oors and to sleep?"

"Every minute is of the utmost value to us," said I. "Still, it would
be a pity to spoil all by being too precipitate. Let us wait another
hour, at the expiration of which I think we may safely make a move."

Accordingly, we all three sat down in the deepest shadow of the rocks,
chatting in low tones and discussing the prospects of the voyage, the
chances of success in the somewhat desperate attempt that we were about
to make, and kindred matters, until my watch showed that we were within
an hour of midnight, when I thought it would be unwise to delay any
longer, and accordingly gave the word to make a move. Whereupon Gurney
hoisted his sweetheart's box on his shoulders, and we all three moved
cautiously and in dead silence along the beach toward where the boats
were moored, keeping close in among the shadows cast by the cliffs and
the overhanging foliage.

The boats, with the exception of the jollyboat, were all moored in a
string at a distance of about a hundred yards from the beach, the
longboat riding to a small boat anchor, while the others were secured to
her by their painters, the jollyboat being hauled up on the sand. This
was the boat that we intended to use to go off to the ship in, towing
the other boats astern; and when we got alongside her, Gurney swung
Grace Hartley's box off his shoulder, intending to deposit it in the
stern-sheets of the boat prior to launching her. As he leaned over the
gunwale to do so, however, he started back with a smothered ejaculation,
for at the same instant a human figure rose up out of the bottom of the
boat, where it had been crouching. To drop the box on the sand was,
with Gurney, the work of a second; and the next instant he had the man
by the throat and was bearing him back into the bottom of the boat
again, while Grace Hartley seized my arm and gripped it like a vice to
prevent herself from screaming.

"Not a sound, for your life, Grace!" I hissed in her ear as I shook
myself free from her grip. Then, springing to Gurney's side, I
exclaimed in a low, tense whisper:

"Steady, Gurney; steady, man! don't kill the fellow, and don't make a
noise. Who is he? Let him get up and tell us who he is, and what he is
doing here."

"Do you hear what Mr Troubridge says?" growled Gurney in his prisoner's
ear. "Get up and give an account of yourself. But if you attempt to
raise your voice I'll choke the life out of you without more ado. Now
then, le