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He had had enough of Galloway, and a permanent change of air was what he longed for to a far land, under other skies, and among a people of a strange tongue, who had never heard of press-gangs and Solway smugglers. In the enforced leisure provided for him by the stoppage of compulsory recruitments, Eben McClure added to his knowledge.
Had Dave or Billy known this, they would not have hesitated to swim to the place, if need be to say nothing of the difficulty of going there and "borrowing" a canoe, in which they all could approach the smugglers' headquarters. Dave explained that the cabins on the cove were called "Durgan's settlement," and that the place bore a bad reputation.
"The press-gang landed and surprised the smugglers, then?" "Yes, sir, and they've nabbed Eben Megg and six of his mates. Did yer hear the women giving it to the sailors?" "I heard something of it." "They was fighting savage like to save their men, and the sailor chaps was glad enough to get back to their boats; but they took Eben Megg and half a dozen more along with 'em."
But, as I have told you, it is one of the richest places in the world, for from 1807 to 1817 the annual return was about eighteen thousand carats. Ah! there have been some rare finds there, not only for the climbers who seek the precious stone up to the very tops of the mountains, but also for the smugglers who fraudulently export it.
"I'm not thinking of wigs, or paint, or such piffle. Say, have you never heard of the cocaine business?" "Oh, yes; Mr. Shafto is tremendously keen on the subject." "Pat FitzGerald is mad about it, too, and is having a great big try to rope in the boss smugglers. He has told me the most terrible tales.
"I saw the coastguards up above here yesterday," I answered, "and I thought I heard voices speaking from below the brow of the cliff, so then I searched about till I found a hole, and so I got down here." "Ah," said Marah, "they will be round here looking for you, then. I'll take the liberty of hiding your tracks." He went in to the other room and spoke a few words to one of the other smugglers.
He has already been mentioned to the reader by the name of Ramsay, and second in authority among the smugglers. He was a young man of high family, and a brother to Lady Alice, of course trusted by Sir Robert, and his second in command.
This, so says report, was a celebrated resort of smugglers in days gone by, and of men of the worst character; and as one looks at the irregular old building standing, one might almost say unreasonably, in that wild place, one cannot help feeling that it must have been the scene of many a savage revelry and many a deed of darkness in what are sometimes styled "the good old times."
The chase was kept up, and Tom, when he had a chance to look up at the speed register, as he labored frantically at the clogged gas machine, saw that they were rushing along as they never had before. "Are we catching them, Ned?" he cried to his chum, who was not far away, playing the powerful light on the smugglers' craft. "I think we're coming closer, but it's going to be a long chase.
East Florida Adams found, pursuing his inquiries into the archives of the department included the two important ports of entry, Pensacola on the Gulf and Fernandina on Amelia Island, at the mouth of the St. Mary's River. The island had long been a notorious resort for smugglers.
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