"Wait a bit," said Copplestone. "We must be careful about that. Move warily. We 'd better do it systematically. There'd have to be some sort of a trap, a vehicle, to carry away those chests. Where's the nearest point of that road you spoke of?" "Up there," replied Spurge, pointing to a flanking bank of heather. "But they--or him--wasn't forced to come that way, guv'nor. He--or them--could come up from that cove down yonder. It wouldn't surprise me if that there yacht--the _Pike_, you know--had turned on her tracks and come in here during the night. It's not more than a mile from this tower down to the shore, and--" At that moment Vickers called to them, and they went back to find Jim Spurge slowly opening his eyes and looking round him with consciousness of his company. His one eye lightened a little as he caught sight of Zachary, and the poacher bent down to him. "Jim, old man!" he said soothingly. "How are yer, Jim? Yer been hit by somebody. Who was it, Jim?" "Give him a drop more brandy and lift him up a bit," counselled Gilling. "He's improving." But it needed more than a mere drop of brandy, more than cousinly words of adjuration, to bring the wounded man back to a state of speech. And when at last he managed to make a feeble response, it was only to mutter some incoherent and disjointed sentences about and being struck down from behind--after which he again relapsed into semi-unconsciousness. "That's it guv'nor," muttered Spurge, nudging Copplestone. "That's the ticket! Struck down from behind--that's what happened to him. Unawares, so to speak, I can reckon of it up--easy. They comes in the darkness--after I'd left him here. He hears of 'em, as he says, a-moving about. Then he no doubt starts moving about--watching 'em, as far as he can see. Then one of 'em gives him this crack on the skull--life-preserver if you ask me--and down he goes! And then--they drag him in here and leaves him. Don't care whether he's a goner or not--not they! Well, an' what does it prove? That there's been more than one of 'em, guv'nor. And in my opinion, where they've come from is--down there!" He pointed down the glen in the direction of the sea, and the three young men who were considerably exercised by this sudden turn of events and the disappearance of the chests, looked after his out-stretched hand and then at each other.