g his hands. "We'll
take her in as close as she will go, the less distance there is to
row the better."

The Trois Freres was run on until within a hundred yards of the
shore, then a light anchor was dropped. The two boats had already
been lowered and were towed alongside, and the work of transferring
the cargo at once began.

"Do you go in the first boat, monsieur, with the ladies," the
captain said. "The sooner you are ashore the better. There is no
saying whether we may not be disturbed and obliged to run out to
sea again at a moment's notice."

"Thank God!" he exclaimed, as after wading through the shallow
water he stood on the shore, while two of the sailors carried the
girls and put them beside him. "Thank God, I have got you safe on
English soil at last. I began to despair at one time."

"Thank God indeed," Jeanne said reverently; "but I never quite
despaired, Harry. It seemed to me He had protected us through so
many dangers, that He must mean that we should go safely through
them all, and yet it did seem hopeless at one time."

"We had better stand on one side, girls, or rather we had better
push on up the cliff. These people are all too busy to notice us,
and you might get knocked down; besides, the coastguard might arrive
at any moment, and then there would be a fight. So let us get well
away from them."

But they had difficulty in making their way up the cliff, for the
path was filled with men carrying up tubs or coming down for more
after placing them in the carts, which were waiting to convey them
inland. At last they got to the top. One of the carts was already
laden, and was on the point of driving off when Harry asked the man
if he could tell him of any farmhouse near, where the two ladies
who had landed with him could pass the night.

"Master's place is two miles away," the man said; "but if you like
to walk as far, he will take you in, I doubt not."

The girls at once agreed to the proposal, and in three quarters of
an hour the cart drew up at a farmhouse.

"Is it all right, Bill?" a man asked, opening the door as the cart
stopped.

"Yes, it be all right. Not one of them revenue chaps nigh the place.
Here be the load of tubs; they was the first that came ashore."

"Who have you got here?" the farmer asked as Harry came forward
with the girls.

"These are two young ladies who have crossed in the lugger," Harry
replied. "They have narrowly escaped being murdered in France by
the Revolu