hough obscured occasionally by the fast
driving clouds which came up from the south-west, and by its light they
had no difficulty in clambering out of the pit. They were on the top of
some downs, at some distance from the edge of the cliff. However, they
could see the now foam-covered sea, and distinguish vessels far off
running up the Channel before the gale, and thus could take a tolerably
direct road homeward, though neither of them had before been thus far
from the Tower. They hurried on, being certain that the smugglers could
not leave the coast, and hoping that even if one could be captured he
would give information where Margery was to be found.

"Margery! poor dear little Margery, she to be all this time in the power
of these ruffians!" Charley kept saying to himself as he and Tom
hurried on.

CHAPTER NINE.

A FRIEND IN NEED--MARGERY ESCAPES--MARGERY'S MISSION.

Tom and Charley had gone through so much that they could not calculate
at all what hour of the night it then was. They had not noted the hour
when they commenced their adventure, but remembered that it was then
daylight; they had had no dinner, and they felt very hungry. They were
hurrying along a path which led through a hollow, when on the hill above
them they saw a female figure. She stopped and looked about, either to
find the path or in expectation of some one. What could she want at
that hour of the night, in so lone a place? They were under the shadow
of a stone wall, and she evidently did not see them. They hesitated
whether to remain concealed, as it occurred to both that her appearance
there was in some way or other connected with the smugglers. However,
after waiting a minute, she came down the hill with the light step of a
young girl; when, catching sight of them, instead of retreating she came
boldly forward. "Oh, Tom, oh, Mr Charles, I am so glad to see you all
right!" she exclaimed, as she got near enough for them to recognise the
features of Polly Herring, the smuggler's daughter. "I heard that
something dreadful was going to happen, and I came along to try and stop
it."

"And you thought, Polly, that your father was in it, and may be James
Trevany, and you did not wish them to get into trouble. Was not that
it, Polly?"

"Yes! Tom, that was one reason," answered the girl, frankly; "another
was that I wanted to save you and Mister Charles from coming to harm;
and now I'll ask you, if father or James get into troub