He drew a pistol from his coat pocket.
"Miss Betty told me to be sure not to shoot if I could 'elp it. But I would 'ave taken a crack at 'im, only I couldn't rightly see down below there, and I was afraid 'e'd tumble to me if 'e 'eard me like, so—"
"For God's sake, Watty, where did you come from?" burst from Hugh.
"From the drain, your ludship. I nearly broke my neck in the opening last night account of coming down the rope so sudden with the Professor, and when I told Miss Betty she said it was a gift from 'Eaven and we must come back, which we did, your ludship."
"Do you mean to say," asked Hugh, "that there's a passage down there and Miss Betty is outside?"
"Quite right, your ludship," said Watkins, rising and commencing to dust himself off. "It runs out into the big rocks on the beach. The Professor, 'e says, sir, it's a great discovery, it's a regular, sure-enough old Roman sewer. Miss Betty, she said it was nothing of the kind, it was a gift from 'Eaven."
"Well," I said, thrusting myself into the conversation, "this is no time for a debate. If you are going to get us out, Watty, you have got to move quickly. Toutou and his friends will be back any moment. One girl can't keep them away. I suspect they'd have been here by now, if she hadn't precipitated some kind of a row."
"Very good, sir, Mister Jack," answered Watkins, calmly producing a knife from his belt. "Such a necessity was duly foreseen, if I may say so."
He went to work methodically on my lashings.
"I trust you will take notice, your ludship, that all possible 'aste 'as been made. It was fair mucky below there, as you will see, gentlemen, and I barked my shins something cruel. Yes, sir, Mister Jack, I'm going as fast as I can without sticking you. What a terrible place! And Mister Nikka 'as the stomach ache."