“Yes; he’s sure to, unless some of the cutter’s men catch him and carry him off.”
“Ah! and you think, then, that he wouldn’t speak, out of spite, and leave us here to starve?” cried the middy, excitedly.
“No, I don’t,” said Aleck; “I don’t think anything of the sort. Don’t you be ready to take fright.”
“I’ve been shut up in this place so long,” said the middy, apologetically, “and it has made me as weak and nervous as a girl.”
“Well, try not to be,” said Aleck. “Look here; there’s nothing like seeing the worst of things and treating them in a common-sense way. Now, suppose such a thing did happen as that Eben Megg did not come back—what then?”
“We should be starved to death.”
“No, we shouldn’t, for I daresay there’s a good store here of biscuits and corned beef out of some ship, as well as smuggled goods, that we could eat.”
“Till all was finished,” said the middy, sadly.
“What of that? We could get out, couldn’t we? I know the way.”
“Oh, yes. I had forgotten that. But was there any door to the way down—trap-door?”