tle success attended the efforts of the revenue
cutter's crew to trace cargoes which had been landed when the smugglers
had such lurking places as this.

As he crept slowly on, step by step, these and similar thoughts came
rapidly through the prisoner's brain, and as he slowly mounted what
seemed to be a pile of fragments, he began to wonder where his prison
could be--whether it was close to the shore or some distance inland.

He stopped to listen, hoping to hear the breaking of the waves among the
rocks, which would have proved what he wished to know at once; but
though he listened again and again, he could not distinguish a sound.
The only noises he heard were those he made in stepping on one side of
some piece of stone, which gave forth a musical clink as it struck
another.

He was climbing up now what appeared to be a steep slope, over great
fragments of stone heavier than he would have been able to lift, and he
seemed to creep up and up till he felt assured that the ceiling was just
above him, and raising his hand he touched the roof, his fingers tracing
out again the great cast of one of the old-world shell-fish--one of the
great nautiluses of the geologist.

But fossils were unknown things in Archy Raystoke's day. He was hunting
for a lanthorn, not for specimens.

As he stood on the highest part of this pile of stone, he hesitated
about going farther, and bore off to his left, feeling that in all
probability the object of his search had not come so far.

From time to time he paused to listen, and at last thought of trying to
find the extent of the place by shouting; but he was satisfied with his
first essay, his voice going echoing away apparently for a great
distance, and the peculiar, dying, whispering sound was not pleasant to
one alone in the darkness.

After a while, however, as he felt that he was walking over small
fragments of stone, he picked up a piece and threw it, to try if he were
near the end of the cavern in this direction, for he was growing tired
and longed now to find his way to the sailcloth to lie down and rest.

The piece he held was about a pound weight, and, drawing back his hand
as far as he could reach, he threw it with all his might, to start back
in alarm, for it struck wood with a heavy thud, and dropped down almost
at his feet.

Unknown to himself he had gradually found his way to the pile of kegs,
and these he touched the next moment, thinking that, as he stood facing
the