[Gutenberg 43334] • Jack Hardy: A Story of English Smugglers in the Days of Napoleon

The first time Jack Hardy met Mr. Nathaniel Gudgeon was also the occasion of his first visit to Luscombe. It happened in this way. "Good-by, my boy," said his father, as Jack clambered on to the roof of the coach at the White Hart, Southwark, "and be sure you don't forget your Cousin Bastable, or your mother will never forgive you." "All right, father. I'll take a look at him if I get a chance. I say, coachman, you'll let me have a drive?" The coachman could not turn his head, because the collar of his coat was stiff and his neck brawny; but he screwed his left eye into the corner, winked, and gave a hoarse chuckle. "I've seed Jack Tars on donkeys, and orficers on hosses," said he. "Lor' bless you, I knows 'em." Which was the beginning of an argument that lasted all the way to Guildford. Jack was on his way to Wynport to join H.M.S. Fury. Ten miles beyond Wynport lay the little village of Luscombe, and two miles beyond Luscombe was Bastable Grange, where his mother's cousin, Humfrey Bastable, lived. Jack had never seen Mr. Bastable; a hundred years ago relatives separated by a hundred miles of turnpike road saw very little of one another. But Mrs. Hardy had been very fond of her Cousin Humfrey when they were boy and girl together, and now that her son was going within easy walking distance of Bastable Grange, she insisted that Jack should go over and pay his respects.