'Very well,' replied the lieutenant, who was _lying_ down in his _standing_ bed-place.
'The people say one is the _Happy-go-lucky_, sir,' drawled Smith.
'Heh? what! _Happy-go-lucky_? Yes, I recollect; I've boarded her twenty times--always empty. How's she standing?'
'She stands to the westward now, sir; but she was hove-to, they say, when they first saw her.'
'Then she has a cargo in her;' and Mr. Appleboy shaved himself, dressed, and went on deck.
'Yes,' said the lieutenant, rubbing his eyes again and again, and then looking through the glass, 'it is her, sure enough. Let draw the foresheet--hands make sail. What vessel's the other?'
'A cutter? yes; maybe a yacht, or maybe the new cutter ordered on the station. Make all sail, Mr. Tomkins; hoist our pendant, and fire a gun--they will understand what we mean then; they don't know the _Happy-go-lucky_ as well as we do.'
In a few minutes the _Active_ was under a press of sail; she hoisted her pendant, and fired a gun. The smuggler perceived that the _Active_ had recognised her, and she also threw out more canvas, and ran off more to the westward.
'There's a gun, sir,' reported one of the men to Mr. Stewart, on board of the yacht.
'Yes; give me the glass--a revenue cutter; then this vessel inshore running towards us must be a smuggler.'
'Yes, there's no doubt of it. I will go down to his lordship, keep her as she goes.'
Mr. Stewart then went down to inform Lord B. of the circumstance. Not only Lord B. but most of the gentlemen came on deck; as did soon afterwards the ladies, who had received the intelligence from Lord B., who spoke to them through the door of the cabin.
But the smuggler had more wind than the revenue cutter, and increased her distance.
'If we were to wear round, my lord,' observed Mr. Stewart, 'she is just abreast of us and inshore, we could prevent her escape.'
'Round with her, Mr. Stewart,' said Lord B.; 'we must do our duty and protect the laws.'
'That will not be fair, papa,' said Cecilia Ossulton; 'we have no quarrel with the smugglers: I'm sure the ladies have not, for they bring us beautiful things.'
'Miss Ossulton,' observed her aunt, 'it is not proper for you to offer an opinion.'
The yacht wore round, and, sailing so fast, the smuggler had little chance of escaping her; but to chase is one thing--to capture another.