"Hilloa!" cried Todd, as he came out into the middle of the road and confronted the cart with the two men in it. "Hilloa! Which way are you going?" "One would think you might see that," said one of the men, "by the way the horse's nose points."
"What do you want?" said the other, rather sharply.
"Not to intrude upon you at all, if you don't like it," replied Todd; "but I am going to Gravesend, and if you will help me on a part of the way, I will pay you well for it. I thought it would be good for my constitution to walk, but I find I am older than I thought I was."
"What will you give?" said one of the men, in a dubious tone of voice.
"Name your price," said Todd, "and I will give it. I know you will not be unreasonable with me."
"Will you give half a guinea?" said the other.
"Yes, for I am foot-weary."
"Jump up, then, and we will soon take you to Gravesend. You ain't many miles off from it now by the near cuts that we know. Come on."
Todd managed to scramble into the cart, and the man who was driving gave the horse an impulse forward, and away they went at a good pace.
Todd began to feel a little easier in his mind now, for the quick motion of the cart in the direction that he wished to go in was most satisfactory to him. He felt quite delighted in a little time, when one of the men pointing ahead, cried out—
"There's the first houses in Gravesend, if you really want to go there."
"Really," said Todd. "Indeed I do. Can you tell me what vessels are off the Port?"
"Perhaps we can, and perhaps we can't, old fellow; but we will have some talk about that soon. Ha! ha!"
There was something so peculiar in the laugh of the man, that Todd began to wonder into what hands he had fallen. They, every now and then, too, gave to each other a very significant look, as though there was some secret between them which they would not converse of before him. All this began to make Todd very uneasy, indeed, and the little amount of felicitation which he had been giving to himself so short a time before, rapidly subsided.
"Am I a prisoner?"
These were the words that occurred to him, but he had no ready means of answering the question. All he could do was to keep upon his guard, and, to tell the truth, well armed and desperate as he was, Todd was no very despicable match for any two men.
Suddenly the man who was driving turned the horse's head down a deep declivity that led towards the river, to the right of the road.
The country they were in was all of chalk, and this narrow road, or rather lane, at right angles with the high road, was evidently a cutting through the chalk foundation for the sake of a ready passage from the side of the Thames to the high road.
A more picturesque spot could not well have been conceived. The small amount of loam upon the surface of the chalk, bore a brilliant vegetation; and upon the tall rugged sides of the deep cutting, wherever a small portion of earth had lodged, tall weeds had grown up, while on each side of the lane, close to the base of the chalky heights, there was a mass of weeds and tall creeping plants, and here and there a young tree, which lent a beautifully verdant aspect to the place.
Every step that the horse now went, conducted the cart and its occupants deeper and deeper into the cutting, until, at last, the sky overhead looked only like a thin streak of light, and the gloom of a premature twilight was about the place.
"Halt!" cried the man who was not driving, and the horse was stopped in the gloomiest portion of the lane. Todd turned ghastly pale, and kept his hand plunged in his breast upon one of his pistols.
"What have you come down here for?" he said. "Why do you come to a stop in such a place as this?"
"We will soon let you know," said the man who had not been driving, knitting his brows. "No doubt, you thought you had nailed us nicely, my fine fellow."
"Nailed you?"
"Yes. You need not put on such an innocent look, I can tell you. We are pretty good judges in these matters, and it's quite sufficient for me to tell you that we know you."
"Know me?"
"Yes, to be sure. Did you think we were taken in by any such nonsense as your being tired, and so on?—No. We know you, I say, and this hour is your last. You have placed yourself in our power, and we will take good care of you now. There is a well in this lane which keeps secrets capitally."
Todd drew his pistol, and held it against the breast of this man.
"Attempt any violence," he said, "and I fire!"
"Oh, indeed! You are well prepared, are you? I must say that, for an exciseman, you are a bold fellow."
"A what?"
"An exciseman. You know well you have been on the look-out for us for the last week; so it is of no use denying it. You thought you nabbed us, when you got into our cart."
Todd's Adventure With The Smugglers.
Todd's Adventure With The Smugglers.
Todd lowered his pistol.
"This is a foolish enough mistake," he said, "I am no more an exciseman than I am Commander-in-chief of the forces. What could have put such a thing into your heads?"
"Say you so?" cried the other. "But how will you make us believe it? That's the question."
"Well," said Todd, putting on a very candid look, "I don't know how a man is to set about proving that he is not an exciseman. I only know that I am not. The real truth is, that I am in debt, and being pressed by my creditors, have thought proper to get out of their way; and so I want to make the best of my way to Gravesend, that is all. I fancy, by your anger at the idea of my being an exciseman, that you are smugglers; and if so, I can only say that, with all my heart, you may go on smuggling with the greatest success until the day of judgment, before I would interfere with you in the matter."
"Dare we believe him?" said one of the men to the other.
"I hardly know," replied the other; "and yet it would be rather a sad thing to take a man's life, when it might turn out that he was not what............