"All right, sir, I will; thank'ee, sir. Good-night, ladies and gentlemen all."

And d.i.c.kinson, taking the hint, retired.

The gentlemen sat for an hour or two after that, talking over matters as they smoked their pipes, and then Captain Staunton, Lance, and Bowles rose and left the cottage to pay a visit to the cavern.

In due time they reached the place, proceeding at once to the chasm, where they forthwith commenced a vigorous but unsuccessful search for the origin of the mysterious sounds which had disturbed the ladies.

Finding nothing, they began their task of conveying the gold collected that day across to the heap on the other side of the gulf. This heap was now a.s.suming goodly proportions. There was more of it than an ordinary ship's boat could take at a single trip, even in the calmest of weather; and Lance was in the act of remarking to Captain Staunton that he thought enough had now been collected to satisfy their every want, when a weird, unearthly moan smote upon their ears from the depths of the abyss. The sound, though not particularly loud, was so startling, echoing and reverberating, as it did, among the cavernous recesses far below, that the work was brought to a sudden standstill, and the three bewildered men felt their hair bristling as they listened.

"_What_, in Heaven's name, can it be?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the skipper as he turned his startled gaze upon Lance.

"Impossible to say," answered the latter. "One thing, however, is certain; no _human_ lungs could possibly give utterance to such a sound.

And yet I don't know; the echoes of the place may have the property of magnifying and prolonging it. Hillo, there! is there anyone below?" he continued, raising his torch aloft and peering with craned neck down into the black depths of the chasm.

There was no response. And the light of the torch was quite inadequate to the illumination of more than a few feet from the surface.

"It is possible that, if there _is_ anyone down there, he may be unable to hear me. Sound _rises_, you know. Here, Bowles, come across to this side. We will unite our voices and see if that will evoke any response," said Lance.

Bowles scrambled nimbly along the narrow and dangerous pathway, which, having traversed it so often, now had no terrors for any of them, and speedily joined the others.

"Now," said Lance, "I will count three, and then we will all shout together, 'Hillo!' One, two, three--Hillo!"

The cry went pealing away right and left of them along the dark gallery, the echoes taking it up and tossing it wildly from side to side, up and down, until it seemed as though every rock in the vast cavern had found a voice with which to mock them; but no answering cry came from below.

"There is no one there," said Lance. "Indeed there _can_ be no one there; n.o.body has been missed, and--"

"Hark! what was that?"

A long-drawn sobbing sigh, such as a child will utter after it has cried itself to sleep, but very much louder; and immediately afterwards a gust of hot air, which brought with it a distinct odour of sulphur, swept past them down the gallery.

"G.o.d of mercy! can it be possible?" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lance. "Yes, it must be.

Fly for your lives; we may not have a moment to lose."

"What is it?" gasped Captain Staunton, as the three started at a run up the gallery in the direction of the great cavern.

"A _volcano_," answered Lance. "There are subterranean fires in activity at no great depth beneath our feet, and they may break into open eruption at any moment."

This was enough; his companions wanted to hear no more. The few words they had already heard lent wings to their feet, and in an incredibly short time they found themselves, panting and exhausted with their unwonted exertions, once more in the open air.

"Now we are comparatively safe," said Lance as they walked rapidly down the ravine. "What I chiefly feared was one of those earthquake shocks such as sometimes precede a volcanic eruption. A comparatively insignificant one might have proved sufficient to cause the walls of the cavern to collapse and bury us. Of course the ladies must be cautioned not to venture near the place again; but I think perhaps it will be better not to tell them why. It will only alarm them--perhaps unnecessarily--and keep them on the tiptoe of nervous anxious expectancy. The better plan will be to say that we consider we have now as much gold as we think it probable we shall be able to take away.

Don't you think so, Staunton?"

"a.s.suredly I do," answered the skipper emphatically. "Why, I would not allow my wife to enter that cavern again for all the gold it contains."

They reached the cottage without further adventure; and on the following morning the ladies were told by Captain Staunton that, sufficient gold having now been collected, there would be no further necessity for them to continue their visits to the cavern, which, moreover, Mr Evelin considered unsafe, the peculiar noises which had startled them all being in his opinion an indication of its liability to collapse at any moment.

After this a month pa.s.sed away unmarked by anything worthy of record, except the ever-increasing insolence and tyranny of Ralli toward our unfortunate friends.

The battery was by this time complete, the guns mounted, and the ammunition stored in its magazine; whilst the schooner was also in a very forward state. She was fully planked, decks laid, the ballast stowed, bulwarks and hatchways completed, her bottom coppered up to the load water-line, her hull outside painted with a coat of priming, and the carpenters, a.s.sisted by the handiest men they could pick out, were busy finishing off the fittings of the cabin and forecastle. Lance had been anxiously watching for a favourable opportunity to put into operation d.i.c.kinson's suggestion as to the mode in which Ralli should be approached in order to secure the completion of the work in the manner most favourable to their own plans, but hitherto no such opportunity had presented itself. This was peculiarly unfortunate, as the work was now in so forward a state that, whenever Ralli opened his mouth, he expected to hear the dreaded order given for the preparation of the ways and the construction of the cradle for launching.

But at length the coveted opportunity came. It was about nine o'clock in the morning when Lance saw Ralli step out of his gig on to the rocky platform at the lower end of the shipyard and walk straight toward the schooner. The Greek paused at a little distance from where Lance was at work, taking up a position from which he could obtain a favourable view of the vessel's beautifully modelled hull and gracefully sweeping lines; and then, with one eye shut, he began a critical scrutiny of her, shifting his position a few inches occasionally in order to test the perfection of the various curves.

"Now," Lance thought, "is my time. I must tackle him at once, whatever comes of it; it will never do to defer the matter any further. Another hour's delay may upset all our plans."

So, throwing down his tools, he stepped up to Ralli and said--

"I want to speak to you about the launch. We have now done nearly all that we _can_ do to the schooner whilst she remains on the stocks, and our next job will be to lay down the ways and--"

Ralli turned suddenly upon him with an evil gleam and glitter in his eyes which spoke volumes as to the envy and hatred he bore to this man, who, though a prisoner and practically a slave, still revealed in every word and gesture his vast and unmistakable superiority to every other man on the island, its ruler included.

"Aha! mister soldier," he said--using the mode of address which, for some reason known only to himself, he deemed most offensive to Lance-- his lips curling into a sneering smile as he spoke, "what are you doing away from your work? Go back to it at once, unless you wish me to start you with a rope's-end as I would an unruly boy."

"I have no work to go back to," said Lance; "I am simply wasting my time at present, and I wanted to learn your wishes as to what is to be done next I presume you will have the craft launched forthwith, as she is now ready to take to the water; and I should be glad to know what timber we are to use for the ways."

"You presume I will have the craft launched at once," repeated Ralli, the spirit of opposition rising strong within him, and the sneer upon his lips growing more bitter with every word he uttered. "Why should you presume any such thing, eh, you sare?"

"Because it is the right and proper thing to do," answered Lance.

"Every lubber knows that a ship is launched before she is rigged.

Besides, if you were to decide upon having the spars stepped and rigged, the stores stowed, and the guns hoisted in before she leaves the stocks, I should have a lot of extra trouble in calculating the proper distribution of the weights so as to ensure her being in proper trim when she takes to the water, and I want to avoid all that if possible."

The Greek grinned with vindictive delight as he listened to this apparently inadvertent admission on Lance's part. It revealed to him, as he thought, a new and unexpected method of inflicting annoyance upon this man whom he hated so thoroughly, and his eyes fairly sparkled with malice as he answered--

"What do you suppose I care about your extra trouble, you lazy skulking hound? I tell you this: I will have every spar stepped, rigged, and put in its place; the running rigging all rove; every sail bent; every gun mounted; the magazine stowed; the stores and water all put on board; and everything ready for the schooner to go straight out to sea from the stocks, before she leaves them. Poole! d.i.c.kinson!"--to the two chums who were working at no great distance--"come here and listen to what I say. This stupid fellow--this soldier who thinks himself a sailor--says that the schooner ought to be launched at once. _I_ say that she shall be finished ready for sea before she leaves the stocks; and I place you, d.i.c.kinson, in charge of the work to see that my orders are obeyed. This fellow will no longer give any orders; he will be only a common workman; he will obey you in future, or you will freshen his way with a rope's- end. You understand?"

"Ay, ay," answered d.i.c.kinson, "I understands yer, Ralli, and I'll do it too, never fear,"--with a scowl at Lance for Ralli's benefit. "Why, the man must be a fool--a perfect fool--not to see as it'd be ever so much easier to get things aboard now than when she's afloat. Now, you"-- turning to Lance--"you just top your boom and git away back to your work at once, and don't let me see no more skulking or you'd better look out."

Lance simply shrugged his shoulders, as was his habit whenever he received any insolence from the members of the "Brotherhood," and, turning on his heel, walked back to his work, secretly exulting in the complete success of his manoeuvre.

d.i.c.kinson looked after him contemptuously for a moment or two, and then, his face clouding, he remarked--

"Arter all, I wish I hadn't spoke quite so rough to him; the chap's got his head screwed on the right way; he knows a mortal sight of things as I don't understand, and I'd ha' been glad to ha' had his help and adwice like in many a little job, as I'm afeared we'll make a bit of a bungle of without him."

"That is all right," said Ralli. "You shall be able to talk him over, d.i.c.kinson. Be a bit civil to him and he will tell you all that you will want to know. Leave the--what you call?--the bullying to me; I shall take the care that he enough has of that."

And now--on that same morning, and only an hour or two after the conversation just recorded--there occurred an unfortunate incident which completely dissipated Lance's exultation, filling him with the direst and most anxious forebodings, and threatening to utterly upset the success of all their carefully arranged plans.

It happened thus. Some timber was required by the carpenters on board the schooner; and d.i.c.kinson, eager to properly play his part in the presence of the Greek--who was standing close by--ordered Lance and Captain Staunton to bring up a large and heavy plank which he pointed out. They accordingly shouldered it, and, staggering under the load, proceeded upon their way, which led them close past the spot where Ralli stood. As they were pa.s.sing him it unfortunately happened that Lance stepped upon a small spar, which, rolling under his feet, caused him to stagger in such a way that the plank struck Ralli full in the mouth, knocking away three or four teeth and cutting open both lips. The fellow reeled backwards with the severity of the blow, but, recovering himself, whipped out his long knife, and, pale as death with pa.s.sion, rushed upon Lance. Captain Staunton saw what was about to happen, and shouted in warning, "Look out, Evelin!" flinging the plank to the ground at the same instant in such a way as to momentarily check the rush of the Greek. Lance at the call turned round, and was just in time to save himself from an ugly blow by catching Ralli's uplifted arm in his left hand. The pirate, lithe and supple as a serpent, writhed and twisted in Lance's grasp in his efforts to get free, but it was all in vain; he was helpless as a child in the iron grasp of the stalwart soldier, and he was at length compelled to fling his knife to the ground and own himself vanquished.

But no sooner was he once more free than, calling to his aid a dozen of the most ruffianly of his band, he ordered them to seize Lance and the skipper, and to lash them hand and foot until the irons could be brought and riveted on.

This was done; and an hour afterwards, to the grief and consternation of all concerned in the plan of escape, the two to whom they chiefly looked for its success were marched off to the "Black Hole," each man's ankles being connected together by a couple of close-fitting iron bands and two long fetter-links.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

BOB GIVES WAY TO VIOLENCE.

Great was the consternation and distress at Staunton Cottage that night when the workers returned from the shipyard and reported the arrest and imprisonment of Captain Staunton and Lance Evelin. That these two should be placed in durance at all was regarded as a serious misfortune; but, coming as it did at so critical a time, just as the work on the schooner was drawing near its completion and when the long-looked-for opportunity to escape might present itself at almost any moment, it was justly regarded as a disaster of the gravest character. The imprisoned men were the two who had most completely retained their coolness and self-possession throughout the whole of the reverses which had befallen the party; it was their fertile brains which had devised the audaciously daring plan of escape, and without them the rest of the party felt that they dare not do anything for fear of marring the whole scheme. And there was still another misfortune attending this arrest: supposing a favourable opportunity presented itself for the carrying out of the plan, it could not be seized so long as these two men were prisoners; all, even to Dale, were fully agreed that escape without them was not to be thought of for a moment. For two of the party--poor Mrs Staunton and Blanche--there was still another source of anxiety. Now that Ralli had at last completely laid aside the mask of friendliness which had at first concealed his feeling of ill-will--now that he had cast off the last remains of a semblance of forbearance--to what terrible lengths might he not allow his vindictiveness to carry him? Would he stop short at the humiliation of imprisonment and fetters? Or was it not too greatly to be dreaded that he would now proceed also to active violence!

This fear was fully shared by the rest of the party, but they were careful to hide it from the two poor heart-broken women who were chiefly interested in the prisoners, striving rather to inspire them with hopes which they themselves did not entertain. A long and most anxious discussion of the situation that night, Rex and Bowles taking the lead by virtue of their superior resolution and experience, was productive of absolutely no result except to place an additional damper upon their already sufficiently depressed spirits. Bob said nothing, but, like the queen's parrot, he thought the more. Brook frankly acknowledged himself quite unequal to the emergency, as did Dale, but both cheerfully stated their readiness to do anything they might be directed to do. And here it may be stated that misfortune had been gradually doing for the latter--as it does for so many people--what prosperity had utterly failed to do, it had been driving out of him that peevishness of temper and that utter selfishness of character which had been his most disagreeable characteristics, and it had developed in their place an almost cheerful resignation to circ.u.mstances and a readiness to think and act for others which promised to make of him eventually a man whom it would be possible to both respect and esteem.