from the
lugger. Don't matter. They know the way, and they'd see the signal
s'afternoon."

He whistled softly as he went on higher, laughing all at once at an idea
which struck him.

"Suppose they were to row right on to the cutter! Wouldn't it 'stonish
them all? I know what I should do. Shove off directly into the fog.
They wouldn't be able to see, and I wouldn't use the sweeps till I was
out of hearing, and then--oh, here we are up atop!"

For the sheep-track had come to an end upon what was really the
dangerous part of the journey. The zigzag and the cliff-path had been
bad, but a fall there would not have been hopeless, for the unfortunate
who lost his footing would go down to the next path, or the next, a
dozen places perhaps offering the means of checking the downward course,
but up where the boy now stood was a slope of short turf with long dry
strands which made the grass terribly slippery, and once any one had
fallen here, and was in motion, the slope was at so dangerous an
elevation that he would rapidly gather impetus, and shoot right off into
space to fall six hundred feet below on to the shore.

This danger did not check Ram's cheery whistle, and he climbed on,
sticking his toes well into the short grass, and rising higher and
higher till he reached some ragged shale with the grass, now very thin,
and about a hundred feet back from the sea, in a spot which he felt
would be well out of the sight of the cutter if those on board could see
above the fog. He set down his lanthorns, two about five feet apart,
lit them all, and held the third on the top of his head as he stood
between the others, so that from seaward the lights would have appeared
like a triangle.

It seemed all done in such a matter of course way that it was evident
that Ram was accustomed to the task, and supporting the lanthorn on his
head, first with one and then with the other hand, he went on whistling
softly an old west country air, thinking the while about Sir Risdon and
Lady Graeme, and about how poor they were, and how much better it was to
live at a farmhouse where there was always plenty to eat, and where his
father could go fishing in the lugger when he liked, and how he could
farm and smuggle, and generally enjoy life.

"That's good half an hour," said Ram, lowering his lanthorn, opening the
door, and puffing out the candle, afterwards serving the others the
same.

_Whew_--_whew_--_whew_--_whew_!

A peculiar whishin