With but a faint idea of how far he was going from the mouth of the cavern, he pursued the winding passage for what seemed a long time to him, when, suddenly, after turning an abrupt angle, a light flashed in the space ahead.
This caused him to stop with surprise, and he was about to shout for joy, feeling that he had at last found his way to daylight, when his outburst was checked by the sound of a human voice!
Naturally of a cautious disposition, he carefully suppressed all sound, until he should know whom he was to meet in that most unlikely place.
He soon realized that it was not daylight which had sent such a ray of hope to his heart, but the flickering glare of a torch stuck in one of the crevices of the cavern's rocky walls.
The first voice was quickly followed by another, and unable to see the speakers, he crept forward as silently as possible on his hands and knees, until he found himself at the end of the passage, and where it opened out into a large underground room—larger than he could see by the feeble light of the resinous pine knot.
Near the flickering torch, sitting squat upon the rocky floor, he was amazed to behold four men, evidently holding an earnest conversation.
Ordinarily, the postboy would have made his presence known at once, but the words already being spoken by one of the quartet were of such a nature that he checked the salutation upon his lips and listened, with bated breath, to the following dialogue:
"The first person to get out of the way is that postboy."
The speaker was a man above medium height, judging as he sat upon the bottom of the cavern, and he spoke in a deep, guttural tone.
He had small, snakish eyes, and the most prominent feature of his round face was a heavy, reddish mustache. He had the appearance of being a military person.