. If you tie that round your body you can go down and bring him
up."

Ralph then returned to the cavern, where the men were still guarding
the prisoners.

"You can march them outside now," he said. "Then make them sit down,
and stand over them with fixed bayonets till Sergeant Morris arrives.
Now let us look to the wounded."

An examination showed that two of the soldiers were dead, and three
others badly wounded. Seven of the party in the cave lay on the
ground. One only was alive; the rest had fallen either from bullet or
bayonet wounds. Seeing that nothing could be done here Ralph looked
round the cavern. He soon saw that just where Captain O'Connor had
fallen there was an entrance into another cave. He reloaded his
pistols before he entered this, but found it deserted.

It contained two large stills, with mash tubs and every appliance, two
or three hundred kegs of whisky, and some thirty sacks of barley. This
at once accounted for the cave being known, and for the number of men
found in it; for in addition to the seven that had fallen six
prisoners had been taken. The walls of the cave were deeply
smoke-stained, showing that it had been used as a distillery for a
great number of years.

"That is satisfactory," Captain O'Connor said when Ralph reported to
him the discovery he had made. "That place where I came down is of
course the chimney. Peat does not give much smoke, and making its way
out through that screen of bushes it would be so light that it would
not be noticed by any one on the cliffs. Well, it's been a good
morning's work--a band of notorious scoundrels captured and an illicit
still discovered in full work. It was a cleverly contrived place. Of
course it is a natural cavern, and was likely enough known before the
fall of rocks from above so completely concealed the entrance. I wish
those fellows would come, though, for my leg is hurting me amazingly,
and these burns on my hands and face are smarting horribly. Shout out
to them on the cliff, Conway, and tell them to send at once to fetch
Dr. Doran from the village. The wounded ought to be seen to as soon as
possible, and it is likely enough that some of them cannot be taken up
over the rocks to the top of the cliff. I dread the business myself."

In a quarter of an hour Sergeant Morris arrived with his party. By
this time Lieutenant Desmond had recovered consciousness, and although
in great pain from his broken arm was consoled upon hearing of the