The cry was answered, and in a few minutes Aleck was able to detect the fact from the dying-away of the voices that the search party were growing more distant, so that the next mournful “Ahoy!” fell upon his ears alone, sounding so despairing that the desire to go in search of the appealer for help was stronger than he could restrain.
Glancing back and upward then at the spot where Eben had disappeared, he went cautiously forward for a few yards, to find to his astonishment that from being fairly broad the rugged shelf along which he was proceeding rapidly narrowed till progress grew risky, while at the end of another dozen feet or so it ceased, and he came to a dead stand, looking in vain for a way forward and a sight of some crack or passage along which he could descend towards the sea.
Then he listened for a repetition of the call for help as a guide to his next proceedings; but all was still save the querulous cry of a gull.
“I can’t understand it a bit,” he said, looking about him in a more perplexed way than ever. “Eben Megg spoke as if he knew about someone being in trouble; yes, and that if he did not return I was to go to his wife. Why, what nonsense it seems! How could he who has been away for days know anything about—about—oh! Was there ever such a dense, wooden-headed idiot as I am!” he raged out. “Why, of course! I can see now as clear as clear. It’s that young middy—what’s his name?—calling for help. They must have trapped him during the struggle, and there is a regular smugglers’ cave somewhere, after all. The poor fellow must be shut up in it; and that explains why Eben looked so furiously at me when he found me here. He thought I had discovered the secret hiding-place that he was making for. Oh, my word, how plain and easy it all is when you know how! Yes, that’s it,” he said aloud, excitedly, “and the cutter’s people are gone, so I’m not going to hold myself bound by anything I have said to Eben. That poor fellow must have been left to starve in some dark hole, and—no, he hasn’t. ‘Go to my wife,’ he said. Of course! Because she knew where the prisoner was hid, and—to be sure, she wasn’t going to watch for Eben, as I thought, but to take the prisoner something to eat and drink. Talk about wiping the dust out of one’s eyes! I’ve got mine clear now, and that poor fellow has to be found, while, what is more, he must be somewhere down below where I stand.”
Aleck’s brow ran into lines and puckers as he stood looking about him for a few minutes before hurrying back to the perpendicular crevice he had discovered, and upon reaching it there was the hissing rush of the pebbles and a suggestion of a slapping sound as if water had struck against the rock, but evidently far, far down, while the damp seaweedy odour came cooler and fresher than ever to his nostrils.
“I could get down here,” he muttered, “if I were no bigger than a rabbit; but of course this isn’t the way. There must be just such a place as this, only many times as big, and I’ve got to find it.”
“Ahoy!” came faintly the next minute, but not up the cavity, and the lad stood puzzled and wondering for a few moments longer, before placing his face as far in as he could, and, breathing in the soft, salt, moist air, he shouted back down the hole, “Ahoy!” as loudly as he could.
Then he stood listening, for “Ahoy!” came from quite a different direction, and then there was a reply from somewhere else, closely followed by a shrill whistle.
“That’s not from the prisoner,” said Aleck, growing more excited. “The sailors are coming back. Are they coming here, after all? Well, I’m sorry for Eben, but that poor fellow must be rescued, and I shall have to—”
Aleck did not say what, but hurried along the shelf again, startled by the sound of falling stones, and the next minute he caught sight of the smuggler’s descending feet, and then the fierce-looking fellow dropped lightly before him and caught him by the arm.