“With an opening to the sea?” said Aleck, eagerly, for his curiosity was beginning to overcome the tension caused by the shock his nerves had suffered.
The smuggler laughed.
“Well, you’re asking a good deal, youngster,” he said, “but it’s of no use for me to play at hide-and-seek with you now. Yes; there’s a way open to the sea just for ’bout an hour at some tides. Then it’s shut up again by the water, and that’s what makes it so safe.”
Half a dozen more questions were bubbling up towards his lips, but the smuggler made a movement and Aleck felt that the best way to satisfy his curiosity would be to remain silent and use his eyes as much as he could.
He was gazing sharply round, to see nothing that suggested a way down to the sea but the great gully beneath his feet, when he became aware of the fact that Eben was watching him quietly with a dry, amused look in his eyes.
“Well,” he said, “can you find it now?” Aleck shook his head.
“Come along, then.”
The smuggler took a few steps along beside the great wall on their right, and Aleck followed closely, till his companion stopped short and faced him.
“Well,” he said, “see it now?”
“No,” said Aleck.