wait for him there, taking every step 

 that he might think necessary, with the aid of Captain Irby. 

 "I will not be long,'' he added. 



