ey have seen on their travels."

Every one was very much interested in my uncle's story. A young man who
was present, a friend of mine, belonging to a revenue cutter, observed,
"We were talking of smugglers just now. There is no end to the dodges
they are up to.

"Not long ago, soon after I joined the _Lively_, it had come on to blow
pretty fresh, and we had had a dirty night of it, when just as morning
broke we made out a cutter standing in for the land to the eastward of
Weymouth, and about two miles from us. The wind was from the
north-west, and it had kicked up a nasty sea, running pretty high, as it
well knows how to do in that part of the Channel.

"Our old mate, Mr Futlock, had the morning watch. It was never his
brightest time, for though he did not actually get tipsy, the reaction
following the four or five pretty stiff glasses of grog which he drank
at night, generally at this time took place. I was in his watch.

"`Youngster,' said he to me, `hand me the glass, and let us see if we
can make out what that fellow is.'

"I brought him the glass, which was kept hung up in beckets within the
companion-hatch. I had got my sea-legs aboard pretty well, but I
confess that I felt very queer that morning in certain regions, ranging
from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, and I doubt not looked
very yellow in the cheeks, with every instant an irresistible drawing
down of the mouth, and that worst of signs, a most unyoungsterlike
disinclination to eat.

"Mr Futlock took the glass, and with his lack-lustre eye had a long
look at the cutter, which was bobbing away into the seas, while she kept
her course on a wind as if in no manner of a hurry.

"`She is honest, I believe,' he observed, with a wise nod. `Probably a
Poole or Exmouth trader; but we must overhaul her notwithstanding.
Shake a reef out of the mainsail, my lads.'

"This was quickly done, and the sail hoisted up. `Now, keep her away a
couple of points more, and we shall about fetch her.'

"Our mate's orders being executed, away we went tearing through the
foaming, hissing water, now looking, in the morning's pale light, of a
dark, melancholy hue. The stranger continued on as steady as before.

"`Oh, there's no use in the world giving ourselves the trouble of
boarding her,' muttered Mr Futlock; and he was just going to order the
cutter to be kept on a wind, when we saw the stranger haul up his
foresail, and let fly his jib sheets, evide