“Now, then,” he said, “you’ll do as I do. It’s nothing to what you did just now in jumping, for there’s no danger; only that looked better, for it was in the light. This is in the darkness. That was straight down; this is only a slope, and you’ll hear me slide. I’ll tell you when to come after me.”
“I understand,” said Aleck; and then suddenly, “What’s that?”
“What’s what, my lad?”
“It felt as if something soft had come right up in my face.”
“Wind,” said the smuggler.
“But it’s blowing the back of my head now, just as if something touched me,” said Aleck, in a husky voice.
“Yes, I know,” said the smuggler. “It’s just as if little soft snaky fingers were feeling about your head.”
“Yes, just like that,” said Aleck, in a husky whisper. “I don’t think it could be the wind.”
“Yes, it is. That’s right; only the wind, my lad. The cave’s sucking because the sea keeps on opening and shutting the mouth at this time of the tide, and one minute the air’s rushing in here and the next it’s rushing out. Now do you see?”
“Yes, I think so,” said Aleck.