Ten or a dozen soldiers followed, to help him.

And, the next instant, total darkness came down on the scene like a shutter.
It did not last long.

The red-coats, it turned out, had brought lanterns, and now, at a shouted order from their commanding officer answering the call of the dragoon officer below, began to light them.
They meant, I doubted not, to make a strict search of the cliffs; and, if they did--my cave being but a shallow one--there was no hope for me.

But just then a dismounted trooper came running up the beach, his scabbard scraping the shingle as he went by: and his first words explained the mystery of the crowd's disappearance.
"Where's your officer commanding ?" he panted.

"The devils have got away into the next cove through a kind of hole in the cliff--a kind of archway so far as we make out.