“A fine morning, lieutenant.”

“Yes,” the latter assented.  “There will be wind presently.  Have you heard of the doings of last night?”

“No,” Mr. Wilks said in surprise, “I have heard nothing.  I was just speaking to the fishermen, but they don’t seem in as communicative a mood as usual this morning.”

“The scamps know it is safest for them to keep their mouths shut, just at present,” the officer said grimly.  “I have no doubt a good many of them were concerned in that affair last night.  We had a fight with the smugglers.  Two of my men were shot and one of theirs, and there were a good many cutlass wounds on each side.  We have taken a score of prisoners, but they are all country people who were assisting in the landing; the smugglers themselves all got off.  We made a mess of the affair altogether, thanks to some fellow who rushed down and gave the alarm, and upset all the plans we had laid.

“It is too provoking.  I had got news of the exact spot and hour at which the landing was to take place.  I had my men all up on the cliff, and, as the fellows came up with kegs, they were to have been allowed to get a hundred yards or so inland and would there have been seized, and any shout they made would not have been heard below.  Lieutenant Fisher, with his party from the next station, was to be a little way along at the foot of the cliffs, and when the boats came with the second batch, he was to rush forward and capture them, while we came down from above.  Then we intended to row off and take the lugger.  There was not wind enough for her to get away.

“All was going well, and the men were just coming up the cliff with the tubs, when someone who had passed us on the cliff ran down shouting the alarm.  We rushed down at once, but arrived too late.  They showed fight, and kept us back till Fisher’s party came up; but by that time the boats were afloat, and the smugglers managed to get in and carry them off, in spite of us.  We caught, as I tell you, some of the countrymen, and Fisher has taken them off to Weymouth, but most of them got away.  There are several places where the cliff can be climbed by men who know it, and I have no doubt half those fishermen you see there were engaged in the business.”

“Then the smuggler got away?” Mr. Wilks asked.

“I don’t know,” the lieutenant said shortly.  “I had sent word to Weymouth, and I hope they will catch her in the offing.  The lugger came down this way first, but we made her out, and showed a blue light.  She must have turned and gone back again, for this morning at daylight we made her out to the east.  The cutter was giving chase, and at first ran down fast towards her.  Then the smugglers got the wind, and the last we saw of them they were running up the Channel, the cutter some three miles astern.

“I would give a couple of months’ pay to know who it was that gave the alarm.  I expect it was one of those fishermen.  As far as my men could make out in the darkness, the fellow was dressed as a sailor.  But I must say good morning, for I am just going to turn in.”