the earth. After a short pause he carried
Minnie out of the cavern, and led her to the field above by the same
path by which they had descended.

Then he returned for the kegs of gin. They were very heavy, but not too
heavy for the strength of the young giant, who was soon hastening with
rapid strides towards the bay, where they had left their friends. He
bore a keg under each arm, and Minnie tripped lightly by his side,--and
laughingly, too, for she enjoyed the thought of the discomfiture that
was in store for the smugglers.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

THE SMUGGLERS ARE "TREATED" TO GIN AND ASTONISHMENT.

They found the lieutenant and Captain Ogilvy stretched on the grass,
smoking their pipes together. The daylight had almost deepened into
night, and a few stars were beginning to twinkle in the sky.

"Hey! what have we here--smugglers?" cried the captain, springing up
rather quickly, as Ruby came unexpectedly on them.

"Just so, uncle," said Minnie, with a laugh. "We have here some gin,
smuggled all the way from Holland, and have come to ask your opinion of
it."

"Why, Ruby, how came you by this?" enquired Lindsay in amazement, as he
examined the kegs with critical care.

"Suppose I should say that I have been taken into confidence by the
smugglers and then betrayed them."

"I should reply that the one idea was improbable, and the other
impossible," returned the lieutenant.

"Well, I have at all events found out their secrets, and now I reveal
them."

In a few words Ruby acquainted his friends with all that has just been
narrated.

The moment he had finished, the lieutenant ordered his men to launch the
boat. The kegs were put into the stern-sheets, the party embarked, and,
pushing off, they rowed gently out of the bay, and crept slowly along
the shore, under the deep shadow of the cliffs.

"How dark it is getting!" said Minnie, after they had rowed for some
time in silence.

"The moon will soon be up," said the lieutenant. "Meanwhile I'll cast a
little light on the subject by having a pipe. Will you join me,
captain?"

This was a temptation which the captain never resisted; indeed, he did
not regard it as a temptation at all, and would have smiled at the idea
of resistance.

"Minnie, lass," said he, as he complacently filled the blackened bowl,
and calmly stuffed down the glowing tobacco with the end of that
marvellously callous little fingers, "it's a wonderful thing that baccy.
I don't know