"Yes, and then you'll tell no tales," growled the man, in a hoarse
whisper, for he was recovering his breath.

"What about?" said Aleck, uneasily, for the man's manner was terrible in
its intensity.

"What about?" snarled Eben.

"Yes; I don't understand you. I say, Eben, have you escaped?"

The man glared at him, and the look which met his--a look full of
enquiry and perfectly fearless--seemed to disarm him somewhat.

"No," he said, "I won't think it was your doing, my lad."

"What?" asked Aleck.

"Putting the gang on to us the other night."

"Mine? No; I was fast asleep in bed when the shots woke me, and I went
up the cliff to see."

"Ah! I s'pose so," said the smuggler, in a hoarse whisper. "I've
escaped for a bit, but they're after me. I s'pose they felt I should
come back to the missus. I say," he continued, eagerly, "is she all
right, Master Aleck?"

"Yes. I've seen her two or three times right up the cliff."

"What for?" said the smuggler, sharply, and his eyes glittered fiercely
again.

"To look and see if you were coming, of course."

"Yes, of course," said the man, in a peculiar manner, and a curious
smile dawned upon his lip.

"But how did you manage to escape?"

"Jumped overboard and swam for it."

"From the cutter's boat?"

"No, from the sloop's port-hole, my lad. But what about the cutter's
boat?" he added, with a sharply questioning look.

"She came across to the cove this morning, and I saw her not long ago."

"Looking for me?"

"No; for the young middy who is missing. Tell me, Eben, did you know
anything about him?"

"Me? Hush, don't talk! The cutter's men have been hunting me this last
half-hour, and they're out yonder among the gullies now. They see me, I
think. So you've found it then?" he said, with a savagely malicious
grin.

"Yes; I never knew there was a way down here."

"Been often, I s'pose?"

"Been often? Why, I'd just got here when I heard you coming."

"Ahoy!" came faintly from somewhere in front. "There it is again,
Eben," cried Aleck, forgetting everything else now in the excitement of
his discovery. "You heard it?"

"Yes, I heard it," said the man, grimly.

"I heard it yesterday too," continued Aleck. "Some poor fellow has
fallen down the cliff somewhere about here, and I was trying to get down
to him."

The man looked at him curiously and as if he was trying to read him
through and through.

"What for?" he said, hoarsely.

"What f