Many of the fishermen, from time to time, took a hand in smuggling
cruises, and the country people were always ready to lend assistance in
landing and carrying the cargoes.

When out in their boats at night, James had often heard the fishermen
tell stories of their smuggling adventures, and more than once he had
been with them, when they had boarded a lugger laden with contraband,
to warn them that the revenue cutter was on the cruising ground, and it
would not be safe to attempt to run cargo at present. He now
determined, at once, that he would warn the smugglers of their danger.
The question was, where was the cargo to be run? The officer had not
mentioned the spot, but, as the force from the next station to the east
was to cooperate, it must be somewhere between the two.

Waiting till the speakers must have gone well along the cliff, he rose
to his feet, and returned to Sidmouth. He thought, at first, of telling
some of the fishermen what he had heard, but as, in the event of an
affray, it might come out how the smugglers had been warned of the
intention of the revenue officers, he thought there would be less risk
in giving them warning himself. He knew every path down the cliff for
miles, and trusted that he should be able to make his way down, and
give the boats notice of their danger, before the revenue men reached
the shore.

At nine o'clock he dressed himself, in the rough sailor's suit he wore
when he went out with the fishermen, and started along the cliff. For
some distance he kept well inland, as the officer might have placed a
man on the lookout, to stop anyone going towards the scene of action.
The spot he thought the most likely was a mile and a half along the
shore. There was a good landing place, and an easy path up the cliff,
and he knew that cargoes had been more than once run here. Accordingly,
when he reached this spot, he sat down among some bushes on the edge of
the cliff, and waited for some sort of signal. Half an hour later, he
heard the tramp of a number of men, passing along behind him.

"There go the revenue men," he thought to himself. "I suppose they are
going to meet those coming the other way."

An hour passed without further sound, and James began to get uneasy. If
this was the spot fixed for the landing, some of the country people
ought to be arriving, by this time, to help to carry off the cargo.
They might, for aught he knew, be already near, waiting for the signal
before they d