Part 32 (1/2)

”Tide serves, and she can't be long now But two o' your chaps keep whispering for'ard, and it comes back off the cliff No, no--don't shout at 'em We daren't have a sound”

”No,” replied the lieutenant; and he went softly forward tohere a group ofinto the darkness and listening to the tide as it gurgled in and out of the rocks, little more than a hundred yards away

”Strict silence, et the word, over into your boats and lay ready Are those rowlocks muffled?”

”Ay, ay, sir!” said the boatswain, as to be in command of one of the boats

”No bloodshed, my lads Knock any man doho resists Five ler ours Hush!+

Keep your cheering till you've taken the boat”

A low murmur ran round the side of the cutter, and every eye was strained as the little officer whispered,--

”A crown for the first hts her”

After a while, the lieutenant mentally said,--

”I wish Mr Raystoke was here, he and Gurr could go in the other boat

I wonder where the lad can be!”

He went cautiously aft along the starboard side of his vessel, looking hard at the frowning erous their position would have been had the wind blown from the opposite quarter But now they were in co softly on the gentle swell and drifting sloith the tide, so that the _White Hawk's_ head was pointing seaward

He glanced over the side to see that the boats were in readiness, and then went aft without a sound, till all at once he kicked against so in the darkness beneath the larboard bulwark, to which he had crossed, and nearly fell headlong

”What's--here? Who was--Oh, it's those confounded boots Hush, there; silence!”

He said the last words hastily, for the crew e, and the sound: were being followed by the hurried whisper of those who ca aft

”Back to your places, every one,” he said; and then theinvisible almost directly, for the darkness was now intense, the lanthorns carefully hidden below, and once lass on the bulwark and carefully swept the sea

”Stupid idiot!” he said to hin of anything”

But knowing that seeing was li over the side, listening for a full ten minutes, before, with an impatient ejaculation, he turned to speak to the infor the men

He walked forward

”Where's that man?” he whispered to the first sailor he encountered, who, like the rest, was eagerly watching seaward

”Went aft, sir”

The little officer went aft, but the fisher the starboard side, going right forward a the crew