but there was no reply.

"The scoundrels!" cried the master angrily. "They're all together in
some public-house drinking, and glad to get away from us. Eh? What are
you laughing at?"

"There are no public-houses out in this wild place, Mr Gurr."

"Eh? Well, no, I suppose not. I'll hail. Ahoy?"

A faint echo in reply. That was all.

"Which way shall we go?"

"I don't know, Mr Gurr."

"Can't make out which is the north, can you?"

"No, sir, nor the south neither."

"Humph! I think I could find the south if you told me which was the
north," said the master drily. "Well, we must do the best we can.
Let's strike along here. I seem to feel that this is the right
direction."

Archy felt that it was the wrong direction, but, at he could not point
out the right, he followed his leader for about a quarter of a mile,
both pausing to shout and listen from time to time.

All at once Gurr came to a dead stop.

"I feel as if we're going wrong," he said. "You choose this time."

"Let's try this way," said Archy, selecting the route because it was
down hill; but a quarter of an hour of this did not satisfy him, and he
too stopped dead short.

"I feel just as much lost as I did in the dark in that cave, Mr Gurr,"
he said.

"Never mind, my lad," said the master good-humouredly. "It's all an
accident, and nobody's fault. Wish I had my pipe."

"Ahoy!" shouted Archy, but there was no reply.

"I'd sit down and wait for morning, only conscience won't let me."

"Well, let's try this way," suggested Archy.

"Seems to me, my lad, that it don't matter which way we take, we only go
wandering in and out among the stones and brambles and winding all sorts
of ways. Never mind; we must keep moving, so come on."

They trudged on for how long they could not tell, but both were getting
exceedingly weary, and as ignorant now ever as to their whereabouts;
for, whether the direction they followed was east, west, south, or
north, there was no indication in the sky; and they kept on, always
cautiously, in dread and yet in hope that they might come upon the edge
of the cliff, which would solve their difficulty at once, if they could
see the cutter's lights.

"Though that aren't likely, Mr Raystoke. Strikes me that he'll lie
there, and not show a light, on the chance of a smuggling lugger coming
along, though that's hardly our luck."

"I don't know," said Archy bitterly. "Seems just the time for her to
come when the s