“No: I don’t want him to. I shall speak myself. I wouldn’t have my father see me sneak in behind yours in that cowardly way. Oh dear, I wish it was over!”
“Mules feeding well and all quiet, boys,” said the colonel; “and to all appearance there isn’t a soul near us for miles.—By the way, Manning, did you go into the cave?”
“No, sir. Did you tell me? Seemed too damp to use for sleeping.”
“No, I did not tell you; but get the lantern and let’s look inside. We don’t want to be disturbed by some animal coming out in the night.”
Manning took the battered lantern, and led the way to where the spring came gushing out of what at a distance looked like a long, narrow, sloping crack, but which proved to be, on closer acquaintance, large enough for a man to walk in upright by stepping from stone to stone, round about which the water came gurgling and bubbling out.
It was about a dozen yards from where their fire had been lit, amongst the stones fallen at different times from the heights above; and as they approached, a low musical rippling greeted their ear in a pleasant murmur, suggesting that the spring must come for some distance through a low, natural passage, whose stony walls caused the echoings of silvery splashings, which now grew louder and more strange.
“Yes, too damp-looking for a resting-place,” said the colonel; “and it does not look like the lair of any dangerous beast, but we may as well examine it, and we ought to have done so before. Why, boys, it would make quite a fortress if we had to defend ourselves. Plenty of water-supply, and ample room to drive in the mules.”
John Manning had gone inside at once, and as soon as he was a short distance from the narrow entrance, he struck a light and applied it to the candle within the lantern, holding it above his head, and then cautiously picking his steps along from stone to stone in the bed of the stream.
Whish, whirr, came a peculiar sound, and, as if moved by one impulse, the two boys rushed out, startled, to stand looking back, wondering why the colonel had not followed.
“What was that?” cried Cyril.