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."