They scrambled up the face of the cliff as actively as goats, clutching at stunted bushes and tufts of coarse grass, dodging awkward corners, fearful lest the stones and loose earth they disturbed should strike upon the boulders below and reveal their presence to the smugglers. Both were active lads with good wind, and their progress was no doubt more rapid, foot for foot, than that of the smugglers on the path a hundred yards to the right, encumbered as they were with their heavy sea-boots. But this advantage in speed was counterbalanced by the greater length of their course, though this in its turn was compensated by the fact that, unless Penwarden had already passed, they would be a hundred yards nearer to him when they reached the top. In six minutes from the start, panting with their exertions, they heaved themselves over the brink of the cliff and stood erect. Twenty yards to their right, Penwarden was in the act of raising his telescope to spy over the waters of the bay. With trembling limbs they ran towards him, Dick giving him warning of their presence by a low clear whisper. The old exciseman shut up his telescope with a snap, and turned. "’Tis you, Maister Dick!" he said. "Yes. Some one saw you. Two men are waiting for you on the path. I can’t tell you their names. You’ll be knocked over if you try to go down." "That’s the way o’t, is it? We’ll see about that. Thank’ee for the warning. You didn’t tell me they be running a cargo, but I know it. I’ll dash their tricks." "But, Joe—" "Don’t stop me," said Penwarden, shaking off Dick’s detaining arm. "’Tis my duty to stop this run, Mr. Mildmay being haled off on a wild-goose chase, and do it I will. But get ’ee home-along, sir, you are best out o’ this, though if ’ee were a bit older, dash my bones if I wouldn’t call on ’ee to help in the King’s name." Without more ado, he took from his pocket the blue light, struck a spark from his tinder-box, and in a moment the cliff-top for many yards around was illuminated by the brilliant sputtering flame. It was intended to warn the lieutenant of the revenue cutter, if he were within sight, and to draw from their cottages in the village the tidesmen, as they were called, whose duty it was, on the alarm being given, to hasten to the exciseman’s assistance. These men were cobblers, tinkers, and other small tradesmen, for the most part Methodists, who were ready to brave the hostility of the smugglers for the sake of good pay and a bounty for every hogshead seized.