ed on barrels and kegs covered with blazing embers. Le Marchant gave
a laugh at sight of their familiar faces, and, by way of further payment to
the miller, dashed his heel through the head of a keg and sped on, while
the flames roared out afresh behind us.

For a short way we had the light of the blaze, but soon we were past it and
groping in darkness down a narrow tunnel way. It seemed endless, but fresh
blowing air came puffing up to us at last, and of a sudden we crept out
into the night through a clump of gorse on the side of a cliff. Below us
was the sea, and on the shingle lay a six-oared galley such as the
preventive men use.

"Devil's luck!" laughed Le Marchant, and we slipped and rolled down the
cliff to the shore, with never a doubt as to our next move. We set our
shoulders to the black galley, ran it gaily down the shingle, and took to
the oars. As we got out from under the land we saw the house blazing
fiercely on the cliff. There was a keg in the boat and a mast with a
leg-of-mutton sail. We stepped the mast and set the sail and drew swiftly
out to sea.

I do not think either of us ever found a voyage so much to our liking as
this. Our craft was but a Customs' galley, twenty feet long and four feet
in beam, it is true, and we were heading straight out into the North Sea.
We had not a scrap of food, but we had fared well the night before, and the
keg in the bows suggested hopes. But we were homeward bound, and we had
just come through dire peril by the sheer mercy of Providence.

"The old one is well punished for his roguery," said Le Marchant with a
relish. "And after his prayers too! Diable, but he stinks!"

"He gave us a good supper, however."

"So that we might breakfast en route for a King's ship! Non, merci! No more
mealy mouths for me." And to me also it was a lesson I have never
forgotten.

Our first idea had been to run due east till we struck the coast of
Holland, which we knew must be something less than one hundred and fifty
miles away. But Le Marchant, who knew the smuggling ports better than I,
presently suggested that we should run boldly south by east for Dunkerque
or Boulogne, and he affirmed that it was little if any farther away than
the Dutch coast, and even if it was, we should land among friends and save
time and trouble in the end. So, as the weather and wind seemed like to
hold, we turned to the south, and kept as straight a course as we could,
and met with no interference. Th