out of the tail of my eye, creeping round the rocks. They think I
haven't seen them. Darling Minnie--one kiss. Take care of mother if
I don't turn up soon."

"But how will you escape----"

"Hush, dearest girl! I want to have as much of you as I can before I
go. Don't be afraid. They're honest British tars after all, and won't
hurt _you_, Minnie."

Still seated at the girl's side, as if perfectly at his ease, yet
speaking in quick earnest tones, and drawing her closely to him, Ruby
waited until he heard a stealthy tread behind him. Then he sprang up
with the speed of thought, uttered a laugh of defiance as the sailors
rushed towards him, and leaping wildly off the cliff, fell a height
of about fifty feet into the sea.

Minnie uttered a scream of horror, and fell fainting into the arms of
the bewildered lieutenant.

"Down the cliffs--quick! he can't escape if you look alive. Stay, one
of you, and look after this girl. She'll roll over the edge on
recovering, perhaps."

It was easy to order the men down the cliffs, but not so easy for
them to obey, for the rocks were almost perpendicular at the place,
and descended sheer into the water.

"Surround the spot," shouted the lieutenant. "Scatter
yourselves--away! there's no beach here."

The lieutenant was right. The men extended themselves along the top
of the cliffs so as to prevent Ruby's escape, in the event of his
trying to ascend them, and two sailors stationed themselves in ambush
in the narrow pass at the spot where the cliffs terminate in the
direction of the town.

The leap taken by Ruby was a bold one. Few men could have ventured
it; indeed, the youth himself would have hesitated had he not been
driven almost to desperation. But he was a practised swimmer and
diver, and knew well the risk he ran. He struck the water with
tremendous force and sent up a great mass of foam, but he had
entered it perpendicularly, feet foremost, and in a few seconds
returned to the surface so close to the cliffs that they overhung
him, and thus effectually concealed him from his pursuers.

Swimming cautiously along for a short distance close to the rocks, he
came to the entrance of a cavern which was filled by the sea. The
inner end of this cave opened into a small hollow or hole among the
cliffs, up the sides of which Ruby knew that he could climb, and thus
reach the top unperceived, but, after gaining the summit, there still
lay before him the difficulty of eluding those w