, about dark. Some time afterwards, I
found that we were running into a small harbour, with a pier on one side
and a lighthouse on it. Its name I could not learn; but I supposed it
was somewhere to the eastward of Cherbourg. I was trying to make out
the look of the place, when the captain, touching me on the shoulder,
said, "Go down below, _my boy_; when I want you I will come for you."
There was that in his tone which showed me that it would be useless to
dispute his orders; so I returned to the cabin. Finding a berth with
some bed-clothes in it, I crept in, and coiling myself away, was soon,
fast asleep. I was awoke after some time by the skipper's voice. He
was holding up a lantern, and looking round, seemingly much surprised at
not seeing me. He laughed as I poked my head out of my crib.

"Ah, _mon petit_, you make yourself at home wherever you go," he
exclaimed. "But get up; you must come with me, and I will find a worthy
lady who will take good care of you for some time to come."

I answered that I was very much obliged to him, but that I wanted to
return home as soon as possible.

"Ah, that cannot be," said he, in a quiet tone. "I am sorry to
inconvenience you; but you will allow that it is better to be kept a
prisoner than to have been thrown overboard as food for the fish."

"Much obliged to you, monsieur," I replied. "I cannot dispute your
reasoning; so just be good enough to tell me what you want me to do."

"To get up and come with me," said he; "and listen, my young friend,--if
you attempt to run away, I will simply blow your brains out. I don't
wish you any harm, as I have proved; but necessity compels me to be
explicit."

I did not know whether or not he was in earnest; but as it is dangerous
to trifle with a man who has the power to put so unpleasant a threat in
execution, I thought it wisest to obey him. I accordingly followed him
on deck, when he took my hand and led me along a plank which was thrown
from the vessel to the shore. We walked through the narrow street of a
village odoriferous of fish, and then out into the country, which in
agreeable contrast smelt of fresh grass and flowers. Proceeding along a
road which, by looking at the stars overhead, I judged ran inland, we
reached a farm-house, standing a little back from the road. The
smuggler knocked with his fist at the floor, but no one answered, nor
was any light seen through the windows. We waited some further time
witho