TEE AGRIC ULT 



URAL JOURNAL. 



695 



Of course he was spending the " long " 

 with his master, and had made friends 

 wiih the bulk of the fishermen, bnt two 

 or three of them had, by playing what he 

 considered low tricks upon him, incurred 

 h'S displeasure, and among them Wood 

 was his special aversion. He showed this 

 chiefly by giving the man a wide berth, 

 or resenting his proximity by smothered 

 growls. As the dog was thor;.ngh]y good- 

 natured, I knew that there must have been 

 seiious provocation; and kept "Major" 

 well in hand. 



How long the boats were absent, I can- 

 not now remember ; the memory of those 

 early days has been absorbed by many a 

 stirring event. I know that I passed most 

 of the time with Captain Winstead and his 

 daughter, riding up and dow^n the coast 

 between the station and Start Point, till 

 the natives began to look askance at me, 

 half suspecting that I had sold them. 



I think it must have been about a week 

 after my last interview with Lorane that 

 I walked along the beach to keep my 

 tryst with him. It was a dark night, but 

 I made out ten or a dozen figures, appa- 

 rently straining ears and eyes over the 

 quiet sea; and when a light suddenly 

 shone out for a second or two, at some 

 distance, and then vanished, the silence 

 was only more intense. Presently a shrill 

 whistle sounded out of the sea : after a 

 short interval its ditto was repeated a few 

 feet from where I was standing, and was 

 immediately answered by a third. As 

 this was th^ signal, I at once sent "Major" 

 in : he swam sieadily out, and in less 

 than ten minutes returned with a stout 

 line in his mouth, which ended in a 

 stouter rope, at which the dark figures 

 falling into line, hauled steadily. At the 

 very edge of the san I were sundry logs of 

 wood like railway sleepers, with rounded 

 notches in them to fit the wooden keel of 

 the boat. No sooner had the boat touched 

 ground, ' than one of them was slipped 

 under her ; at the next pull she landed 

 on another ; and so on, till she was clear 

 of the sea. I need not say that she was 

 emptied in a trice, and the kegs, as dawn 

 was nearing, were buried, for the time, in 

 shingle and sand, well above high water 

 mark. I ran inland to a spring, gave 

 " Major " a good drink, and then bidding 

 him keep good watch, left him seemingly 

 asleep on the beach, and returned to my 



cottage, which I reached before 4 a.m. ; 

 turned in, slept for 4 hours, and was up 

 fresh as a lark at 8 ; when, after a bath, 

 and a good breakfast, I was fit for any- 

 thing. 



Just then, came a message from Captain 

 Winstead to ask me to join him in a ride; 

 and as I had hired a horse in the village, 

 I was soon ready. We rode towards the 

 Start, Captain Winstead telling me that 

 he expected a cargo to be landed that 

 night, and that he was prepared for them, 

 and to capture both kegs and men. Just 

 here there was a break in the cliff, and a 

 large space full of brambles and under- 

 growth, and rich in flowers, which looked 

 like an old disused quarry, but had pro- 

 bably been formed by an irruption of the 

 sea at some distant period. I remarked, 

 casually, that it afforded a good hiding 

 place for smuggled goods, and Winstead 

 took the hint, and set his men to work, 

 joining eagerly himself in the search. 



Just then a fisherman came up and 

 said, " Us can't get yeur dog to meuve, 

 sur ; us got the orsisand crooks a waitin, 

 and Wood, ur saith will bre^ik skull for 

 'un if yewdoan't come and get 'un away." 

 T looked at Winstead, who was off his 

 horse, and poking among the bushes, 

 and galloped as hard as I coul I for the 

 beach. But before I got there the dog 

 and man had met. Wood had lost 

 patience, and struck at the dog ; but 

 " Major " was upon him before the stick 

 came down ; and his feet failing in the 

 act, he fell. "Major" had not bitten 

 him, but his feet were on the man's chest, 

 and the air was resonant with his furious 

 barks. I called the dog off, and he came 

 at once ; I told the man, on whose face 

 the currants hid turned to an indescrib- 

 able hue, that he lied in charging " Major " 

 with an unprovoked attack ; I advised 

 him to keep the horses back till I had got 

 Winstead away, and galloped back to the 

 Coombe as hard as I could. I found 

 Winstead beating the ground as steadily as 

 though he were drawing a cover for game, 

 and had to wait till he was content that 

 he had drawn it blank ; when I persuaded 

 him to ride on to Start Point, and take a 

 survey of the bay and the offing. As this 

 involved a climb to the lighthouse, a care- 

 ful adjustment of telescope, etc., it was 

 late when we turned our horses' heads 

 homeward, and evening was far advanced 



