patch among the furze; and there lay a couple of coastguards, looking
intently at something a little further down the slope, and out of
sight, beyond the brow of the cliff. They had ropes with them, and a
few iron spikes, and one of them had his telescope on the grass beside
him. They looked up at us angrily when we broke through the thicket
upon them, and one of them hissed at us through his teeth: "Get out,
you boys. Quick. Cut!" and waved to us to get away, which we did, a
good deal puzzled and perhaps a little startled. We talked about it on
our way home. Ned Evans said that the men were setting rabbit snares,
and that he had seen the wires. Hugh thought that they might be after
sea-birds' eggs during their hours off duty. Both excuses seemed
plausible, but for my own part I thought something very different.
The men, I felt, were out on some special service, and on the brink of
some discovery. It seemed to me that when we broke in upon them they
were craning forward to the brow of the cliff, intently listening. I
even thought that from below the brow of the cliff, only a few feet
away, there had come a noise of people talking. I did not mention my
suspicions to Hugh and Ned, because I was not sure, and they both
seemed so sure; but all the way home I kept thinking that I was
right. It flashed on me that perhaps the night-riders had a cave below
the cliff-brow, and that the coast-guards had discovered the
secret. It was very wrong of me, but my only thought was: "Oh, will
they catch Marah? Will poor Marah be sent to prison?" and the fear
that our friend would be dragged off to gaol kept me silent as We
walked.

When we came to the gate which takes you by a short cut to the valley
and the shale quarry, I said that I would go home that way, while the
others went by the road, and that we would race each other, walking,
to see who got home first. They agreed to this, and set off together