rs scratched his head.

"Well, it is getting dark, old Tommy, sartinly," he said apologetically.

"Dark as Davy Jones's locker," growled Tom. "I wants to find Muster
Leigh as much as anybody, but you can't look if you can't see."

"That's a true word anyhow," said one of the men.

"It's my belief as our skipper's pretty nigh mad," continued Tom, giving
a vicious jerk at his oar, "or else he wouldn't be sending us ashore at
this time o' night."

"Well, it is late, Tommy," said the gunner; "but we must make the best
on it."

"Yah! There ar'n't no best on it. All we can do is to get ashore, sit
down on the sand, and shout out, `Muster Leigh, ahoy!'"

"There, it ar'n't no use to growl again, Tom Tully," said Billy Waters,
reassuming his dignified position of commanding officer. "Give way, my
lads."

The men took long, steady strokes, and soon after the boat glided right
in over the calm phosphorescent waves, four men leaped out as her bows
touched the sand, and as the next wave lifted her, they ran her right
up; the others leaped out and lent a hand, and the next minute the boat
was high and dry.

"Now then, my lads," cried the gunner, "what I propose is that we try
and find our landmarks, and as soon as we have hit the place where
Master Leigh left us we'll all hail as loud as we can, and then wait for
an answer."

Tom Tully growled out something in reply, it was impossible to say what,
and leaving one man to act as boatkeeper, they all set off together
along the shore.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

ATTACK AND DEFEAT.

Tom Tully had marked down a towering portion of the cliff as being over
the spot where they had lost sight of their young officer, and, as it
happened, that really was pretty close to the place, so, trudging on in
silence after giving a glance in the direction where the cutter lay, now
seen only as a couple of lights about a mile from the shore, they soon
reached the rocks, where the gunner called a halt.

"Now, my lads," he said, "get all of a row, face inwards, and make ready
to hail. We'll give him one good `_Kestrel_ ahoy!' and that'll wake him
up, wherever he is. Hallo! stop that chap! There, he's dodged behind
that big stone."

The men wanted no further inducement than the sight of some one trying
to avoid them.

In an instant the quiet stolid row of men were dashing here and there
among the rocks in chase of a dark figure, which, from a thorough
knowledge of the ground, kept elud