enough, by the time Taffy gained the cliff by the old
light-house, the sky had darkened, and a stiff breeze from the
north-west, crossing the tide, was beginning to work up a nasty sea
around the rock and lop it from time to time over the masonry and the
platforms where half an hour before his men had been standing.
The two vessels had disappeared in the weather; and as Taffy stared
in their direction a spit of rain--the first--took him viciously in
the face.

He turned his back to it and hurried homeward. As he passed the
light-house door old Pezzack called out to him:

"Hi! wait a bit! Would 'ee mind seein' Joey home? I dunno what his
mother sent him over here for, not I. He'll get hisself leakin'."

Joey came hobbling out, and put his right hand in Taffy's with the
fist doubled.

"What's that in your hand?"

Joey looked up shyly. "You won't tell?"

"Not if it's a secret."

The child opened his palm and disclosed a bright half-crown piece.

"Where on earth did you get that?"

"The soldier gave it to me."

"The soldier? nonsense! What tale are you making up?"

"Well, he had a red coat, so he _must_ be a soldier. He gave it to
me, and told me to be a good boy and run off and play."

Taffy came to a halt. "Is he here--up at the cottages?"

"How funnily you say that! No, he's just rode away. I watched him
from the light-house windows. He can't be gone far yet."

"Look here, Joey--can you run?"

"Yes, if you hold my hand; only you mustn't go too fast. Oh, you're
hurting!"

Taffy took the child in his arms, and with the wind at his back went
up the hill with long stride. "There he is!" cried Joey as they
gained the ridge; and he pointed; and Taffy, looking along the ridge,
saw a speck of scarlet moving against the lead-coloured moors--half a
mile away perhaps, or a little more. He sat the child down, for the
cottages were close by. "Run home, sonny. I'm going to have a look
at the soldier, too."

The first bad squall broke on the headland just as Taffy started to
run. It was as if a bag of water had burst right overhead, and
within a quarter of a minute he was drenched to the skin.
So fiercely it went howling inland along the ridge that he half
expected to see the horse urged into a gallop before it. But the
rider, now standing high for a moment against the sky-line, went
plodding on. For a while horse and man disappeared over the rise;
but Taffy guessed that on hitting the cross-pat