But the surprise and grief of Charles Tyrrell was not slight, to see standing beside another man, some ten or fifteen years older than himself, and bearing a strong resemblance to him, honest John Hailes, the father of the little boy who had so nearly drifted out to sea in the empty boat. The other person who stood next to him afterward proved to be William Hailes, whom we have already introduced to the reader under the name of Old Will. The younger of the brothers, John Hailes, had evidently been somewhat severely treated, having received a blow upon the forehead with a cutlass, the bleeding of which seemed scarcely to be stanched yet. William Hailes had met with less sharp usage, or had shown less resistance, and Charles doubted not that it was on account of the former, and the interest which he took in him from the little incident of having saved his child, that his father had required him to remain at Harbury Park that day.
It is certainly strange, the bond which exists between us and any one who has called into action towards them the better feelings of our nature. It seems as if they had made acquaintance with our hearts, and obtained an entrance at once on all occasions when strangers are not admitted. "We put a withering twig in the ground," says Sterne, "and then we water it because we have planted it." Whatever may be the philosophical cause of this tendency, Charles Tyrrell certainly felt far more interest in the case of John Hailes than he did in that of any one present; and advancing towards him, he asked him, not in a loud voice indeed, but not in a low one, how he happened to be in such a situation.
"Bless you, sir!" replied the man, "I've no more to do with it than you have. How I got the cut on the head, you see, is because these fellows came in upon me suddenly, and I not liking to be overhauled in that manner, knocked one of them down. That's the truth, I don't deny. But as for running the goods, I had no more to do with that than my boy Johnny. I wonder they didn't take him too; for you know well enough, sir, that he had nearly gone to sea without any papers aboard, poor boy. D----, they may do what they like; they can't do any harm to me; for I had no hand in running anything, so they can't make out that I had."