For an instant he remained motionless. Then his surrender to his terror was complete. He leaped as though released by a spring, cast the rope from him, covered his face with his hands, and backed away from the figure. He backed into the big cave, toward the pit.
In another second they were gone—all three of them. Gone before Martin could utter his cry of warning—or recognition. Gone before the stranger could move.
For, when the sailor cast away the rope, the strain on the tackle was released, and the freed hauling line whipped snakelike through the air as it rushed through the sheaves. The two men on the ledge fell backward, as their lifeline collapsed; the blocks, with no weight to hold them taut dropped from the rock; and the two poor wretches sliding down the incline towards the pit dragged the tackle after them. The tail block, swishing over the smooth surface, twined about the feet of the backward-stumbling first man, and jerked him from his feet. With the swiftly waning light revealing a writhing jumble of outflung arms and legs, ropes and blocks, the three men slipped over the chasm edge.
The quake rumble had ceased. Above the simmering moan of the steam, Martin heard the death wail of the trio, a wild, hideous shriek that grew fainter and fainter, farther and farther away, and finally merged completely with the other sound.
The greenish glow subsided into the depths from which it had sprung. The black gloom swept down over the caves, covering all save the narrow circles about the lanterns. And Martin squatted, sick and shaken, by one lantern, and stared beyond the ledge at the other lantern. By it stood Little Billy.
CHAPTER XX
TREASURE CAVE
"Is it little Billy?" thought Martin. "No, it can't be. Little Billy is on board, planning the uprising, directing Yip and Bosun." The guess he had made, born of hope and Ruth's hurried whisper, that Little Billy was at large on the ship, combated the evidence of his sight. He could not believe it was Little Billy.
But then the voice came across from the other entrance. It was unmistakably Billy's voice.