k up a position
where he could hear all that was being said.

"I canna think what had put the revenue men on the track o' the
smugglers," a fisherman was saying. "Surely if any man carried the
game on secretly it was Harry Ewan."

"What's to hinder them finding out?" said Jack Paterson. "Why, I
ken'd it lang syne, though it isna ony business o' mine to ken."

"Ah!" put in Lothian, with the air of one who was well acquainted
with the subject, "it's not the most cautious that are least
suspected o' breakin' the law. Now, I ken a man that not one here
would suspect, an' he has been carryin' on the business underhand
this many a day. But tak' my word for it, the fox has his eye on
him for all that, and it isna long before he'll be dropped on the
same as Harry Ewan."

Lieutenant Fox stepped a little nearer to the speakers.

"Oho!" exclaimed Jack Paterson; "and who may that be now, Colin?"

"Weel," replied the wanderer, "it isna for me just to say, though I
wouldna lift a hand to save ony smuggling rogue. But I ken o' a
fine hole in the face o' the clifts o' Gaulton, that would suit a
smuggler grandly for stowing away a few casks o' whisky in. Sandy
Ericson was another that ken'd it. But Sandy was an honest man."

"What!" said Paterson; "d'ye mean the cave that Sandy found Carver
Kinlay in, after the wreck o' the Undine?"

"Ay," said Colin.

"Then Kinlay kens o' the cave?" continued Jack.

"Doubtless," said Colin.

David Flett raised his eyebrows at this, and I thought of his
conversation with the pilot.

"It's no' possible that Carver has ony hand in the smuggling, is
it, Colin?" he observed.

"Weel, captain, I wonldna like to assert publicly that Carver is a
smuggler himself," said Colin; "but I shouldna be surprised though
it turn out as I suspect."

"It's a lie ye tell!" furiously exclaimed Tom Kinlay, suddenly
revealing himself, and shaking his fist in Lothian's face. "It's a
lie ye tell, ye drivelling auld idiot! And if ye canna prove what
ye say, maybe ye'll deny it?"

Colin Lothian stood up and said coolly:

"Now just hold yer tongue, Kinlay. I ken mair then I hae said. And
as to denyin' it, that I willna do. Nay, threaten as ye will, I
carena. What I say is perfectly true. Carver Kinlay's a smuggler!"

Tom Kinlay bit the stem of his clay pipe so hard that it broke in
his mouth, so great was his rage. Then, as though words of denial
were of no use, he took to the more cowardly argument of violen