seen.

"That my Rammy?" cried Mrs Shackle.

"Yes," growled the farmer; "keep that door shut and your mouth too."

"But do be careful, master. I don't want him took prisoner again."

"It's all right, mother."

"Come along, boy."

Archy heard the departing steps, and began to suffer a fresh agony of
suspense. He could not stir, for the farmer's wife stood at the open
door, and the slightest movement would have caused a discovery; and all
the time he could hear the footsteps growing more and more faint.

"Oh!" he said to himself; "and it's so dark I shan't be able to tell
which way they have gone."

What should he do? Start up and run?

If he did the woman was certain to raise an alarm; and, knowing that, he
could do nothing but wait till she went in, when he might chance to pick
up the clue again.

His heart beat so loudly that he felt as if it must be heard, but Mrs
Shackle was too intent upon listening to the departing footsteps, which
grew more faint till they died out entirely, and as they passed away the
midshipman's heart sank.

"Had all my trouble for nothing," he thought. "So near success, and yet
to fail!"

"Ah, deary deary me!" said a voice from close at hand, "I'm very sick
and tired of it all. I wish he'd be content with his cows and sheep."

Mrs Shackle drew back as she said this, the door closed, and Archy
sprang up, darted out of the gateway, and hurried along the path as fast
as the darkness would allow, stopping from time to time to listen.

For a long time he could hear nothing. He was descending the slope
toward the road leading to the cove, as far as he could tell, for it
seemed to him likely that the farmer and his son had gone in that
direction; but as he went on and on, and was unable to detect a sound,
he felt that he must be wrong, and stopped short, listening intently.

"Bother the woman!" he thought; "it's all through her. They'll go and
get all the cargo from the hiding-place, and take it somewhere, and I
shall know nothing."

He bit his lip with disappointment, and gave an angry stamp on the
grass.

"I'll go back, and try some other way."

Easy to determine, but hard to carry out in the darkness, and in a place
which seemed quite changed at night. There should be a lane or track
leading down to the cliff he knew, but where it was he could not say; in
fact, at that moment, in his confusion, he could hardly tell for certain
that he was on the road leading right aw