The few reasonable landings are easy to patrol. But I sent Osborne to ensure the job was done. Aside from anything else, it seemed preferable to make certain he wouldn’t get wind of our activities and seek to curtail them. Tonkin, bless his hopeless heart, is so bumblingly inept we stand in no danger from him. Unfortunately, neither does this other gang.”

“So,” George mused, “Tonkin’s now effectively responsible for the coast from Lynn to Blakeney?”

Jack nodded.

“Whoever this other lot are,” said Matthew, “seems like they know the area well. There’s no whispers of pack trains or any such, but they must be moving the goods, same as us.”

“Who knows?” Jack said. “They might actually be better set up than us. We’re only novices, after all.”

George turned a jaundiced eye on Jack. “I don’t believe any man in his right mind would call Captain Jack a novice-not at this sort of devilry.”

A broad grin dispelled Jack’s seriousness. “You flatter me, my friend. Now, how are we to meet this mystery gang?”

“Must we meet them?”

“How else, oh knowledgeable one, are we to dissuade them from their illegal pursuits?”

“Dissuade them?”

Jack’s face hardened. “That-or do Tonkin’s job for him.”

George looked glum. “I knew I wasn’t going to like this mission.”

Jack’s chair grated on the floor as he rose. “They’re smugglers, for Christ’s sake.”

George sighed, dropping his eyes from Jack’s stern grey gaze. “So are we, Jack. So are we.”

But Jack had stopped listening. Turning to Matthew, he asked, “What cargoes do they usually take?”

Chapter 6

A week later, from the cliff top screened by a belt of trees, Kit watched her band beach their boats at much the same spot as on the night she’d first rescued them. This time, there was no Revenue troop about; she’d reconnoitered the cliffs in both directions.