his nephew--a
mere baby to any of you,--it just shows what a white-livered crew you
smugglers are; but, howsomdever, if you'll let them go without harm, you
may make a shot fast to my feet and heave me over the cliffs outside
here, or do what you like with me; you can but kill me, and I don't fear
you--so heave ahead, my hearties."

This address of Jack Stretcher created some considerable sensation among
the smugglers; but their chief seemed immovable. What surprised me most
was, that they were not in the slightest degree enraged at the abuse
showered so liberally on their heads; but, on the contrary, they
infinitely admired him for his fearlessness and fidelity to his
superior.

"What you say, my man, can't be done; those two die, for conspiring with
a traitor to betray us. We shall keep you shut up for some time, and
then carry you over to America, perhaps, or some distant part; but we
shan't take your life; so now you know what you have to expect. Take
those two off, and heave them over High-Peak Cliff. Be sharp about it,
now."

Before my uncle could speak a word or attempt to free himself, he was
dragged back and pinioned, and I was treated in the same way; our eyes
were tightly bandaged, as before; and we were forced out of the cavern
by a large body of the smugglers.

"Never fear, sir," shouted Stretcher. "They'll hang for it yet, and I
shall live to see you revenged."

Extraordinary as it may appear, I had no particular dread of the fate
which was awaiting me. Perhaps it was a presentiment that I should
escape. I cannot now explain the cause of the feeling; indeed, at the
time, I could not probably have done so. I thought much more of my
brave uncle being thus brought to an untimely end, and of the grief of
my sweet young aunt at Ryde, when she should hear of his barbarous
murder. The atrocity of the deed was increased by the cold-blooded
manner in which the wretches proceeded, by dragging us to their
pretended court, and then condemning us, with scarcely even the mockery
of a trial. Indeed the affair seemed so unusual, that I could hardly
believe in the reality. My most absorbing feeling was bitter
indignation, and a burning desire to break from my guards, and to rescue
my uncle. However, as I wriggled about helplessly in their grasp, I
must own that I was very like an unhappy cockchafer stuck through with a
pin by a cruel schoolboy, without the remotest chance of escaping. My
uncle was dragg