him. Above all, here, and here
only, were observed the vestiges of a child's foot; and as it could be
seen nowhere else, and the hard horse-track which traversed the wood of
Warroch was contiguous to the spot, it was natural to think that the boy
might have escaped in that direction during the confusion. But, as he was
never heard of, the Sheriff, who made a careful entry of all these
memoranda, did not suppress his opinion, that the deceased had met with
foul play, and that the murderers, whoever they were, had possessed
themselves of the person of the child Harry Bertram.

Every exertion was now made to discover the criminals. Suspicion
hesitated between the smugglers and the gipsies. The fate of Dirk
Hatteraick's vessel was certain. Two men from the opposite side of
Warroch Bay (so the inlet on the southern side of the Point of Warroch is
called) had seen, though at a great distance, the lugger drive eastward,
after doubling the headland, and, as they judged from her manoeuvres, in
a disabled state. Shortly after, they perceived that she grounded,
smoked, and finally took fire. She was, as one of them expressed himself,
'in a light low' (bright flame) when they observed a king's ship, with
her colours up, heave in sight from behind the cape. The guns of the
burning vessel discharged themselves as the fire reached them; and they
saw her at length blow up with a great explosion. The sloop of war kept
aloof for her own safety; and, after hovering till the other exploded,
stood away southward under a press of sail. The Sheriff anxiously
interrogated these men whether any boats had left the vessel. They could
not say, they had seen none; but they might have put off in such a
direction as placed the burning vessel, and the thick smoke which floated
landward from it, between their course and the witnesses' observation.

That the ship destroyed was Dirk Hatteraick's no one doubted. His lugger
was well known on the coast, and had been expected just at this time. A
letter from the commander of the king's sloop, to whom the Sheriff made
application, put the matter beyond doubt; he sent also an extract from
his log-book of the transactions of the day, which intimated their being
on the outlook for a smuggling lugger, Dirk Hatteraick master, upon the
information and requisition of Francis Kennedy, of his Majesty's excise
service; and that Kennedy was to be upon the outlook on the shore, in
case Hatteraick, who was known to be a