e too."

Polly had well-knit limbs, and, being accustomed to active exercise, led
the way at a rapid rate. She seemed well acquainted with the road, for
she never stopped or hesitated as to which path to take, and Charley
soon totally lost the direction in which he was going, and Tom had no
little difficulty in keeping up with her.

They had thus gone on for some distance, when Polly stopped and stood as
if listening.

"I hear some coming; we must hide, and quick too, for if they are those
I fancy, and they catch us, our lives are not worth much."

A high bank with a hedge on the top of it was on one side, and as she
spoke she led the way through a gap, and the adventurers found
themselves perfectly concealed from any one passing along the road.
Scarcely had they got behind the hedge, when a party of five or six men
appeared, talking in subdued tones, but high enough to allow some of
their words to be heard. They were uttering oaths and breathing
vengeance against the revenue officers and others, by whom their plans
had been defeated. From the mood they were in, Charley felt that it
would have been very unpleasant to have again encountered them. Polly
waited for some time before she ventured into the road, and then she led
on, without speaking, as fast as ever. The ground became very rough,
and they went up and down hill till the sound of the surf told that they
were once more approaching the sea.

As they were ascending a steep, rocky hill, covered with loose stones, a
light appeared before them. They crept on cautiously, imitating Polly's
way of proceeding.

"They have taken her there," she whispered, pointing to a cottage, the
dim outline of which could be seen. "This very night, if the weather
had been fine, they would have carried her across the Channel. There's
no time to lose, for they won't let her stay long, and if we don't get
her to-day, to-morrow she may be far off from this."

Again she moved on, till she reached a low stone wall, which formed a
fence to the garden of the house. "Stay still as death here," she
whispered. "There's a terrible woman lives there. If she was to find
out what I was about she'd kill me though I am her own flesh and blood,
and you too, and, may be, in her rage, the little girl too." Saying
this, Polly stole on towards the cottage.

Charley had expected that he should have been called on to run some
personal risk, and to carry off Margery from the grasp of half-