"Deane," he said, "there's nobody on board this ship I can trust but you; for though you know little about me, I know you to be an honest young gentleman, and very different from the greater number of wild blades on board. I have a wife and child living at Carlisle, and the poor girl does not know what has become of me, and never will, unless you will undertake, should you ever get on shore, to inform her. I had to leave the country in a hurry to save my life: for when they took to hanging a poor trumpeter for that affair of Sir George Barclay's, I felt very sure if I was caught hold of they would not spare me." "What! were you engaged in that fearful plot?" asked Jack. "Ay, lad, was I: you may well call it fearful!" answered Burdale. "And I should think you were too, Master Deane, whether you knew it or not." "I am afraid that I was, though I did not know it," said Jack. "Still no man could have hated the thoughts of what was proposed to be done more than I did. But how were you mixed up with it, Burdale?" "Why, just in this way," was the answer. "The man whom you know as Master Pearson, though he has as many different names as there are days in the week, was once one of the most noted smugglers on the coast, and I for several years served under him. We also took two or three trips to the Spanish Main, where we had varied fortune; Master Pearson on all occasions got the lion's share. I was a youngster, and could not look after my own interests in those days. We came back with a couple of chests of gold, and plate, and jewels. Somehow or other my master seemed to think that he had had enough of the sea. He met a lady, a real lady she was too, though I don't know her name, and he married her, and for the sake of her company he determined to remain on shore. He knew better how to make money than to keep it; and so did I for that matter, and in a short time the greater part of it was gone. However, he promised his wife not to go to sea, or we should soon have replenished our coffers. He set up, therefore, as a farmer and drover, though he did other turns of business as occasion offered. He understood as much about horses as he did about ships; and, as he had been accustomed to levy taxes on all merchantmen he met, with very little regard for the flag they carried, he now took to levying black-mail on shore. I, of course, joined him. What else could I do? Pearson also hoped to make friends at court; and as he fully believed that King James would come back to rule over the land, he heartily entered into the Jacobite plot, which has so signally failed." "Then was it he who stopped our cattle as we were bound for Stourbridge Fair?" exclaimed Jack, suddenly. "There's no doubt about it!" answered Burdale. "He made old Will pay pretty dear for his protection." "Then were you the horseman I met, who advised me to offer payment?"