t seems, is not over-friendly with him
just now), mean to visit one of the luggers which is expected to come
in to-night, before the moon rises, and bring off some kegs of
Auchmithie water, which, no doubt, they will try to hide in
Dickmont's Den. I shall lie snugly here on the watch, and hope to nab
them before they reach that celebrated old smuggler's abode."

"Well, I'll stay about here," said the captain, "and show Minnie the
caves. I would like to have taken her to see the Gaylet Pot, which is
one o' the queerest hereabouts; but I'm too old for such rough work
now."

"But I am not too old for it," interposed Ruby, "so if Minnie would
like to go----"

"But I won't desert _you_, uncle," said Minnie hastily.

"Nay, lass, call it not desertion. I can smoke my pipe here, an'
contemplate. I'm fond of contemplation--

'By the starry light of the summer night,
On the banks of the blue Moselle,'

though, for the matter o' that, moonlight'll do, if there's no stars.
I think it's good for the mind, Minnie, and keeps all taut.
Contemplation is just like takin' an extra pull on the lee braces. So
you may go with Ruby, lass."

Thus advised, and being further urged by Ruby himself, and being
moreover exceedingly anxious to see this cave, Minnie consented; so
the two set off together, and, climbing to the summit of the cliffs,
followed the narrow footpath that runs close to their giddy edge all
along the coast.

In less than half an hour they reached the Giel or Gaylet Pot.

CHAPTER XIX

AN ADVENTURE--SECRETS REVEALED, AND A PRIZE

The Giel or Gaylet Pot, down into which Ruby, with great care and
circumspection, led Minnie, is one of the most curious of Nature's
freaks among the cliffs of Arbroath.

In some places there is a small scrap of pebbly beach at the base of
those perpendicular cliffs; in most places there is none--the cliffs
presenting to the sea almost a dead wall, where neither ship nor boat
could find refuge from the storm.

The country, inland, however, does not partake of the rugged nature
of the cliffs. It slopes gradually towards them--so gradually that it
may be termed flat, and if a stranger were to walk towards the sea
over the fields in a dark night, the first intimation he would
receive of his dangerous position would be when his foot descended
into the terrible abyss that would receive his shattered frame a
hundred feet below.

In one of the fields there is a h