plainly shown against the lantern's
light. "Oh, yes; it's all very well to say `Hullo!' and `All right!'"
grumbled the first voice; "I never see such a fellow to sleep."

"Have you done?" said the sleepy one yawning.

"Done? No; nor half done; she's got a heavy cargo. If we get done in
three hours we shall have worked well. Put out them candles, and come
and haul."

The lights were extinguished; and Hilary, wondering at his escape, felt
his heart bound with joy, for by that time the crews of a couple of
boats must have been mustered on the _Kestrel's_ deck, and in another
five minutes they would be pulling, with muffled oars, towards the
shore.

"Ah! if I were only in command of one!" cried Hilary to himself; "but as
I am not, can I do anything more to help our fellows besides bringing
them ashore?"

It was a question that puzzled him to answer, and he lay there on the
turf wondering what it would be best to do, ending by making up his mind
to creep down as cautiously as he could in the direction taken by the
two men.

"The worst that could happen to me," he thought, "would be that I should
be taken; and if I am made prisoner once more, it will only be in the
cause of duty--so here goes."

The darkness favoured him as far as concealment was concerned, but it
had its disadvantages. A little way to his left was the edge of the
cliff, and Hilary knew that if he were not careful he would reach the
shore in a way not only unpleasant to himself, but which would totally
spoil him for farther service; so he exercised as much caution for
self-preservation as he did to keep himself hidden from his enemies.

There was a well-beaten track, and, following this, he found the descent
was very rapid into a little valley-like depression, from the bottom of
which came the faint creak of a pulley now and then, with mingled sounds
of busy men going to and fro with loads, which they seemed to be, as he
judged, carrying up to carts somewhere at the head of the ravine.

He could see very little, the darkness was so great; but his keen sense
of hearing supplied the want of sight; and as he lay beside a clump of
what seemed to be furze, he very soon arrived at a tolerably good idea
of what was going on.

Still he was not satisfied. He wanted to realise more thoroughly the
whole procedure of the smugglers, so that if the present attempt should
prove a failure he might be in a position to circumvent them another
time.

It was