p slope, going to the top of which he found that he could see
the light in what was apparently a cottage.

Descending again, he cautiously chose a spot where he could easily see
the cutter's lights but not the shore below the cliff, and then he
paused and listened.

The dull murmur was fainter now, but he could make out the men at work,
and for a few moments he hesitated. Suppose he should be surprised and
taken back!

"Never mind," he thought, "I am only doing my duty. They dare not kill
me, and, in the king's name, here goes."

He uncovered the lantern and placed it upon the turf, where it burned
steadily and well; then opening the door, he took the candle from the
extinct lantern, lit it, replaced it, and closed it in, put on his
jacket, and then, taking a couple of steps to the left, he stood there
holding the second lantern breast high, making a signal that he knew
would be understood on board if the diagonal lights were seen by anyone
of the watch.

Hilary's heart beat fast. He was concealed by the cliff from the busy
party below, and by the rise behind him from those inland, but at any
moment some one might come up to where the lanterns had been placed,
miss them, and see what he was about.

It was risky work, but he did not shrink, although he knew that he was
lessening his chances of escape. Still, if he could only bring the
_Kestrel's_ boats down upon the scoundrels it would be so grand a _coup_
that his hesitation was always mastered, and he stood firm, gazing out
to sea.

How long the minutes seemed, and what a forlorn hope it was! The
chances were that the watch might not notice the lights; and even if
they were seen, it might not be by anyone of sufficient intelligence to
report them to the lieutenant, or to the boatswain or gunner.

Every now and then he fancied he heard steps. Then his imagination
created the idea that some one was crawling along the ground to push him
over the cliff; but he set his teeth and stood his post, keenly alive,
though, to every real sound and such sights as he could see, and ready
at any moment to dash down the lanterns and run inland for liberty, if
not for life. How dark the lanterns seemed to make it, and how hot the
one grew in his hands! Would those on board ever see it, and was he to
stand there in vain?

"Ah! if I had only been on board," he muttered, as the time wore on,
till what seemed to him a couple of hours had passed, but what was
really only