"And somehow he seemed a bit o choky; and somehow I felt the same myself. "So cardingly they march me away to the top o the coombe, where it's steep as a ship's side, and gave me a shove. "Down I sprawls, rolly-bowly, anyhow all among the jumping hares, and brought up in the shadows at the bottom. "And as I was feeling to see if my head still set on my shoulders, a chap on horse-back comes cantering up the shoulder of the coombe above me, black against the light.... "That was the first o this here Gentleman all the talk's on...." V The mist was blowing by in huge white puffs like the breath of a giant. "That was the beginning," continued Reuben. "It warn't the end though not by no means. Many's the time since then them words of his about the blockade-chaps, and his queer way o sayin em's come back to me." "Why?" asked the boy. "Why, sir?--why, indeed?--Two days later a patrol was found at the foot o the Devil's Chimney, heads bashed in. Blow'd over o course!--Week a'terwards petty officer found drowned in dew-pond top o Warren Hill. Accident o course!--Next day common seaman hung in his own braces Jevington Holt. Suicide o course! And so it's been going on ever since--blockade-men murdered; blockade-men missin; blockade-men washed ashore--until last night." "What then?" "Ain't you heard, sir?" aghast. "Last night--eleven o'clock--full moon--clear as crystal--Diamond laid the _Kite_ aboard the Revenue cutter off Darby's Hole." "Well?" breathlessly. "Ah, well indeed, sir!--No one'll ever knaw the rights o that yarn. Only one chap o the crew o the _Curlew_ left alive to tell the tale--poor Alf Huggett here alongside o me. Stove in a water-butt and hid in it--didn't you, Alf?" There was a waiting silence. "It's broke him up surely, sir," whispered Reuben. "And I don't wonder. Saw enough through that bung-hole to keep him thinking for the rest of his life." "Fat George!" shivered a thin voice. "Fat George!" "Ah!" came the windy chorus. "Him and old Toadie!" "Anyways there it be!" continued Reuben. "At noon to-day the _Curlew_ drifted up against Seaford jetty, yards hung with her own crew, like carcasses in a butcher's shop." "Brutes!" gasped the boy. "But what's the meaning of it all?" Reuben shrugged till his oil-skins crackled. "No sayin, sir. Summat's up; summat big. Diamond wanted the coast cleared; and he's cleared it--by thunder he has! Swep it up bald as the back o my hand." The mist blew away faint and thin. Through it the bowed crest-line of a cliff loomed up to larboard. "There's the last o the Seven Sisters!" said Reuben. "Birling Gap's just here along." He moved among his men. "Stations, boys. It's here or hereabouts...." "Hush!" whispered Kit. CHAPTER VI THE LUGGER KITE I "D'you hear anything, sir?" The boy made no reply, listening, listening. Had he made a mistake?--was it only the swish of waters under the keel? ... No! _"There! there, in front!"_