Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 431 | Page 6

much soberer than before:
perhaps the keen air had cooled him somewhat, or he might have been
shamming it a little at the inn to hoodwink the doctor. Five or six
minutes brought us to a sharp turn of the road, where we caught sight
of the young woman, who was not more than thirty or forty yards ahead.
Presently, the sound of footsteps appeared to strike her ear, for she
looked quickly round, and an expression of alarm escaped her. I was in
the shadow of the road, so that, in the first instance, she saw only Wyatt.
Another moment, and her terrified glance rested upon me.
'Lieutenant Warneford!' she exclaimed.
'Ay, my good girl, that is my name. You appear frightened--not at me, I
hope?'
'O no, not at you,' she hastily answered, the colour vividly returning to
her pale cheeks.
'This good-looking person is, I daresay, a sweetheart of yours; so I'll
just keep astern out of ear-shot. My road lies past your dwelling.'

The girl appeared to understand me, and, reassured, walked on, Wyatt
lopping sullenly along beside her. I did not choose to have a fellow of
his stamp, and in his present mood, walking behind me.
Nothing was said that I heard for about a mile and a half, when Wyatt,
with a snarling 'good-night' to the girl, turned off by a path on the left,
and was quickly out of sight.
'I am not very far from home now, sir,' said the young woman
hesitatingly. She thought, perhaps, that I might leave her, now Wyatt
had disappeared.
'Pray go on, then,' I said; 'I will see you safe there, though somewhat
pressed for time.'
We walked side by side, and after awhile she said in a low tone, and
with still downcast eyes: 'My mother lived servant in your family once,
sir.'
'The deuce! Your name is Ransome, then, I suspect.'
'Yes, sir--Mary Ransome.' A sad sigh accompanied these words. I
pitied the poor girl from my heart, but having nothing very consolatory
to suggest, I held my peace.
'There is mother!' she cried in an almost joyful tone. She pointed to a
woman standing in the open doorway of a mean dwelling at no great
distance, in apparently anxious expectation. Mary Ransome hastened
forwards, and whispered a few sentences to her mother, who fondly
embraced her.
'I am very grateful to you, sir, for seeing Mary safely home. You do not,
I daresay, remember me?'
'You are greatly changed, I perceive, and not by years alone.'
'Ah, sir!' Tears started to the eyes of both mother and daughter. 'Would
you,' added the woman, 'step in a moment. Perhaps a few words from

you might have effect.' She looked, whilst thus speaking, at her weak,
consumptive-looking husband, who was seated by the fireplace with a
large green baize-covered Bible open before him on a round table.
There is no sermon so impressive as that which gleams from an
apparently yawning and inevitable grave; and none, too, more quickly
forgotten, if by any resource of art, and reinvigoration of nature, the
tombward progress be arrested, and life pulsate joyously again. I was
about to make some remark upon the suicidal folly of persisting in a
course which almost necessarily led to misery and ruin, when the but
partially-closed doorway was darkened by the burly figure of Wyatt.
'A very nice company, by jingo!' growled the ruffian; 'you only want
the doctor to be quite complete. But hark ye, Ransome,' he continued,
addressing the sick man, who cowered beneath his scowling gaze like a
beaten hound--'mind and keep a still tongue in that calf's head of yourn,
or else prepare yourself to--to take--to take--what follows. You know
me as well as I do you. Good-night.'
With this caution, the fellow disappeared; and after a few words, which
the unfortunate family were too frightened to listen to, or scarcely to
hear, I also went my way.
The information received from Dr Lee relative to the contemplated run
near Hurst Castle proved strictly accurate. The surprise of the
smugglers was in consequence complete, and the goods, the value of
which was considerable, were easily secured. There occurred also
several of the ordinary casualties that attend such
encounters--casualties which always excited in my mind a strong
feeling of regret, that the revenue of the country could not be assured
by other and less hazardous expedients. No life was, however, lost, and
we made no prisoners. To my great surprise I caught, at the beginning
of the affray, a glimpse of the bottle-green coat, drab knee-cords, with
gaiter continuations, of the doctor. They, however, very quickly
vanished; and till about a week afterwards, I concluded that their owner
had escaped in a whole skin. I was mistaken.
I had passed the