red
every moment to attend on her and Mrs Simmons. I was not likely to
find Dr Rolt till the evening, so I determined to consult Jim and Bob
Fox. I soon met Jim; he was ready to cry when I told him. He scratched
his head and rubbed his brow, in vain trying to suggest something.

"Bob can't help us either," he said, at length. "He's got into trouble.
Went away three days ago over to France in a smuggling lugger, the
_Smiling Lass_, and she was catched last night with tubs aboard, so he's
sure to want all the money he can get to pay Lawyer Chalk to keep him
out of prison, if that's to be done, but I'm afeared even old Chalk will
be nonplussed this time."

"I wonder whether Lawyer Chalk would lend me the money," I said.

"Might as well expect to get a hen's egg out of a block of granite,"
answered Jim.

On inquiry I found that all my friends from whom I had the slightest
hope of assistance were away over at Ryde, Cowes, or Southampton.

"I tell you, Peter, as I knowed how much you wanted money, I'd a great
mind to go aboard the _Smiling Lass_ t'other day, when Bob axed me.
It's a good job I didn't, isn't it?"

"I am very glad you didn't, not only because you would have been taken,
but because you would have broken the law," I answered. "Father always
set his face against smuggling."

"Yes, maybe he did," said Jim, who did not see that smuggling was wrong
as clearly as I did. "But now what's to be done?"

"We'll go down to the Hard, and try to pick up a job," I answered. "A
few pence will be better than nothing."

We each got a job in different boats. The one I was in took some
passengers over to Ryde, and thence some others to Spithead and back, so
that it was late when I got home with a shilling and a few pence in my
pocket. Mary was no better. The doctor had been, and Nancy had told
him of the landlord's threats, but he had made no remark.

"I'll tell you what I'll do, Nancy," I said; "I'll offer the landlord
this shilling when he comes to-morrow to show that I am in earnest, and
perhaps he will let us off for another day or two."

"Better hear what the doctor thinks when he comes in the morning. I
don't think that he'll allow Mary and Widow Simmons to have their beds
taken from under them. Cheer up, Peter! Cheer up!"

I did cheer up a little when Jim came in and brought another shilling,
his day's earnings, declaring that he'd had a good dinner, and had still
some coppers in his pocket to pay