Raises and evades some interesting moral questions. While the particular smuggler who is being pursued is an undeniably unpleasant character, in the course of the pursuit the protagonist betrays neighbours he has known all his life - fishermen involved in smuggling - and probably leaves his family open to retaliation in future. This is not addressed - it seems his family is pleased and only pleased. That's not even to mention the political aspect of the situation - young Sandy is uncovering Jacobite plots and there's no sense of why decent Scots might not be wholehearted supporters of King George. But there are few (in fact only one) decent men among the conspirators, who almost to a man are thoroughly nasty pieces of work. I feel really ambivalent about this book because it's so two-dimensional. ( )