He heard the footsteps drawing nearer, and, peeping through a chink between two barrels, saw, not one, but the whole twenty-two carriers file into the chamber, which they nearly filled. He suspected that they had deposited their burdens at the foot of St. Cuby's Well, whence, in all probability, these were being hoisted to the surface by means of the windlass, which he remembered having seen near the door when he first approached it from the seal cave.
The man at the windlass had raised only a few barrels during their absence, and these having been slung on the shoulders of the men who had first entered, they returned to the entrance of the tunnel, waiting for their comrades in turn to receive their loads.
"Bean't this lot to go, Maister?" said one of the latter, jerking his head towards the stack behind which Dick was concealed. Dick shivered, and prepared to dash forth and force his way through the men grouped at the tunnel, in the hope that their surprise and alarm, and their being encumbered, would give him time at least to escape instant seizure. To his relief the man at the windlass replied sharply:
"No, they bean't. They be for the higher powers; let 'em alone. And you come and hoist; I be tired."
The voice was Doubledick's.
While the tubs were being hoisted, and the waiting men talked quietly among themselves, Dick had leisure to turn his thoughts towards the object at his feet. It could hardly be an animal; otherwise it would long since have betrayed him. He gently moved a foot towards it, and touched it. Again he detected a slight movement. Passing his stockinged toes over a few inches of the obstruction, Dick gave a start as he recognised by the touch a man's boot. It did not move when he pressed it: clearly it was attached to a leg, the leg to a body—and the conviction flashed upon him that, bound and gagged at his feet, lay the lost Joe Penwarden. To assure himself he bent down quickly, and felt his way upward to the face. His hand encountered the shade over the old man's sightless eye: it was Joe indeed.
Penwarden was lying on his back, and Dick very soon discovered that he was bound hand and foot to a plank, so tightly that only the slightest movement was possible. His mouth was heavily gagged, but there was no bandage over his single sound eye. Dick could not see him, and durst not speak even in the lowest whisper, so near was he to the smugglers. But if Penwarden was to be liberated he must be definitely assured in some way that a friend was at work who was himself in danger; otherwise, on being freed, he might make some sound or movement that would betray them both. Then it occurred to Dick that, while he was unable to see Penwarden's features, Penwarden had probably seen his, for the lanterns shed a faint illumination on the upper part of the space behind the barrels, to which his head almost reached. This suggested a means of giving the old man a warning. Raising himself to his full height he looked downwards and pressed his forefinger to his lips. The sign, if observed, would, he knew, be effectual.
Once more he stooped. He drew his knife from his pocket, opened it without clicking, and silently cut the rope binding the prisoner's feet. Then, working upward, always with the same slow care, he severed in turn the ropes that strapped his knees and elbows to the plank, those binding his wrists, and finally the gag over his mouth. This last probably gave the old man the most discomfort, and might have been removed first, but the use of his limbs was of more urgent importance just now than his voice.
By the time that this was done the last of the carriers had received his load, and the creaking or the windlass had ceased.
"That's all," said Doubledick. "Now get 'ee up-along to well, and lend a hand in the hoisting."