adland for the man who lit it. Revenge was
now the Major's game, and, by his tune, he meant to have it.

But while I lay listening, a stone trickled from the cliff overhead
and plumped softly upon the seaweed at the mouth of my cave. It was
followed by a rush of small gravel (had the Major not, at the moment,
been declaiming at his loudest, his men must surely have heard it):
and this again by the plumb fall of a heavy body which still lay for
a full five seconds after alighting, and then emitted a groan so
eloquent that it raised the roots of my hair.

I held my breath. More seconds passed, and the body groaned again,
still more dolefully.

We were within three yards of one another; and, friend or foe,
if he continued to lie and groan like this for long, flesh and blood
could not stand it.

"Are you hurt?" I summoned up voice to ask.

"The devil!" I had feared that he would scream. But he sat up--
I saw his shoulders fill the mouth of the cave between me and the
starlight. By his attitude he was peering at me through the
darkness. "Who are you?"

"If you please, sir, I'm a boy."

"Glad to hear it. I took you at first for one of those cursed
soldiers. Hiding, eh?"

"Yes, sir."

"So am I: but this is a mighty poor place for it. They may be here
any moment with their lanterns: we had better cut across while
everything's dark. Gad!" he said, throwing his head back as if to
stare upwards, "I must have dropped twenty feet. Wonder if I've
broken anything?" He stood up, and appeared to be feeling his limbs
carefully. "Sound as a bell!" he announced. "Come along, youngster:
we'll get out of this first and talk afterwards."

He put out a hand, seeking for mine; but, missing it, touched my ribs
with his open palm and drew it away sharply.

"Good Lord, the boy's naked!"

"I've been swimming," said I.

"All right. Get out of this first and talk afterwards, that's the
order. There's a rug in my tilbury, if we can only reach it. Now
then, follow me close--and gently over the shingle!"

Like shadows we stole forth and across the cove. No one spied us,
and, thanks perhaps to Major Dilke's sustained oratory, no one heard.

"There's a track hereabouts," my new friend whispered as we gained
the farther cliff. "This looks like it--no--yes, here it is!
Close after me, sonny, and up we go. Surely, 'tis Robinson Crusoe
and man Friday with a touch of something else thrown in--can't think
what, for the