cy_ glided swiftly through the water.

"I am hoping, sir, the cutter will catch Miles Gaffin's craft. There is
not a bigger villain to be found than he is in these parts."

"What has he done to gain such a character?" asked Headland.

"That's just what no one can say exactly," answered Ned, "still it's
pretty well known that there is nothing he would not dare to do if he
chose to do it. He says he is one thing, and we know he is another.
When he first came to Hurlston, he used to call himself a miller, and
there is not a bolder seaman to be found anywhere. He does not now,
however, pretend that he isn't. Many is the cargo of smuggled goods he
has run on this coast, and yet he always manages to keep out of the
clutches of the revenue officers. There are not a few decent lads he
has got to go aboard his craft, and they have either lost their lives,
or turned out such ruffians that they have been a sorrow and disgrace to
their families. He is more than suspected of having been a pirate, or
something of that sort, in foreign parts. And they say when he first
came to Hurlston, he seemed to know this coast as well as if he had been
born and bred here, though he told people that chance brought him to the
place, and that he had never set eyes on it before."

"At all events, if common report speaks true, Hurlston will be well rid
of him, if he does not venture back. I hope that the law will, at all
events, be able to lay hands on the villain should it be proved that he
kidnapped your friend Jacob," observed Headland.

"If the cutter catches his craft, Jacob may be saved. I am more than
afraid that Gaffin will knock him on the head, and heave him overboard
with a shot to his feet, if he finds that he is hard-pressed, and then
he will deny ever having had the poor fellow on board."

"I trust, bad as he is, that he will not be guilty of such an act," said
Headland, though, at the same time, he feared, from what he had heard of
Gaffin, that he would not scruple to commit that or any other dark deed
to serve his purpose.

Headland was thankful when at length the boat glided into the Tex, and
ran alongside the quay.

Several people were standing there. The news of what had occurred had
spread about the village. Headland, anxious to lose no time, asked if
any boy would be willing to run on to the Texford Arms to order his
horse.

"Say Captain Headland's horse, the gentleman who accompanied Mr Harry
Castleton," he s