o squeeze through, but once inside it opened out
into a big cave. A chap had struck a loight, and there war ten or twelve
more on us thar. 'We had better wait another five minutes,' says one,
'to see if any more cooms along. Arter that the tide ull be too high.'

"We waits, but no one else cooms; me and moi mate war t' last. Then we
goes to t' back of the cave, whar t' rock sloped down lower and
lower till we had to crawl along one arter t'other pretty nigh on our
stomachs, like raats going into a hole. Oi wonders whar on aarth we war
agoing, till at last oi found sudden as oi could stand oopright. Then
two or three more torches war lighted, and we begins to climb oop some
steps cut i' the face of t' rock. A rope had been fastened alongside to
hold on by, which war a good job for me, vor oi should never ha' dared
go oop wi'out it, vor if oi had missed my foot there warn't no saying
how far oi would ha' fallen to t' bottom. At last the man avore me says,
'Here we be!' and grateful oi was, vor what wi' the crawling and the
climbing, and the funk as oi was in o' falling, the swaat was a-running
down me loike water. The torches war put out, and in another minute
we pushes through some bushes and then we war on t' top of the cliff a
hundred yards or so back from t' edge, and doon in a sort of hollow all
covered thickly over wi' bushes. We stood and listened vor a moment, but
no sound war to be heard. Then one on em says, 'We ha' done 'em agin.
Now the sooner as we gets off to our homes the better.' Looky for me,
Jack war one of the lot as had coom up through the cave. 'Coom along,
Luke,' says he, 'oi be glad thou hast got out of it all roight. We must
put our best foot foremost to get in afore day breaks.' So we sets off,
and joost afore morning we gets back to village. As to t'other two from
Varley, they never coom back agin. Oi heerd as how all as war caught war
pressed for sea, and oi expect they war oot in a ship when a storm coom
on, when in coorse they would be drownded. Oi started next day vor hoam,
and from that day to this oi ha' never been five mile away, and what's
more, oi ha' never grudged the price as they asked for brandy. It ud be
cheap if it cost voive toimes as much, seeing the trouble and danger as
there be in getting it ashore, to say nothing o' carrying it across the
sea."

"That was an adventure, Luke," Ned said, "and you were well out of it. I
had no idea you had ever been engaged in defrauding the kin