"Now follow me, and mind you, keep close to the wall," whispered the man who carried the lantern, "and don't ye make any noise."
Jack began to fear that he had fallen into evil hands, but there was nothing for him to do but to obey and follow where they led.
The light was turned off, and they crept along in the darkness, Jack keeping one hand against the wall for some distance, when the man who led whispered, "Now, ye wait here a minute." Jack stopped, and in a minute heard the man give four raps on what sounded like a door. Almost instantly he heard a bolt shot back, and the next instant a door was flung open, letting out a flood of light. By its rays he could see that they were in a narrow passageway between two stone abutments.
"What ye got there, Jake?" asked a woman's voice.
"Dunno," was the somewhat surly reply. "Some kid we pulled out the harbor. Was about all in when we fished him out."
"Well, seems to me yer taking a mighty big risk fetching him in here," said the woman somewhat sharply.
"Now don't ye go to butting in, old woman," snapped the man. "I guess me and Pete knows what we're about."
They had entered the room, and Jack tumbled into a chair, too tired to stand up. He looked about him and saw that he was in a small room with a low ceiling and dirty with what seemed the accumulation of years. The woman who had admitted them might have been anywhere between thirty and sixty years old, but so dirty and slack looking was she, that it was impossible to guess her age any nearer. He now got a good look, for the first time, at the men who had saved him, and saw that their appearance was wholly in keeping with their surroundings. The older of the two might have been sixty, while the younger was ten or fifteen years his junior. Both had hard rough faces, and his heart sank as he realized how completely he was in their power.
"Well, boy, have ye got yer wind back yet?" asked the older man.
"I guess so," replied Jack, "but I still feel pretty weak.