Lothian had raised his voice, and several of the men had moved closer to him to hear the particulars of this raid upon one of the known smugglers of Scapa Flow.  So much, indeed, was the general attention occupied that none of the men seemed to regard the entrance of yet another person into the inn parlour.  This was none other than Tom Kinlay, who, with his great boots and pea jacket on and his sou’wester hat, looked as big a man as any of them.

For a moment he hesitated, on seeing the young naval officer, but, emboldened by Mr. Fox’s disguised appearance, he took 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!”