"I'll tell 'ee as zoon as we git away, Maaster Jasper. Well, as I was loppin' round I zeed a man, he looked oal maazed. He spoked to me, and I spoked to 'ee. Then we got a talkin' 'bout lots o' things. He seemed afraid to meet anybody, but axed scores ov questions. Oal he tould me about hisself was that he was an ould smuggler that used to land cargoes round 'ere. One day I seed a hankerchuff 'angin' from thickey winder, an' I knawed 'twas yours. I was wonderin' 'ow I cud git to 'ee, and I axed the man ef he knawed anything 'bout the 'ouse. After a bit he tould me that there was a sacret passage a-goin' from the cliff to the room where the winder was. Tha's 'ow 'twas. I'll tell 'ee more zoon. There he es, look."
I saw something dark moving on the water, and presently discerned a man in a boat.
Eli whistled again, and the whistle was answered.
"How did you get from the sea up here?" I asked.
"I climbed up, Maaster Jasper, but I can't go down that way."
The boat came nearer.
"Es et saafe to plunge?" shouted Eli.
"Yes," was the reply underneath.
"No rocks?"
"Dive as far out to sea as you can, and you'll go into twenty feet of water."