ready to rush back to his room; but he forced himself into going on, and stood at last at the centre door of the three, feeling that if he hesitated now he should never do it.
So pushing the door it yielded, and he nearly darted back, for there was a peculiar sulphury smell in the dark room.
But Lance had made fireworks in his time, especially blue lights, and the smell was just the same as that, and he no longer felt scared, for the thought flashed across his brain that some one had burned some pieces of blue light there, and if such were the case there would be something on the window-sill on which they had been burned.
He stepped boldly in, and there, sure enough, he found what he expected— a little piece of sheet-iron about half the size of a slate.
But what for?
A signal! came the next moment in answer; and wildly excited now, he stepped back across the room, descended the stairs and went to the door of his cousin's chamber, tried the door softly, found it yield, and entered. The bed was empty, and quite cold.
CHAPTER IV
A few moments elapsed, and then it was Lance who had turned quite cold. For his brain was wonderfully active now, as he seemed to grasp as facts that his cousin had not been watching him on the cliff, but had found out something about the smugglers and was watching them. Then, too, he recalled how friendly he had been with the captain of the revenue cutter, and how they had talked together.
This, then, was the meaning of the signal: Alf had found out something—of course; a long low chasse-marée
