to his throat as if to choke
him, while he listened intently for the sound of a falling body
loosening a little avalanche of stones.

But all was still below, while above there was the trampling of feet,
and a voice said, loudly:

"Are you sure he came this way?"

"Quite, sir. He must have dodged round by that great block of stone."

"Forward then," cried the first voice, while from below where he stood
came a low, hoarse whisper:

"Now, then, jump!"

For a moment Aleck felt that it was too much. Coward or no coward, he
dared not make such a leap in the dark as that. Then, setting his
teeth, he stepped close to the edge of the shelf, placed his feet
exactly as he had seen the smuggler prepare to drop, and then, with his
elbows pressed close to his sides and his open hands raised to a level
with his chest, he took the little leap, with the opposite side of the
rift seeming to rush upward past his staring eyes, while he dropped what
seemed, from the time it lasted, to his overstrained nerves and
imagination a tremendous depth--in reality about seven feet--before his
feet came flat upon the rock and a strong arm caught him across the
chest like a living protecting bar.

Aleck's eyes turned dim, and the rock face in front spun round before
him as he felt himself pressed backward--a few feet beneath what seemed
to be a rugged stone eave, which protected him and his companion from
being seen by anyone who should peer over the edge, while the next
moment the smuggler's lips were close to his ear and the breath came hot
as the man whispered:

"I never knowed a lad before who dared to jump like that. Come on,
Master Aleck; I'd trust you with anything now."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

Aleck resigned himself to the smuggler's guiding hand, which gripped his
arm tightly, and as the giddy sensation began to pass off and he saw
more clearly, he grasped the position in which he stood--to wit, that he
was upon another ledge of rock, apparently another stratum of the great
slowly-built-up masses which formed the mighty cliffs, one, however,
which had been eaten away more by the action of time, so that it was
much more deeply indented, while the upper stratum from which he had
dropped overlapped considerably, save in one place, where this lower
shelf projected in a rocky tongue, which resembled a huge bracket, and a
cold shiver ran through the lad as he saw now fully the perilous nature
of his leap.

"Haven't found out