and only now and then a faint gleam of lightning in the east showed which way it had gone.  The night was dark and moonless; and from the state of the tide Sam concluded it was near midnight.  He was on the point of making loose his skiff to return homewards, when he saw a light gleaming along the water from a distance, which seemed rapidly approaching.  As it drew near he perceived that it came from a lanthorn in the bow of a boat which was gliding along under shadow of the land.  It pulled up in a small cove, close to where he was.  A man jumped on shore, and searching about with the lanthorn exclaimed, “This is the place—­here’s the Iron ring.”  The boat was then made fast, and the man returning on board, assisted his comrades in conveying something heavy on shore.  As the light gleamed among them, Sam saw that they were five stout, desperate-looking fellows, in red woollen caps, with a leader in a three-cornered hat, and that some of them were armed with dirks, or long knives, and pistols.  They talked low to one another, and occasionally in some outlandish tongue which he could not understand.

On landing they made their way among the bushes, taking turns to relieve each other in lugging their burthen up the rocky bank.  Sam’s curiosity was now fully aroused, so leaving his skiff he clambered silently up the ridge that overlooked their path.  They had stopped to rest for a moment, and the leader was looking about among the bushes with his lanthorn.  “Have you brought the spades?” said one.  “They are here,” replied another, who had them on his shoulder.  “We must dig deep, where there will be no risk of discovery,” said a third.

A cold chill ran through Sam’s veins.  He fancied he saw before him a gang of murderers, about to bury their victim.  His knees smote together.  In his agitation he shook the branch of a tree with which he was supporting himself as he looked over the edge of the cliff.

“What’s that?” cried one of the gang.  “Some one stirs among the bushes!”

The lanthorn was held up in the direction of the noise.  One of the red-caps cocked a pistol, and pointed it towards the very lace where Sam was standing.  He stood motionless—­breathless; expecting the next moment to be his last.  Fortunately, his dingy complexion was in his favor, and made no glare among the leaves.

“’Tis no one,” said the man with the lanthorn.  “What a plague! you would not fire off your pistol and alarm the country.”

The pistol was uncocked; the burthen was resumed, and the party slowly toiled up the bank.  Sam watched them as they went; the light sending back fitful gleams through the dripping bushes, and it was not till they were fairly out of sight that he ventured to draw breath freely.  He now thought of getting back to his boat, and making his escape out of the reach of such dangerous neighbors; but curiosity was all-powerful with poor Sam.  He hesitated and lingered and listened.  By and bye he heard the strokes of spades.