heather; but Vince was right as to the old
man soon going, for directly after they saw him begin to climb
deliberately up to the level, look cautiously round, and then, bent of
back, trudge slowly off in the direction of his home; while, as soon as
he was well on his way, the boys crept downward till they were at the
foot of the rocks, when Vince cried:

"Now then: lizards!" and began to crawl at a pretty good rate towards
the way down to the natural dock, quite out of sight of the old man if
he had looked back.

The rugged way down was reached, and here they were able to rise erect
and begin to descend in the normal way, Vince starting off rapidly.

"Come on!" he cried; "old Joe will never know. I say, we have
`sarcumwented' him, as he'd call it."

"Yes, it's all very well," said Mike, whose conscience was pricking him,
"but it always seems so precious easy to do what you oughtn't to."

"Pooh!" cried Vince; "this is nothing."

"Some one is sure to say he has seen the boat out."

"Well, I don't care if he does. Joe ought to have lent us the boat; I'm
sure we've done things enough for him. There, don't talk; let's get
her. He might come back for something, and stop us."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

A RISKY TRIP.

But the old fisherman did not return, and they took down mast, sail,
oars, and boat-hook, cast the little craft loose, jumped in, and
skilfully sent her along the channel, without startling any mullet this
time. Then the tunnel was reached, passed through, a good thrust or two
given, and the boat glided out over the transparent waves, Mike
thrusting an oar from the stern and sculling her along till they were
well out from the shelter of the rocks, when he drew in his oar and
helped to step the little mast and hoist the sail. In a few minutes
more they were gliding swiftly along, with Vince cautiously holding the
sheet and Mike steering.

"As if we couldn't manage a boat!" cried Vince, laughing. "Starboard a
little, Ladle. Rocks."

Mike knew the sunken rocks, though, as well as he, and carefully gave
them a wide berth; while, as they reached out farther from the land and
caught the full power of the soft south-westerly breeze, the boat
careened over, the water rattled beneath her bows, and away they went,
steering so as to clear the point and get well abreast of the Scraw
before going in to investigate, and try if there was an easy way of
reaching the sheltered rounded cove.

For some time ev