resistance was or could be made,
and in less than an hour Tom Fairlie, with his crestfallen prisoners,
had reached the harbour, where they were welcomed by a hearty cheer,
which awakened the echoes of the rocks and a good many of the
inhabitants of the village of Torquay.[A]

[A] The town now shows a bolder front.

And now Captain Jack Mackenzie shook hands right heartily with his
friend Tom Fairlie.

"Splendid night's work, Tom," he said. "A thousand thanks! Now the saucy
_Tonneraire_ may be called ready for sea."

Splendid night's work was it? Well, we now-a-days would think this
impressment cruel--cruel to take men away from their homes and
avocations, perhaps never to see their country more. Yet it must be
admitted that smugglers like these, who had so long defied the law,
richly deserved their fate.

CHAPTER X.

IN THE MOON'S BRIGHT WAKE.

"Now welcome every sea delight--
The cruise with eager watchful days,
The skilful chase by glimmering night,
The well-worked ship, the gallant fight,
The loved commander's praise!"--_Old Song._

It was not without a tinge of sorrow at his heart that Jack Mackenzie
stood on his own quarter-deck and saw the chalky cliffs of England
fading far astern, as the gloom of eventide fast deepened into night. He
was not the one to give way to useless grief, but he could not help
contrasting the hope and joyfulness with which he had last left home
with his present state of mind. He was not a post-captain then
certainly, but he had that--or thought he had--for which he would gladly
now take the epaulettes from off his shoulders and fling them in the
sea--namely, the love of the only girl he ever thought worth living for.
But she-- Well, no matter; that was past and gone. His love had
been all a dream, a happy dream enough while it lasted, while his
heart had been to her a toy. But then his father, his good old
careless-hearted father. Wrecked and ruined! That he was in difficulties
Jack had known for years, but he never knew how deep these were, nor
that they had so entwined themselves around the roots of the old
homestead, that to get rid of the former was to tear up the latter and
cast all its old associations to the four winds of heaven. Dear old
homestead! Somehow Jack had dreamt he would always have it to go home to
on every return voyage, always have his father there to welcome him
back, always--

"Hallo!" said a voice at his side, "wh