"Then I say hooray! hooray! But can"t you swim out?"
"No. We"ve tried."
"Ho!" came back. "Wait a bit."
"What for? Can"t you get help for us, Tom?"
"Ay, ay, my lad," came back. "But jest you wait."
Then there was silence, and the prisoners joined hands, to kneel, waiting and listening.
"He has gone for help," said the middy.
"Yes, and before he gets back that little hole that let his words in will be shut up again."
"Never mind," said the middy, sagely; "he knows we"re here."
"Oh, but why didn"t I think to tell him of the zigzag path? I daresay they could get the stones out from above where they were pushed in."
"Perhaps he hasn"t gone," said the middy. "Ahoy there!"
There was a peculiar sound as of the water rising up and gurgling along a channel, while a lapping sound at their feet told that the water inside was being put in motion.
"Why, he has dived down," cried Aleck, suddenly, "so as to try and get to us."
"Tchah! Nonsense. That squat little wooden-legged man couldn"t swim."
But at the end of what seemed to be a long period they heard a louder splash, followed by another, and the illuminated water began to dance and a curious ebullition to be faintly seen.
Then there was a panting sigh, and a familiar voice cried:
"Where"bouts are yer?"
"Here, here!" cried the lads, in a breath, and the next minute they were conscious of something swimming towards them, which took shape more and more till they saw that it was a man swimming on his back.
"What cheer-ho!" came now, in the midst of a lot of splashing. "Lend us a hand, my lads, for I"m all at sea here. Thanky! Steady! Let"s get soundings for my legs. Mind bringing that lanthorn a bit forrarder?
That"s right; now I can see where I go."
Tom Bodger had managed to find a hold for his stumps, and stood shaking himself as well as he could for the fact that he had a lad holding tightly on to each hand.
"Well, yer don"t feel like ghostses, my lads!" cried the sailor. "This here"s solid flesh and bone, and it"s rayther disappynting like."
"Disappointing, Tom?"
"Yes, Master Aleck. Yer see, your uncle says: "You find the poor lad"s remains, Bodger,"--remains, that"s what he called it--"and I"ll give yer a ten-pound Bank o" Hengland note," he says."
"Oh!" cried Aleck, pa.s.sionately.
"And the orficer there from the Revenoo cutter, he says: "You find the body o" young Mr Wrighton of the man-o"-war sloop, and there"ll be the same reward for that.""
"Humph! I should have thought I was worth more than that," said the midshipman.
"Ay, ay, sir!" cried Tom Bodger, who was squeezing his shirt and breeches as he talked. "So says I, sir; but it"s disappynting, for I arn"t found no corpses, on"y you young gents all as live-ho as fish; and what"s to come o" my rewards?"
"Oh, bother the rewards, Tom! How did you get in?"
"Dove, sir, and swimmed on my back with my flippers going like one o"
the seals I"ve seen come in here."
"But we tried to do that, both of us, and we couldn"t do it."
"Dessay not, sir. Didn"t try on the right tide."
"Nearly got drowned, both of us, my lad," said the midshipman. "But don"t let"s lose time. You show the way, and we"ll follow you."
"No hurry, sir; plenty o" time. Be easier bimeby. Tide"s got another hour o" ebb yet. But how in the name o" oak.u.m did you two gents manage to get in here? I knowed there was a hole here where the seals dove in, and I did mean to come sploring like at some time or other; but it"s on"y once in a way as you can row in."
Aleck told him in a few words, and the man whistled.
"Well, I"ll be blessed!" he said. "I allus knowed that Eben Megg and his mates must have a store hole somewhere, and p"raps if I"d ha" lay out to sarch for it I might ha" found it out. But I didn"t want to go spying about and get a crack o" the head for my pains. The Revenoo lads"ll find out for theirselves some day; and so you young gents have been the first?"
"Stop a minute," said Aleck. "What about Eben Megg?"
"Oh, they cotched him days ago, sir--cutter"s men dropped upon him while they was hunting for this young gent"s corpus, and he"s aboard your ship, sir, I expect, along with the other pressed men."
"But haven"t they been looking for me any more?" said the middy.
"No, sir; they give it up arter they"d caught Eben; and, as I telled yer, there was a reward offered for to find yer dead as they couldn"t find yer living."
"So that"s why Eben didn"t come back, sailor," said Aleck, quietly.
"Yes," said the middy, "but why didn"t he tell the cutter"s officer that we were shut up here?"
"Too bitter about his capture, perhaps, or he might not have had a chance to speak while he was ash.o.r.e."
"I don"t believe it was that," said the middy. "I believe he wouldn"t tell where their storehouse was."
"And so this here"s the smugglers" cave, is it?" said Tom Bodger, looking about. "But where"s t"other way out, sir?"
Aleck explained that the smuggler had closed the way up.
"Well, sir, it"s a wery artful sort o" place, I will say that. Lot o"
good things stored up here, I s"pose?"
"Plenty."
"Hah! Is there now? Well, it means some prize money, Mr Wrighton, sir, and enough to get a big share."
"And I deserve it, my man," said the middy, with something of his old consequential way; "but let"s get out into the daylight. I"m afraid-- I"m--that is, I shouldn"t like to be shut in again."