With his heart throbbing with joy Hilary now proceeded to reverse his
performance, for, taking off his jacket once more, he enveloped the
burning lantern, picked up the other that was emitting an abominable
odour, and hastily carried them back to the hollow where he found them.
It was so dark that he was doubtful whether he had found the right
place, but he kicked against another lantern, and that convinced him.
Placing the burning one on the ground, he relit the other, his hands
trembling so that he hardly knew what he did, and impeded himself to no
slight degree. He succeeded, however, and had just set the second
lantern down as nearly as he could remember, when he fancied he heard a
sound as of some one snoring, and glancing in the direction, he saw to
his horror that a man was lying there asleep.
For a few moments he felt paralysed, and stood there holding his jacket
in his hand unable to move, as he asked himself whether that man had
been there when he spoke and took the lights.
As he stood there wondering, he heard a voice call "Jem!" in a low tone;
and this roused Hilary, who dropped down and crept away, glancing to
seaward as he did so, where the cutter's lights--if it was she--once
more brightly burned.
He did not dare to go far, but lay flat upon the turf, listening as
someone came up; and then there was a dull noise as of a man kicking
another.
"Get up, Jem! Do you hear! Why, what a fellow you are to sleep!"
"Hullo! Oh, all right," said another voice; and now Hilary could see
two men standing, their figures plainly shown against the lantern's
light. "Oh, yes; it's all very well to say `Hullo!' and `All right!'"
grumbled the first voice; "I never see such a fellow to sleep."
"Have you done?" said the sleepy one yawning.
"Done? No; nor half done; she's got a heavy cargo. If we get done in
three hours we shall have worked well. Put out them candles, and come
and haul."
The lights were extinguished; and Hilary, wondering at his escape, felt
his heart bound with joy, for by that time the crews of a couple of
boats must have been mustered on the _Kestrel's_ deck, and in another
five minutes they would be pulling, with muffled oars, towards the
shore.
"Ah! if I were only in command of one!" cried Hilary to himself; "but as
I am not, can I do anything more to help our fellows besides bringing
them ashore?"
It was a question that puzzled him to answer, and he lay there on the
turf wondering what it would be best to do, ending by making up his mind
to creep down as cautiously as he could in the direction taken by the
two men.
"The worst that could happen to me," he thought, "would be that I should
be taken; and if I am made prisoner once more, it will only be in the
cause of duty--so here goes."
The darkness favoured him as far as concealment was concerned, but it
had its disadvantages. A little way to his left was the edge of the
cliff, and Hilary knew that if he were not careful he would reach the
shore in a way not only unpleasant to himself, but which would totally
spoil him for farther service; so he exercised as much caution for
self-preservation as he did to keep himself hidden from his enemies.
There was a well-beaten track, and, following this, he found the descent
was very rapid into a little valley-like depression, from the bottom of
which came the faint creak of a pulley now and then, with mingled sounds
of busy men going to and fro with loads, which they seemed to be, as he
judged, carrying up to carts somewhere at the head of the ravine.
He could see very little, the darkness was so great; but his keen sense
of hearing supplied the want of sight; and as he lay beside a clump of
what seemed to be furze, he very soon arrived at a tolerably good idea
of what was going on.
Still he was not satisfied. He wanted to realise more thoroughly the
whole procedure of the smugglers, so that if the present attempt should
prove a failure he might be in a position to circumvent them another
time.
It was a great risk to go any nearer, and it might result in capture,
perhaps in being knocked down; but he determined to go on, especially as
it grew darker every minute, the stars being completely blotted out by a
curtain of cloud that came sweeping over the sky.
He hesitated for a few moments, and then crept on, listening intently
the while.
The smugglers were still some distance off, down towards the edge of the
lower cliff; and he crept nearer and nearer, till to his horror he found
that the clearness of the part about him was only due to the cessation
of the carrying for a few minutes, and now a party seemed to be coming
up from the cliff edge, apparently loaded, while, when he turned to
retreat, he found by the sound of voices that another party was coming
down.
His manifest proceeding then was to get out of the track, but, to his
horror, he found that he was down in a rift between two high walls of
rock, and his first attempt to climb up resulted in a slip back,
scratching his hands, and tearing his clothes.
Before he could make a second attempt he was seized by a pair of strong
arms and forced down upon his knees; and dimly in the gloom he could
make out that he was pretty well surrounded by rough-looking men.
"Caught you, have I?" said a deep voice.
Hilary remained silent. It was of no avail to struggle, and he reserved
his strength for a better opportunity to escape.
He thought of shouting aloud to the boats, which he hoped were now well
on their way; but he restrained himself, as he felt that the success of
their approach depended upon their secrecy, so he merely hung down his
head, without offering the slightest resistance.
He had his reward.
"Get up, you lazy, skulking lubber!" cried his captor, "or I'll
rope's-end you." This, by the way, was rather cool language, especially
after forcing the captive down upon his knees.
"Here are we to work like plantation niggers at the oars, rowing night
and day, and you 'long-shore idlers leave us to do all the work."
"Why, he takes me for one of their party," thought Hilary; and, dark
though it was, he felt astonished at the man's stupidity, for it did not
occur to him then that he was hatless, that his hair was rough, his face
and hands anything but clean, and his old uniform shrunken by his
immersion, and so caked with mud and dirt, and withal so torn and
ragged, that even by broad daylight anyone would have strongly doubted
that he was a king's officer, while in the gloom of that ravine he could
easily be taken for a rough-looking carrier belonging to their gang.
"Come on," said the man hauling him along, "I've got a nice little job
for you. I don't care for your sulky looks. Go it, my lads. Got the
lot?" he continued, as a line of loaded men filed past them, they having
to stand back against the rock to let the burdened party pass.
"All? no; nor yet half," was the reply. "There, get on."
"All right. Take it easy," was the reply; and, trying hard to make out
the surroundings, Hilary made no resistance, but let himself be hurried
along down the declivity they were in, till he found himself on a
platform of trampled earth, where, as far as he could make out against
the skyline, a rough kind of shears was rigged up, and, by means of a
block, a couple of men were hauling up packages, and another was landing
them upon the platform, and unfastening and sending down the empty
hooks.
"Here, one of you carry now," said Hilary's captor, "and let this joker
haul. I found him trying to miche, and nipped him as he was skulking
off. Lay hold, you lazy lubber, and haul."
One of the men left the rope, and assuming a sulky, injured manner,
Hilary took his place at the rope, and, upon the signal being given,
hauled away with his new companion, who gave a grunt indicative of
satisfaction, as he found how well Hilary kept time with him, bringing
his strength to bear in unison with the other's, so that they worked
like one man.
"Ah, that's better!" he said. "I've been doing all the work."
They had brought a keg above the cliff edge, and this being detached,
Hilary's captor mounted it upon his shoulders, and the man who had been
hauling in Hilary's place took up a package and they began to move off.
"Let me know if he don't work," said the rough-voiced man.
"I'll soon be back. Mind he don't slip off."
"All right," said Hilary's companion.
"Haul," said a voice, and they pulled up another keg, while the tramping
of men could be plainly heard below, telling Hilary of what was going
on.
"Why," he thought, as he worked steadily on, "this is where they hauled
me up, the rascals; and now--"
He could not help laughing to himself at the strange trick Fate had
played him in setting him, a naval officer, helping a party of smugglers
to land their cargo; but all the same, he gloried in the amount of
information he was picking up for some future time.
"I don't seem to know you," said the man beside him at last, after they
had hauled up several packages and kegs. "Did old Allstone send you to
help?"
This was a poser, and Hilary paused for a moment or two before saying
frankly:
"No; he didn't want me to come."
"Ah! he's a nice 'un," growled the other. "I wish I'd my way; I'd make
him work a little harder. He's always skulking up at the old manor."
Hilary uttered a low grunt, and in the intervals of hauling he strained
his eyes to grasp all he could of his surroundings; but there was very
little to see. He could make out that he was at the edge of a lower
part of the cliff; that the rock-strewn beach was, as far as he could
make out by the hauling, some forty feet below; that the platform where
he stood was the sea termination of a gully, where probably in wet
weather a stream ran down and over the edge in a kind of fall, while on
either side the cliff towered up to a great height.
There was not much to learn, but it was enough to teach him what he
wanted to know, and it quite explained the success of the smugglers in
evading capture.
Hilary had strained his eyes again and again seaward; but, save that the
cutter's lights were burning brightly in the darkness, there was no sign
of coming help, though, for the matter of that, a fleet of small boats
might have landed and been unseen from where he stood.
The man's suspicions seemed to have been lulled, and Hilary kept on
hauling. The men came and went from where they were to the carts that
he judged to be waiting, and those below, like dim shadows just seen now
and then, toiled on over the rocks, but still no sign of the cutter's
boats, and in despair now of my such capture as might have been made,
Hilary was thinking that when a suitable opportunity occurred he would
seize hold of the hook with one hand, retain the hauling rope in the
other, and let himself rapidly down, when there was a shrill chirruping
whistle from below, the scrambling of feet, and a voice from the beach
said sharply:
"Quick there! Luggers ahoy! Look out!"