'Where are we going?' said the man, stopping; and Ada Conway stopped.
'I sha'n't know until I see the light in the passage where I met you.'
'The mischief is,' cried the man, 'that we may be walking yoked round and round endlessly, without ever coming to either light. Good God, what a horrible issue to this adventure! Nobody ever visits this place, I suppose?'
'Only you,' said she; 'and it's my business to save you.'
'How sorry I am that you should be here I can't say, yet it is natural to want to get out.'
'But it seems so mad to come into this smuggler's hole with a dream of booty, with no further provision than a candle; and it is wonderful that you should not know by that same light that you had been entombed, and spent a whole night underground!'
'Time flies and time loiters under wild conditions. I can tell you that, for I'm a sailor.'
'Are you?' she ejaculated. 'What rating?'
'I lately commanded a merchantman. I have lain awake all night sick in hospital, and have heard the quarters and halves strike with the rapidity of chimes. I could not have sworn that three hours have passed. I shall look the time, I suspect, when I get out. I am beginning to feel a bit weary of this blackness, and long for that one round of light that offered me a leap as an escape.'
As he spoke these words they made a step, and lo! on their left, at the extremity of the passage, glowed, within fifty feet, the cheery star of day.