"There's only one explanation, and Hymen must be warned.

But I _do_ think he might have trusted me!" He turned for a swift glance seaward, and at the same instant one or two voices on the ridge above called alarm.

Under the western cliff his eye detected a line of dark shadows stealing towards the shore.
"_Until gaining the entrance of the Cove_"-- so ran the Major's order--"_the boats will preserve single file.

At Downend Point the leading boat will halt and lie on her oars, dose inshore, while each successor pivots and spreads in echelon to starboard, keeping, as nearly as may be, two fathoms' distance from her consort to port; all gradually, as the shore is approached, rounding up for a simultaneous attack in line.

The crews, on leaping ashore, will spread and find touch with one another in two lines, to sweep the beach.