The captain's ominous words prepared Don for an unpleasant surprise; yet, when he had scaled the pile of masonry, an involuntary cry of alarm broke from him.
“Good heavens, captain, we're surrounded by fire!”
“Right, lad! an' the confleegration's gettin' uncommon clost under our weather bow; says you. An hour back, d'ye see, I sights the first on 'em alongside o' the path below, an' fires the gun to signal ye to put about. An' then, flush, my scuppers! what does I see but a hull sarcle o' confleegrations, as it may be a cable's len'th apart, clean round the hill; lad! an' so I fires the second wolley.”
“This is the work of those cowardly niggers!” said Don, clenching his fists. “They daren't come here to fight us, so they mean to scorch us out!”
“The wery identical words as I says to myself when first I sights the fires, lad,” rejoined the captain; “an' a purty lot o' tobackie it cost me afore I overhauled the idee, says you.”
“It's likely to cost us more than a few pipes of tobacco, I'm afraid, captain,” said Don uneasily, leaping down from his post of observation. “The fire's close upon us, and once this grass catches, why, good-bye to the stores! I say, where's Spottie?”
“Belay there!” chuckled the captain, who, somehow, seemed remarkably cheerful, considering the gravity of the situation. “Whereaway's the nigger, you axes? Why, d'ye mind me, lad, this 'ere old hulk ain't been a-lyin' on her beam-ends all this time, not by a long chalk. The nigger's with the stores, d'ye see; an' stow my cargo, where should the stores be but safe and snug under hatches?”
With that he seized his perplexed companion by the arm, skirted the dilapidated wall, and presently halted on the very brink of a black chasm that yawned to the stars close under its rear. Little else was to be seen, for the wall cut off the light of both the fire and the moon. From the depths of the cavity proceeded a sound suspiciously like snoring. The captain indulged in another chuckle, and then, shaping his hands into a sort of speaking-trumpet, he bent over the hole and shouted loudly for Spottie. The snoring suddenly ceased, and in half a minute or so up the black tumbled, rubbing his eyes. The captain bade him fetch the lantern, adding strict injunctions that he should replenish the store of oil before lighting it.
“And now, lad, let's go below,” said he, when Spottie had fulfilled his mission.
So down they went, the captain leading. First came a dozen or more moss-grown steps, littered with blocks of stone, which, ages before, perhaps, had fallen and found a resting-place here. At the foot of the steps there opened out a subterranean passage, of height sufficient to admit of Don's standing erect in it with ease. Upon the floor lay the stores; beyond these again all was blank darkness. To all appearance the passage extended far into the bowels of the hill.