ho can pull
an oar?"

"I can row if you'll free my hand," I exclaimed, not relishing the
prospect of a watery grave, which was inevitable if this boatload of
landsmen were once overturned.

"Yes, Master Eden, you'll do; I've seen you in a boat before," was the
reply.--"For any sake cast off the boy's irons, some of you, and let
him come forward."

Feeling rather proud, I fancy, as a boy might in proving himself
superior to a number of grown men, I changed seats, and bent with a
will to the oar, keeping time with the swing of Lewis's figure, which
was dimly visible in the gloom. Thus the boat crept out to sea, and
turning moved in a westerly direction down the coast.

There was no sign or sound of pursuit; our departure from the harbour
had evidently not been discovered. I was too much occupied with my oar
to notice where we were going; but at last, when my arms were beginning
to ache, and I feared I should have to ask to be relieved, Lewis ceased
rowing, bidding me do the same; then turning, to my surprise I found we
were close to shore, while above us towered the face of a mighty cliff.

Flinging his oar over the stern, with a skilful twisting of his wrist
the old sailor sculled the boat carefully towards the towering mass of
rock. In another moment I thought we should strike, and prepared
involuntarily for the expected shock; then a half-circle of blackness
resolved itself into the narrow, tunnel-like mouth of a cave.

Gently we drifted through the opening, a man in the bows guiding us
with his hand, until the darkness became absolutely impenetrable, and
the intense stillness was broken only by the lapping of water against
the sides of the cavern.

This, then, was Lewis's promised hiding-place, and his assertion that
there would be no danger of the men being found seemed no idle boast.

CHAPTER XII.

WITHIN THE CAVERN.

"Hi there! one of you men forrard, light the lamp!" said Lewis, ceasing
in the motion of sculling. "Let's see where we're going."

His voice sounded strange and hollow, like that of a person speaking
under an archway; and a rumbling echo of his words came back from the
distance, showing that the cave was of considerable extent.

Rodwood had plundered a tinder-box from one of the warders, and the
next moment the oarsman's request was responded to with the _click,
click_ of flint and steel. Even the strong glare of the big coach lamp
did little more than reveal the surrounding d