He looked round once or twice and then hurried towards the sand-hills. Brinkley followed stealthily. The moon now went in, and it became pitch dark. Presently Jones paused, set down his load, and lit the lantern; then he hurried on.
For fifty or sixty yards a coarse carpet of green sward covered the cliffs; then the sandhills began. Passing over the first sand-hill, Jones disappeared. Quick as thought the young man followed, and, peering over, saw the light in the hollow beneath; it rose higher and higher till it reached the top of the next sand-hill, where it paused. Crawling on hands and knees Brinkley slipped down into the hollow, and then crept upward; halfway up the mound he found a huge rock, behind which he crouched and peeped.
As he did so, William Jones, light in hand, seemed to dive down into the solid earth and disappear.
For a minute after the disappearance, Charles Brinkley lay as if petrified; and, indeed, he was altogether lost in wonder. What had happened? Had an earthquake swallowed the mysterious one, or had he tumbled down in a fit? Brinkley waited and watched, five minutes had passed, ten minutes, and still the light did not re-emerge. At last, overcome by his curiosity, Brinkley rose, and, stooping close to the ground, crept from the rock behind which he had lain concealed, and crawled across the summit of the sand-hill. Suddenly he stopped short, and went down on hands and knees, for he now clearly discerned, coming out of the solid earth or sand, the glimmer of the light.
It glimmered, then disappeared again. Just then the moon came out of her cloud, illuminating the hillocks with vitreous rays; and he perceived close by him a dark hole opening into the very heart of the hillock.
He crept closer and looked down, but could see nothing. He held his head over the hole and listened; all he heard was a dull, hollow moaning, like the sound of the sea. The light of the moon, however, enabled him to perceive that the hole had been covered with a loose piece of wood, or lid, about four feet square, and with an iron ringbolt in the centre, which lid was now lying by the side of the opening, ready to be replaced. A number of large pieces of stone, such as were strewn everywhere about the sand-hills, lay piled close by.
He lay for some time waiting and listening. All at once, far behind him, the light glimmered again. Quick as thought he rose and crept away, only just in time; for he had no sooner regained the shelter of the rock, and crouched there watching, than he saw the light re-emerge, accompanied by a human head; a human body followed, and then he clearly discerned William Jones-standing in the moonlight without the burthen he had previously carried, and holding in his hand a lantern.
Setting the lantern down, William busied himself for several minutes, and finally, having concluded the work on which he was engaged, extinguished the light. Then, after glancing suspiciously round him on every side, he walked rapidly down the sand-hill, and disappeared in the direction of the sea.
Not until he distinctly heard the splash of oars, and saw the black silhouette of the boat pass out from the shadow of the rock on to the moonlit sea, did Brinkley again begin to stir; and even then he did so very cautiously, lest his figure should be perceived against the moonlight by the lynx-eyed rower.
Creeping on hands and knees, he again crawled to the mysterious spot, and found, as he had indeed anticipated, that the hole was covered up, and the wooden lid or trapdoor so carefully covered with stones and loose sand as to be completely hidden.