Richard Radford and his companions gazed at each other with very meaning and very ill-satisfied looks; but the former, at length, said, "Well, we shall see--we shall see! and if he does, he shall rue it. In the meantime, Major, what we must do is, to have force enough to set them, dragoons and all, at defiance. My father has got already a hundred men, and I'll beat up for more to-morrow.--I can get fifty or sixty out of Sussex. We'll all be down with you early. The soldiers are scattered about in little parties, so they can never have very many together; and the devil's in it, if we can't beat a handful of them." "Give us a hundred men," said Ned Ramley, "and we'll beat the whole regiment of them." "Why, there are not to be found twenty of them together in any one place," answered young Radford, "except at Folkestone, and we shan't have the run within fifteen or sixteen miles of that; so we shall easily do for them; and I should like to give those rascals a licking." "Then, what's to be done with Harding?" asked Ned Ramley. "Leave him to me--leave him to me, Ned," replied the young gentleman, "I'll find a way of settling accounts with him." "Why, the old woman was talking something about it," said the Major. "Come, speak up, old brute!--What is it you've got to say?" "Oh, I'll tell him quietly when he's a going," answered Galley Ray. "It's no business of yours, Major." "She hates him like poison," said the Major, in a whisper, to young Radford; "so that you must not believe all she says about him." The young man gave a gloomy smile, and then, after a few words more, unceremoniously turned the old woman out of her own hovel, telling her he would come and speak to her in a moment. As soon as the hut was clear of her presence, he proceeded to make all his final arrangements with the lawless set who were gathered together within. "I thought that Harding was not to set off till to-morrow morning," said one of the more staid-looking of the party, at length; "I wonder your father lets him make such changes, Mr. Radford--it looks suspicious, to my thinking." "No, no; it was by my father's own orders," said young Radford; "there's nothing wrong in that. I saw the note sent this evening; so that's all right. By some contrivance of his own, Harding is to give notice to one of the people on Tolsford Hill, when he is well in land and all is safe; and then we shall see a fire lighted on the top, which is to be our signal, to gather down on the beach. It's all right in that respect, at least. "I'm glad to hear it," answered the other; "and now, as all is settled, had you not better take a glass of grog before you go." "No, no," replied the young man, "I'll keep my head cool for to-morrow; for I've got a job to do in the morning that may want a clear eye and a steady hand." "Well, then, good luck to you!" said Ned Ramley, laughing; and with this benediction, the young gentleman opened the cottage door.