I heard them leave the platform and climb down into the hollow.

There they stood listening, while I held my breath.

Then I heard '_Nix, mein freund,_' and the two went back, the naval officer's boots slipping on the gravel.
They did not leave the platform together.

The man from the sea bade a short farewell to the Portuguese Jew, listening, I thought, impatiently to his final message as if eager to be gone.

It was a good half-hour before the latter took himself off, and I heard the sound of his nailed boots die away as he reached the heather of the moor.
I waited a little longer, and then crawled back to the cave.