“We very soon shall do so,” replied Colonel Gunter, with a laugh. “You are right in all your surmises, Captain Tattersall. I am a loyalist as well as my young friend Clavering Maunsel. Our business with you may be told in a word. We want you to convey two friends of ours—two particular friends—privily across the Channel.”
“Two particular friends, eh!” cried Tattersall. “Oh yes! I do understand,” he added, with a wink. “Very intimate friends, no doubt. Why not call them relations—near relations—such as fathers, or brothers, or uncles?”
“You mistake me, captain,” rejoined Colonel Gunter. “The gentlemen in question are relatives neither of Mr. Clavering Maunsel nor of myself. They are merely friends. They are not even fugitive Cavaliers; but having been engaged in a fatal duel, desire to get out of the way till the affair has blown over.”
“That’s the plain English of it, eh?” exclaimed the skipper, somewhat incredulously. “I see you’re not inclined to trust me. Quite right to be cautious. But I thought young Mr. Maunsel knew me too well to doubt me.”
“I have the most perfect confidence in you, Captain Tattersall,” said Clavering, “but—”
“But you daren’t commit our friends,” supplied the skipper. “I understand. Well, I’ve no objection to take these unlucky duellists across the Channel, if you make it worth my while. What do you offer for the job?”
“Fifty golden caroluses,” replied Colonel Gunter.
“Humph! I might have been content with that sum if they had been political offenders—good men, with a price set upon their heads—but simple fugitives from justice must pay double.”
“Well, we won’t haggle about the payment,” rejoined Gunter. “Let it be a bargain. Say a hundred caroluses.”
“Fifty as earnest, or I won’t engage,” cried Tattersall.
“Here they are!” replied Colonel Gunter, tossing him a bag of gold, which had originally come out of Zachary Trangmar’s chest. “Count them at your leisure.”
“That’s the way to do business,” said Tattersall, laughing, as he took the bag. “But mark me!” he added, with a slight change of tone. “I make one condition. I must see the gentlemen before I agree to take them.”
“But you have agreed! you are partly paid!” Colonel Gunter exclaimed, somewhat sharply.
“The money shall be refunded, of course, if I can’t fulfil my engagement,” replied Tattersall, coolly. “But as I have just said, I must see the gentlemen. Seamen have strange fancies, and I mayn’t like their looks.”
“I am sure you will, Tattersall,” remarked Clavering, laughing; “Colonel Gunter need not be uneasy as to your stipulation.”
“Is this Colonel Gunter?” cried the skipper, eyeing the person named. “I was not aware of it. Your humble servant, colonel.”
“Sir, I am yours,” replied Gunter, returning his bow. “Well, then, if the countenances of my friends please you, they are to have a passage? Is it so?”
Tattersall nodded assent, but did not remove the pipe from his mouth.
“When can you start?” pursued Gunter.
“The wind is sou’-west, and not favourable for crossing the Channel,” the skipper replied; “and I must get in my cargo, for it won’t do to let my men into the scheme. My next trip is fixed for Poole, and I must ostensibly hold to the arrangement. But I may be ready in a couple of days, or three at the outside, if that will do.”
“It must do, captain,” replied Gunter. “But don’t lose any time. My friends are very anxious to be off. You will never forgive yourself if anything should happen—to one of them in particular—in consequence of the delay.”
“Shan’t I?” exclaimed Tattersall, with a knowing look; “then the ‘one in particular’ must be of vast interest to me. However, I won’t make any further inquiries, since you are not disposed to satisfy me. Where and when shall we meet again?”
Colonel Gunter consulted Clavering by a look.
“Let the meeting take place at my father’s house, at Ovingdean Grange, on the evening of the day after to-morrow,” said young Maunsel.
“Good,” replied the skipper. “I know the Grange well, I often go to Rottingdean. I shall be glad to see your worthy father, Colonel Maunsel, for whom I have a high respect. I was sorry to hear he had got into some trouble of late. I was told he had been taken to Lewes Castle.”