ot where he had disappeared, no one
seeing a face watching them intently through the thin wiry strands of a
tuft of grass growing close up under the cliff.

The heat was now intense, for the sun seemed to be reflected back from
the face of the rocks, and the men were regularly fagged.

They shouted and waited, and shouted again, but the only answer they got
was from the echoes; and at last they stood together in a knot, with
Billy Waters scratching his head with all his might, and they were a
good half mile now from where Hilary had made his discovery and stepped
into a trap.

"Well, this here _is_ a rummy go," exclaimed the gunner, after looking
from face to face for the counsel that there was not. "Let's see, my
lads; it was just about here as he went forrard, warn't it?"

"No," growled Tom Tully; "it were a good two-score fathom more to the
east'ard."

"Nay, nay, lad; it were a couple o' cables' length doo west," said
another.

"I think it were 'bout here," said Tom Tully; "but I can't find that
there track o' the boat's keel now. What's going to be done?"

"Let's go aboard again," growled Tom Tully. "I'm 'bout sick o' this
here, mates."

"But I tell yer we can't go aboard without our orsifer," cried the
gunner. "'Taint likely."

"He'd go aboard without one of us," growled Tom Tully, "so where's the
difference?"

"There's lots o' difference, my lad. We can't go aboard without him.
But where is he?"

"Having a caulk somewhere," said Tully gruffly; "and I on'y wish I were
doing of that same myself. If we stop here much longer we shall be
cooked like herrings. It's as hot as hot."

"I tell you he wouldn't desert us and go to sleep," said the gunner
stubbornly. "Mr Leigh's a lad as would stick to his men like pitch to
a ball o' oakum."

"Then why don't he?" growled Tom Tully in an ill-used tone. "What does
he go and sail away from conwoy for?"

"He couldn't have got up the cliffs," mused the gunner; "'cause there
don't seem to be no way, and he couldn't have gone more to west'ard,
'cause we must have seen him. There ain't been no boats along shore,
and he can't have gone back to the cutter. I say, my lads, we've been
and gone and got ourselves into a reg'lar mess. What's the skipper
going to say when he sees us? You see we can't tell him as the
youngster's fell overboard."

"No," growled Tom Tully; "'cause there ar'n't no overboard for him to
fall. I'm right, I know; he's having a caulk