“Yes; I never knew there was a way down here.”
“Been often, I s’pose?”
“Been often? Why, I’d just got here when I heard you coming.”
“Ahoy!” came faintly from somewhere in front. “There it is again, Eben,” cried Aleck, forgetting everything else now in the excitement of his discovery. “You heard it?”
“Yes, I heard it,” said the man, grimly.
“I heard it yesterday too,” continued Aleck. “Some poor fellow has fallen down the cliff somewhere about here, and I was trying to get down to him.”
The man looked at him curiously and as if he was trying to read him through and through.
“What for?” he said, hoarsely.
“What for? Don’t I tell you I’ve heard him before, crying for help? He must have broken an arm or a leg, or he would have climbed back.”
“If he could,” said the smuggler, grimly. “Here, hold hard a minute. Don’t you stir, on yer life.”