more drowsy by the grateful warmth of the fire, I
gradually sank back on the rock; the murmur of voices became fainter
and more confused, my eyelids closed, and I sank gradually into a deep
and dreamless sleep.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE BRANDY KEGS.

A vague sense of pain and discomfort at length began to enter into my
dreams, and soon I awoke to find that, from having lain so long in one
position on the hard rock, I was aching in every limb as though I had
been beaten. For a moment or so my head swam with bewilderment as I
stared about me and wondered where I was. It was like the recovering
of consciousness after a fall. But presently the full recollection of
the previous day's adventure flooded my memory. I struggled into a
sitting posture, and gazed around. The sun had risen, but the mouth of
the cavern being so small and far distant, the surrounding objects were
visible in a sort of gray twilight, such as might have illumined some
underground dungeon with but a single small barred window high up in
the wall. The other members of the party were already astir--one man
mending the fire, another plucking one of the pheasants we had brought
with us, and a group of two or three hauling up more of the wreck-wood
out of the water on to the platform.

Looking towards the mouth of the cave from where I sat was much like
surveying the interior of a modern railway tunnel which by some means
had become flooded, except that the cavern was more lofty. The roof
itself was lost in darkness; but as far as I could make out, exactly
over our ledge was a wide hole in the rock, like the perpendicular
shaft of an old-fashioned chimney. This, however, was only discernible
by the space of denser black amid the general gloom.

Shivering with the cold, I was glad enough to get some warmth by
assisting in building up the fire. The broken spars which had been
recovered the previous night were dry by this time, and made good fuel,
of which there seemed a sufficient supply to more than last out our
needs. There being no beach for nearly a mile on either side of us, a
quantity of flotsam, as Lewis explained, was often to be found in the
cavern, carried there by the current.

Our breakfast was a frugal one--a sausage and a small hunk of cheese
served out to each man--Rodwood having determined to husband the food
supply. Then the gang settled down to endure as best they could the
long hours of waiting till it would be safe for Lewis to v