nd I am quite safe up to thirty paces. If you
don't clear away, I'll have one of you; but I don't say which one it
will be."

This practical address had a very good effect; the men wisely ran away.
The coastguard loaded his other pistol and mounted guard on the cart.

In the morning a passing tramp brought him help; the cart was conveyed
to the station, and it was found that a splendid haul had been
attempted. There was a load of silks and brandy, which was worth a great
deal of money. This was the very last attempt at old-fashioned smuggling
that ever was made on the north-east coast, and there is no doubt that
the attempt would have been successful if only raw young sailors had
been employed as guards, instead of an old hand who knew every move of
the game.

The coastguardman received his promotion soon afterwards, and he
continued to express his contempt for man-o'-war's men and smugglers
till he arrived at a very old age.

THE SUSPECTED MAN.

A tall girl used to wander about from village to village down the coast.
Strangers did not know what was the matter with her, but all the people
who lived round the bay knew that she was out of her mind. Her clothes
were not very good, but she kept herself clean, and when she was in the
humour she would help the neighbours. She had no relations living, but
she never went short of food, for the fishers and the farm people, and
even the pitmen, took care to give her shelter and enough to eat. She
was mostly bare-headed, but in September, when the cotton-grass grew
feathery, she liked to make herself a head-dress out of the grey plumes.
When her Sunday hat, as she called it, was on, she was fond of putting
the red fronds of the dying bracken into her belt, and with those
adornments she looked picturesque.

She was always humming to herself, but she never got beyond one silly
old song which is common enough in the north country. As she walked
along the links she used to move her hands in a stupid way to the rhythm
of her music. The words that she sung are known to the people who live
on the border, but nobody has ever completed the lyric to which they
belong. The two verses which she sang were:--

"Oh have you seen my bonny lad,
And ken ye if he's weel, O!
It's owre the land and owre the sea
He's gyen to moor the keel, O!

"Oh yes, I saw your bonny lad,
Upon the sea I spied him,
His grave is green, but not wi' grass,
And yo