a wall, and in some places even overhung the waves that rolled
heavily below. Masses of tangled seaweed and shells, which lay in the
crevices of the cliffs, showed where in times of storm the wild waters
were thrown; while lower down, amid fragments of rocks, the heavy beams
and planks of shipwrecked vessels surged with every motion of the tide.

"You cannot see the cutter now," said the old sailor,--"the setting sun
leaves a haze over the sea; but in a few minutes more we shall see her."

"I am rather looking for the pathway down this bold cliff," replied I,
as I strained my eyes to catch something like a way to descend by.

"Then throw thine eyes in this direction," said the sailor, as he
pointed straight down beneath the window of the tower. "Seest thou that
chain there? Well, follow it a little farther, and thou may'st mark a
piece of timber jutting from the rock."

"Yes, I see it plainly."

"Well, the path thou asketh for is beneath that spar. It is a good rope
of stout hemp, and has carried the weight of many a brave fellow before
now."

"The smuggler's rope?"

"The same. Art afraid to venture, now thou seest the place?"

"You'll not find me so, friend. I have seen danger as close before now,
and did not blink it."

"Mark me well, then," said he, laying his hand on my arm. "When thou
readiest that rope, thou wilt let thyself cautiously down to a small
projecting point of rock; we cannot see it here, but thou wilt soon
discern it in the descent. The rope from this goes no farther, for that
spot is nigh sixty fathom below us. From thence the cliff slopes sharply
down about thirty or forty feet. Here thou must creep cautiously,--for
the moss is dry and slippery at this season,--till thou nearest the
edge. Mark me well, now: near the edge thou'lt find a large stone
fast-rooted in the ground; and around that another rope is fastened, by
which thou may'st reach the bottom of the precipice. There is but one
place of peril in the whole."

"The sloping bank, you mean?"

"Yes; that bit will try thy nerve. Remember, if thy foot slip, there's
nothing to stop thy fall; the cliff is rounded over the edge, and the
blue sea beats two hundred feet below it. And see! look yonder, far away
there! Seest thou the twinkling, as of a small star, on the water?"

"The cutter will throw up a rocket, will she not?"

"A rocket!" repeated he, contemptuously; "that's some landsman's story
thou hast been listening to. A rocket w