ithin the house. Give up the girl and the child to their legal
protectors, and no harm shall befall either life or property. We shall
be on shipboard in half-an-hour. I shall see to it that every man within
the castle is rewarded from the Maitland money that is safe beyond seas,
out of the reach of King George! Of that, at least I made sure, serving
twice seven years for it in the service of a hard master. I offer a
hundred pounds apiece to whoever will deliver the boy and the maid!"

This was a speech which pleased me much, for it showed that from the
stoutness of our defence, and the many guns which had been shot off,
Lalor was under the impression that the house was garrisoned by a proper
force of men--when in truth there was only Miss Irma and me--that is,
not counting Agnes Anne.

CHAPTER XIV

THE WHITE FREE TRADERS

But the country was by no means so craven as Lalor supposed. There were
bold hearts and ready saddles still in Galloway. The signal from the top
of the beacon tower of Marnhoul was seen and understood in half-a-dozen
parishes.

Not that the young fellows who saw the flame connected it with the two
children who had taken refuge in the old place of the Maitlands. In
fact, most knew nothing about their existence. But their alacrity was
connected with quite another matter--the great cargo of dutiable and
undutied goods stored away in the cellars of Marnhoul!

There was stirring, therefore, in remote farms, rattling on doors,
hurried scrambling up and down stable ladders. Young men on the
outskirts of villages might have been seen stealing through gardens,
stumbling among cabbage-stocks and gooseberry bushes as they made their
way by the uncertain flicker of our far-away beacon to the place of
rendezvous.

Herds rising early to "look the hill" gave one glance at the red dance
of the flames over the tree-tops of Marnhoul great wood, and anon ran to
waken their masters.

For in that country every farmer--aye, and most of the lairds, including
a majority of the Justices of the Peace--had a share in the "venture."
Sometimes the value of the cargo brought in by a single run would be
from fifty to seventy thousand pounds. All this great amount of goods
had to be scattered and concealed locally, before it was carried to
Glasgow and Edinburgh over the wildest and most unfrequented tracks.

The officers of the revenue, few and ill-supported, could do little.
Most of them, indeed, accepted the quie