er that fired cannon and bade us heave to, but the
Kirkbean men, who had Kate o' the Shore with them, bade our boat carry
on, and engaged the pursuer. We could see the flash of their guns a long
distance, and cries came to us mixed with the thunderclap of the
schooner's guns. The Colvend men would have turned back to help, but
they had received strict orders to put us on shore, whatever might
happen, the which they did at Killantringan.

"After that" (Miss Irma still went on) "I had so much ado to look after
my brother, being fearful to let him out of my hands lest he should be
taken from me, that I only heard the names of a place or two spoken
among them--particularly the Brandy Knowe, a dark hole in a narrow
ravine, under the roots of a great tree, with a burn across which we had
to be carried. I remember the rushing sound of the water in the
blackness of the night, and Louis's voice calling out, as the men
trampled the pebbles, 'Are you there, sister Irma?'

"But long before it was day they had finished stowing their cargo. We
were again on the march and the men took good care of us, leaving us
here according to their orders with plenty of provisions for a
week--also money, all good unclipped silver pieces and English gold.
They bade us not to leave the house on any account, and in case of any
sudden danger to light the fire on the tower head!

"'For the present our duty is done,' said one of them, a kind of chief
or leader who had carried me before him on his own horse, 'but there may
be more and worse yet to do, wherein we of the Free Trade may help you
more than all the power of King George--to whom, however, we are very
good friends, in all that does not concern our business of the private
Over-Seas Traffic'--for so they named their trade of smuggling."

"I would like much to see this beacon," I said; "perhaps we may have to
light it. At any rate it is well to be sure that we have all the
ingredients of the pudding at hand in case of need."

CHAPTER IX

THE EVE OF ST. JOHN

We went up the narrow stair--that is, Miss Irma and I--because, since I
carried my father's blunderbuss, Agnes Anne would not come, but stopped
half-way, where the little Louis lay asleep in his cot-bed. On the top
of the tower, and swinging on a kind of iron tripod bolted into the
battlements, we found an iron basket, like that in which sea-coal is
burned, but wider in the mesh. Then, in the "winnock cupboard" at the
turn of t