“Every mother’s son of ’em has skedaddled,” he remarked hurriedly to us. “The entrance ain’t blocked, and the coast seems clear, so far as I can tell.”
We had now joined Ned.
“Here,” he said, shoving a sword and a pistol into each of our hands, and retaining a rifle himself, “stick to them weapons like grim death. Follow me, but don’t utter a word. This here earthquake may be the saving of us, and—”
My coxswain’s speech was drowned in the most extraordinary and terrifying noise I had ever heard—many degrees worse than the late subterranean thunders.
It was a loud but indescribable hissing and fizzing sound, mingled with the deafening reports of continuous explosions. It was as if all the fireworks and all the gunpowder in the world had been exploded at the same moment. The solid earth under us shook with convulsive tremors, but the oscillating movement had ceased.
Even these terrifying sounds did not disturb Ned’s equanimity. He did not attempt to speak again, knowing how useless it would be, but he beckoned us to follow him, and darted into the outer cave, where a weird gloom seemed to prevail, and where the atmosphere was charged with a strange, stifling, sulphureous smoke.
In spite of the semi-darkness, one glance showed us that the cave was deserted. Hope welled up in my heart. There really was a chance of escape! I grasped my weapons firmly, determined to sell my life dearly if necessary. It did not occur to me at the moment that it would be impossible to escape from the island without some means of crossing the sea.
It was providential indeed that the entrance to the cave had not been blocked by some huge boulder, for many of these fallen masses of rock had in reality come hurtling down from the cliffs above. Indeed, as afterwards came to our knowledge, two of the pirates were crushed and killed by them.
It was characteristic of my coxswain’s coolness at this crisis in our fortunes that, as we crossed the outer cavern, he saw my watch and chain lying upon the ground amongst some other valuables, calmly picked it up, and popped it into his pocket.
I have that watch still, and I never look at it without thinking of my devoted coxswain—one of the finest specimens of a British blue-jacket that I have ever known.