Chapter Twenty One.

Chapter Twenty One.Aleck went along the cliff the next day to look out for the boat, fully intending to turn back if he caught sight of Eben’s wife; but as far as he could make out she was nowhere in that direction. Still he concluded that she might possibly come to the place she affected, so he determined to keep on his own side of the depression, lowering himself down to the shelf in which was the niche or crack, in the belief that he could get a fair view over the sea from among the scattered masses of rock while being quite out of the woman’s sight if she should come after all.He swung himself down till he stood upon the shelf, and gave one hasty look round, to come to the conclusion directly after that if the poor woman sought his favourite look-out spot he could not have chosen a worse place, for he would be in full view, no matter where he crouched.“I know,” he said to himself; “I can get over here and lie down in the crack on the other side.”He began to climb, after making for the hole where the lanthorn and tinder-box still lay tucked tightly in beyond the reach of the wind; and the next minute, after making his way diagonally upward, he came upon the beginning of a steep narrow gully, going right down more and more deeply, so that forty or fifty yards away he could not see the bottom, the place having the appearance of being a vast crack formed by a sudden subsidence of the rocky cliff.He was now out of sight from the other side of the great depression, and was just congratulating himself upon his selection of a hiding-place and look-out combined, when he recalled the sounds he had heard during a former visit.“Why, it must have been caused by something falling down here,” he argued, and he looked outward, to see that this was one of the narrowest, deepest and most savage-looking gullies he had seen, the place being giddy to look down and impressing him with the belief that the greatest care was necessary for anyone to move about; and as he dropped down upon his knees it was with a feeling of relief and safety, for accustomed though he was to climbing about upon the cliffs, this one particular spot looked giddy and wild.To his great satisfaction he found that he could follow the crack right down to the sea and obtain a good view without being seen, unless anyone had followed his example and climbed; but what most took his attention was that though he had been climbing about the place often in search of the eggs of rare birds, he had never been there before, or noted the existence of such a deeply-split cavity in the cliffs.“I must have been able to see it from off the sea,” he argued, but gave himself up to the thought directly after that ridges and hollows had a completely different aspect when seen from below.“I should know it now directly if I were sailing by and looked up, of course. I fancy I can recollect this steep wall-like bit down below where I’m sitting.”He started the next moment, for a great gull had come gliding up from behind and passed so closely over his head that he was startled by the faint whizz of its outspread wings, while the bird itself was so startled that it uttered a hoarse cry of alarm and plunged down head foremost like a stone.“Why, that must have been the kind that made that cry like a hail,” cried Aleck, as the bird disappeared into the depths of the gully, while he had hardly realised the thought before there rose from below a faint, hoarse cry.“I thought so,” he said; “those birds have different cries and they sound strange, according to where you are.”He did not finish his words, for all at once the peculiar cry arose again, and this time it seemed to come from out of the deep jagged hollow, and certainly from the other side.“How strange!” said the lad, with a feeling akin to dread running through him. “That can’t be a bird.”He listened again, waiting for some minutes in the midst of the silence of the great wilderness in which he crouched.Then “Ahoy!” came up, so clearly that there was no room for doubt, and Aleck’s heart began to beat fast as thought after thought flashed through his brain.“It must be someone calling,” he felt and when after a few minutes the cry arose again, the thought struck him that it must come from somewhere beneath his feet, from an opening in the wall of the crack and then strike against the opposite wall, from which it was reflected, so that it seemed to come from that side, and from some distance away.Aleck waited till the cry came across again, and then shouted in answer:“Hallo there! What is it?”There was no response. Then after a pause came “Ahoy!” once more.“Where are you?” shouted Aleck, but there was no reply, and the result was the same when he tried over and over again.“Whoever it is, he can’t hear me,” thought the lad, and growing excited now as he concluded that some fisherman, or perhaps a strange wanderer, had slipped, fallen, and perhaps broken a limb, he began to set about finding him and affording help.Coming to the belief more fully that the sound came from beneath him, Aleck lay down upon his chest with his head over the brink of the rocky gash, and, holding on tightly, strained out as far as he could to look down. But he could see nothing, and rose up again to look to his left for the dying out in the solid cliff of the top end of the gorge.That meaning a difficult climb, he made up his mind, to lower himself down over the edge, and setting his teeth, he began to lower himself over; but a slip at the outset so upset his nerves that he scrambled back, panting as if he had been running a mile.“Nearly went down,” he muttered. “That’s not the way to help anyone who has just fallen.”He paused for a few moments to think about getting help from Eilygugg.“There are no smugglers at home now,” he said to himself, and his thoughts turned homeward.“Uncle couldn’t climb up here and handle ropes,” he muttered; “and as for Ness—bah! he’s a stupid muddling old woman.“I must get right round somehow and see where the opening is,” said the lad, at last. “But when I have found it, what then? I must get back here again; and then? Yes, I must have help and a rope. Oh, what a lonely old place this is when you want anything done! Bah! What a grumbler you are,” he cried, the next moment. “You forgot all about Tom. He’s sure to be over to-day, and I’ll bring him with a rope.”This thought heartened the lad up, and he set off cautiously and quickly to get round by the head of the great rocky gash to the other side.The journey was very dangerous and bad, but he was a good climber, and at the end of a dozen yards he was stopped by a great block which lay across his path with the portion to his right overhanging the gulf, forcing him to go round by the other end.This he passed with ease, and he uttered a cry of astonishment the next moment, for he found himself at the narrow head of a transverse gash which stopped further progress in the way he intended, but offered apparently, as it curved round and down, an easy descent to the very part he wished to reach. And so it proved, for proceeding cautiously, he began to descend by a narrow ledge or shelf, with the overhanging wall on his right and a sheer fall of twenty feet on his left.A few yards further it was forty feet, and again a few yards placed him in a position that cut off all view of the bottom.“Won’t do to be giddy here,” he said to himself. “Who’d have thought of finding such a place?”He moved along cautiously, holding on by the rock on his right, and found that it was singularly cracked and riven, but it afforded good hold. Directly after a short pause and peer forward and downward to try if he could see any signs of the poor fellow who had called for help, he stepped on again slowly and cautiously, anchoring himself, as it were, by thrusting his arm to the elbow in a perpendicular crack, so that he could hang outward and get a better view down.“Hullo!” he ejaculated, in wonder. “How strange!” and he began to sniff, as a cool dank puff of air saluted his nostrils and he recognised the peculiar odour of decaying seaweed.“This narrow crack must go right down to the sea somewhere,” he said to himself. “Well, why not? Rocks do split all sorts of ways. There, I’m right,” he added, for there was another moist puff of cool air, and in company with it a peculiar far-off whispering sound, one which he well knew, for he had heard it thousands of times, it being the soft rattling of pebbles running back over one another after being cast up by a wave.“This is queer,” he muttered, and, withdrawing his arm, he took another step or two along the ledge, which curved more round to his right, so that he could not see above a couple of yards, while upon getting to the end of these he found that he had to pass an angle in the rock face which brought him to where the ledge widened out considerably.“I must be just under where I lay down to look over,” he said to himself, and having plenty of room now he turned to look upward, and then stopped short as if turned to stone, for from somewhere just beyond where he stood came the soft hollow rush and hiss of shingle following a retiring wave, and with it a distant hollow-sounding “Ahoy!”But Aleck did not start forward to peer down some deep chasm leading through the huge cliffs to the sea, but, as has been said, stood fast, looking upward, as if turned to stone, his attention having been seized upon by the rattling, rustling sound made by something above his head, and the next moment a pair of feet came into sight so close to him that he could have touched them where they hung on a level with his eyes.They stopped short, with the toes resting for a few moments upon a projecting stone, and then a man dropped lightly upon the broad ledge with a panting ejaculation of relief.

Aleck went along the cliff the next day to look out for the boat, fully intending to turn back if he caught sight of Eben’s wife; but as far as he could make out she was nowhere in that direction. Still he concluded that she might possibly come to the place she affected, so he determined to keep on his own side of the depression, lowering himself down to the shelf in which was the niche or crack, in the belief that he could get a fair view over the sea from among the scattered masses of rock while being quite out of the woman’s sight if she should come after all.

He swung himself down till he stood upon the shelf, and gave one hasty look round, to come to the conclusion directly after that if the poor woman sought his favourite look-out spot he could not have chosen a worse place, for he would be in full view, no matter where he crouched.

“I know,” he said to himself; “I can get over here and lie down in the crack on the other side.”

He began to climb, after making for the hole where the lanthorn and tinder-box still lay tucked tightly in beyond the reach of the wind; and the next minute, after making his way diagonally upward, he came upon the beginning of a steep narrow gully, going right down more and more deeply, so that forty or fifty yards away he could not see the bottom, the place having the appearance of being a vast crack formed by a sudden subsidence of the rocky cliff.

He was now out of sight from the other side of the great depression, and was just congratulating himself upon his selection of a hiding-place and look-out combined, when he recalled the sounds he had heard during a former visit.

“Why, it must have been caused by something falling down here,” he argued, and he looked outward, to see that this was one of the narrowest, deepest and most savage-looking gullies he had seen, the place being giddy to look down and impressing him with the belief that the greatest care was necessary for anyone to move about; and as he dropped down upon his knees it was with a feeling of relief and safety, for accustomed though he was to climbing about upon the cliffs, this one particular spot looked giddy and wild.

To his great satisfaction he found that he could follow the crack right down to the sea and obtain a good view without being seen, unless anyone had followed his example and climbed; but what most took his attention was that though he had been climbing about the place often in search of the eggs of rare birds, he had never been there before, or noted the existence of such a deeply-split cavity in the cliffs.

“I must have been able to see it from off the sea,” he argued, but gave himself up to the thought directly after that ridges and hollows had a completely different aspect when seen from below.

“I should know it now directly if I were sailing by and looked up, of course. I fancy I can recollect this steep wall-like bit down below where I’m sitting.”

He started the next moment, for a great gull had come gliding up from behind and passed so closely over his head that he was startled by the faint whizz of its outspread wings, while the bird itself was so startled that it uttered a hoarse cry of alarm and plunged down head foremost like a stone.

“Why, that must have been the kind that made that cry like a hail,” cried Aleck, as the bird disappeared into the depths of the gully, while he had hardly realised the thought before there rose from below a faint, hoarse cry.

“I thought so,” he said; “those birds have different cries and they sound strange, according to where you are.”

He did not finish his words, for all at once the peculiar cry arose again, and this time it seemed to come from out of the deep jagged hollow, and certainly from the other side.

“How strange!” said the lad, with a feeling akin to dread running through him. “That can’t be a bird.”

He listened again, waiting for some minutes in the midst of the silence of the great wilderness in which he crouched.

Then “Ahoy!” came up, so clearly that there was no room for doubt, and Aleck’s heart began to beat fast as thought after thought flashed through his brain.

“It must be someone calling,” he felt and when after a few minutes the cry arose again, the thought struck him that it must come from somewhere beneath his feet, from an opening in the wall of the crack and then strike against the opposite wall, from which it was reflected, so that it seemed to come from that side, and from some distance away.

Aleck waited till the cry came across again, and then shouted in answer:

“Hallo there! What is it?”

There was no response. Then after a pause came “Ahoy!” once more.

“Where are you?” shouted Aleck, but there was no reply, and the result was the same when he tried over and over again.

“Whoever it is, he can’t hear me,” thought the lad, and growing excited now as he concluded that some fisherman, or perhaps a strange wanderer, had slipped, fallen, and perhaps broken a limb, he began to set about finding him and affording help.

Coming to the belief more fully that the sound came from beneath him, Aleck lay down upon his chest with his head over the brink of the rocky gash, and, holding on tightly, strained out as far as he could to look down. But he could see nothing, and rose up again to look to his left for the dying out in the solid cliff of the top end of the gorge.

That meaning a difficult climb, he made up his mind, to lower himself down over the edge, and setting his teeth, he began to lower himself over; but a slip at the outset so upset his nerves that he scrambled back, panting as if he had been running a mile.

“Nearly went down,” he muttered. “That’s not the way to help anyone who has just fallen.”

He paused for a few moments to think about getting help from Eilygugg.

“There are no smugglers at home now,” he said to himself, and his thoughts turned homeward.

“Uncle couldn’t climb up here and handle ropes,” he muttered; “and as for Ness—bah! he’s a stupid muddling old woman.

“I must get right round somehow and see where the opening is,” said the lad, at last. “But when I have found it, what then? I must get back here again; and then? Yes, I must have help and a rope. Oh, what a lonely old place this is when you want anything done! Bah! What a grumbler you are,” he cried, the next moment. “You forgot all about Tom. He’s sure to be over to-day, and I’ll bring him with a rope.”

This thought heartened the lad up, and he set off cautiously and quickly to get round by the head of the great rocky gash to the other side.

The journey was very dangerous and bad, but he was a good climber, and at the end of a dozen yards he was stopped by a great block which lay across his path with the portion to his right overhanging the gulf, forcing him to go round by the other end.

This he passed with ease, and he uttered a cry of astonishment the next moment, for he found himself at the narrow head of a transverse gash which stopped further progress in the way he intended, but offered apparently, as it curved round and down, an easy descent to the very part he wished to reach. And so it proved, for proceeding cautiously, he began to descend by a narrow ledge or shelf, with the overhanging wall on his right and a sheer fall of twenty feet on his left.

A few yards further it was forty feet, and again a few yards placed him in a position that cut off all view of the bottom.

“Won’t do to be giddy here,” he said to himself. “Who’d have thought of finding such a place?”

He moved along cautiously, holding on by the rock on his right, and found that it was singularly cracked and riven, but it afforded good hold. Directly after a short pause and peer forward and downward to try if he could see any signs of the poor fellow who had called for help, he stepped on again slowly and cautiously, anchoring himself, as it were, by thrusting his arm to the elbow in a perpendicular crack, so that he could hang outward and get a better view down.

“Hullo!” he ejaculated, in wonder. “How strange!” and he began to sniff, as a cool dank puff of air saluted his nostrils and he recognised the peculiar odour of decaying seaweed.

“This narrow crack must go right down to the sea somewhere,” he said to himself. “Well, why not? Rocks do split all sorts of ways. There, I’m right,” he added, for there was another moist puff of cool air, and in company with it a peculiar far-off whispering sound, one which he well knew, for he had heard it thousands of times, it being the soft rattling of pebbles running back over one another after being cast up by a wave.

“This is queer,” he muttered, and, withdrawing his arm, he took another step or two along the ledge, which curved more round to his right, so that he could not see above a couple of yards, while upon getting to the end of these he found that he had to pass an angle in the rock face which brought him to where the ledge widened out considerably.

“I must be just under where I lay down to look over,” he said to himself, and having plenty of room now he turned to look upward, and then stopped short as if turned to stone, for from somewhere just beyond where he stood came the soft hollow rush and hiss of shingle following a retiring wave, and with it a distant hollow-sounding “Ahoy!”

But Aleck did not start forward to peer down some deep chasm leading through the huge cliffs to the sea, but, as has been said, stood fast, looking upward, as if turned to stone, his attention having been seized upon by the rattling, rustling sound made by something above his head, and the next moment a pair of feet came into sight so close to him that he could have touched them where they hung on a level with his eyes.

They stopped short, with the toes resting for a few moments upon a projecting stone, and then a man dropped lightly upon the broad ledge with a panting ejaculation of relief.

Chapter Twenty Two.There was another ejaculation uttered upon that rough ledge of rock, and it was uttered by Aleck, in the form of the one word:“Eben!”The man gave forth a hoarse cry, sprang upon him, and pinned him by the shoulders against the rock, panting breathlessly the while as if exhausted by previous exertions, while his lips were drawn back from his white teeth and he wore generally the aspect of some savage bunted beast at bay.“Don’t!” cried Aleck, angrily, dragging at the man’s wrists as he noted his fierce looks; “you hurt. Let go. Why, I thought the press-gang had taken you right away?”“Did yer?” growled the man, breathlessly, through his set teeth, while his dark eyes seemed to glitter. “Then you see they haven’t. What are you doing here?”“Having the skin rubbed off the back of my head, I think,” cried Aleck, struggling to get free. “Be quiet! Are you mad?”“’Most,” panted the man, tightening his grasp.“But you’ll have me off the ledge here if you don’t mind.”“Yes, and then you’ll tell no tales,” growled the man, in a hoarse whisper, for he was recovering his breath.“What about?” said Aleck, uneasily, for the man’s manner was terrible in its intensity.“What about?” snarled Eben.“Yes; I don’t understand you. I say, Eben, have you escaped?”The man glared at him, and the look which met his—a look full of enquiry and perfectly fearless—seemed to disarm him somewhat.“No,” he said, “I won’t think it was your doing, my lad.”“What?” asked Aleck.“Putting the gang on to us the other night.”“Mine? No; I was fast asleep in bed when the shots woke me, and I went up the cliff to see.”“Ah! I s’pose so,” said the smuggler, in a hoarse whisper. “I’ve escaped for a bit, but they’re after me. I s’pose they felt I should come back to the missus. I say,” he continued, eagerly, “is she all right, Master Aleck?”“Yes. I’ve seen her two or three times right up the cliff.”“What for?” said the smuggler, sharply, and his eyes glittered fiercely again.“To look and see if you were coming, of course.”“Yes, of course,” said the man, in a peculiar manner, and a curious smile dawned upon his lip.“But how did you manage to escape?”“Jumped overboard and swam for it.”“From the cutter’s boat?”“No, from the sloop’s port-hole, my lad. But what about the cutter’s boat?” he added, with a sharply questioning look.“She came across to the cove this morning, and I saw her not long ago.”“Looking for me?”“No; for the young middy who is missing. Tell me, Eben, did you know anything about him?”“Me? Hush, don’t talk! The cutter’s men have been hunting me this last half-hour, and they’re out yonder among the gullies now. They see me, I think. So you’ve found it then?” he said, with a savagely malicious grin.“Yes; I never knew there was a way down here.”“Been often, I s’pose?”“Been often? Why, I’d just got here when I heard you coming.”“Ahoy!” came faintly from somewhere in front. “There it is again, Eben,” cried Aleck, forgetting everything else now in the excitement of his discovery. “You heard it?”“Yes, I heard it,” said the man, grimly.“I heard it yesterday too,” continued Aleck. “Some poor fellow has fallen down the cliff somewhere about here, and I was trying to get down to him.”The man looked at him curiously and as if he was trying to read him through and through.“What for?” he said, hoarsely.“What for? Don’t I tell you I’ve heard him before, crying for help? He must have broken an arm or a leg, or he would have climbed back.”“If he could,” said the smuggler, grimly. “Here, hold hard a minute. Don’t you stir, on yer life.”“Oh, I’m not going to run any risks!” said Aleck, coolly. “I know it’s dangerous.”“Very,” said the hunted man, in a peculiar tone and with a peculiar look. “You stand fast, my lad.”He had for some time released his hold of the lad, and turned to re-mount the rock.“What are you going to do?” said Aleck.“Hush! Don’t shout like that, youngster. Don’t I tell you the cutter’s men saw me and are after me?”“Oh, yes; of course,” said Aleck, coolly; “but, look here; you hide a bit, and I’ll call them.”“What!” gasped the smuggler, in his astonishment. “What for? To take me?”“No, no! They could help to find the poor fellow lying somewhere below there.”“No, they couldn’t,” said the man, fiercely. “You be quiet there, I say.”“Well, of course you don’t want to be taken, and I don’t want them to take you, Eben.”“Say that again, lad,” cried the man, excitedly.“What for? I say I don’t want the press-gang to drag you away, even if you are a smuggler.”“Why?” cried the man, excitedly.“Because it seems so hard on your poor wife.”“Hah–ah–ah!” ejaculated the man, softly, as he turned away his face and spoke more gently. “You keep quiet here, Master Aleck, while I go and see what the cutter’s men are about. I won’t be long, and when they’ve gone I’ll help you to find the poor fellow for saying that.”“For saying what?”“Your words about my poor lass. Master Aleck, I’m a bad ’un, but she don’t think so, and if I don’t get back to her it’ll be the death of the poor gal. Now, after my saying that soft stuff will you go and split upon me?”“Betray you? No, you know I won’t.”“Yes, I know you won’t, my lad. You allus was a gentleman, Master Aleck. There, I’m off. I shan’t be long, and when I come back I’ll help you to find the poor chap as is hurt.”“Thank you, Eben; but mind the men don’t take you.”“I’ll mind, my lad; but if there’s an accident and I don’t come back you wait till the cutter’s men have rowed me away, and then you go and tell the missus. Say she’s to help you find the poor chap as is hurt and get him away.”“But she couldn’t climb about here, Eben.”“Better than you can, my lad.”“Very well, then. Thank you,” said Aleck, feeling a bit puzzled at the man’s words. “In the meantime I’ll go on looking for him. He must be somewhere close by.”“No, he isn’t,” said the man, grimly.“How do you know?”“’Cause I do,” was the reply, and then, actively as a goat, the smuggler sprang up the rocks and was gone.

There was another ejaculation uttered upon that rough ledge of rock, and it was uttered by Aleck, in the form of the one word:

“Eben!”

The man gave forth a hoarse cry, sprang upon him, and pinned him by the shoulders against the rock, panting breathlessly the while as if exhausted by previous exertions, while his lips were drawn back from his white teeth and he wore generally the aspect of some savage bunted beast at bay.

“Don’t!” cried Aleck, angrily, dragging at the man’s wrists as he noted his fierce looks; “you hurt. Let go. Why, I thought the press-gang had taken you right away?”

“Did yer?” growled the man, breathlessly, through his set teeth, while his dark eyes seemed to glitter. “Then you see they haven’t. What are you doing here?”

“Having the skin rubbed off the back of my head, I think,” cried Aleck, struggling to get free. “Be quiet! Are you mad?”

“’Most,” panted the man, tightening his grasp.

“But you’ll have me off the ledge here if you don’t mind.”

“Yes, and then you’ll tell no tales,” growled the man, in a hoarse whisper, for he was recovering his breath.

“What about?” said Aleck, uneasily, for the man’s manner was terrible in its intensity.

“What about?” snarled Eben.

“Yes; I don’t understand you. I say, Eben, have you escaped?”

The man glared at him, and the look which met his—a look full of enquiry and perfectly fearless—seemed to disarm him somewhat.

“No,” he said, “I won’t think it was your doing, my lad.”

“What?” asked Aleck.

“Putting the gang on to us the other night.”

“Mine? No; I was fast asleep in bed when the shots woke me, and I went up the cliff to see.”

“Ah! I s’pose so,” said the smuggler, in a hoarse whisper. “I’ve escaped for a bit, but they’re after me. I s’pose they felt I should come back to the missus. I say,” he continued, eagerly, “is she all right, Master Aleck?”

“Yes. I’ve seen her two or three times right up the cliff.”

“What for?” said the smuggler, sharply, and his eyes glittered fiercely again.

“To look and see if you were coming, of course.”

“Yes, of course,” said the man, in a peculiar manner, and a curious smile dawned upon his lip.

“But how did you manage to escape?”

“Jumped overboard and swam for it.”

“From the cutter’s boat?”

“No, from the sloop’s port-hole, my lad. But what about the cutter’s boat?” he added, with a sharply questioning look.

“She came across to the cove this morning, and I saw her not long ago.”

“Looking for me?”

“No; for the young middy who is missing. Tell me, Eben, did you know anything about him?”

“Me? Hush, don’t talk! The cutter’s men have been hunting me this last half-hour, and they’re out yonder among the gullies now. They see me, I think. So you’ve found it then?” he said, with a savagely malicious grin.

“Yes; I never knew there was a way down here.”

“Been often, I s’pose?”

“Been often? Why, I’d just got here when I heard you coming.”

“Ahoy!” came faintly from somewhere in front. “There it is again, Eben,” cried Aleck, forgetting everything else now in the excitement of his discovery. “You heard it?”

“Yes, I heard it,” said the man, grimly.

“I heard it yesterday too,” continued Aleck. “Some poor fellow has fallen down the cliff somewhere about here, and I was trying to get down to him.”

The man looked at him curiously and as if he was trying to read him through and through.

“What for?” he said, hoarsely.

“What for? Don’t I tell you I’ve heard him before, crying for help? He must have broken an arm or a leg, or he would have climbed back.”

“If he could,” said the smuggler, grimly. “Here, hold hard a minute. Don’t you stir, on yer life.”

“Oh, I’m not going to run any risks!” said Aleck, coolly. “I know it’s dangerous.”

“Very,” said the hunted man, in a peculiar tone and with a peculiar look. “You stand fast, my lad.”

He had for some time released his hold of the lad, and turned to re-mount the rock.

“What are you going to do?” said Aleck.

“Hush! Don’t shout like that, youngster. Don’t I tell you the cutter’s men saw me and are after me?”

“Oh, yes; of course,” said Aleck, coolly; “but, look here; you hide a bit, and I’ll call them.”

“What!” gasped the smuggler, in his astonishment. “What for? To take me?”

“No, no! They could help to find the poor fellow lying somewhere below there.”

“No, they couldn’t,” said the man, fiercely. “You be quiet there, I say.”

“Well, of course you don’t want to be taken, and I don’t want them to take you, Eben.”

“Say that again, lad,” cried the man, excitedly.

“What for? I say I don’t want the press-gang to drag you away, even if you are a smuggler.”

“Why?” cried the man, excitedly.

“Because it seems so hard on your poor wife.”

“Hah–ah–ah!” ejaculated the man, softly, as he turned away his face and spoke more gently. “You keep quiet here, Master Aleck, while I go and see what the cutter’s men are about. I won’t be long, and when they’ve gone I’ll help you to find the poor fellow for saying that.”

“For saying what?”

“Your words about my poor lass. Master Aleck, I’m a bad ’un, but she don’t think so, and if I don’t get back to her it’ll be the death of the poor gal. Now, after my saying that soft stuff will you go and split upon me?”

“Betray you? No, you know I won’t.”

“Yes, I know you won’t, my lad. You allus was a gentleman, Master Aleck. There, I’m off. I shan’t be long, and when I come back I’ll help you to find the poor chap as is hurt.”

“Thank you, Eben; but mind the men don’t take you.”

“I’ll mind, my lad; but if there’s an accident and I don’t come back you wait till the cutter’s men have rowed me away, and then you go and tell the missus. Say she’s to help you find the poor chap as is hurt and get him away.”

“But she couldn’t climb about here, Eben.”

“Better than you can, my lad.”

“Very well, then. Thank you,” said Aleck, feeling a bit puzzled at the man’s words. “In the meantime I’ll go on looking for him. He must be somewhere close by.”

“No, he isn’t,” said the man, grimly.

“How do you know?”

“’Cause I do,” was the reply, and then, actively as a goat, the smuggler sprang up the rocks and was gone.

Chapter Twenty Three.Eben Megg had only just disappeared when the faint, monotonous cry of “Ahoy!” rose once more from below, setting the thoughts buzzing and throbbing about in Aleck’s brain in a most extraordinary way. For the lad felt utterly puzzled—he knew not why. He felt that there was something he ought to know, and yet he did not know it, and he failed to grasp the reason why he could not understand it. There was some mystery that he ought to clear up, he felt; but, all the same, simple as it was, he could not find it out.Like the children playing at a nursery game, he was so close that he was burning, and at one moment he was on the point of being as wise as the smuggler, but just then a loud piercing whistle rang out, followed by answering shouts, and he did grasp at once from whence they came, and waited anxiously, fully expecting to hear more shouts, some of a triumphant character, telling that the fugitive was in view or perhaps caught.“I oughtn’t to mind, of course,” he muttered, as he strained his ears to catch the next sound; “but somehow I do, and, as I said, for that poor woman’s sake. Ah! They’ve caught him now. No; it was only an order shouted. Why, they’re coming right up here—I can hear them plainly!”The lad listened excitedly, for though he could see nothing of the sailors he could follow them by the sounds they made and tell that they had spread out over a good deal of ground in their hunt for the escaped man.Nearer and nearer they came till Aleck felt that they must have reached the ledge from which he had watched the rippling sea, while directly after they were so near to the hiding-place that he could catch a good deal of what was said, the voices ascending and then seeming to curl over and drop down the steep rockside where he stood.“They haven’t caught him yet,” thought Aleck, after some few minutes’ beating of the cliff-top and slopes had taken place. “Perhaps they won’t catch him, after all, for he must be as cunning as a fox about hiding-places. Why, they must be coming here!” he thought, excitedly, as the voices began to come nearer and nearer. “They’ll find me, for certain, and then—“Well, what then?” he thought, as he came to a sudden stop. “Suppose they do catch me and ask me why I’m here! Why, I can tell them I came to try and find someone whom I heard calling for help; and I can’t help what Eben says, I must let the sailors help me then.”He listened, and felt certain that the sailors and their leader came along as far as the great piece of rock he had been obliged to circumvent, and once round that the men were bound to find him.“Ahoy!” came faintly again.“Ahoy yourself!” said a voice. “Who’s that so far off? Some fellow has wandered right away and lost himself. Idiot! Why didn’t he keep within touch of his messmates? Ahoy, there! Ahoy! Ahoy!”The cry was answered, and in a few minutes Aleck was able to detect the fact from the dying-away of the voices that the search party were growing more distant, so that the next mournful “Ahoy!” fell upon his ears alone, sounding so despairing that the desire to go in search of the appealer for help was stronger than he could restrain.Glancing back and upward then at the spot where Eben had disappeared, he went cautiously forward for a few yards, to find to his astonishment that from being fairly broad the rugged shelf along which he was proceeding rapidly narrowed till progress grew risky, while at the end of another dozen feet or so it ceased, and he came to a dead stand, looking in vain for a way forward and a sight of some crack or passage along which he could descend towards the sea.Then he listened for a repetition of the call for help as a guide to his next proceedings; but all was still save the querulous cry of a gull.“I can’t understand it a bit,” he said, looking about him in a more perplexed way than ever. “Eben Megg spoke as if he knew about someone being in trouble; yes, and that if he did not return I was to go to his wife. Why, what nonsense it seems! How could he who has been away for days know anything about—about—oh! Was there ever such a dense, wooden-headed idiot as I am!” he raged out. “Why, of course! I can see now as clear as clear. It’s that young middy—what’s his name?—calling for help. They must have trapped him during the struggle, and there is a regular smugglers’ cave somewhere, after all. The poor fellow must be shut up in it; and that explains why Eben looked so furiously at me when he found me here. He thought I had discovered the secret hiding-place that he was making for. Oh, my word, how plain and easy it all is when you know how! Yes, that’s it,” he said aloud, excitedly, “and the cutter’s people are gone, so I’m not going to hold myself bound by anything I have said to Eben. That poor fellow must have been left to starve in some dark hole, and—no, he hasn’t. ‘Go to my wife,’ he said. Of course! Because she knew where the prisoner was hid, and—to be sure, she wasn’t going to watch for Eben, as I thought, but to take the prisoner something to eat and drink. Talk about wiping the dust out of one’s eyes! I’ve got mine clear now, and that poor fellow has to be found, while, what is more, he must be somewhere down below where I stand.”Aleck’s brow ran into lines and puckers as he stood looking about him for a few minutes before hurrying back to the perpendicular crevice he had discovered, and upon reaching it there was the hissing rush of the pebbles and a suggestion of a slapping sound as if water had struck against the rock, but evidently far, far down, while the damp seaweedy odour came cooler and fresher than ever to his nostrils.“I could get down here,” he muttered, “if I were no bigger than a rabbit; but of course this isn’t the way. There must be just such a place as this, only many times as big, and I’ve got to find it.”“Ahoy!” came faintly the next minute, but not up the cavity, and the lad stood puzzled and wondering for a few moments longer, before placing his face as far in as he could, and, breathing in the soft, salt, moist air, he shouted back down the hole, “Ahoy!” as loudly as he could.Then he stood listening, for “Ahoy!” came from quite a different direction, and then there was a reply from somewhere else, closely followed by a shrill whistle.“That’s not from the prisoner,” said Aleck, growing more excited. “The sailors are coming back. Are they coming here, after all? Well, I’m sorry for Eben, but that poor fellow must be rescued, and I shall have to—”Aleck did not say what, but hurried along the shelf again, startled by the sound of falling stones, and the next minute he caught sight of the smuggler’s descending feet, and then the fierce-looking fellow dropped lightly before him and caught him by the arm.“They saw me,” he panted, breathlessly, “and have been hot on my track—I couldn’t dodge them anyhow—quite surrounded. Look here, Master Aleck—you know what it means if they get me—flogging now for escaping! You don’t want me to be took?”“No, Eben; but—”“Don’t talk, my lad. I’m hard set. You’re a gentleman, and won’t betray a poor fellow?”“No, but I won’t help to keep that poor young officer a prisoner.”“Ah, you’ve found out then—you know where he is?”“Then it is true that you’ve got him shut up somewhere?”“Somewhere?” cried the man, sharply, in a hoarse whisper. “Then you haven’t found the place?”“No,” said Aleck, frankly, “only guessed that he is somewhere hidden, and keeps calling out.”“Look here, Master Aleck, it is true, and if I swear that as soon as all is safe I’ll help you to set him free and put him where he can get back to his ship, will you swear, too, that you’ll never tell where our stores are?”“I’m not going to swear anything, Eben.”The man made a fierce gesture, and the lad felt that he was at the fellow’s mercy, where a sharp thrust of the hand would send him headlong down, most likely to his death. But he did not shrink.“I promise you I won’t betray you, Eben,” he said, “if you give me your word to set the poor young fellow free.”“Come on, then—if there’s time,” said the smuggler, hoarsely. “I can hear ’em coming on fast. Now, then, I’m going to show you what all us chaps have sworn on our lives never to let out. Quick! I know you’ve got plenty of game in you, my lad. I’m going to jump down there.”He pointed down over the edge of the shelf as he spoke.“Are you mad?” said Aleck, hoarsely, feeling that the man must be to propose what seemed to be like a leap into the next world.“Not me, my lad. Look! I trust you to come after me sharp—before the cutter’s men see you. Come, you won’t shrink now?”“He came along this way, I’ll swear,” came from overhead, quite loudly, and a whistle rang out again.Eben Megg seized Aleck’s arm with his left hand, and with his right caught the lad’s fingers for a moment in a firm grip.“Jump just as I do. I’ll be ready to catch you.”Aleck nodded, and then felt ready to shut his eyes, for the man gave one glance upward where a loud murmur of voices could be heard, and then stepped close to the edge of the shelf, placed his feet close together, drew himself up stiffly, and then made a little jump, just sufficient to let himself drop, as it were, clear of the rock, his back being visible just for a moment, and then there was a slight pat coming from below.Aleck stood with his heart seeming to rise to his throat as if to choke him, while he listened intently for the sound of a falling body loosening a little avalanche of stones.But all was still below, while above there was the trampling of feet, and a voice said, loudly:“Are you sure he came this way?”“Quite, sir. He must have dodged round by that great block of stone.”“Forward then,” cried the first voice, while from below where he stood came a low, hoarse whisper:“Now, then, jump!”For a moment Aleck felt that it was too much. Coward or no coward, he dared not make such a leap in the dark as that. Then, setting his teeth, he stepped close to the edge of the shelf, placed his feet exactly as he had seen the smuggler prepare to drop, and then, with his elbows pressed close to his sides and his open hands raised to a level with his chest, he took the little leap, with the opposite side of the rift seeming to rush upward past his staring eyes, while he dropped what seemed, from the time it lasted, to his overstrained nerves and imagination a tremendous depth—in reality about seven feet—before his feet came flat upon the rock and a strong arm caught him across the chest like a living protecting bar.Aleck’s eyes turned dim, and the rock face in front spun round before him as he felt himself pressed backward—a few feet beneath what seemed to be a rugged stone eave, which protected him and his companion from being seen by anyone who should peer over the edge, while the next moment the smuggler’s lips were close to his ear and the breath came hot as the man whispered:“I never knowed a lad before who dared to jump like that. Come on, Master Aleck; I’d trust you with anything now.”

Eben Megg had only just disappeared when the faint, monotonous cry of “Ahoy!” rose once more from below, setting the thoughts buzzing and throbbing about in Aleck’s brain in a most extraordinary way. For the lad felt utterly puzzled—he knew not why. He felt that there was something he ought to know, and yet he did not know it, and he failed to grasp the reason why he could not understand it. There was some mystery that he ought to clear up, he felt; but, all the same, simple as it was, he could not find it out.

Like the children playing at a nursery game, he was so close that he was burning, and at one moment he was on the point of being as wise as the smuggler, but just then a loud piercing whistle rang out, followed by answering shouts, and he did grasp at once from whence they came, and waited anxiously, fully expecting to hear more shouts, some of a triumphant character, telling that the fugitive was in view or perhaps caught.

“I oughtn’t to mind, of course,” he muttered, as he strained his ears to catch the next sound; “but somehow I do, and, as I said, for that poor woman’s sake. Ah! They’ve caught him now. No; it was only an order shouted. Why, they’re coming right up here—I can hear them plainly!”

The lad listened excitedly, for though he could see nothing of the sailors he could follow them by the sounds they made and tell that they had spread out over a good deal of ground in their hunt for the escaped man.

Nearer and nearer they came till Aleck felt that they must have reached the ledge from which he had watched the rippling sea, while directly after they were so near to the hiding-place that he could catch a good deal of what was said, the voices ascending and then seeming to curl over and drop down the steep rockside where he stood.

“They haven’t caught him yet,” thought Aleck, after some few minutes’ beating of the cliff-top and slopes had taken place. “Perhaps they won’t catch him, after all, for he must be as cunning as a fox about hiding-places. Why, they must be coming here!” he thought, excitedly, as the voices began to come nearer and nearer. “They’ll find me, for certain, and then—

“Well, what then?” he thought, as he came to a sudden stop. “Suppose they do catch me and ask me why I’m here! Why, I can tell them I came to try and find someone whom I heard calling for help; and I can’t help what Eben says, I must let the sailors help me then.”

He listened, and felt certain that the sailors and their leader came along as far as the great piece of rock he had been obliged to circumvent, and once round that the men were bound to find him.

“Ahoy!” came faintly again.

“Ahoy yourself!” said a voice. “Who’s that so far off? Some fellow has wandered right away and lost himself. Idiot! Why didn’t he keep within touch of his messmates? Ahoy, there! Ahoy! Ahoy!”

The cry was answered, and in a few minutes Aleck was able to detect the fact from the dying-away of the voices that the search party were growing more distant, so that the next mournful “Ahoy!” fell upon his ears alone, sounding so despairing that the desire to go in search of the appealer for help was stronger than he could restrain.

Glancing back and upward then at the spot where Eben had disappeared, he went cautiously forward for a few yards, to find to his astonishment that from being fairly broad the rugged shelf along which he was proceeding rapidly narrowed till progress grew risky, while at the end of another dozen feet or so it ceased, and he came to a dead stand, looking in vain for a way forward and a sight of some crack or passage along which he could descend towards the sea.

Then he listened for a repetition of the call for help as a guide to his next proceedings; but all was still save the querulous cry of a gull.

“I can’t understand it a bit,” he said, looking about him in a more perplexed way than ever. “Eben Megg spoke as if he knew about someone being in trouble; yes, and that if he did not return I was to go to his wife. Why, what nonsense it seems! How could he who has been away for days know anything about—about—oh! Was there ever such a dense, wooden-headed idiot as I am!” he raged out. “Why, of course! I can see now as clear as clear. It’s that young middy—what’s his name?—calling for help. They must have trapped him during the struggle, and there is a regular smugglers’ cave somewhere, after all. The poor fellow must be shut up in it; and that explains why Eben looked so furiously at me when he found me here. He thought I had discovered the secret hiding-place that he was making for. Oh, my word, how plain and easy it all is when you know how! Yes, that’s it,” he said aloud, excitedly, “and the cutter’s people are gone, so I’m not going to hold myself bound by anything I have said to Eben. That poor fellow must have been left to starve in some dark hole, and—no, he hasn’t. ‘Go to my wife,’ he said. Of course! Because she knew where the prisoner was hid, and—to be sure, she wasn’t going to watch for Eben, as I thought, but to take the prisoner something to eat and drink. Talk about wiping the dust out of one’s eyes! I’ve got mine clear now, and that poor fellow has to be found, while, what is more, he must be somewhere down below where I stand.”

Aleck’s brow ran into lines and puckers as he stood looking about him for a few minutes before hurrying back to the perpendicular crevice he had discovered, and upon reaching it there was the hissing rush of the pebbles and a suggestion of a slapping sound as if water had struck against the rock, but evidently far, far down, while the damp seaweedy odour came cooler and fresher than ever to his nostrils.

“I could get down here,” he muttered, “if I were no bigger than a rabbit; but of course this isn’t the way. There must be just such a place as this, only many times as big, and I’ve got to find it.”

“Ahoy!” came faintly the next minute, but not up the cavity, and the lad stood puzzled and wondering for a few moments longer, before placing his face as far in as he could, and, breathing in the soft, salt, moist air, he shouted back down the hole, “Ahoy!” as loudly as he could.

Then he stood listening, for “Ahoy!” came from quite a different direction, and then there was a reply from somewhere else, closely followed by a shrill whistle.

“That’s not from the prisoner,” said Aleck, growing more excited. “The sailors are coming back. Are they coming here, after all? Well, I’m sorry for Eben, but that poor fellow must be rescued, and I shall have to—”

Aleck did not say what, but hurried along the shelf again, startled by the sound of falling stones, and the next minute he caught sight of the smuggler’s descending feet, and then the fierce-looking fellow dropped lightly before him and caught him by the arm.

“They saw me,” he panted, breathlessly, “and have been hot on my track—I couldn’t dodge them anyhow—quite surrounded. Look here, Master Aleck—you know what it means if they get me—flogging now for escaping! You don’t want me to be took?”

“No, Eben; but—”

“Don’t talk, my lad. I’m hard set. You’re a gentleman, and won’t betray a poor fellow?”

“No, but I won’t help to keep that poor young officer a prisoner.”

“Ah, you’ve found out then—you know where he is?”

“Then it is true that you’ve got him shut up somewhere?”

“Somewhere?” cried the man, sharply, in a hoarse whisper. “Then you haven’t found the place?”

“No,” said Aleck, frankly, “only guessed that he is somewhere hidden, and keeps calling out.”

“Look here, Master Aleck, it is true, and if I swear that as soon as all is safe I’ll help you to set him free and put him where he can get back to his ship, will you swear, too, that you’ll never tell where our stores are?”

“I’m not going to swear anything, Eben.”

The man made a fierce gesture, and the lad felt that he was at the fellow’s mercy, where a sharp thrust of the hand would send him headlong down, most likely to his death. But he did not shrink.

“I promise you I won’t betray you, Eben,” he said, “if you give me your word to set the poor young fellow free.”

“Come on, then—if there’s time,” said the smuggler, hoarsely. “I can hear ’em coming on fast. Now, then, I’m going to show you what all us chaps have sworn on our lives never to let out. Quick! I know you’ve got plenty of game in you, my lad. I’m going to jump down there.”

He pointed down over the edge of the shelf as he spoke.

“Are you mad?” said Aleck, hoarsely, feeling that the man must be to propose what seemed to be like a leap into the next world.

“Not me, my lad. Look! I trust you to come after me sharp—before the cutter’s men see you. Come, you won’t shrink now?”

“He came along this way, I’ll swear,” came from overhead, quite loudly, and a whistle rang out again.

Eben Megg seized Aleck’s arm with his left hand, and with his right caught the lad’s fingers for a moment in a firm grip.

“Jump just as I do. I’ll be ready to catch you.”

Aleck nodded, and then felt ready to shut his eyes, for the man gave one glance upward where a loud murmur of voices could be heard, and then stepped close to the edge of the shelf, placed his feet close together, drew himself up stiffly, and then made a little jump, just sufficient to let himself drop, as it were, clear of the rock, his back being visible just for a moment, and then there was a slight pat coming from below.

Aleck stood with his heart seeming to rise to his throat as if to choke him, while he listened intently for the sound of a falling body loosening a little avalanche of stones.

But all was still below, while above there was the trampling of feet, and a voice said, loudly:

“Are you sure he came this way?”

“Quite, sir. He must have dodged round by that great block of stone.”

“Forward then,” cried the first voice, while from below where he stood came a low, hoarse whisper:

“Now, then, jump!”

For a moment Aleck felt that it was too much. Coward or no coward, he dared not make such a leap in the dark as that. Then, setting his teeth, he stepped close to the edge of the shelf, placed his feet exactly as he had seen the smuggler prepare to drop, and then, with his elbows pressed close to his sides and his open hands raised to a level with his chest, he took the little leap, with the opposite side of the rift seeming to rush upward past his staring eyes, while he dropped what seemed, from the time it lasted, to his overstrained nerves and imagination a tremendous depth—in reality about seven feet—before his feet came flat upon the rock and a strong arm caught him across the chest like a living protecting bar.

Aleck’s eyes turned dim, and the rock face in front spun round before him as he felt himself pressed backward—a few feet beneath what seemed to be a rugged stone eave, which protected him and his companion from being seen by anyone who should peer over the edge, while the next moment the smuggler’s lips were close to his ear and the breath came hot as the man whispered:

“I never knowed a lad before who dared to jump like that. Come on, Master Aleck; I’d trust you with anything now.”

Chapter Twenty Four.Aleck resigned himself to the smuggler’s guiding hand, which gripped his arm tightly, and as the giddy sensation began to pass off and he saw more clearly, he grasped the position in which he stood—to wit, that he was upon another ledge of rock, apparently another stratum of the great slowly-built-up masses which formed the mighty cliffs, one, however, which had been eaten away more by the action of time, so that it was much more deeply indented, while the upper stratum from which he had dropped overlapped considerably, save in one place, where this lower shelf projected in a rocky tongue, which resembled a huge bracket, and a cold shiver ran through the lad as he saw now fully the perilous nature of his leap.“Haven’t found out the way yet,” said Eben, coolly; “but when they do they won’t find out which way we’ve come. What do you say, sir?”“Oh, no!” said Aleck, trying to conceal a shiver. “But what a horrible leap!”“Nothing when you’re used to it, sir. All right if you keep your head, and safe from being found out.”“But suppose anyone were on the opposite side?”“No good to suppose that, master. Nothing ever comes there but the gulls and mews, with a few sea parrots. Nobody could get there without being let down by a line, and the birds never nest there, so it’s quite safe. Now, then, if you’re ready we’ll go down.”“Go down?”“Yes, my lad; this is the way down to the shore.”“With an opening to the sea?” said Aleck, eagerly, for his curiosity was beginning to overcome the tension caused by the shock his nerves had suffered.The smuggler laughed.“Well, you’re asking a good deal, youngster,” he said, “but it’s of no use for me to play at hide-and-seek with you now. Yes; there’s a way open to the sea just for ’bout an hour at some tides. Then it’s shut up again by the water, and that’s what makes it so safe.”Half a dozen more questions were bubbling up towards his lips, but the smuggler made a movement and Aleck felt that the best way to satisfy his curiosity would be to remain silent and use his eyes as much as he could.He was gazing sharply round, to see nothing that suggested a way down to the sea but the great gully beneath his feet, when he became aware of the fact that Eben was watching him quietly with a dry, amused look in his eyes.“Well,” he said, “can you find it now?” Aleck shook his head.“Come along, then.”The smuggler took a few steps along beside the great wall on their right, and Aleck followed closely, till his companion stopped short and faced him.“Well,” he said, “see it now?”“No,” said Aleck.“Look back, then.”The lad turned, and found that without noticing it he had passed a spot where a great piece of rock terminated in a sharp edge, which overlapped a portion of the wall, and as he looked in the direction from which he had come there was a wide opening, quite six feet in height, looking as if a portion of the rock had scaled off the main mass, forming an opening some three feet wide, and remained fixed. Into this the lad stepped at once, shutting out a portion of the light, and for a few moments it seemed to him that the place ended some seven or eight feet from the entrance; but as he ran his left hand along the wall for safety and guidance, he found that instead of its being solid wall upon his left, he had been touching a mere sheet of stone, which screened another opening leading back to the original direction. Upon holding tight and peering round a sharp corner Aleck found that he was gazing into black darkness; but a breath of cool, moist air and the peculiar odour told their own tale of what was beyond, and to endorse this came the soft, sighing, whispering rush of waves sweeping over pebbles far enough below.“Now you know the way down, my lad,” said Eben.“Yes, I suppose I do.”“But even if you’d found it all by yourself I suppose you wouldn’t have ventured down.”“What, into that horrible cavern?”“’Tarn’t a horrible cavern, my lad, only a sort of a dark passage going straight down for a bit. Had enough, or will you come further?”“I’ll come, of course,” said the lad, firmly.“All right, then. That’s right; there’s nothing to be afraid of. You do as I do.”It was a faint twilight now where the pair were standing, with a dark forbidding chasm just in front, and Aleck was longing for a lanthorn, which he half expected to see the smuggler produce. But instead of doing so he stepped suddenly into the darkness.“Now, then,” he said, “you’ll do as I do. It’s nothing to what you did just now in jumping, for there’s no danger; only that looked better, for it was in the light. This is in the darkness. That was straight down; this is only a slope, and you’ll hear me slide. I’ll tell you when to come after me.”“I understand,” said Aleck; and then suddenly, “What’s that?”“What’s what, my lad?”“It felt as if something soft had come right up in my face.”“Wind,” said the smuggler.“But it’s blowing the back of my head now, just as if something touched me,” said Aleck, in a husky voice.“Yes, I know,” said the smuggler. “It’s just as if little soft snaky fingers were feeling about your head.”“Yes, just like that,” said Aleck, in a husky whisper. “I don’t think it could be the wind.”“Yes, it is. That’s right; only the wind, my lad. The cave’s sucking because the sea keeps on opening and shutting the mouth at this time of the tide, and one minute the air’s rushing in here and the next it’s rushing out. Now do you see?”“Yes, I think so,” said Aleck.“Then here goes.”Through the dim light the boy now saw his companion’s face for a few moments, and then the smuggler turned round, took another step, spread out his arms to grasp the rocky sides, and the next minute there was a low rustling sound and a puff of wind struck the lad in the face, followed by silence.“Are you there, Eben?” said Aleck, softly.“Right, my lad. Now, then, you don’t want no more teaching. Do as I did, and come down.”“How far is it?” said Aleck, hesitating.“Eight or nine fathom, my lad. Never measured it. Ready?”“Yes,” said the lad, and setting his teeth hard he pressed his hands against the wall on either side, felt about with one foot, drew the other up to it, and then let go and began to slide down a steep slope, the passage taking away his breath, so that he was panting hard when his heels met with a sudden check and the smuggler’s voice, sounding like a hollow whisper, said:“Bottom o’ this bit.”“What, is there any more?” faltered Aleck.“Lots,” said the man, laughing. “It’s only a great ziggery-zag crack running right through the rock from top to bottom. There’s nothing to mind, as you’d see if we’d got the lanthorn. They were so close after me that I hadn’t time to get the one I left up yonder in the cliffs. Now, then, I’m going down again. It’s quite dry, and worn smooth with all sorts of things coming up and folk like us going down. Just the same as before, my lad. I calls it Jacob’s Ladder. Natur’ made a good deal on it, and my grandfathers, fathers, and us lot finished it a bit at a time and made it what it is.”There was a rushing sound directly after, and the smuggler’s voice next time he spoke came from a lower stage.Aleck followed again with more confidence that he would not plunge into some horrible well-like hole full of water with he knew not what horrible, eel-like creatures waiting to attack him. This time the slide down felt comparatively easy, while at another angle of the zigzag, as he followed his unseen guide, Aleck actually began to think that such a way of progression must be bad for the clothes.“You’ll have to ease yourself down this next one,” said Eben, as he was starting for the next descent; “it’s a bit steeper. Let your hands run along the wall over your head, just touching it, and that’ll be enough. Don’t shove hard, or you’ll be taking the skin off.”“I’ll mind,” said Aleck, rather hoarsely.“What’s the matter?” said the man.“I’ve hurt my head a little against the roof.”“Humph!” grunted the smuggler. “Forgot to tell you about that bit. It’s the only place where you can touch the top, and you run agen it. Hurt yerself much?”“No.”“Then come on.”The rather swift descent was accomplished more easily than Aleck anticipated, and he slid down into a pair of hands.“Now, then, the next bit’s diff’rent,” said the smuggler. “You’ll sit down on your heels like to slide, but it arn’t steep, and every now and then you’ll have to give yerself a bit of a shove to help yer down to the next bit, and that’s worse still.”“Worse?” said Aleck, trying to suppress a catching of the breath; but the smuggler detected it.“Not what you think bad,” he said, with a hoarse chuckle, “but what we call bad. You have to walk all the way.”“And there are no side places where you might slip into?”“Not half o’ one, my lad. There was a nasty hole at the bottom of the next but one, that seemed to go right down to the end of the world. P’raps it did, but we brought up big bits o’ rock till some on ’em caught and got wedged into niches, and then we kept on till we filled it up level, and you wouldn’t know it’s there. Now, then, let’s get down.”“Stop a moment,” said Aleck. “I don’t feel the wind coming and going now. Have we got below where it comes in?”“Not us. The tide’s up above the mouth now, and there’ll be no wind to feel till next tide. Here’s off.”The rustling began, and the two next portions of the strange zigzag series of cleft were passed down easily enough, while, as he descended a couple more, Aleck felt how smoothly floor and sides were worn and carved, and began to dwell upon the time that must have elapsed and the industry bestowed upon the curious passage by the smugglers, who had by virtue of their oaths and their interest in the place kept it a secret for generations.“I wonder how many more there are,” Aleck was thinking as he glided down, when all at once Eben said, loudly:“Bottom! Stand fast, my lad, while I get a light.”“That you, you scoundrel?” came in a strange echoing voice from a distance.“Ay, ay, this is me,” replied the smuggler. “I’ll be there soon.”There was silence, for, though eager to speak to the prisoner, Aleck concluded that he had better wait, and not commence his first meeting with the prisoner in the character of one of his enemies.The next minute there was the rattle of iron or tin, and then a short, sharp, nicking sound began, accompanied by a display of flowery little sparks. At the end of a minute the frowning face of the smuggler was lit up as he blew softly at the tinder, into which a spark had fallen and caught; the light increased, and as a brimstone match was applied to the incandescent tinder, the brimstone melted, bubbled, and began to turn blue. Then the splint of wood beneath began to burn, and at last emitted a blaze, which was communicated to the wick of the candle. This, too, began to burn, and then the door of the lanthorn was closed.“There we are,” said the smuggler. “Now let’s go and see our bird.”Aleck made no reply, for his eyes were wandering over all that the feeble light of the dim horn lanthorn threw up; and very little though this was at a time, it was enough to fill the lad with wonder. For as far as he could make out, they were in a vast cavern, whose floor about where they stood supported stacks of kegs and piles of boxes and bales. There was also a tremendous collection of wood, the most part being evidently the gatherings of wrecks, and in addition there were the fittings of vessel after vessel, so various in fact that Aleck hurriedly turned away his eyes, to gaze with something like a shiver at the reflection of the lanthorn in a far-stretching mirror of intense blackness which lay smooth and undisturbed, save in one part away to his left, where it was blurred and dimmed, rising and falling as if moved by some undercurrent.“Water,” he said, at last, as the smuggler raised up his lanthorn and smiled.“Yes, and plenty of it.”“But where’s the mouth of the cave?”“Over yonder,” said the man, pointing towards where the surface was in motion.“Let’s walk towards it with the lanthorn,” said Aleck.“Why, my lad?”“I want to see the daylight again.”“But we couldn’t get far along there with the tide up, and even if we could you wouldn’t see the mouth of the cave.”“Why not?” asked Aleck.“Because it’s under water.”“Never mind; hold up the lanthorn, and let me see what I can.”“Then I’d better hide it or shut it,” said Eben, and, setting the lanthorn down upon the rocky floor, he slipped off his rough jacket and covered the lanthorn so that not a ray of light could be seen escaping through the panes of thinly-scraped horn.To the lad’s wonderment, no sooner was the lanthorn hidden than instead of the place being intensely dark, it was lit up by a soft translucent twilight, which seemed to rise out of the water where it was disturbed. This light, where the water was wreathing and swaying softly, was of a delicious, transparent blue, and by degrees, as he gazed in awe and wonder, a low archway could be made out spanning a considerable space, but beautifully indistinct, festooned as it was by filaments and ribands of seaweed and wrack, all apparently of a jetty black, seen through water of a wondrous blue. But the whole archway was in motion, as it seemed, and constantly changing its shape, while the sea growth swayed and curved and undulated, and at times lay out straight, as if swept by some swift current.“Is it always like this?” said Aleck, in a whisper, though he could not have explained why he spoke in such awe-stricken tones.“Oh, no, my lad; it’s a deal darker than that when the tide’s high.”“Tide—high?” said Aleck, in a startled voice. “Does the water ever fill the cavern? No, no, of course not,” he said, hastily. “I can see it never comes up to those stacks of bales and things.”“That’s right,” said the smuggler.“And the tide lays the mouth quite open?”“Not very often,” said the smuggler. “Just at certain tides.”“But I must have seen the mouth from outside sometimes.”“Like enough; my lad, but I don’t s’pose you were ever there when a boat could come in.”“Then a boat could come in?”“Yes,” said the smuggler, meaningly, “it could come in then. Want to know exactly?” he added, with a laugh.“No, I don’t know that I do,” said Aleck, shortly. “Now, then, I didn’t come to see how beautiful the place looked. I want to see and talk to that poor fellow you’ve got shut up here.”“Um!” grunted the smuggler. “I don’t know about ‘poor fellow.’ He has been better off, I daresay, than I was while they kept me a prisoner. Better fed and all. Nothing the matter, only he couldn’t get out.”“But why did you make a prisoner of him?”“I didn’t,” said the smuggler, contemptuously; “it was the silly women.”“What for?”“They got the silly idea in their heads that they could make the press-gang officer exchange—give the pressed men back—if they held on to the lad.”“But you’ll set him free at once?” said Aleck, quickly.“I don’t know, my lad,” was the reply. “It’s rather a mess, I’m afraid, taking a King’s officer like that; and it seems to me it will be a worse one to let him go.”“Oh, but you must let him go. The punishment will be very serious for keeping him.”“So it will for breaking loose and swimming ashore after being pressed for a sailor.”“Yes,” cried Aleck; “but—”“Yes, sir; but,” said the smuggler, with a bitter laugh, “it’s all one-sided like. I didn’t begin on them—they began on me, to rob a poor fellow of his liberty. Now, I know it was a foolish thing for those women to get hold of that boy, half smother him, and shut him up here; and I don’t want to keep him.”“Of course not.”“But what am I to do? If I let him go, and say ‘Run for it,’ he’ll be back before I know where I am with another boat’s crew to take me; and of course, being a man, I shall have to stand fire for everybody. ’Sides which it’ll be making known to the Revenue officers where our lair is, and that’ll be ruin to everybody.”“Then you must escape, Eben, for that poor fellow must be set free.”“Don’t see it yet, Master Aleck,” said the man, stubbornly. “It wants thinking about. Simplest way seems to me to be that I should put him out of his misery.”“What! Kill him?”“Something of that sort, sir.”“Bah! You’re laughing at me,” cried Aleck. “Come, no nonsense—take me to him; and he must be set at liberty directly.”“Well, don’t be in quite such a hurry, Master Aleck,” said the man. “You ought to play fair after what has passed ’twixt us two.”“And so I will, Eben. I have promised you that I will not tell anyone about this place.”“That’s right enough, sir. So you say I must let him out?”“Of course.”“Well, don’t you think I ought to have my chance to get away?”“Certainly.”“Very well, then, sir, you must wait a bit. You know what it’ll be if he’s let out now.”“No, I don’t.”“Very well, then, I’ll tell you, sir. He’ll forget all about being treated well and all that sort o’ thing, and go and get help to try and catch me. Then he’ll come directly upon the party who’ve been hunting me, and I shall be took at once.”“Then you must have a few hours to escape, and then I will set him free.”“I must have two or three days, or I shall be taken again. But you wait a bit; he can’t be set loose yet. Come and see him now if you like, or would you rather stay away?”“I’d rather go to him, poor fellow; he must be in a horrible state.”“Not he,” said the smuggler, coolly. “He’s had plenty to eat and drink, and a lot of canvas for a bed. He hasn’t hurt.”“You didn’t hear his cries for help,” said Aleck.“No, or I should have come down to quiet him if I’d been near,” said the smuggler, gruffly. “Come on.”He led the way farther in away from the mouth of the cavern, and in and out amongst rocks which lay about the rugged floor, the course being beside the water, which now began to grow of a jetty black, while from time to time Aleck caught a gleam of something bright overhead, showing that here and there the roof came lower. He saw, too, that the winding, canal-like channel of water gradually grew narrower, till the lanthorn illumined the place sufficiently for the lad to see that they could easily cross to the other side by stepping from rock to rock, which rose above the shallow water.“We’ll go over here,” said the smuggler, “but by and by the water will be right over there, and you have to go right to the end and climb along the ledge. Can you see where to step?”“Yes. Go on.”“Mind how you come; the stones here are slippery with the wet seaweed.”“I can manage,” said Aleck, and he carefully stepped across and stood on the other side. “Now, where is he?”“Yonder, half way up that side! There’s a snug hole there, plenty big enough for him. I’ve slept there lots of times when we’ve been busy.”Aleck did not enquire what the business was, but he surmised as he followed the guide, with the light from the lanthorn enabling him to see where to put his feet.They were now going back towards the submerged mouth of the vast cavern, and Aleck felt a strange sensation of relief even at this, for thoughts would keep crowding into his brain about what would be the consequence if a greater tide than usual flooded the place, a thought so horrible that the perspiration stood out upon his forehead, though it might have been caused by the exertion of stepping over the rugged floor and the heat of the place.“Isn’t he very quiet?” whispered Aleck.“Yes, but he’s watching us,” said the man, in a hoarse whisper, while Aleck looked in vain for a likely place to be the young officer’s prison, “over yonder” being a very vague indication.Just then the smuggler began to step up a steep slope of moderate-sized rocks piled one upon the other, to stop short about ten feet above where his companion was standing.He held the lanthorn down low for the lad to see, and as Aleck stood beside him he raised the light as high as he could, so that the dim rays fell upon the angry staring eyes of the young officer, who lay upon a thick cushion composed of many folds of sail-cloth, the bolt ropes and reef points in which showed plainly that it had been in use possibly in connection with some unfortunate vessel wrecked upon the rocks of the iron-bound coast.The face was familiar enough to Aleck as the midshipman hitched himself up a little higher upon the elbow which supported him, and his new visitor saw that the fierce eyes were not directed at him, but at the smuggler who bore the lanthorn.“Then you’ve come at last?” he said, fiercely. “Now, then, no more of this tomfool acting; unlock this iron and take me out into the fresh air, or as sure as you stand there, you great, black-muzzled, piratical-looking scoundrel, I’ll say such things about you to the captain that he’ll hang you to the yard-arm, and serve you right.”“What!” growled the smuggler. “Not got tame yet?”“Tame, you miserable ruffian! How dare you speak to an officer in His Majesty’s Navy like that? There never was such an outrage before. Unfasten these irons, I say, and take me out!”“Why, skipper,” said the smuggler, mockingly, “your temper gets worse and worse.”“My temper, you dog!” cried the midshipman, furiously. “How dare you treat me like this?”“And how dare you come with your gang, knocking honest men on the head and dragging them off to sea?” retorted Eben. “You’d think nothing of putting them in irons because they wouldn’t take to the sea. How do you like it, my young springold?”“I’m not going to argue with you, you ruffian, about that,” cried the midshipman. “Now, look here, that woman who brought me the wretched food said she dare not and could not unlock that iron I’ve got round my ankle, but that when her husband came I was to ask him. Now, then, you’re the husband, aren’t you?”“Oh, yes, I’m the husband, safe enough,” growled the smuggler.“Then I order you in the King’s name to take these irons off.”“You wait a bit, captain,” said the smuggler; “all in good time. Here, take it coolly for a bit longer; I’ve brought you some company.”“Ah, who’s that with you? I thought I saw someone and heard whispering.”The smuggler held the lanthorn lower and opened the door, so that the candle light shone full on Aleck’s face.“You?” cried the midshipman, excitedly. “Then I was right; I thought you were one of the smuggling gang.”“Then you thought wrong,” said Aleck, shortly.“What do you want here?” cried the prisoner, wildly, for the fit of rage and command into which he had forced himself was fast dying down into misery and despair.“I’ve come to help you, middy,” cried Aleck, warmly, and he sank upon one knee and caught the poor fellow’s hand.“To—to—to help me?” he gasped.“Yes, and to have you out into the daylight again. You, Eben Megg, take off the chain directly!” cried Aleck. “How dare you chain an officer and a gentleman as if he were a thief or a dog?”“Oh!” cried the prisoner, and the ejaculation sounded wildly hysterical and passionate as that of a girl. “Oh—oh! Don’t—don’t speak to me—don’t! Oh, you—I can’t bear it! I’m not a coward, but I’ve been shut up down here in the horrible darkness of this place till I’ve been half mad at times, and—and I’m half mad now. It’s the loneliness—the being alone down here night and day.”“Of course it is,” cried Aleck, feeling half choked as he spoke; and holding the lad’s hand tightly between his own, he kept pressing it hard, and ended by shaking it more and more warmly as he spoke. “Of course, of course it is. It would have driven me quite mad; but you shan’t feel the loneliness again, for I’ll stop with you till you’re out, happen what may.”“Hah! Thank you, thank you!” whispered the prisoner. “I couldn’t help breaking down. I did try so very hard. I didn’t think that I should behave like a girl.”“Hush!” whispered Aleck, who had interposed between the prisoner and the gaoler with his lanthorn. “Hold up; don’t let him see. There, it’s going to be all right now. There’s a boat’s crew and an officer from the cutter somewhere above on the cliff, trying to find you.”“What!” cried the midshipman, holding on to Aleck now with both hands. “Is that true, or are you saying it to keep up my spirits?”“It’s as true as true,” cried Aleck.“Then I’ll hail again. Oh, how I have hailed! Do you think they could hear me now the water’s up?”“Perhaps,” said Aleck. “I heard you, and I’ve been hunting for long enough to find the way down.”“What!” cried the middy, who was beginning to master the emotion from which he had suffered. “Then you didn’t know the way?”“No, not till just now.”“But you knew of this horrible cave?”“No; though it isn’t above a mile from where I live.”“I—I thought you were mixed up with these smugglers, and—and—I beg your pardon.”“There’s nothing to beg pardon about,” said Aleck, cheerfully. “There, I’m going to have you out of this. Now, then, Eben, bring the light closer. Where did these fetters come from?”“Out of a King’s ship as was wrecked off Black Point, Master Aleck. We got dozens out of the sands. They’re what they use when they put men in irons.”“Nonsense.”“I tell you they are, sir. You ask Tom Bodger if they arn’t.”“Yes, they’re the regular irons,” said the midshipman, huskily; and Aleck, who still held his hand, felt that he was all of a tremble.“So, you see, Master Aleck, it’s on’y fair. Tit for tat, you know.”“That will do, sir,” cried the lad, sharply. “Don’t be a coward as well as cruel to this gentleman. Now, then, set down the lanthorn on one of the stones and unlock this fetter, or whatever it is.”“Can’t, sir,” said the man, gruffly.“What! I order you to do it.”“Yes, sir, I hear you, but the chain’s locked round his ankle.”“Well, I know that. Unlock it.”“Well, I would, sir, as it’s come to this, but I arn’t got the key.”“What!” cried Aleck, with a chill of despair running through him. “Where is it, then?”“My missus or one of the other women’s got it.”“But you said there were a lot of these irons; there must be more than one key.”“I never saw but one, sir, and that we had up at home. It was my old woman’s idee to chain him up like this. You see, it’s three or four of them irons locked together, and one end’s about his ankle and the other’s locked to the ring there that we let into the rock and fixed with melted lead so as to fix tackle to when we wanted to haul in casks or moor a boat.”“Then you must go and find your wife, and get it,” said Aleck, firmly.“Go up on the cliff, young gentleman, and walk right into the hands of the boat’s crew hunting for me, eh?”“I don’t care; I will have this gentleman set free. You may not meet any of the sailors,” cried Aleck, and almost at every word of his brave standing up for the prisoner he felt himself rewarded by a warm pressure of the hand.“That’s all right enough, Master Aleck Donne, but you know what I’ve told you ’bout being made prisoner and having to nearly lose my life in swimming for my liberty?”“Yes, perfectly well; but I must have him cast free, even if he has to wait a bit before he goes out of the cave.”“But you heard, too, what he said, sir, and I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if, when they caught me, they did hang me to the yard-arm of one of their ships.”“Yes, yes, I know,” said Aleck; “but—”“But you arn’t reasonable, Master Aleck. My life’s as much to me as another man’s is to him, whether he’s a poor fellow or a gentleman. Now, look here, you know yourself it arn’t safe for me to go out of the cave now, is it?”“Well, I’m afraid it is not just yet, Eben; but—”“Wait a minute, Master Aleck. Give a man a chance. Look here; as soon as it’s dark I’ll go up on to the cliff and try and get to my cottage, and as soon as I can get the key I’ll come back and let your orficer here go loose if he’ll swear as he won’t show his people the way down here.”“No,” cried the midshipman, firmly; “I can’t promise that.”“Not to get free, squire?” said Eben, grimly.“N–no, I can’t do that. It’s my duty to help clear out this place. I can’t; don’t ask me. I can’t promise that.”“Look here,” said Aleck, smiling; “could you lead a party down here?”The midshipman started, and was silent.“How did you come down here?”“Come down? I didn’t come down. I was half stunned, and then thrown into a boat. I can just recollect feeling myself dragged out again, and then I lay sick and giddy, just as if I was in a horrible dream, till I awoke in the darkness to find that I was chained up here.”“Then he could not lead a party here, Eben,” said Aleck; “and you could get him out of here so that he would never know how he was taken out.”“Ah!” said the middy, sharply. “Then you two didn’t come in a boat?”“Never you mind how we came or how we didn’t, my lad,” said the smuggler, “we’re here; and as the game’s up, Master Aleck, and all I want to do is to keep out of the clutches of the press-gang and the law, I’ll do as I said, go up by and by and try to get the key, and if I can’t get the key I’ll bring down a file.”“That will do, Eben—I’ll trust you; and as you’re going to do your best now I don’t think Mr—Mr—”“Wrighton,” said the middy.“Mr Wrighton will want to be hard on a man who wants to escape from being pressed. How long will it be before it’s safe to go up?”“I daren’t go till it’s midnight, my lad. I’ve been run too close before, and as it is I’m not sure but what they’ll be waiting for me about my home; but anyhow I’ll try.”“And I must wait till then?” said the middy, with a break in his voice.“Yes,” said Aleck; “but I shall keep my word—I’ll stick by you till you’re free.”“Ah!” ejaculated the lad, and his voice sounded more natural, as he added, in a low tone to Aleck: “Don’t think me a coward, please. You don’t know what it is to be shut up in a place like this.”“No,” said Aleck; “but if I were I should feel and act just as you have, and I hope be quite as brave.”A pressure of the hand conveyed the midshipman’s thanks, and directly after the two lads awoke to the fact that the smuggler was doing something which could mean nothing else but the providing of something to eat and drink.For upon raising the lanthorn to look around, he came upon a basket, and beside it a good-sized bottle, both of which he examined.“Why, skipper,” he said, “you haven’t eat your dinner!”“How could I eat at a time like this?” said the midshipman, angrily.“Well, I s’pose it didn’t give you much hankering arter eating tackle,” said the smuggler, grimly. “I took nowt but water when I was aboard your ship; but you ought to eat and drink now you ye got to the end of your troubles, thanks to Master Aleck here. Why, you’ve got two lots. What’s in the bottles?”The speaker screwed out the corks of two bottles, one after the other, and smelt the contents.“Ha! Water. Want anything stronger?” he said, with a grin. “Plenty o’ Right Nantes yonder,” he added, with a jerk of his thumb over the right shoulder.“No, no, I don’t want anything,” said the midshipman, impatiently.“Well, sir, I do,” said Eben. “I’m down faint, and if you don’t mind—what do you say, Master Aleck?”“I never thought of it,” replied Aleck; “but now you talk about eating and drinking you make me feel ready. Let’s have something, Mr Wrighton; it will help to pass away the time.”The result was that the contents of the basket were spread between them, and from forcing down a mouthful or two of food the prisoner’s appetite began to return, and a good meal was made, Aleck and the smuggler naturally playing the most vigorous part.

Aleck resigned himself to the smuggler’s guiding hand, which gripped his arm tightly, and as the giddy sensation began to pass off and he saw more clearly, he grasped the position in which he stood—to wit, that he was upon another ledge of rock, apparently another stratum of the great slowly-built-up masses which formed the mighty cliffs, one, however, which had been eaten away more by the action of time, so that it was much more deeply indented, while the upper stratum from which he had dropped overlapped considerably, save in one place, where this lower shelf projected in a rocky tongue, which resembled a huge bracket, and a cold shiver ran through the lad as he saw now fully the perilous nature of his leap.

“Haven’t found out the way yet,” said Eben, coolly; “but when they do they won’t find out which way we’ve come. What do you say, sir?”

“Oh, no!” said Aleck, trying to conceal a shiver. “But what a horrible leap!”

“Nothing when you’re used to it, sir. All right if you keep your head, and safe from being found out.”

“But suppose anyone were on the opposite side?”

“No good to suppose that, master. Nothing ever comes there but the gulls and mews, with a few sea parrots. Nobody could get there without being let down by a line, and the birds never nest there, so it’s quite safe. Now, then, if you’re ready we’ll go down.”

“Go down?”

“Yes, my lad; this is the way down to the shore.”

“With an opening to the sea?” said Aleck, eagerly, for his curiosity was beginning to overcome the tension caused by the shock his nerves had suffered.

The smuggler laughed.

“Well, you’re asking a good deal, youngster,” he said, “but it’s of no use for me to play at hide-and-seek with you now. Yes; there’s a way open to the sea just for ’bout an hour at some tides. Then it’s shut up again by the water, and that’s what makes it so safe.”

Half a dozen more questions were bubbling up towards his lips, but the smuggler made a movement and Aleck felt that the best way to satisfy his curiosity would be to remain silent and use his eyes as much as he could.

He was gazing sharply round, to see nothing that suggested a way down to the sea but the great gully beneath his feet, when he became aware of the fact that Eben was watching him quietly with a dry, amused look in his eyes.

“Well,” he said, “can you find it now?” Aleck shook his head.

“Come along, then.”

The smuggler took a few steps along beside the great wall on their right, and Aleck followed closely, till his companion stopped short and faced him.

“Well,” he said, “see it now?”

“No,” said Aleck.

“Look back, then.”

The lad turned, and found that without noticing it he had passed a spot where a great piece of rock terminated in a sharp edge, which overlapped a portion of the wall, and as he looked in the direction from which he had come there was a wide opening, quite six feet in height, looking as if a portion of the rock had scaled off the main mass, forming an opening some three feet wide, and remained fixed. Into this the lad stepped at once, shutting out a portion of the light, and for a few moments it seemed to him that the place ended some seven or eight feet from the entrance; but as he ran his left hand along the wall for safety and guidance, he found that instead of its being solid wall upon his left, he had been touching a mere sheet of stone, which screened another opening leading back to the original direction. Upon holding tight and peering round a sharp corner Aleck found that he was gazing into black darkness; but a breath of cool, moist air and the peculiar odour told their own tale of what was beyond, and to endorse this came the soft, sighing, whispering rush of waves sweeping over pebbles far enough below.

“Now you know the way down, my lad,” said Eben.

“Yes, I suppose I do.”

“But even if you’d found it all by yourself I suppose you wouldn’t have ventured down.”

“What, into that horrible cavern?”

“’Tarn’t a horrible cavern, my lad, only a sort of a dark passage going straight down for a bit. Had enough, or will you come further?”

“I’ll come, of course,” said the lad, firmly.

“All right, then. That’s right; there’s nothing to be afraid of. You do as I do.”

It was a faint twilight now where the pair were standing, with a dark forbidding chasm just in front, and Aleck was longing for a lanthorn, which he half expected to see the smuggler produce. But instead of doing so he stepped suddenly into the darkness.

“Now, then,” he said, “you’ll do as I do. It’s nothing to what you did just now in jumping, for there’s no danger; only that looked better, for it was in the light. This is in the darkness. That was straight down; this is only a slope, and you’ll hear me slide. I’ll tell you when to come after me.”

“I understand,” said Aleck; and then suddenly, “What’s that?”

“What’s what, my lad?”

“It felt as if something soft had come right up in my face.”

“Wind,” said the smuggler.

“But it’s blowing the back of my head now, just as if something touched me,” said Aleck, in a husky voice.

“Yes, I know,” said the smuggler. “It’s just as if little soft snaky fingers were feeling about your head.”

“Yes, just like that,” said Aleck, in a husky whisper. “I don’t think it could be the wind.”

“Yes, it is. That’s right; only the wind, my lad. The cave’s sucking because the sea keeps on opening and shutting the mouth at this time of the tide, and one minute the air’s rushing in here and the next it’s rushing out. Now do you see?”

“Yes, I think so,” said Aleck.

“Then here goes.”

Through the dim light the boy now saw his companion’s face for a few moments, and then the smuggler turned round, took another step, spread out his arms to grasp the rocky sides, and the next minute there was a low rustling sound and a puff of wind struck the lad in the face, followed by silence.

“Are you there, Eben?” said Aleck, softly.

“Right, my lad. Now, then, you don’t want no more teaching. Do as I did, and come down.”

“How far is it?” said Aleck, hesitating.

“Eight or nine fathom, my lad. Never measured it. Ready?”

“Yes,” said the lad, and setting his teeth hard he pressed his hands against the wall on either side, felt about with one foot, drew the other up to it, and then let go and began to slide down a steep slope, the passage taking away his breath, so that he was panting hard when his heels met with a sudden check and the smuggler’s voice, sounding like a hollow whisper, said:

“Bottom o’ this bit.”

“What, is there any more?” faltered Aleck.

“Lots,” said the man, laughing. “It’s only a great ziggery-zag crack running right through the rock from top to bottom. There’s nothing to mind, as you’d see if we’d got the lanthorn. They were so close after me that I hadn’t time to get the one I left up yonder in the cliffs. Now, then, I’m going down again. It’s quite dry, and worn smooth with all sorts of things coming up and folk like us going down. Just the same as before, my lad. I calls it Jacob’s Ladder. Natur’ made a good deal on it, and my grandfathers, fathers, and us lot finished it a bit at a time and made it what it is.”

There was a rushing sound directly after, and the smuggler’s voice next time he spoke came from a lower stage.

Aleck followed again with more confidence that he would not plunge into some horrible well-like hole full of water with he knew not what horrible, eel-like creatures waiting to attack him. This time the slide down felt comparatively easy, while at another angle of the zigzag, as he followed his unseen guide, Aleck actually began to think that such a way of progression must be bad for the clothes.

“You’ll have to ease yourself down this next one,” said Eben, as he was starting for the next descent; “it’s a bit steeper. Let your hands run along the wall over your head, just touching it, and that’ll be enough. Don’t shove hard, or you’ll be taking the skin off.”

“I’ll mind,” said Aleck, rather hoarsely.

“What’s the matter?” said the man.

“I’ve hurt my head a little against the roof.”

“Humph!” grunted the smuggler. “Forgot to tell you about that bit. It’s the only place where you can touch the top, and you run agen it. Hurt yerself much?”

“No.”

“Then come on.”

The rather swift descent was accomplished more easily than Aleck anticipated, and he slid down into a pair of hands.

“Now, then, the next bit’s diff’rent,” said the smuggler. “You’ll sit down on your heels like to slide, but it arn’t steep, and every now and then you’ll have to give yerself a bit of a shove to help yer down to the next bit, and that’s worse still.”

“Worse?” said Aleck, trying to suppress a catching of the breath; but the smuggler detected it.

“Not what you think bad,” he said, with a hoarse chuckle, “but what we call bad. You have to walk all the way.”

“And there are no side places where you might slip into?”

“Not half o’ one, my lad. There was a nasty hole at the bottom of the next but one, that seemed to go right down to the end of the world. P’raps it did, but we brought up big bits o’ rock till some on ’em caught and got wedged into niches, and then we kept on till we filled it up level, and you wouldn’t know it’s there. Now, then, let’s get down.”

“Stop a moment,” said Aleck. “I don’t feel the wind coming and going now. Have we got below where it comes in?”

“Not us. The tide’s up above the mouth now, and there’ll be no wind to feel till next tide. Here’s off.”

The rustling began, and the two next portions of the strange zigzag series of cleft were passed down easily enough, while, as he descended a couple more, Aleck felt how smoothly floor and sides were worn and carved, and began to dwell upon the time that must have elapsed and the industry bestowed upon the curious passage by the smugglers, who had by virtue of their oaths and their interest in the place kept it a secret for generations.

“I wonder how many more there are,” Aleck was thinking as he glided down, when all at once Eben said, loudly:

“Bottom! Stand fast, my lad, while I get a light.”

“That you, you scoundrel?” came in a strange echoing voice from a distance.

“Ay, ay, this is me,” replied the smuggler. “I’ll be there soon.”

There was silence, for, though eager to speak to the prisoner, Aleck concluded that he had better wait, and not commence his first meeting with the prisoner in the character of one of his enemies.

The next minute there was the rattle of iron or tin, and then a short, sharp, nicking sound began, accompanied by a display of flowery little sparks. At the end of a minute the frowning face of the smuggler was lit up as he blew softly at the tinder, into which a spark had fallen and caught; the light increased, and as a brimstone match was applied to the incandescent tinder, the brimstone melted, bubbled, and began to turn blue. Then the splint of wood beneath began to burn, and at last emitted a blaze, which was communicated to the wick of the candle. This, too, began to burn, and then the door of the lanthorn was closed.

“There we are,” said the smuggler. “Now let’s go and see our bird.”

Aleck made no reply, for his eyes were wandering over all that the feeble light of the dim horn lanthorn threw up; and very little though this was at a time, it was enough to fill the lad with wonder. For as far as he could make out, they were in a vast cavern, whose floor about where they stood supported stacks of kegs and piles of boxes and bales. There was also a tremendous collection of wood, the most part being evidently the gatherings of wrecks, and in addition there were the fittings of vessel after vessel, so various in fact that Aleck hurriedly turned away his eyes, to gaze with something like a shiver at the reflection of the lanthorn in a far-stretching mirror of intense blackness which lay smooth and undisturbed, save in one part away to his left, where it was blurred and dimmed, rising and falling as if moved by some undercurrent.

“Water,” he said, at last, as the smuggler raised up his lanthorn and smiled.

“Yes, and plenty of it.”

“But where’s the mouth of the cave?”

“Over yonder,” said the man, pointing towards where the surface was in motion.

“Let’s walk towards it with the lanthorn,” said Aleck.

“Why, my lad?”

“I want to see the daylight again.”

“But we couldn’t get far along there with the tide up, and even if we could you wouldn’t see the mouth of the cave.”

“Why not?” asked Aleck.

“Because it’s under water.”

“Never mind; hold up the lanthorn, and let me see what I can.”

“Then I’d better hide it or shut it,” said Eben, and, setting the lanthorn down upon the rocky floor, he slipped off his rough jacket and covered the lanthorn so that not a ray of light could be seen escaping through the panes of thinly-scraped horn.

To the lad’s wonderment, no sooner was the lanthorn hidden than instead of the place being intensely dark, it was lit up by a soft translucent twilight, which seemed to rise out of the water where it was disturbed. This light, where the water was wreathing and swaying softly, was of a delicious, transparent blue, and by degrees, as he gazed in awe and wonder, a low archway could be made out spanning a considerable space, but beautifully indistinct, festooned as it was by filaments and ribands of seaweed and wrack, all apparently of a jetty black, seen through water of a wondrous blue. But the whole archway was in motion, as it seemed, and constantly changing its shape, while the sea growth swayed and curved and undulated, and at times lay out straight, as if swept by some swift current.

“Is it always like this?” said Aleck, in a whisper, though he could not have explained why he spoke in such awe-stricken tones.

“Oh, no, my lad; it’s a deal darker than that when the tide’s high.”

“Tide—high?” said Aleck, in a startled voice. “Does the water ever fill the cavern? No, no, of course not,” he said, hastily. “I can see it never comes up to those stacks of bales and things.”

“That’s right,” said the smuggler.

“And the tide lays the mouth quite open?”

“Not very often,” said the smuggler. “Just at certain tides.”

“But I must have seen the mouth from outside sometimes.”

“Like enough; my lad, but I don’t s’pose you were ever there when a boat could come in.”

“Then a boat could come in?”

“Yes,” said the smuggler, meaningly, “it could come in then. Want to know exactly?” he added, with a laugh.

“No, I don’t know that I do,” said Aleck, shortly. “Now, then, I didn’t come to see how beautiful the place looked. I want to see and talk to that poor fellow you’ve got shut up here.”

“Um!” grunted the smuggler. “I don’t know about ‘poor fellow.’ He has been better off, I daresay, than I was while they kept me a prisoner. Better fed and all. Nothing the matter, only he couldn’t get out.”

“But why did you make a prisoner of him?”

“I didn’t,” said the smuggler, contemptuously; “it was the silly women.”

“What for?”

“They got the silly idea in their heads that they could make the press-gang officer exchange—give the pressed men back—if they held on to the lad.”

“But you’ll set him free at once?” said Aleck, quickly.

“I don’t know, my lad,” was the reply. “It’s rather a mess, I’m afraid, taking a King’s officer like that; and it seems to me it will be a worse one to let him go.”

“Oh, but you must let him go. The punishment will be very serious for keeping him.”

“So it will for breaking loose and swimming ashore after being pressed for a sailor.”

“Yes,” cried Aleck; “but—”

“Yes, sir; but,” said the smuggler, with a bitter laugh, “it’s all one-sided like. I didn’t begin on them—they began on me, to rob a poor fellow of his liberty. Now, I know it was a foolish thing for those women to get hold of that boy, half smother him, and shut him up here; and I don’t want to keep him.”

“Of course not.”

“But what am I to do? If I let him go, and say ‘Run for it,’ he’ll be back before I know where I am with another boat’s crew to take me; and of course, being a man, I shall have to stand fire for everybody. ’Sides which it’ll be making known to the Revenue officers where our lair is, and that’ll be ruin to everybody.”

“Then you must escape, Eben, for that poor fellow must be set free.”

“Don’t see it yet, Master Aleck,” said the man, stubbornly. “It wants thinking about. Simplest way seems to me to be that I should put him out of his misery.”

“What! Kill him?”

“Something of that sort, sir.”

“Bah! You’re laughing at me,” cried Aleck. “Come, no nonsense—take me to him; and he must be set at liberty directly.”

“Well, don’t be in quite such a hurry, Master Aleck,” said the man. “You ought to play fair after what has passed ’twixt us two.”

“And so I will, Eben. I have promised you that I will not tell anyone about this place.”

“That’s right enough, sir. So you say I must let him out?”

“Of course.”

“Well, don’t you think I ought to have my chance to get away?”

“Certainly.”

“Very well, then, sir, you must wait a bit. You know what it’ll be if he’s let out now.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Very well, then, I’ll tell you, sir. He’ll forget all about being treated well and all that sort o’ thing, and go and get help to try and catch me. Then he’ll come directly upon the party who’ve been hunting me, and I shall be took at once.”

“Then you must have a few hours to escape, and then I will set him free.”

“I must have two or three days, or I shall be taken again. But you wait a bit; he can’t be set loose yet. Come and see him now if you like, or would you rather stay away?”

“I’d rather go to him, poor fellow; he must be in a horrible state.”

“Not he,” said the smuggler, coolly. “He’s had plenty to eat and drink, and a lot of canvas for a bed. He hasn’t hurt.”

“You didn’t hear his cries for help,” said Aleck.

“No, or I should have come down to quiet him if I’d been near,” said the smuggler, gruffly. “Come on.”

He led the way farther in away from the mouth of the cavern, and in and out amongst rocks which lay about the rugged floor, the course being beside the water, which now began to grow of a jetty black, while from time to time Aleck caught a gleam of something bright overhead, showing that here and there the roof came lower. He saw, too, that the winding, canal-like channel of water gradually grew narrower, till the lanthorn illumined the place sufficiently for the lad to see that they could easily cross to the other side by stepping from rock to rock, which rose above the shallow water.

“We’ll go over here,” said the smuggler, “but by and by the water will be right over there, and you have to go right to the end and climb along the ledge. Can you see where to step?”

“Yes. Go on.”

“Mind how you come; the stones here are slippery with the wet seaweed.”

“I can manage,” said Aleck, and he carefully stepped across and stood on the other side. “Now, where is he?”

“Yonder, half way up that side! There’s a snug hole there, plenty big enough for him. I’ve slept there lots of times when we’ve been busy.”

Aleck did not enquire what the business was, but he surmised as he followed the guide, with the light from the lanthorn enabling him to see where to put his feet.

They were now going back towards the submerged mouth of the vast cavern, and Aleck felt a strange sensation of relief even at this, for thoughts would keep crowding into his brain about what would be the consequence if a greater tide than usual flooded the place, a thought so horrible that the perspiration stood out upon his forehead, though it might have been caused by the exertion of stepping over the rugged floor and the heat of the place.

“Isn’t he very quiet?” whispered Aleck.

“Yes, but he’s watching us,” said the man, in a hoarse whisper, while Aleck looked in vain for a likely place to be the young officer’s prison, “over yonder” being a very vague indication.

Just then the smuggler began to step up a steep slope of moderate-sized rocks piled one upon the other, to stop short about ten feet above where his companion was standing.

He held the lanthorn down low for the lad to see, and as Aleck stood beside him he raised the light as high as he could, so that the dim rays fell upon the angry staring eyes of the young officer, who lay upon a thick cushion composed of many folds of sail-cloth, the bolt ropes and reef points in which showed plainly that it had been in use possibly in connection with some unfortunate vessel wrecked upon the rocks of the iron-bound coast.

The face was familiar enough to Aleck as the midshipman hitched himself up a little higher upon the elbow which supported him, and his new visitor saw that the fierce eyes were not directed at him, but at the smuggler who bore the lanthorn.

“Then you’ve come at last?” he said, fiercely. “Now, then, no more of this tomfool acting; unlock this iron and take me out into the fresh air, or as sure as you stand there, you great, black-muzzled, piratical-looking scoundrel, I’ll say such things about you to the captain that he’ll hang you to the yard-arm, and serve you right.”

“What!” growled the smuggler. “Not got tame yet?”

“Tame, you miserable ruffian! How dare you speak to an officer in His Majesty’s Navy like that? There never was such an outrage before. Unfasten these irons, I say, and take me out!”

“Why, skipper,” said the smuggler, mockingly, “your temper gets worse and worse.”

“My temper, you dog!” cried the midshipman, furiously. “How dare you treat me like this?”

“And how dare you come with your gang, knocking honest men on the head and dragging them off to sea?” retorted Eben. “You’d think nothing of putting them in irons because they wouldn’t take to the sea. How do you like it, my young springold?”

“I’m not going to argue with you, you ruffian, about that,” cried the midshipman. “Now, look here, that woman who brought me the wretched food said she dare not and could not unlock that iron I’ve got round my ankle, but that when her husband came I was to ask him. Now, then, you’re the husband, aren’t you?”

“Oh, yes, I’m the husband, safe enough,” growled the smuggler.

“Then I order you in the King’s name to take these irons off.”

“You wait a bit, captain,” said the smuggler; “all in good time. Here, take it coolly for a bit longer; I’ve brought you some company.”

“Ah, who’s that with you? I thought I saw someone and heard whispering.”

The smuggler held the lanthorn lower and opened the door, so that the candle light shone full on Aleck’s face.

“You?” cried the midshipman, excitedly. “Then I was right; I thought you were one of the smuggling gang.”

“Then you thought wrong,” said Aleck, shortly.

“What do you want here?” cried the prisoner, wildly, for the fit of rage and command into which he had forced himself was fast dying down into misery and despair.

“I’ve come to help you, middy,” cried Aleck, warmly, and he sank upon one knee and caught the poor fellow’s hand.

“To—to—to help me?” he gasped.

“Yes, and to have you out into the daylight again. You, Eben Megg, take off the chain directly!” cried Aleck. “How dare you chain an officer and a gentleman as if he were a thief or a dog?”

“Oh!” cried the prisoner, and the ejaculation sounded wildly hysterical and passionate as that of a girl. “Oh—oh! Don’t—don’t speak to me—don’t! Oh, you—I can’t bear it! I’m not a coward, but I’ve been shut up down here in the horrible darkness of this place till I’ve been half mad at times, and—and I’m half mad now. It’s the loneliness—the being alone down here night and day.”

“Of course it is,” cried Aleck, feeling half choked as he spoke; and holding the lad’s hand tightly between his own, he kept pressing it hard, and ended by shaking it more and more warmly as he spoke. “Of course, of course it is. It would have driven me quite mad; but you shan’t feel the loneliness again, for I’ll stop with you till you’re out, happen what may.”

“Hah! Thank you, thank you!” whispered the prisoner. “I couldn’t help breaking down. I did try so very hard. I didn’t think that I should behave like a girl.”

“Hush!” whispered Aleck, who had interposed between the prisoner and the gaoler with his lanthorn. “Hold up; don’t let him see. There, it’s going to be all right now. There’s a boat’s crew and an officer from the cutter somewhere above on the cliff, trying to find you.”

“What!” cried the midshipman, holding on to Aleck now with both hands. “Is that true, or are you saying it to keep up my spirits?”

“It’s as true as true,” cried Aleck.

“Then I’ll hail again. Oh, how I have hailed! Do you think they could hear me now the water’s up?”

“Perhaps,” said Aleck. “I heard you, and I’ve been hunting for long enough to find the way down.”

“What!” cried the middy, who was beginning to master the emotion from which he had suffered. “Then you didn’t know the way?”

“No, not till just now.”

“But you knew of this horrible cave?”

“No; though it isn’t above a mile from where I live.”

“I—I thought you were mixed up with these smugglers, and—and—I beg your pardon.”

“There’s nothing to beg pardon about,” said Aleck, cheerfully. “There, I’m going to have you out of this. Now, then, Eben, bring the light closer. Where did these fetters come from?”

“Out of a King’s ship as was wrecked off Black Point, Master Aleck. We got dozens out of the sands. They’re what they use when they put men in irons.”

“Nonsense.”

“I tell you they are, sir. You ask Tom Bodger if they arn’t.”

“Yes, they’re the regular irons,” said the midshipman, huskily; and Aleck, who still held his hand, felt that he was all of a tremble.

“So, you see, Master Aleck, it’s on’y fair. Tit for tat, you know.”

“That will do, sir,” cried the lad, sharply. “Don’t be a coward as well as cruel to this gentleman. Now, then, set down the lanthorn on one of the stones and unlock this fetter, or whatever it is.”

“Can’t, sir,” said the man, gruffly.

“What! I order you to do it.”

“Yes, sir, I hear you, but the chain’s locked round his ankle.”

“Well, I know that. Unlock it.”

“Well, I would, sir, as it’s come to this, but I arn’t got the key.”

“What!” cried Aleck, with a chill of despair running through him. “Where is it, then?”

“My missus or one of the other women’s got it.”

“But you said there were a lot of these irons; there must be more than one key.”

“I never saw but one, sir, and that we had up at home. It was my old woman’s idee to chain him up like this. You see, it’s three or four of them irons locked together, and one end’s about his ankle and the other’s locked to the ring there that we let into the rock and fixed with melted lead so as to fix tackle to when we wanted to haul in casks or moor a boat.”

“Then you must go and find your wife, and get it,” said Aleck, firmly.

“Go up on the cliff, young gentleman, and walk right into the hands of the boat’s crew hunting for me, eh?”

“I don’t care; I will have this gentleman set free. You may not meet any of the sailors,” cried Aleck, and almost at every word of his brave standing up for the prisoner he felt himself rewarded by a warm pressure of the hand.

“That’s all right enough, Master Aleck Donne, but you know what I’ve told you ’bout being made prisoner and having to nearly lose my life in swimming for my liberty?”

“Yes, perfectly well; but I must have him cast free, even if he has to wait a bit before he goes out of the cave.”

“But you heard, too, what he said, sir, and I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if, when they caught me, they did hang me to the yard-arm of one of their ships.”

“Yes, yes, I know,” said Aleck; “but—”

“But you arn’t reasonable, Master Aleck. My life’s as much to me as another man’s is to him, whether he’s a poor fellow or a gentleman. Now, look here, you know yourself it arn’t safe for me to go out of the cave now, is it?”

“Well, I’m afraid it is not just yet, Eben; but—”

“Wait a minute, Master Aleck. Give a man a chance. Look here; as soon as it’s dark I’ll go up on to the cliff and try and get to my cottage, and as soon as I can get the key I’ll come back and let your orficer here go loose if he’ll swear as he won’t show his people the way down here.”

“No,” cried the midshipman, firmly; “I can’t promise that.”

“Not to get free, squire?” said Eben, grimly.

“N–no, I can’t do that. It’s my duty to help clear out this place. I can’t; don’t ask me. I can’t promise that.”

“Look here,” said Aleck, smiling; “could you lead a party down here?”

The midshipman started, and was silent.

“How did you come down here?”

“Come down? I didn’t come down. I was half stunned, and then thrown into a boat. I can just recollect feeling myself dragged out again, and then I lay sick and giddy, just as if I was in a horrible dream, till I awoke in the darkness to find that I was chained up here.”

“Then he could not lead a party here, Eben,” said Aleck; “and you could get him out of here so that he would never know how he was taken out.”

“Ah!” said the middy, sharply. “Then you two didn’t come in a boat?”

“Never you mind how we came or how we didn’t, my lad,” said the smuggler, “we’re here; and as the game’s up, Master Aleck, and all I want to do is to keep out of the clutches of the press-gang and the law, I’ll do as I said, go up by and by and try to get the key, and if I can’t get the key I’ll bring down a file.”

“That will do, Eben—I’ll trust you; and as you’re going to do your best now I don’t think Mr—Mr—”

“Wrighton,” said the middy.

“Mr Wrighton will want to be hard on a man who wants to escape from being pressed. How long will it be before it’s safe to go up?”

“I daren’t go till it’s midnight, my lad. I’ve been run too close before, and as it is I’m not sure but what they’ll be waiting for me about my home; but anyhow I’ll try.”

“And I must wait till then?” said the middy, with a break in his voice.

“Yes,” said Aleck; “but I shall keep my word—I’ll stick by you till you’re free.”

“Ah!” ejaculated the lad, and his voice sounded more natural, as he added, in a low tone to Aleck: “Don’t think me a coward, please. You don’t know what it is to be shut up in a place like this.”

“No,” said Aleck; “but if I were I should feel and act just as you have, and I hope be quite as brave.”

A pressure of the hand conveyed the midshipman’s thanks, and directly after the two lads awoke to the fact that the smuggler was doing something which could mean nothing else but the providing of something to eat and drink.

For upon raising the lanthorn to look around, he came upon a basket, and beside it a good-sized bottle, both of which he examined.

“Why, skipper,” he said, “you haven’t eat your dinner!”

“How could I eat at a time like this?” said the midshipman, angrily.

“Well, I s’pose it didn’t give you much hankering arter eating tackle,” said the smuggler, grimly. “I took nowt but water when I was aboard your ship; but you ought to eat and drink now you ye got to the end of your troubles, thanks to Master Aleck here. Why, you’ve got two lots. What’s in the bottles?”

The speaker screwed out the corks of two bottles, one after the other, and smelt the contents.

“Ha! Water. Want anything stronger?” he said, with a grin. “Plenty o’ Right Nantes yonder,” he added, with a jerk of his thumb over the right shoulder.

“No, no, I don’t want anything,” said the midshipman, impatiently.

“Well, sir, I do,” said Eben. “I’m down faint, and if you don’t mind—what do you say, Master Aleck?”

“I never thought of it,” replied Aleck; “but now you talk about eating and drinking you make me feel ready. Let’s have something, Mr Wrighton; it will help to pass away the time.”

The result was that the contents of the basket were spread between them, and from forcing down a mouthful or two of food the prisoner’s appetite began to return, and a good meal was made, Aleck and the smuggler naturally playing the most vigorous part.

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