"Only a seal. Come on," said Vince; and he pressed forward, with the water getting deeper instead of more shallow, and a doubt rising in his mind as to whether they would be able to get in far enough to be safe.

"Hist! Quiet!" he whispered, for the sound of voices came to where they stood, and Vince felt that if sound was conveyed in one direction it certainly would be in the other.

"Mustn't say a word, or they'll hear us and be in and fetch us out in no time. Come on, or they'll see the reflection of the light."

"Can't," whispered back Mike faintly. "I've got my boot down a crack, wedged in."

Vince seized him sharply by the shoulder, and Mike nearly fell back into the water; but this acted like a lever, and the boot was wrenched free, just as another whistle was heard and its answer, both sounding strangely near.

Quite certain that if they did not get in farther the reflection from the lanthorn must be seen, Vince waded on, with the water rising from his knees to his thighs, and then, feeling terribly cold, nearly to his waist.

"We mustn't go any farther," said Mike in an excited whisper, "or we shall have to swim."

"Very well, then, we must swim," said Vince, holding the light well up above the water, and looking anxiously along the dark channel ahead, the roof not being two feet above their caps.

Deeper still--the water above their waists--but the cavern went nearly straight on, and Vince was about to open the door and blow out the light, when Mike caught his arm.

"Don't do that," he whispered: "it would be horrible here, with those beasts about. There, you can hear one swimming, and we don't know what else there may be."

"But they'll see the light."

"Well, let them," said Mike desperately. "I'd rather wade out."

"I'll risk it, then," said Vince; and then he drew a breath of relief, for at the end of a couple of yards the depression along which they had pa.s.sed was changing to a gradual rise of the cavern floor, and the water fell lower and lower, till it was considerably below their waists, and soon after shallow in the extreme.

They went on with mingled feelings, satisfied that they were getting where they would not be discovered, and also into shallow water, that promised soon to rise to dry land; but, on the other hand, they kept having hints that they were driving back living creatures, which made known their presence by wallowing splashes, that echoed strangely along the roof, and made the boys grasp club and cudgel with desperate energy.

To their great joy, now, on looking back they found that they could not see the daylight shining in from the mouth upon the water, and as, in consequence, any one gazing into the cave was not likely to see the dim rays of their lanthorn, the boys paused knee-deep, glad to find that they need go no farther along the narrow channel--one formed, no doubt, by the gradual washing away of some vein of soft felspar or steat.i.te.

"Pretty safe now," whispered Vince.

_Plash_!

"Ugh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mike. "What's that?"

"Seal or some big fish," said Vince: "something we've driven in before us."

"I don't want to be a coward, Cinder," whispered Mike; "but if it's a great conger, I don't know what I should do."

"Hit at it," replied Vince. "I should, even if I felt in a regular squirm. But we needn't mind. The things we've driven up before us are sure to be in a horrible flurry, and all they'll think about will be of trying to get away."

"Think so?"

"Why, of course. You don't suppose there are any of the things that old Joe talked about, do you?"

"No, of course that's nonsense; but the congers may be very big and fierce, and isn't this the sort of place they would run up?"

"I dunno. S'pose so," said Vince. "They get in holes of the rocks, of course; but I don't know whether they'd get up such a big, long cave as this. Wonder how far it goes in? Pst!"

Vince grasped his companion's arm tightly, for they were having a proof of the wonderful way in which sound was carried along the surface of the water, especially in a narrow pa.s.sage such as that in which they had taken refuge.

For all at once the murmur of voices sounded as if it were approaching them, and their hearts seemed to stand still, as they believed that they were being pursued.

But the next minute they knew that the speakers were only standing at the mouth of the cave and looking in, one of the men apparently whispering close to them, and with perfect distinctness:--

"Seals," he said. "I came and listened last time I was here, and you could hear 'em splashing and walloping about in the water. Like to go on in?"

"No," said another voice. "Get 'em up in a corner and they'll show fight as savage as can be; and they can bite too."

"Good polt on the head with a club settles them, though, soon enough."

"Ay, but who's to get to hit at 'em, shut up in a hole where you haven't room to swing your arm? 'sides, they're as quick as lightning, and they'll come right at you."

"What, attack?"

"Nay, I don't say that: p'r'aps it's on'y trying to get away; but if one of they slippery things comes between your legs down you must go."

"Think there's any in now?"

"Bound to say there are. They comes and goes, though. Listen: p'r'aps you'll hear one."

As it happened, just then there was a peculiar splashing and wallowing sound from some distance farther in, and it ended with an echoing report, as if one of the animals had given the surface of the water a heavy blow with its tail.

"No mistake--eh?" said one of the voices.

"Let's get the lanthorn and go in," said one eagerly.

"Nay, you stop wheer you are. Old Jarks is wild enough as it is about some one being here. If he finds any of us larking about, he'll get hitting out or shootin', p'r'aps."

"I say," said another voice--all sounding curiously near, and as if whispering for the two fugitives to hear--"think anybody's been splitting about the place?"

"I d'know. Mebbe. Wonder it arn't been found out before. My hye! I never did see old Jarks in such a wax before. Makes him sputter finely what he does blaze up. I don't b'lieve as he knows then whether he's speaking French or English."

"Well, don't seem as if we're going to ketch whoever it is."

"What! Don't you be in a hurry about that. If old Jarks makes up his mind to do a thing, he'll do it."

"Think he'll stop?"

"Stop? Ay, for a month, but what he'll ketch whoever it is. Bound to say they've been walking off with the silk and lace at a pretty tidy rate."

"They'll be too artful to come again, p'r'aps."

"Ah! that's what some one said about the mice, but they walked into the trap at last."

"What'll he do if he does ketch 'em?"

"Well, there, you know what old Jarks is. He never do stand any nonsense. I should say he'd have a haxiden' with 'em, same as he did with that French _douane_ chap. Pistol might go off, or he might take 'em aboard and drop 'em--"