reath could be heard then as ears were strained, and after a
good deal of doubt had been felt, a kind of thrill ran through the men
who had taken hold of a line fastened to a stanchion and lowered
themselves down to the broad ledge.

The low, regular, slow beat of great sweeps became now audible, but
though Ram strained his eyes seaward, nothing was visible for quite
another ten minutes, when, as the boy stood at the brink of the upper
ledge he dimly saw something darker than the mist coming into view.
Soon there came a faint crunching noise as of a fender being crushed
against the rock, followed by the sound of ropes drawn over the bulwark,
and Ram hesitated no longer, but ran to the loop, placed his leg through
it, gave the signal by shaking the rope, and in an instant he was
snatched from his feet, run up, the rope drawn in, and he was landed on
the turf.

A small bag of stones was then attached to the loop, the wheel spun
round, and the bag went whizzing down, while the group of men stood
waiting and waiting, for they could see nothing below, hardly see each
other, so dense was the mist now.

Sundry familiar sounds arose from time to time, and more than once the
farmer uttered an ejaculation full of impatience at the length of time
taken up in bringing the vessel below and taking precautions to keep her
from grinding and bumping against the edge of the shelf, for though the
sea was calm, there was the swell to contend with.

At last.

There was a murmur from below which those two hundred feet above knew
well, and as two stood ready, another man by them took hold of the rope,
and suddenly started off at a run, disappearing at once in the fog,
while a peculiar whizzing sound was heard, as the little wheel in the
block now ran round till all at once a couple of kegs and the bag of
stones appeared level with the top of the cliff. These were seized,
unhitched, and as the bag ran down, a man knelt, fitted a short rope
about the kegs and hoisted them on his shoulder, just as the man who
held the rope trotted up out of the fog into which the other with the
kegs disappeared.

There was a faint hiss, and away ran the man again bringing the next two
kegs up rapidly, to be set at liberty, slung, and hoisted on another
man's back as the hauler came back out of the fog.

And so the unloading went on with marvellous rapidity, the hauler
rushing off into the fog, a couple of kegs coming up into sight, being
taken out of t