nd suddenly exclaimed:

"There is a man among those fallen rocks halfway up the side. There!
he is gone. Perhaps we shall see him again in a moment."

For five minutes they lay with their eyes fixed on the rocks that
Desmond pointed out, but there were no signs of life.

"Are you sure you were not mistaken, Desmond?" O'Connor asked.

"Quite certain. He suddenly appeared by the side of that gray bowlder,
stood there for a moment, and sunk down again. I expect he must have
got a view of one of the men somewhere along the top."

"We will wait another ten minutes," O'Connor said, "and then we will
take a party to the spot and search it thoroughly. There is the
coast-guard boat, so there is no fear of their getting away by water."

Another quarter of an hour passed.

"It is no use waiting any longer. Go along the line, one each way, and
bring ten men from points where they can be spared. We will leave them
at the top of the path and take the party there down with us. There
are only four or five of them, and ten men beside ourselves are ample
for the business."

The arrangements were soon made. Before starting on the descent
O'Connor said to the men: "We wish to take the fellows who are hiding
down there alive if possible. They are the gang of the fellow known as
the 'Red Captain,' and have committed a score of murders; but if it is
absolutely necessary you will of course fire. There is one man among
them who is there on compulsion, and is less guilty than the rest. He
is a fair-haired man, and I should think you would notice the
difference between him and the rest. Whatever resistance they make it
is not probable that he will join in it. At any rate, do not fire at
him unless it is absolutely necessary to save life. Now see to your
priming before we start, and fix bayonets. Mind how you climb over
these rocks, because if any of you fall your muskets may go off and
shoot some one in front of you. Wherever it is possible scatter out
abreast of each other, so as to prevent the possibility of accident.
Now, then, march!"

Leading the way, Captain O'Connor descended the little track. It
extended but a short distance. Beyond that a chaos of fallen
rocks--the remains of a landslip many years previously--stretched away
to the shore.

"There is no working along these sideways, Desmond," Captain O'Connor
said after they had climbed along for some little distance. "We had
better make straight down to the shore, follow that