He required a little time for thinking out a plan for turning to account his discovery of the signaler’s code, and meanwhile it was desirable to keep out of the smugglers’ reach. Before dawn he dropped anchor at a little fishing village fifty miles west of Luscombe. It was a remote and secluded spot, and there was little chance of the _Fury’s_ presence coming to the ears of the Luscombe folk for some days. "I’m going ashore again, Babbage. Lie quietly here. I may be away a couple of days." Still disguised, he went into the village, hired a gig, and drove thirty miles in the Luscombe direction to the village of Middleton, about ten miles from the sea. He put up at the _Pig and Whistle_, scribbled a note to the riding-officer and despatched it by a horseman to Wynport. "SIR" (he wrote),— "Be good enough to meet me here this evening. Ask at the inn for Mr. Loveday. The matter is urgent, and the business the king’s. "Yours truly, "JACK HARDY." At six o’clock Mr. Goodman appeared. "I am here, Mr. Hardy, but ’tis most inconvenient. I take it rather hard that a man of my age—" "Exactly, Mr. Goodman. I’m not so old as you, and I should have come to you if I hadn’t good reasons for keeping clear of the coast folk. I’ve information that the smugglers intend to make a run to-morrow." "Is that all? Why, I often get such information, and nine times out of ten it is false. Besides, what’s the good of knowing that a run is to be made if you don’t know where?" "I do know where." "Oh, in that case leave it to me. I’ll bag the whole gang. There’s a score of rascals at Luscombe I’d like to hang—ay, and will, too. If your news is correct, ’twill be pretty soon, I promise you." "Just so, Mr. Goodman. But meanwhile I’ve come to arrange that the run may be made without interference." "What! Do I hear ye aright? A king’s officer name such a thing to me! ’Pon my soul and body, Mr. Hardy, I’m surprised at you. ’Twill be my duty—a painful duty, Mr. Hardy—to report the matter. Never in the whole seventeen years of my service have—" "Quite so, Mr. Goodman," Jack interrupted. "But Admiral Horniman thinks that in this case the king’s service requires this little departure from the ordinary course. And ’twill only make the capture of your rascals more certain in the end. We have to meet them with their own weapons—match ruse with ruse; and that’s why, with the admiral’s approval, I want you and your land-guard to help me." Jack smiled so pleasantly and spoke with such an air of deference that the riding-officer, taking what he said as a compliment to his own astuteness, thawed. "A capital idea, Mr. Hardy! Exactly; play their own game. The admiral was always a man of sense. But what do you propose?" Then followed a long conversation, in which Jack explained as much of his plan as he thought would suffice. Mr. Goodman was captivated with the notion, and left by and by in high good-humor with Jack, himself, and everybody.