olks said that he came of a clever county
family, and hoped his son would be better. The fellow didn't even
bring an action." Mr. Rogers broke off suddenly, and seemed to
meditate a new train of thought. "Hang it!" he exclaimed. "I
believe 'tis a hundred pounds. I must look it up when I get back."

"What is a hundred pounds, sir?" I asked.

"Penalty for showing a coast-light without authority. Lydia laid me
ten pounds I hadn't the pluck, though; and that'll bring it down to
ninety at the worst. She'd a small fortune in this trip, too, which
she stood to lose: but, as it turns out, I've saved that for her.
Oh, she's a treasure!"

"Did you light the flare?" I began to see that I had fallen in with
an original, and that he might be humoured.

"Eh?--to be sure I did! 'Slocked away the man in charge by mimicking
Pascoe's voice--he's the freighter, and talks like a man with no roof
to his mouth. I'm a pretty good mimic, though I say it. Nothing
easier, after that. You see, Lydia had laid me ten pounds that as a
Justice of the Peace I hadn't wit nor pluck to spoil her next run;
honestly, that is. She knows I wouldn't blow on her for worlds.
Oh, we understand one another! Now you and I'll go off and call on
her, and hear what she says about it. For in a way I've won, and in
a way I've not. I stopped the run, but also I've saved the cargo for
her: for the devil a notion had I that the soldiers had wind of it;
and, but for the flare, the boats would have run in and lost every
tub. Here we are, my lad!"

We had climbed the cliff and were crossing a field of stubble grass,
very painful to my feet. I saw the shadow of a low hedge in front,
but these words of Mr. Rogers conveyed nothing to me. "Soh, soh, my
girl!" he called softly, advancing towards the shadow: and at first I
supposed him to be addressing the mysterious Lydia. But following I
saw him smoothing the neck of a small mare tethered beside the hedge,
and the next moment had almost blundered against a light two-wheeled
carriage resting on its shafts a few yards away.

Mr. Rogers whispered to me to lift the shafts. "And be quiet about
it: there's a road t'other side of the hedge. Soh, my girl--sweetly,
sweetly!" He backed the mare between the shafts, harnessed her, and
led her along to a gate opening on the road.

"Jump up, my lad," he commanded, as he steered the tilbury through;
and up I jumped. "There's a rug somewhere by your feet, and
Ly