All at once, as I was crawling more freely, my companion whispered—
“You ought to be close to where I turned myself round, sir. Aren’t there more room?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Then that’s it, sir. Eh?”
“I didn’t speak.”
“But some one did, sir. It arn’t them in the forksle, is it?”
We listened, and there was whispered, close to us apparently—
“How are you getting on?”
“It’s them behind, sir. I’ll lay down flat as I can, and you whisper back as we’re all right. Sound travels easy.”
I found that I could readily turn, and I did as he proposed that I should, hearing my voice sound so smothered that it startled me again. But the tapping was resumed; and answering it again, I turned and went on once more in silence till all at once my way was stopped by a crate which touched the beams overhead.