ingle by the water's edge.
Presently a voice, hoarse and low, spoke up to them out of the
darkness.

"Hist, there! Silence in the ranks!" The speaker was Captain Pond
himself. "A man can hear that old fool Spettigew's cackle half-way
across the Cove. They're coming, I tell you!"

"Where, Cap'n? Where?"

"Bare half-a-mile t'other side of Downend Point. Is the first rocket
ready?"

"Ay, ay, Cap'n."

"And the flint and steel?"

"Here, between my knees: and Oke beside me, ready with the fuse.
Got the fuse, Oke?"

"If--if you p-please, sir--"

"What's wrong?"

"If you p-please, sir, I've chewed up the fuse by mistake!"

"_What_'s he saying?"

"I got it m-mixed up, sir, here in the d-dead darkness with my quid
o' baccy--and I th-think I'm goin' to be sick."

"'Tis the very right hand o' Providence, then, that I brought a spare
one," spoke up Pengelly. "Here, Un' Issy--_you_ take hold--"

"Everything must follow in order, mind," Captain Pond commanded.
"As soon as the first boat takes ground, you challenge: then count
five, and up goes the rocket. Eh?" The Captain swung round at the
sound of another footstep on the shingle. "Is that you, Clogg?
Man, but you made me jump!"

"Captain Pond! Oh, Captain Pond!" stammered the new-comer, who was
indeed no other than Mr. Clogg, senior lieutenant of the Diehards.

"Why have you left your post, sir? Don't stand there clinky-clanking
your sword on the pebbles--catch it up under your arm, sir: you're
making noise enough to scare the dead! Now, then, what have you to
report? Nothing wrong with the main body, I hope?"

"A man might call it ghosts"--Mr. Clogg in the darkness passed a
sleeve across his clammy brow--"A man might call it ghosts, Captain
Pond, and another might set it down to drink. But you know my
habits."

"Be quick, man! You've seen something? What is it?"

"Ah, what indeed? You may well ask it, sir: though not if you was to
put the Book into my hands at this moment and ask me to kiss it--"

"Clogg," interrupted the Captain, stepping close and gripping him by
the upper arm, "will you swear to me you have not been drinking?"

"Yes and no, Captain. That is, it began with my stepping up the
valley to the farm for a dollop of hot water--I'd a thimbleful of
schnapps in my flask here--and the night turning chilly, and me
remembering that Mrs. Nankivel up to the farm was keeping the kettle
on the boil, because she promised as much only la