But, growing hotter in the chase, and delighted with the sport, which came like a relief from their monotonous toil, the Jacks put their quarry up again, to get a dim view of it, and follow it in full cry, like a pack of hounds, over the rounded top of the hill, down the other side into a damp hollow full of tall reeds, through which the men had to beat again, panting and regaining their breath, but too excited by the chase to notice the direction in which they had gone, and beyond hearing of the recall shouted by their officers.
The midshipman joined as eagerly in the chase as any of the men, forgetting at the moment all about discipline, formation, and matters of that kind, for in one glimpse which he had of the figure, he made certain that it was Ram, whom they had surprised just leaving the entrance to the cave; and it was not until he had been joined in the hunt for about a quarter of an hour, that he felt that the men ought instantly to have been stopped, and the place around thoroughly searched.
"How vexatious!" he cried to himself, as he panted on alone, always in dread of coming suddenly upon the edge of the cliff, and trembling lest in their excitement the men might go over.
All regrets were vain now, and he kept on following the cries he heard, first in one direction and then in another, till at last, after a weary struggle through a great patch of brambles and stones, he found himself quite alone and left behind.
But his vanity would not accept this last.
"I've quite out-run them," he said, half aloud, as he peered round through the gloom, listening intently the while, but not a sound could be heard, and in his angry impatience he stamped his foot upon the short dry grass.
"What an idiot I am for an officer!" he cried.

"Leading men and letting them bolt off in all directions like this.

Suppose the smugglers should turn upon us now!" "They would not have any one to turn upon," he added, after a pause.
"Well, it's all over with anything like a surprise," he continued, after a time, "and we must get back to the place where we started from, if we can find it." "I'll swear that was Ram," he said, as he trudged on up a steep hillside; "and if they have caught him, we'll make him show us the way.
Stubborn brute! He was too much for me in the quarry, but out here with the men about, I'll make him sing a different tune." "Where can they be ?" he cried, after wandering about for quite half an hour.

"Why! Ah!" he ejaculated.

"I can see it all now.