ys in vain,
till all at once he closed the glass with a snap, and walking forward,
gave a sharp order, whereupon two of the men hurried below, to return
directly with a couple of lanthorns, which were rigged on to a chopstick
kind of arrangement, which held them level and apart as they were
attached to the halliards and sent gliding up to the mast-head.

"Signal," whispered Vince; "but we can't be near the shore."

They searched the soft, transparent darkness for some time, gazing in
the direction in which they had seen the captain use his glass, but it
was all in vain; till Vince suddenly started, and pressed his
companion's arm. Then pointed to where, about a mile away, two dull
stars close together seemed to be rising slowly out of the sea to a
little distance above the horizon, to stand nearly stationary for a
while, and then slowly sink down and disappear.

"Another smuggler," whispered Vince; and then turned to look up at the
mast-head of their own vessel, but their signal had been lowered.

"Depend upon it," whispered Mike, "that boat will come up close, like
the other did, and they'll make fast together and begin to shift cargo."

"Think so?" said Vince thoughtfully, as it began to dawn upon his mind
that possibly Captain Jacques with his fast lugger ran across Channel to
various smuggling ports, and brought cargoes over to deposit in the
cavern ready for the contraband goods to be fetched by other vessels and
landed here and there upon the English coast. He did not know then that
he had made a very shrewd guess, and hit the truth of how the captain
had for years gone on enriching himself and others by his ingenious way
of avoiding the revenue cutters, whose commanders had always looked upon
the Crag as a dangerous place, that every one would avoid, but who would
have given chase directly had they seen Jacques' long low swift vessel
approaching any part of the English coast to land a cargo.

Vince did not ripen his thoughts then--that happened afterwards, for he
was interrupted by a hand laid upon his shoulder, Mike feeling another
upon his.

"You sink you vill keep ze middle vatch?" said the captain: "_ma foi_,
no! Go down and sleep, and grow to big man."

He gave them a gentle push in the direction of the hatch.

"_Bon soir_," he said mockingly, and the boys went down.

"You'll hear the bolts shot directly," said Vince grimly, as he seated
himself on the edge of the bunk.

_Click_--_clack_! came