"I'd go with you."
"Then there'd be two fools instead of one. They could knock us on the head and send us to join that bundle on the boat. I wonder who he is. Surely they haven't decoyed De Fronsac here and carried him off to the Monster!"
"He wouldn't like that, would he?"
"Well, we can't do anything at present. We'd better get back."
"Shall you tell father?"
"Don't know. I'll tell you that to-morrow morning."
They went back over the cliffs. They had just crossed the chine when a big figure suddenly loomed up to the left, appearing from the zigzag path leading down to the shore. There was no time to avoid a meeting; indeed, so suddenly had the man appeared from round a bend in the path that unless he and the boys had started back simultaneously there must have been a collision. The moonlight shone full in the face of the big man, and Jack recognized him even as Arthur whispered:
"I say! old Gudgeon!"
Gudgeon recognized the boys at the same moment.
"Oh, Mr. Hardy, sir!" he said, "you put me in quite a flutter. And you, too, Master Bastable; well to be sure! As if I had not had enough flutters for one night! Did you hear a boat, sir?"