serted as if
there had not been a soul there for years.

The men were well-armed, and ready to make up for their misadventure of
the previous night, and Billy Waters being sent to the front to act as
guide he was not long in finding out the narrow entrance amongst the
rocks, but only to be at fault directly after, on account of places
looking so different in broad daylight to what they did when distorted
by the shadowy gloom.

He had come to the head-scratching business, when a rub is expected to
brighten the intellect, and felt ready to appeal to his companions for
aid and counsel when he suddenly recollected that they had clambered
over a rock here, and this he now did, shouting to his companions to
come on, just as the lieutenant was approaching to fulminate in wrath
upon his subordinate's ignorance.

"Here you are," he cried, and one after the other the men tumbled down
the rock, following him through each well-remembered turn--spots
impressed upon them by the blows they had received, until they were
brought to a standstill in a complete _cul-de-sac_, through a passage so
narrow that one man could have held it against a dozen if there had been
anything to hold.

The lieutenant squeezed his way past the men till he stood beside his
subordinate.

"Well, why have you brought us here?" he exclaimed.

"This here's the place where we chased 'em to, your honour," said the
gunner, "and then they disappeared like."

"But you said it was so dark that you could not see any one."

"Yes, your honour, we couldn't hardly see 'em; but they disappeared all
the same."

"Where? How?"

"Some'eres here, your honour."

"Nonsense, man! The rock's thirty feet high here, and they could not go
up that."

"No, your honour."

"Then where did they go?"

"That's what none of us can't tell, your honour."

"Look here, Waters," said the lieutenant in a rage; "do you mean to tell
me that you have let me lead his majesty's force of marines and sailors
to the attack of a smugglers' stronghold, and then got nothing more to
show than a corner in the rocks?"

Billy Waters scratched his head again and looked up at the face of the
rock, then at the sides, and then down at his feet, before once more
raising his eyes to his commander.

"Now, sir!" exclaimed the latter, "what have you to say?"

Billy Waters appealed to the rocks again in mute despair, but they were
as stony-faced as ever.

"Do you hear me, sir?" cried the lieutena