Activate Javascript or update your browser for the full Digital Library experience.
Next Page
OCR
_ VOLUME IV.—NUMBER 15.
SS
Ay
W,.
H}
Uf
i
T
I
l
yh I)
I]
\
HI
i
tint
hi
[Drawn and engraved expressly for The Weekly Novelette.
{Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Clerk's Office of
. the District Court of Massachusetts.]
THE SMUGGLER:
THE SECRETS OF THE COAST.
‘—OR,—
A LEGEND OF THE LAND AND OCEAN
BY SYLVANUS COBB, Jr.
.
CHAPTER I.
| THE YOUNG FISHERMAN AND THE SMUGGLER.
: AT a point about half way between the borders of
Scotland and Dunstanborough, on the coast of North-
umberland, there is a cove of considerable extent
which; in years‘ long past, bore the name of Lollards’
Bay, from the circumstance that a small party of those
people fled from Germany.on account of persecution
from the mendicant friars, and made a temporary set-
tlement near that spot. It deserves, however, hardly
the name ofa ‘“‘bay,” for it is but a deep, ragged
basin, forming an extended mouth to a small river that
runs up a short distance into the country to the north-
ward and westward. Near its entrance are numerous
quicksands, islands, and towering, and sunken rocks,
80 that one not perfectly familiar with the narrow, du-
bious channel could not run even:a pleasure yacht
Within its shelter. Neither would any one not knowing
of the existence or locality of this inlet have ever mis-
trusted the fact by sailing down the coast, for the ob-
Structions to its view from the sea were 80 numerous
and seemingly interwoven, that the coast seemed hardly
broken by its indentation. . .
The sun must have been at least an hour high,
though most of the bay was shaded by the tall forest
trees that just caught the rays of the bright orb upon
their waving tops. It was a June sun, and its beams
danced upon verdant foliage and towering rocks,
Eh a
» THE APPARITION IN THE OLD. CHAPEL.
stopped 2 moment to play with:the ripples at the
mouth of the inlet, and then went darting away over
the broad bosom of the German ocean.
Half way up the bay was a small skiff-built boat,
which was being propelled by a single individual to-
wards the river. The boat glided swiftly through the
water, though ever and anon its inmate would raise his
oars for a moment to gaze about him, and once or
twice his movements seemed to indicate that he was
not quite determined where to land, and, if one might
judge from the anxiety betrayed in his quick, nervous
glances, he wished to escape detection from some
quarter. At length, however, when he had nearly
reached the mouth of the stream, he seemed to give up
his watching, for, setting himself more firmly to his
task, he pulled directly for the stream, and after he had
passed some ten or a dozen rods up between its banks,
e turned to the left and shot into a little artificial in-
let, where he landed and hauled his boat ashore after
him. Having accomplished this, he cut from a willow
that grew near him a small twig, then reaching over
into the cuddy of his skiff he took therefrom four good-
sized fish and struang:them upon it, after which, he
started off up a narrow path that led through the thick
wood.
Now we have a chance to study somewhat .of our
acquaintance’s appearance. He was a young man,
who could not have been over one-and-twenty years,
tall, and stoutly built; though by no means clumsy, for
his wrists, hands, ankles, and feet, were small, almost
to delicateness, while his head was carried. with that
erectness and graceful ease that betray the perfect free-
dom of all the muscles in the system. His face was
handsome—not with any delicate or very classical turn-
ing of the features—but with the beaming of an inde-
pendent good nature, accompanied by a proud look of
conscious right—though it must be confessed that at
the present time that pride which could by nature but
have belonged there, was clouded and Tuffled by a
shade of some nervous fear. THis hair was long, and
hung down over his shoulders in jet black ringlets, and
where its wavy curls were allowed. to grow: shorter
‘about the temples, they gave to his dark eyes a piercing
lustre. Though his call was but that of an humble
fisherman, yet his garb was hardly in keeping with
[See page 231.]
such a vocation. He wore a blue, pointed jacket, laced
with tinsel, from beneath which hung a buff skirt with ©
purple edging. His legs were clothed in blue woollen
tights, and his feet in dressed deerskin boots which
fitted tightly about the ankles, but were rather large
and slouchy about the tops. .On his head he wore a
kind of plaid bonnet, somewhat after the fashion of the
Highlanders, and, take him all in all, he was such an
one as an observer would be likely to watch and study
with interest.
As the young man entered the path he resumed his
watchful manner, gazing carefully about him,. and
starting as some linnet or sparrow. would hop from
bough to bough, or some rabbit start up near him. At
length he reached a point Where the path took. an ab-
rupt turn around a high rock, and instead of following
it he struck into the woods on the right, preferring to
take a more circuitous route, rather than run the risk
of coming” suddenly upon any travelling point in his
way, seeming still bent upon not allowing himself to
be caught unawares. But the very precaution he took
thwarted his own design, for he had hardly entered a
rod and a balf into the shrubbery that ran wild among
the trees, when the heavy crackling of bushes struck :
upon his ear, and ere he could escape detection a hand
was laid upon his shoulder. .
“Ah, Cecil, I’ve been hunting for you,” said the
new comer, who still kept bis hand upon the young
man’s shoulder. ;
Said individual was more stoutly built than him
whom he called Cecil, and his face, halt covered by a*
dense mass of black beard, looked stern and repulsive.
Nis hair was black and shaggy, and he was dressed in
the garb of a smuggler, with a brace of pistols and a
long knife stuck within the belt that confined his dark
frock, while in his slouched hat he wore a small blue
and white feather, the insignia of command.
“Garl Tamell,” returned the young man, “what
would you with me? Why do you thus intercept
me?”
“T have business with you, Cecil—business of im-
portance. You must pilot the Ranger into the safe,
to-morrow.” : oe
-“T had thought as much, Garl, and hence I have
been trying to ayoid you,” returned the youth, while a
et eet oo hy eer Ber
a
