"I know it all, though you did not tell me, Cousin Dick. You had no
purpose in going, save to see the end of a wretched quarrel and a
smuggler's ill scheme. You carried a musket for your own safety, not with
any purpose. It was a day of weight in your own life, for on one side you
had an offer from the Earl Fitzwilliam to serve on his estate; and on the
other to take a share in a little fleet of fishing smacks, of which my
father was part owner. I think you know to which side I inclined, but
that now is neither here nor there; and, though you did not tell me, as
you went along the shore you were more intent on handing backwards and
forwards in your mind your own affairs, than of what should happen at
Theddlethorpe. And so you did not hurry as you went, and, as things
happened, you came to Faddo's house almost at the same moment with Lancy
Doane and two other mounted coast-guards.
"You stood in the shadow while they knocked at Faddo's door. You were so
near, you could see the hateful look in his face. You were surprised he
did not try to stand the coast-guards off. You saw him, at their bidding,
take a lantern, and march with them to a shed standing off a little from
the house, nearer to the shore. Going a roundabout swiftly, you came to
the shed first, and posted yourself at the little window on the sea-side.
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