“Yes, my lord?”

“What does it mean?”

“Fresh wood or the wind, probably.”

“That is unfortunate.”

“Or fortunate.”

“You are right, sir. We look at things, very
naturally, in a different light. This path is
extremely narrow.”

“Your lordship runs no danger, holding
my arm. Come! our pursuers are nearly
upon us!”

“The revenue guard?”

“Yes, my lord.”

“They are pressing you close, captain. Is
it your intention, if I may ask, to blow out
my brains rather than lose me? I ask from
mere curiosity; only to know what is coming.”

“You are a brave man!” was Earle's reply.
“No! a thousand times no! I am ordered
to seize you, not to murder you!”

The viscount nodded.

“You say I am brave—I say that you
are an offieer and a gentleman. Now I will
await the sequel. I have little further solicitude.”

“And yet you are in very great danger.”

“What?”

[figure description] Page 114.[end figure description]

“Your friends may fire on us, and kill you!”

As Earle uttered the words a voice eried
“Halt!” and a shot was heard.

The sailor staggered.

“You are struck!” exclaimed the viscount.

“Yes, my lord—and badly hurt, I think.
But no matter!”

“I swear I regret it!”

“Thanks!”

“Surrender! I give you my word of honor
you shall be treated as an officer captured on
honorable duty.”

“Surrender? never!” gasped Earle; “I will
die fighting before I will surrender!”

And clutching the arm of the viscount, he
dragged him violently toward the boat.

The pursners were rushing upon them with
loud shouts. The darkness hid them, but the
noise of their footsteps on the rocky ledge
betrayed them.

Earle dragged the viscount on. They reached
the boat.

“Make haste! make haste, Dargonne! Every
instant counts!” cried Earle.

And pushing the viscount without ceremony,—

“Enter the boat, my lord,” he said, sternly.

[figure description] Page 115.[end figure description]

“Then I am not to be resened after all, it
seems,” was the philosophic reply of the viscount
as he stepped upon the boat.

The men leaped after him and Dargonne followed.

“Come, Captain!” shounted Dargonne.

As he spoke, the foremost pursuers rushed
on Earle. He felt a hand upon his throat.
Then something like a heavy thump was heard
in the darkness, and the man who had seized
Earle was hurled back as by the blow of a bludgeon.

A second dull thump followed, and a second
was prostrated in the same manner.

Earle staggered to the boat which had not
moved.

“Put off, and return for me!” he exclaimed.

“Never!” Dargonne cried.

“Obey!” said Earle, imperiously. “It is I
who give orders here!”

Dargonne bowed his head. Discipline conquered.
He made a sign, and the boat flew a
dozen yards from shore.

“Row, row!” cried Earle; “they are about
to fire on you!”

A volley came like an echo, and one of the
oarsmen uttered a cry of pain.

[figure description] Page 116.[end figure description]

“Row!” cried Earle a second time; and the
boat darted toward the open sea.

The sailor turned then to face his enemies,
resolved to die as he had promised he would.
But suddenly a voice near him said,—

“I have knocked down the foremost! Run
up yonder and you be safe, master!”

It was the voice of Goliath, the “wolf.”

“You?” said Earle.

“I came ahead, thinking it was smugglers,
meaning to fight for 'em, master. It be you,
which is better. You be a `wolf.' There is
the path.”

He spoke hurriedly and pointed to the path
leading up the cliff. Suddenly, shouts close at
hand indicated that the main body of the pursures
had reached the spot. Earle had just time
to rush behind a rock and up the path when the
ledge swarmed with his enemies.

He hastened on up the steep path. His
wound was bleeding profusely, and already his
strength was nearly exhausted.

He tore open the bosom of his shirt, and
bound up the wound in the best manner possible.
But the linen was almost instantly saturated
with blood.

Earle staggered on.

[figure description] Page 117.[end figure description]

His head began to turn; and more than once
he came near falling.

Still he continued the painful ascent: the
strength of his powerful will alone seemed to
sustain him.

At length, he had nearly reached the summit,
where stood the hut of the recluse. The path
wound around a ledge jutting over the sea.

As Earle tottered along this path, on the very
edge of the dizzy precipice, the beacon fire shot
aloft suddenly—a great pillar of flame.

Earle looked seaward. Half a mile from the
headland, the boat containing the viscount was
seen rapidly making for the open channel.

“Safe!” the sailor muttered, “they will soon
reach the corvette.”

And he tottered on up the broken pathway,
his bosom heaving, his sight failing him.

A few more steps, and he reached the summit.
Before him was the beacon and the hut.
The solitary woman was seated on her bench.

Earle staggered toward her.

“Mother!” came from him in a low murmur.

A moment afterwards he had fallen, lifeless,
nearly, upon the bosom of his mother.

p517-123

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