“That you, you scoundrel?” came in a strange echoing voice from a distance.
“Ay, ay, this is me,” replied the smuggler. “I’ll be there soon.”
There was silence, for, though eager to speak to the prisoner, Aleck concluded that he had better wait, and not commence his first meeting with the prisoner in the character of one of his enemies.
The next minute there was the rattle of iron or tin, and then a short, sharp, nicking sound began, accompanied by a display of flowery little sparks. At the end of a minute the frowning face of the smuggler was lit up as he blew softly at the tinder, into which a spark had fallen and caught; the light increased, and as a brimstone match was applied to the incandescent tinder, the brimstone melted, bubbled, and began to turn blue. Then the splint of wood beneath began to burn, and at last emitted a blaze, which was communicated to the wick of the candle. This, too, began to burn, and then the door of the lanthorn was closed.
“There we are,” said the smuggler. “Now let’s go and see our bird.”
Aleck made no reply, for his eyes were wandering over all that the feeble light of the dim horn lanthorn threw up; and very little though this was at a time, it was enough to fill the lad with wonder. For as far as he could make out, they were in a vast cavern, whose floor about where they stood supported stacks of kegs and piles of boxes and bales. There was also a tremendous collection of wood, the most part being evidently the gatherings of wrecks, and in addition there were the fittings of vessel after vessel, so various in fact that Aleck hurriedly turned away his eyes, to gaze with something like a shiver at the reflection of the lanthorn in a far-stretching mirror of intense blackness which lay smooth and undisturbed, save in one part away to his left, where it was blurred and dimmed, rising and falling as if moved by some undercurrent.
“Water,” he said, at last, as the smuggler raised up his lanthorn and smiled.
“Yes, and plenty of it.”
“But where’s the mouth of the cave?”
“Over yonder,” said the man, pointing towards where the surface was in motion.