ceived Selma in his own house half an hour later. The accusation most frequently brought against Miss Malet's beauty by her detractors was, that she wanted colour; she was too pale, they said, and her eyes were too dark. But no such fault could have been found with her now, as she stood in the hall as Tyrrell explained to her his sister's absence. Her cheeks were flushed and burning with a lovely vivid colour; her eyes looked feverishly large and shining, and glittered and sparkled brilliantly. "Sybilla will be in directly, no doubt," said Tyrrell, thinking, as he spoke, that he had never seen anything more perfect than her face. "Will you come and let me entertain you in the study until she comes, or would you prefer the state and ceremony of the drawing-room? I am very glad to see you here, Selma," he finished, suddenly dropping the mock deference which was a standing joke between them, and speaking in a tone of quiet cordiality, while his eyes met hers with an expression which they very seldom wore. But Selma's eyes had wandered restlessly away, and she answered: "It's very kind of you, Mr. Tyrrell. Don't trouble about me, please. One gets rather tired of being entertained, you know." Her voice was rather hard and sharp, and there was a certain reckless disregard for the courtesy or discourtesy of her words, not uncommon in spoilt beauties, but new in Selma. Tyrrell looked at her with a slight considering frown. He was not surprised, and he was not particularly disturbed. "I won't entertain you, then," he said. "Come into the study and we will sit and say nothing!" "What an inviting prospect!" exclaimed Selma, with a little disdainful laugh which rang sharp as her voice did. Thank you, Mr. Tyrrell, but I think solitude will suit me better. I will sit and say nothing in my own room, with your kind permission," and, with another mocking laugh, she turned away from him and went quickly upstairs. Tyrrell returned to his study with a slight smile, and solaced himself with a cigarette. It was a new departure on Selma's part, he told himself, but not on the whole an important one. Half an hour had passed, he had taken up a book, when there was a soft knock at the door, and, before he could speak, Selma came in, straight across the room to where he stood as he rose to receive her. "I am so sorry," she said simply, in & low voice. "You are so good to me, and I was so rude. There there is nobody so good to me as you are, and I cannot bear to think of your being angry." All the colour was gone from her face, her eyes as she raised them for a moment only to his were dark and heavy, and her pleading voice shook a little. "Of what are they made?" was Tyrrell's reflection on women in general, as he listened to her and looked at her. "This is another creature!" "I could never be angry with you, Selma," he said, and even on the stage his voice had never been more beautiful. "Don't you know that nothing you could say to me would make any difference." "I know that you are the kindest friend I have in the world," she said, softly, stretching out her hand as she spoke and letting it rest in his. "It was horrible of me, Mr. Tyrrell. May I-may I sit here with you, now?" His only answer was a smile as he wheeled her round a chair, and as she sat down, he said : "Are we to sit and say nothing! Selma lifted her eyes to him deprecatingly, and, to his amazement, they were full of tears. "Let us try and think that it is a long time ago," she said, "a long, long time ago, before I began to come out. Mr. Tyrrell, sometimes I behave as though-as though I had forgotten; but, indeed, in my heart I never do. I know, always, that I owe everything to you-to your help, to your advice. Talk to me as you used to talk when I came here every day, when there was no rush and nobody but you." "That is a very long time ago, Selma," he returned. He did not sit down, but stood looking at her beautiful, softened face, with eyes which might have startled her if she had looked up. She did not look up, nor did she make any answer, except a little sad gesture of acquiescence; and, as he watched her, his face paled slightly, and he drew a step nearer to her. "Selma," he began, But he was interrupted. Before Selma had time to read the expression on his face, the door behind them opened, and Miss Tyrrell's voice said, suavely: "How shocking of me to be so late!" THE TREASURE OF SANDOWN Dunkirk on black nights, in luggers that CASTLE. A COMPLETE STORY. running goods across from Calais and sailed like the very wind, with a man-o'war astarn chasing us, and slapping shot after us as though we was only a target. Smuggling!" continued the old man, with a little sparkle coming into his dim eyes, and a quivering energy into his shrill tones, "why, what does young folks in these days know of the risks us men used to run? More'n once have I seen our luggers sunk by the revenue cutters 'cos they wouldn't heave-to, and once I was wounded here with a musket-ball as I was a-running away," and he indicated one of his attenuated calves with a hooked forefinger. "Four times have I been took by man-o'-war boats, and nine times been inside of Canterbury jail during King's pleasure for robbing of His Majesty's revenue. Some rummy things used to happen to us sometimes too. You ain't in no perticler hurry, sir? Then I'll just give ye a bit of a yarn. I HAD been for some while engaging in conversation one of the most ancient seafaring men it had ever been my good fortune to behold. His quavering tones affected one almost as the pages of a blackletter history might in their suggestion of remoteness. Waterloo, the invariable time mark of the aged, this bleared-eyed, tottering old waterman assured me was fought upon the very day that he was married. He told me that he had no knowledge of his real age, but that he was popularly reputed to be nearly a century old, "which I dessay," said he, with a look of pride, "ain't very far out." He had followed the water since a boy, and had only given up going upon it when his trembling hands and nerveless arms rendered him useless in a boat. Now he informed me he subsisted upon a few shillings a week which was paid to him for looking after some marine stores, together with a slender pittance granted him by the parish; that he lived in a little tarry hut, which he indicated; and that the loss of his last tooth, some forty years since, having left him no longer able to chew the quid, his chief solace in life was a pipe and a half-lugs, and with a fair wind and tide away ounce of tobacco. This extremely interesting old longshoreman and I sat together on the keel of an inverted boat upon the shingle slopes of Deal beach. The waters of the Downs stretched bright and dancing before us, and the scene was full of life and colour, for there had come a fair slant of wind at last, and the fleet of vessels were hastily getting their anchors and expanding their lofty heights of canvas. Tae summer breakers, seething lightly upon the pebbles, formed a very fit accompaniment to the trembling tones of my ancient companion. "This is a famous old town for smuggling," said I, following with my gaze the burly figure of a coastguard as he tramped over the crunching shingle. "Is there much contraband traffic carried on nowadays, do you know?" The old fellow withdrew his short clay pipe with a palsied hand. "Lord preserve ye, sir," he quavered out, "smuggling's dead an' gone years'n years ago. Ne'er a man along this here beach knows more about such like work than me. When I was a young 'un many's the time I've been "It was in the winter time of the year 1820, as near as I can recollect, for my memory ain't quite what it were, that me and seven other young chaps went away from this here Deal beach in a mackerel boat called the 'Happy Return,' bound across the water on our usual errand. We launches in the early morning, sets our big we goes. Lord, how them luggers used to sail, to be sure! There was never anything to beat that there 'Happy Return.' I can see her now, in my mind's eye, as she used to lie on the beach just over against the 'Hoop and Griffin,' sir. I've seen her walk away from frigates, reckoned the fastest craft of their time, as easy as you'd beat me now in a race," and the old fellow rumbled into a mirthless laugh. "Well, we clears the Sou'-Sans'-Head, and then hauls our wind for Ostend, to which port we was bound this time. We knew there'd be plenty of eyes ashore watching our manoeuvres, and pretty well guessing our business; but we'd got our nets aboard, and had made every preparation to lead folks to believe we was merely going a-fishing. The breeze came with a sort of fierceness in it when we got out behind the Goodwins, and we went rattling along like a sleigh over the ice. We made a smart passage that trip, sir, and no mistake, for we left as it might be at six o'clock in the morning, and the clocks were just striking ten by the time that we'd got the ligger safely moored inside of Ostend harbour, and as snug as a baby in its cradle. The foreigners was always glad for to see us chaps come into their places, since they knowed very well that we'd come to traffic along with them, and ye may be sure that our deceiving of the English revenue wasn't overmuch consarn to them. "Well, sir, we lies in harbour all day. Towards evening most of our chaps went up town to buy the goods we intended to run, for we looked to be ashore at Deal again afore daylight next morning. I stopped aboard the 'Happy Return' along with a young chap named Billy Fidler to look after her. We was sitting together aft smoking a pipe o' baccy, when a man comes to the edge of the pier up above, and stands looking down at us. I didn't take much notice of him at first, just observing that he was dressed in pilot cloth, with a roundabout hat like what parsons wear. But he stood staring at us for such a long time that at last me and Billy begins to stare back, seeing which, he sings out in plain English, 'Good evening.' I nodded back, and then he gets upon the ladder running up and down the pier, against which our lugger was moored, and comes slowly down it, and steps aboard. When he was on deck, he comes straight across to where we was a-sitting in the stern-sheets, and speaking to me, says: "Can I have a few words along with you, mister?' "As many as you like,' says I, "specially if you mean business at the back of it.' "Right you are,' he says, 'and business,' he says, 'is just what I do mean. I reckon now you come from Deal, don't you, and that you're over here on what you call the smuggling lay?' "Well,' I answers, with a grin, 'freeand-easy, mate; and as you've guessed it right I don't mind telling you,' for don't you see, sir, there wasn't no call to be perticler in concealing our business in a place where everybody knowed all about it. "And when d'ye reckon upon going back, may I ask?' says he. ye needn't trouble further, for there'll be a party waiting to receive it.' "Well, I snaps his offer up sharp, sir, as you may take your oath on't, for, as we was a-running goods on our own account, 'twas easy enough to put his box in along with ourn; and as to his being a spy, or a revenue officer in disguise, for all his being an Englishman, why, I never took to that notion at all. No, no, this consarn was genuine enough, as I seed at once; the bargin was struck, and the man paid half the money down on the nail afore we started, telling me that we'd get the other half at Deal, and then away he went, saying that he would send his chest of goods aboard by'n-by, when it came on dark. Well, about six o'clock, by which time it was quite dark, the month being January, a small boat comes rowing quietly down the harbour, and as she floats alongside, I made out that she had got a couple of hands in her, one of which was the chap that bad boarded us. He sings out softly when he had laid his little craft to: "Here's the chest. Bear a hand, some of you, to get it aboard. It's precious heavy.' "Upon this three or four of us leaned over the gunwale of the lugger, where the sheer of her brought it low down and close to the water aft, but when we come to tackle the chest we found it too heavy to hoist in that fashion, so we were obliged to bend the halliards on to it and sway it away like that. "It was a big, square box, seemingly made of oak, and very strong, sir, with iron clamps and great battens nailed along to prevent its splitting. It was as heavy as two of our strongest chaps could move, and as soon as I clapped eyes on it I reckoned it contained something valuable. We turned to and stowed it away down in the lugger's well, under a fleet of herringnets, the chap in the pilot-cloth suit standing and looking on all the time, telling us every minute to be careful of it, and so on, till he saw it safe and sound; then him and the other cove got into their boat again, and away they rows up the harbour. About half an hour afterwards our own cargo comes down, consisting of three hundred tubs of sperrits, a dozen bales of baccy, a small parcel of lace, some silk, and about twenty pound weight of teaworth in them days twenty-five shillings a pound. This was a valuable cargo, considering how high duty was in those times, and we stowed it away as quickly as we could, covering the lot under tarpaulins and nets; and then the breeze having drawed a bit more east'ardly, and we being anxious to get ashore again, we looses the lugger's moorings, and puts to sea." Here the old fellow paused, pulling off his cap to extract from it a spotted red handkerchief, which he applied to his nose with a shaking hand. He then dried his eyes, which were chronically humid, replaced the handkerchief, and proceeded. "Ye may call it pretty nigh ten o'clock when we had got clear of Ostend with our lugs hoisted, and the 'Happy Return' fairly started for home. The weight of the wind had took off a little, and we reckoned that though we was running nearly afore it, it would take us all four hours' sailing to cover the distance. It was a frosty night, very dark and clear; the sea was as black as ink, and there was nothing to be seen the 'rizon round saving the lights of the town we were leaving behind us. Some of us turned in to sleep, there being no occasion for all hands to remain on deck, so long as there was a man to tend the helm and another to keep a bright look-out. At about one o'clock in the morning I was called up to go and take the tiller, it being then my turn to stand watch. We then reckoned ourselves betwixt seven and eight miles from the English coast, and about ten from Deal. "Well, we kept all on going through it, me steering of the boat, and keeping her head well up for the South Foreland, whose high light was then in sight off the port bow. Presently I could make out the crowded lamps of the vessels in the Downs, and as our business was to give them a wide berth, lest a revenue cutter, or, worse still, a frigate, should lay amongst 'em, I luffed a little, intending to keep well outside of them, and then jibe over and run in directly for the land to the nor'ard of Deal, where the sand-hills, as you know, sir, stretch desolate and lonesome," and as he spoke his quivering hand traced upon the air a viewless diagram of his navigation. “We had made all our plans," continued he, with a little rasping cough, "and knew that there'd be people waiting for us when we arrived; parties as was as much consarned as ourselves, sir, and as would keep a bright look-out upon the blockades, as the coastguards of them days was called, although there wasn't generally much trouble in bribing them chaps to look in t'other direction, or consent to be bound hand and foot, or any other such tricks out of a score of ways and means which we employed. Our signal was to be three quick flashes with a lantern, which, if all was right ashore, was to be answered with three similar flashes, and if all was wrong, why, then with only one flash. "Sandown Castle then, sir, wasn't but a mere heap of ruins as ye see it now, but a proper kind of a fortress, inhabited by a corporal of Artillery and about a dozen men under him. They talk of the sea having encroached at that spot; but Lor', sir, when I was a boy it used to wash right up to the Castle walls at high water just the same as it does now. Well, this here corporal had been a boatman hisself, being in fact a Deal man, and many a good turn did he use to do us smugglers, although, poor chap, I must say we used always to pay him well for it. We flashed our light and waited, the lugger then being close in to the breakers which we could hear roaring along the beach. In a minute or two we saw the answering flashes ashore, and then we knew that it was all right and that we might heave ahead as soon as we liked. So we turned to smartly, and hoisted out the little punt we carried, and in a jiffy she was full of tubs and me and another man were pulling her ashore with muffled oars. We ran her on to the beach where there were plenty of people, all in the job, to meet us, and each man taking as big a load on his back as he could carry, sets off across country to a 'rondy-vous' very well beknown to us all, and in the shake of a mosquito's tail the boat was empty, and us rowing back to the lugger for another freight. Well, sir, we got all our cargo safely ashore, and then we carried the chest which we had shipped for the party at Ostend to the beach. The word was now passed round to know if there was anybody there to receive it, and I was middling surprised when the Artillery corporal stepped for. ward from out the little crowd of people and says, 'Yes, I'm to receive that there chest.' I was standing, holding one end of the big box, and he walks across to it, and laying hold of the other end, sings out, 'Lift up, my lad,' with which, being a great powerful man, he swings his end clear of the ground. I did the same, and we staggered along towards the Castle moat, which wasn't more'n a stone's throw from where we had come ashore, hadn't got half-way, however, before a cry was raised that the blockade patrol was We coming along, and instantly all the men set off at a scamper, bolting away in every direction like a pack of urchins startled by a bobby. "Hurry up, for Heaven's sake,' whispered the corporal, puffing and blowing under the weight of that blessed chest. 'It'll just about be good-night to us if we're took with this here box,' "We reached the little drawbridge that went across the fosse, as ye'd call it, to the Castle itself, and then we crouches down in the gloom of the walls whilst the relief guard goes tramping by as unconsarned as possible, which showed that they hadn't seen our men running away. But when they comes to the lugger's boat, lying drawn up on the beach, they stops, and seeing nobody minding her, they goes and takes a look. However, fortunately, we'd got every blessed article out of her, and they found nothing that ye might call 'criminating evidence, so after walking round and round her several times, and talking among themselves, at last we hears one of them say, 'Come on, lads; quick march !' and away they tramps again. ་ "When the sound of their steps marching along the shingle had died away, me and the corporal tackles the chest again, and this time we got it fair inside the Castle walls, where all was black as ink. The sodger then says to me: 'Hold hard, Dan'l'-for I was well beknown to him 'hold hard,' says he, and I'll go and fetch a light.' So we sets the chest down, and off he goes, and presently returns with a great lantern, which he had slung round his neck that he might have his hands free. We passes down some stone steps, into a gloomy underground passage, where our footsteps sounded hollow, and our voices echoed all round. "Dan'l,' says the corporal to me, presently, 'd'ye know what's in this chest, mate?' "No, Tom,' I says, 'I don't. The chap as shipped it told me not to consarn myself about that, so I didn't make no inquiries, though I reckon it's something of pretty considerable value.' "It is so,' he answered, dropping his voice, and 'twixt you and me and the bed-post, Dan'l, I don't mind telling you what it is, for I reckon that, out of respect for your neck, you won't breathe a word about it. There's the gold and silver plate,' says he, 'of some of the finest churches on the Continent in this here box. They call it sacry-lidge, I believe, and for us to be took with this here chest 'ud be certain hanging. Therefore I'm going to stow it away in a place in this here old Castle which ain't known to any person in it but myself.' "On this he leads me through such a maze of passages that I could no more have found my way back alive than"my old companion paused, looking about with his blinking eyes in search of an image, then quavered out "than I could chuck a pebble as far as yonder Goodwin Sands. I knew we was right down underground by the noise of the surf, which seemed overhead, sometimes sounding loud, and then becoming soft and distant again. Presently the corporal stops opposite a great black door at the end of a short archway, all studded over with nails like the soles of my boot. This here,' said he, 'used in years agone to be the powder-magazine, and a first-rate hidingplace there is just out of it.' So he opens the door which creaked like to set all my teeth of a jump, and in we steps, lugging the chest in along with_us. We sets it down upon the beachy floor, the corporal saying that he'd stow it snugly away by-'nby. He then puts his hand in his pocket, and says he: 'I'm to pay you t'other ten pound,' and he gives me the money with a crown piece for my trouble in helping him. He then shows me the way back again, reminds me to hold my jaw, and wishes me good-night." "Well ?" said I, finding the ancient waterman paused whilst he slowly applied his handkerchief to his eyes. "Well," he echoed, "the rum part of this here yarn lies in the fact that I was the last man as ever see that corporal, though I dursn't then own it. From that night he was never heard of again. Nobody knew what had become of him. He was reckoned to be a deserter, but what I want to know is what did he do with that chest of plate? He couldn't have run away with it, for it was much too big a job to try and carry off all that was in that heavy box in one night, with no one to help him and no one to see him. Years and years passed, and presently the old Castle was sold and pulled down. Many and many a time since have I crawled under the ruins of it, in and out among the underground passages, but never could find the place where I helped the corporal to carry the treasure to. And it's my opinion,' concluded the old fellow, rising both in body " |