asked, “Been waiting long, lad?”
“You saw me put them down,” replied Percy, indicating the filled buckets. “P’raps some ‘ud hold ‘em standing
still, but I has enough of ‘em when walking. Shall I bring ‘em in?”
“You stay here.” Ordered the sailor. “I’ll take ‘em and show our Captain your clever dodge with them bits o’
wood. I was telling him how you prevent your legs from being splashed, but he didn’t see the buckets come abroad
this morning same as t he rest, and he’ll be interested.”
While waiting for his buckets to be returned empty, that live cell in Percy’s brain worked clearly for the good of
the parish. It told Percy that it had been the bits of wood that had enabled poor Fred to turn traitor against the
Scarecrow, and Percy knew that would mean the rope for anyone caught that night upon Littlestone Beach.
Now is the ‘landing’ was changed to the far side of Dungeness, thought Percy, the smugglers would be hidden by
the promontory. He remembered that two hearts stood for Dungeness Sou’west on the list,. If he changed the signs
it would at least be a warning to those concerned.
When Percy got an idea into his head he would carry it out with a stubbornness that showed grit, and so directly
he received back the buckets he hurried off to the Coffin Shop to find Mipps and to change the signs.
It so happened that Mipps was at the Vicarage, but the door of his store being open, Percy entered and went
straight to the shelf upon which stood Judy, the idol.
“Got to change ‘em, Miss Judy,” said Percy, as he picked up the two hearts in place of the club and diamond. “If
the Sexton was here I’d ask him, but as he ain’t, I asks you. As you’re a good Christian idol, please make the
Sexton know that I done it for the best. I’ll be glad of your good word, Miss Judy, and thankee.”
Percy continued his round to the cottages, and when he saw what a deal of surprise and runnings and whisperings
the two hearts in the buckets caused, he knew that his theory was right. But for his own inner satisfaction he
determined to prove it in his own defense, and if possible do something more to save the village from disaster, and
so, since he had not met Mipps anywhere during the evening, and therefore had to continue to work on his own
initiative, such as it was, he informed his mother at supper that since the Sexton had been so kind to him he was
going to give him a surprise by digging him some lug.
He set out with his spade and tin, digging along just above the water line. He took no lantern, for the moon was
full, and he worked his way towards Littlestone. He met no one on the way, and no one could see him from any
distance, as the flat sands were swept by lowlying wreaths of mist. This made it an ideal night for the King’s men,
who lay in ambush behind one of the great wooden breakwaters.
Percy first sensed their presence by hearing a horse neigh, and as he crept towards the shadow of the sea-wall, the
moon caught the glint of a Dragoon’s helmet on the beach beyond.
As he crouched listening, the only sound that reached him above the continual swish and grinding of the waves,
was an occasional creak of leather, or the champing of a bit.
He wondered whether the sailors were on the same section of beach, or somewhere hidden on the Marsh behind
the sea-wall. He realized that any Dymchurch man who had not received his warning would walk into a trap here,
and so he retraced his steps and on the smooth sand drew with his spade two large hearts side by side.
He then made his way back to the village and went to bed. He was fast asleep long before the scarecrow and his
lieutenant, Hellspite, galloped along the sands towards Littlestone.
Suddenly the Scarecrow pulled up his fierce black horse and pointed. The moon shone upon Percy’s hearts.
The Scarecrow’s companion had pulled up as suddenly as his master, and from behind the hideous mask of
Hellspite came Mipp’s whisper: “Dungeness, Sou’west. Someone has altered our plan.”
“Hold Gehenna,” ordered doctor Syn from behind the Scarecrow’s mask.
Hellspite took the bridle while his master dismounted and crawled forward toward the breakwater, listening.
He returned with the news that the Navy men were entrenched behind the breakwater and the squadron of
Dragoons were beneath the sea-wall.
“So the rival forces are working together against us after all,” he whispered, as he silently remounted. “Someone
has betrayed us, and someone has altered our plans, as you say. I would sooner have risked a brush with the enemy
than that anyone should dare to cancel the Scarecrow’s orders. On to Dungeness, by way of the Marsh.”
The mist concealed them as they rode up a sandy path that ran from the beach over the high sea-wall, and down
again upon the other side to the Marsh.
On reaching the far side of the Ness, after a wild gallop, they found everything ready for the landing, just as it
had been arranged for Littlestone. The gangs were set in parties of eight to a boat, and only waited the Scarecrow’s
arrival to begin operations. The beach was guarded by a cordon of thirty mounted Nightriders, and as Doctor Syn
rode down the beach, their leader rode up to meet him.
“In contact with the ships yet?” asked the Scarecrow.
“Aye, aye, Scarecrow,” replied the leader, whom Doctor Syn and Mipps knew to be the Highwayman, “and the
boats are ready loaded and waiting to pull in.”
The Scarecrow raised his right arm above his head, and immediately the thirty wheeled their horses and galloped
down to the water-line. The signal was given: three hoots of an owl, three cries of a curlew, and four screams of a
gull.
With muffled oars some twenty boats pulled in out of the mist and the waiting gangs waded into the water to
unload.
Doctor Syn watched the tubs coming ashore to be lifted upon the pack-ponies. Not only were the boats well
loaded, but great rafts of lashed barrels were floated in their wake and dragged ashore by ropes.
“A good landing,” whispered the Scarecrow.
“Aye, and thanks to the new code, every man got the warning of your changed plan.” Replied the Highwayman.
“They guessed you had some good reason for the change, and worked with a will to get here in time.”
“Aye, we would have had a rougher landing on Littlestone Beach, with a full ambush of soldiers and sailors to
contend with,” said the Scarecrow. “We must find out how they got information.”
“The two hearts in Percy’s buckets did the trick,” went on the Highwayman, “and we gave Littlestone a wide
berth.”
The Scarecrow looked at Mipps and whispered, “So that was it.”
“Aye,” replied the Highwayman, “and the boys have done nothing but whisper admiration for the Scarecrow’s
cleverness. Them signs in the buckets is certainly a master-stroke.”
“I marvel that I never thought of it before,” said the Scarecrow.
When the last barrel was ashore, and the pack-ponies loaded, the carriers slung tubs on their shoulders, and
guided by the thirty riders, the long trek across the March began. Doctor Syn waited till the last boat had pulled
back to the ships that were hidden in the mist. He heard the anchors shipped, and then across the water came the
same signal as had been given from the beach.
“All’s well and away,” he chuckled to Mipps, “ and the worth of some three thousand pounds crossing the Marsh
already. I think our lads will all be a-bed before the King’s men realize they have been fooled. I fancy my guest
will not be in the best of tempers in the morning.”
“And not a smell of powder from the revenue cutter, neither,” replied Mipps. ‘And to think it were all through