e cavern was in perfect darkness, for the light
of the fire at the entrance did not extend thus far, though it enabled
me to see the people sleeping round it. The noise of the tempest, the
crashing of rocks as they rolled down the hillside, the huge boughs torn
off from the trees, and the ceaseless rattling of the thunder, drowned
all other sounds, and I had no fear of being heard. Cautiously I crept
forward, with my head bent to the ground, till I found myself close to a
man, as I knew by his loud breathing. I felt his dress, and I thus knew
that he was one of the prisoners. I put my mouth to his ear and
whispered till I awoke him. He was the young sea-captain whom I knew.
I told him that I had come to set him at liberty. He replied that he
could not go without his friend, whose foot was hurt so that he could
not escape by flight. That mattered not, I replied, as I could conceal
him till the Monacans had got tired of looking for him.

"Without loss of time, I released my friend, and we quickly set his
companion at liberty. Helping him along between us, we crawled up to
the hole by which I had entered. The Monacans, not suspecting what was
going on, slept soundly. We crawled through the hole into the further
end of the small cavern; here I believed that we were safe, as the
darkness would prevent the Monacans from discovering our trail; and not
aware, as I concluded, of the existence of the hole, they would be
unable to guess by what means their prisoners had escaped."

Miantomah had got thus far in his narrative when Captain Layton and the
rest of the party came up, and the Indian had to repeat what he had
said, which, as he spoke in broken English, took some time. Gilbert,
meantime, was very impatient to hear what farther had happened to his
brother and Roger.

"And when you got into the end of the cavern, what did you do?" he asked
at last. "Are they there still?"

"I found that the young stranger, though unable to walk, could limp
along with the assistance of his friend and me," continued Miantomah; "I
knew of another cavern a short distance off, higher up the hill; if we
could reach it, while the rain continued to pour down as it was still
doing, we should be safe. I persuaded him to make the attempt. By
remaining where we were we should too probably be caught, like burrowing
animals in a hole, as the Monacans were not likely to go away without
thoroughly searching both the caverns. The young man