"Look you, youngster: crack no jokes on me," he at length said, contemptuously. "Away! back whence you came, or"--And he slightly waved a small rattan that he held in his right hand. Edward's eyes sparkled, and his color rose. "You must change this tone, fellow, and that speedily," he observed. "I order you to lower your hand, and answer the questions that I shall put to you." The man gazed dubiously at him, but finally adopted a more conciliatory mode of speech. "Well, master; and what is your business with me?" he inquired. "I am a boatman out of employ. Any commands in my line?" "Pshaw! I know you, my good friend, and you cannot deceive me," replied Edward Walcott. "We are private here," he continued, looking around. "I have no desire or intention to do you harm; and, if you act according to my directions, you shall have no cause to repent it." "And what if I refuse to put myself under your orders?" inquired the man. "You are but a young captain for such an old hulk as mine." "The ill consequences of a refusal would all be on your own side," replied Edward. "I shall, in that case, deliver you up to justice: if I have not the means of capturing you myself," he continued, observing the seaman's eye to wander rather scornfully over his youthful and slender figure, "there are hundreds within call whom it will be in vain to resist. Besides, it requires little strength to use this," he added, laying his hand on a pistol. "If that were all, I could suit you there, my lad," muttered the stranger. He continued aloud, "Well, what is your will with me? D----d ungenteel treatment this! But put your questions; and, to oblige you, I may answer them,--if so be that I know anything of the matter." "You will do wisely," observed the young man. "And now to business. What reason have you to suppose that the persons for whom you watch are not already beyond the village?" The seaman paused long before he answered, and gazed earnestly at Edward, apparently endeavoring to ascertain from his countenance the amount of his knowledge. This he probably overrated, but, nevertheless, hazarded a falsehood. "I doubt not they passed before midnight," he said. "I warrant you they are many a league towards the sea-coast, ere this." "You have kept watch, then, since midnight?" asked Edward. "Ay, that have I! And a dark and rough one it was," answered the stranger. "And you are certain that, if they passed at all, it must have been before that hour?" "I kept my walk across the road till the village was all astir," said the seaman. "They could not have missed me. So, you see, your best way is to give chase; for they have a long start of you, and you have no time to lose."