This he pa.s.sed 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 e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, 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 pa.s.s 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 e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of relief.
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
There was another e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n 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 hoa.r.s.e 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 hoa.r.s.e 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 hoa.r.s.e 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, hoa.r.s.ely.