"Going to give it to me?" he cried, as he stopped about half way to the
trap-door.

"No."

"You'll want all this, and I've got some good tack inside."

"Be off, fellow, and don't bother me."

"Yah! Who want's to?" cried Ram; and he went off whistling merrily till
he was at the opening, when he shouted back,--

"No oats to-day, pony. Good-bye."

Archy leaped up and stood listening with his heart beating fast, and his
head bent in the direction taken by the boy.

"How unfortunate!" he said. "But I could not help it. Will he come
back?"

He listened and listened and hesitated, but there was no sound, and
still he hesitated, till quite a couple of hours must have passed, when
he uttered a loud exultant cry, determined now to make one bold dash for
liberty, and made straight through the darkness for the open way.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

The midshipman drew in a long breath of the salt air, as he stood at the
opening in the cliff face. He tightened his belt, drew his red cap down
on his head, wished that his hands were not so sore, and muttered the
words, "Now for liberty!" He began to creep through the hole till his
head was well out, and he could look round for enemies.

There was not one. The only thing that he could see was a gull sailing
round and round between him and the sea, down to his right.

And now, for the first time, it struck him that the gull looked very
small, and from that by degrees he began to realise that the hole out of
which he had thrust his head was fully four hundred feet above where the
waves broke, and that it must be two hundred more to the top of the
cliff.

It looked more perilous too than it had seemed before, but the lad was
in nowise daunted. The way was open to him to climb up or lower himself
down apparently, but he chose the former way of escape, knowing as he
did how very little at the base of the cliffs was left bare even in the
lowest tides, and that if he got down he would either have to swim or to
sit perched upon a shelf of rock till some boat came and picked him off.

There was no cutter in view, but he did not trouble about that. He
stopped only to gaze down at the dazzling blue sea, and thought that if
it came to the worst he could leap right off into deep water, and then
he drew himself right out on to a rugged ledge, a few inches in width,
and stood holding on by the stones round the opening, looking upward for
the best way to get up.

"Don't seem