was well for Alan that he had their light to guide
him, for he could not venture on one for himself. Indeed, he had to keep
on the darkest side, close to the wall, for fear of being seen. The men,
he was glad to perceive, had so little suspicion that they were being
watched that they never even turned their heads or lowered their voices.
The box had been placed upon a flat rock just behind them for safety. To
get near it was now Alan's aim.

The faint sound of the receding tide and the voices of the two men alone
broke the stillness. The slightest noise would be heard therefore, the
rolling of a pebble, a slip on the green, slimy seaweed. As he gradually
crept nearer with the utmost caution, Alan listened to the talk of the
men.

'I'm not sure this was the best way to come,' said the one Alan took to
be a foreigner. 'We shall be hindered by the tide. How much longer shall
we have to sit here?'

'About a hour, or perhaps a hour and a half,' returned Thomas. 'And when
we are on the beach, what do you mean to do? We can't get away without a
boat, anyhow.'

'I have made my arrangements. Jean Marie Fargis is up in these parts. He
has fished now and again in English waters, and run before the wind at
the first sign of danger. I knew the cut of his rig the other day when
he was cruising round about.'

'Fishing?' said Thomas, incredulously.

'Well, he calls it so, and really I don't know myself what he is after.
He will get into trouble one of these days with the coastguard people, I
tell him. But that's nothing to us. I saw him, and went out to him, and
he's to take us off if he can.'

'And supposing he can't?'

'Then we must get to Tyre-cum-Widcombe somehow, and slip down to the
nearest port. If you had been a little quicker in your part of the
business, we should have got off more easily, for he was waiting for us
a bit higher up the coast, where there were fewer eyes to see.'

'I couldn't get the key,' returned Thomas in an aggrieved tone. 'It took
me some time before I could find out where it was. I had to watch Peet
close, and at last, thinks I, I'll climb the oak in the garden of his
house, and see if I could catch him putting it away. I could see right
into his windows, and it wasn't long before I saw all I wanted to, and
had the key safe.'

'But, man, there's the passage you told me about. It's close by, isn't
it?'

'I tried that way once,' said Thomas, with an unmirthful laugh. 'I'm not
going to try it