He was in no sweet temper, having been cheated of a rich haul: for the flare had, of course, warned away the expected boat, and I supposed that some of the red-coats had been dispatched at once to search the headland for the man who lit it.

Revenge was now the Major's game, and, by his tune, he meant to have it.
But while I lay listening, a stone trickled from the cliff overhead and plumped softly upon the seaweed at the mouth of my cave.

It was followed by a rush of small gravel (had the Major not, at the moment, been declaiming at his loudest, his men must surely have heard it): and this again by the plumb fall of a heavy body which still lay for a full five seconds after alighting, and then emitted a groan so eloquent that it raised the roots of my hair.
I held my breath.

More seconds passed, and the body groaned again, still more dolefully.
We were within three yards of one another; and, friend or foe, if he continued to lie and groan like this for long, flesh and blood could not stand it.
"Are you hurt ?" I summoned up voice to ask.
"The devil!" I had feared that he would scream.

But he sat up-- I saw his shoulders fill the mouth of the cave between me and the starlight.