don't seem to know you," said the man beside him at last, after they
had hauled up several packages and kegs. "Did old Allstone send you to
help?"

This was a poser, and Hilary paused for a moment or two before saying
frankly:

"No; he didn't want me to come."

"Ah! he's a nice 'un," growled the other. "I wish I'd my way; I'd make
him work a little harder. He's always skulking up at the old manor."

Hilary uttered a low grunt, and in the intervals of hauling he strained
his eyes to grasp all he could of his surroundings; but there was very
little to see. He could make out that he was at the edge of a lower
part of the cliff; that the rock-strewn beach was, as far as he could
make out by the hauling, some forty feet below; that the platform where
he stood was the sea termination of a gully, where probably in wet
weather a stream ran down and over the edge in a kind of fall, while on
either side the cliff towered up to a great height.

There was not much to learn, but it was enough to teach him what he
wanted to know, and it quite explained the success of the smugglers in
evading capture.

Hilary had strained his eyes again and again seaward; but, save that the
cutter's lights were burning brightly in the darkness, there was no sign
of coming help, though, for the matter of that, a fleet of small boats
might have landed and been unseen from where he stood.

The man's suspicions seemed to have been lulled, and Hilary kept on
hauling. The men came and went from where they were to the carts that
he judged to be waiting, and those below, like dim shadows just seen now
and then, toiled on over the rocks, but still no sign of the cutter's
boats, and in despair now of my such capture as might have been made,
Hilary was thinking that when a suitable opportunity occurred he would
seize hold of the hook with one hand, retain the hauling rope in the
other, and let himself rapidly down, when there was a shrill chirruping
whistle from below, the scrambling of feet, and a voice from the beach
said sharply:

"Quick there! Luggers ahoy! Look out!"

CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.

TOM TULLY ACTS AS GUIDE.

Lieutenant Lipscombe's eye had grown rapidly better, and his temper
rapidly worse. He had grumbled at Chips for being so long over his task
of repairing the deck and hatchway, and Chips had responded by leaving
off to sharpen his tools, after which he had diligently set traps to
catch his superior officer, who never wen