something would be
done that night if the farmer and his people were certain that they
would not be disturbed.

As he thought he walked cautiously on, wondering what he had better do,
and seeing at last a bright light in front high up a slope, and another
away to his right much higher.

A little consideration told him that the first was at the farm; the
other high up, facing toward the sea, must be up at the Hoze.

Trusting more to chance than plan, the midshipman went on and on,
following Farmer Shackle; the task becoming easy now, for as he neared
the lights the man grew more careless, so that it was easy to trace his
movements, which were evidently homeward, till a few minutes later Archy
saw him pass the glowing window, swing open a door from which came a
burst of light, pass in, and the door was closed.

Archy stood outside with a vague belief that before long the man would
come out, and perhaps go to the spot where the cargo was hidden.

As he waited he could not help turning his eyes in the direction of the
long, solitary house in the patch of woodland, and found himself
wondering whether he should ever go up there again.

After waiting about a quarter of an hour outside the farm, with his back
against one of the roughly piled-up stone walls of the district, Archy
began to think it was very dull, and his expectations of a discovery or
an adventure grew less and less. All was very quiet at the farm, so
quiet that he determined at last to go and peer in at the window to see
if the farmer was likely to come out again, because if this were not so
he was wasting his time.

"But they are not likely to do anything without him," he thought.

Advancing cautiously, he entered the garden, and was just going up to
the window, when the door was thrown open, and he dropped down behind a
bush as the farmer strode out.

"He must see me," thought Archy. "What a position for an officer to be
in!"

"Eh?" exclaimed Shackle, turning sharply round, as if to answer his
wife. "Oh yes. Ought to have been here by now."

This gave the midshipman a moment's breathing time; and he had drawn
himself up behind the bush by the time the farmer had closed the door,
the sudden change from darkness to light preventing Shackle from seeing
the spy upon his proceedings.

Just as he was passing he stopped short, uttering an ejaculation; and
feeling that he was seen, the midshipman was about to leap up, jump over
the low wall, and ru