from the west.

"And we not in it, mates," said the big sailor dolefully.

The wounded being cared for and the miners' wives beginning to come
back, we left them in the doctor's charge, and, in response to the
lieutenant's invitation, went back with him to the lugger.

"I'll send your fellows up all I can," he said, "but you two come to the
lugger cabin, and I think I can scrape you up a bit of a meal."

We were ready enough to go for many reasons, one of them being
curiosity; and having shaken hands with Bigley, and asked my father to
do the same, for the poor fellow was very miserable and despondent, away
we went.

"The rascals!" said the lieutenant, "they've got all your silver then?
How much was it worth?"

"Nearly two thousand five hundred pounds' worth," said my father.

"What a haul!" exclaimed the lieutenant, "and so compact and handy.
Never mind, captain, hark at our guns talking to them. They'll have to
disgorge. But, I say, some one must have told them where to come."

"I'm afraid so," said my father.

"Who was likely to know?--this smuggling rascal that we have got in the
French lugger?"

"Who is he? An Englishman?"

"No, sir, a Frenchman who speaks English pretty well. The officer on
the revenue cutter knows him. A Captain Gualtiere, I believe."

"Oh!" I exclaimed.

"You know him then?" said the officer sharply.

"Yes," said my father; "he picked up my son and two companions one day
after their boat had been blown out to sea."

"He seems to have picked up something else beside, sir," cried the
officer--"knowledge of where you kept your silver. And you may depend
upon it his lugger has been playing leader to the French sloop, and
showed the captain where to land. Two thousand five hundred pounds in
bars of silver! We must have that back."

"I'm afraid you are not quite right, sir," said my father sadly. "I
think we shall find that the betrayal of my place was due to a smuggler
who used to live in yonder cottage, information respecting whose cargo
landing I was compelled, as a king's officer, to give to the commander
of the cutter. It has been an old sore, and it has doubtless rankled."

"Oh, father!" I said sadly, "do you think this really is so?"

"Yes, Sep," he replied, "and so do you; but don't be alarmed, I shall
not visit it upon his son. The poor lad thinks the same, I am sure, and
he is half broken-hearted about it." We reached the beach soon after,
where a couple o