ne and faced it out now."

"It would be just suicide," the man said. "Weymouth ain't the only place
in the world; and it is better for you to live out of it, and know you
will get cleared some day, than to get hung, with only the consolation
that perhaps twenty years hence they may find out they have made a
mistake."

"It isn't so much myself I am thinking of as my brother and aunt. My
going away and never sending them a word will be like confessing my
guilt. It will ruin my brother's life, and kill my aunt."

"Well, I'll tell you what I will do," Markham said. "You shall write a
letter to your brother, and tell him your story, except, of course,
about this cave. You can say you followed me, and that I and some
smugglers sprang on you and captured you, and have carried you across to
France. All the rest you can tell just as it happened. I don't know as
it will do me any harm. Your folks may believe it, but no one else is
likely to do so. I don't mean to go back to Weymouth again, and if I did
that letter would not be evidence that anyone would send me to trial on.
Anyhow, I will risk that."

"Thank you, with all my heart," Julian said gratefully. "I shall not so
much mind, if Frank and Aunt get my story. I know that they will believe
it if no one else does, and they can move away from Weymouth to some
place where it will not follow them. It won't be so hard for me to bear
then, especially if some day the truth gets to be known. Only please
direct your letters to 'Colonel Chambers, or the Chairman of the
Weymouth magistrates,' because he is at least ten years older than you
are, and might die long before you, and the letter might never be opened
if directed only to him."

"Right you are, lad. I will see to that."

Just at this moment one of the sailors came down from the look-out
above, and said that the signal had just been made from the offing, and
that the lugger's boat would be below in a quarter of an hour. All
prepared for departure; the lower door was unbolted, the lights
extinguished, and they went down to the lower entrance. It was reached
by a staircase cut in the chalk, and coming down into a long and narrow
passage, at the further end of which was the opening Julian had seen
from the sea. The party gathered at the entrance. In a few minutes a
boat with muffled oars approached silently; a rope was lowered, a noose
at its upper end being placed over a short iron bar projecting three or
four inches from t