nd, as I said afore, if I was Eben Megg, I'd drop the
smuggling and go inland for a bit. That there sloop'll come into
harbour some night when she arn't expected; you see if she don't! They
was fine young men the skipper got the other night, and I say he'll try
for another haul."

"And I say," cried Aleck, "that if he does send his men he'll be
disappointed, for Eben and the other smugglers will be too foxy to let
themselves be surrounded as the men were at Rockabie the other night."

"Well, Master Aleck, so much the better for them."

Then Tom began hammering and clinching the soft copper nails as if he
loved his work, and as soon as the sun went down started off to trudge
across the moor to Rockabie, taking his time over the task and looking
as cheerful at the end as he did at the beginning of the long day.

Aleck had worked pretty hard, too, in the hot sun, and he was so drowsy
that night that he was glad enough to see his uncle, wearied out with
the writing, which seemed as if it would never come to an end, begin to
nod and doze, and suddenly rise up and say:

"Let's go to bed!"

Aleck hardly knew how he got undressed, but he did afterwards recall
going to the fully-open window and looking out at the dull night, as he
drank in the soft cool air, which seemed so welcome after a still,
sultry day.

Then he was asleep, dreaming of nothing, till about midnight, when his
brain became active and he fancied that he was back in the darkness by
the unlaunched boat at Rockabie, growing wildly excited as he listened
to the shouting and scuffling up one of the narrow lanes, followed by
firing and what seemed to be either an order or a cry for help.

The next moment the sleeper was wide awake, listening to what was
undoubtedly a shout, and it was followed by another, both far away, but
sounding clear on the night air, while from time to time came a dull
murmur as of several voices together.

"They're landing a cargo," thought Aleck, and with his mind full of
luggers lying off the coast, with boats going to and fro to fetch kegs,
chests and bales, he hurried on his clothes, dropped from his bedroom
window, hurried down the garden to the cliff path, and began to climb up
the zigzag.

The landing-place would no doubt be away to the west and below Eilygugg,
where the smugglers' fishing-boats lay, and as soon as he was up out of
the depression on to the level down, Aleck went off at a trot to get
right at the edge of th