t the window, for Heaven's sake, man!" Forrest ordered sharply.
"Here!"
He took an electric torch from his pocket, and both men drew a little
breath of relief as the light flashed out. Cecil climbed on to a chair
and closed the window. Forrest glanced at the clock.
"It's quite late enough," he said. "It should be high tide in a quarter
of an hour, and the sea in that little cove of yours is twenty feet
deep. Come along and work this door."
"Have you got everything?" Cecil asked nervously.
"I have the chloroform," Forrest answered, touching a small bottle in
his waistcoat pocket. "We don't need anything else. He hasn't the
strength of a rabbit, and you and I can carry him down the passage. If
he struggles there's no one to hear him."
Cecil pushed his way against the panels and opened the clumsy door.
They groped their way down the passage.
"Faugh!" Forrest exclaimed. "What smells! Cecil," he added, "I suppose
half the village know about this place, don't they?"
"They know that it has been here always," Cecil answered, "but they
most of them think that it is blocked up now. We did try to, Andrew and
I, but the masonry gave way. These lumps on the floor are the remains
of our work. Keep your torch down. You'll fall over them."
Forrest stopped short. Curiously enough, it was he now who seemed the
more terrified. The wind and the thunder of the sea together seemed to
reach them through the walls of earth in a strange monotonous roar,
sometimes shriller as the wind triumphed, sometimes deep and low so
that the very ground beneath their feet vibrated as the sea came
thundering up into the cove. Cecil, who was more used to such noises,
heard them unmoved.
"If my people had left me such a dog's hole as this," Forrest declared
viciously, "I'd have buried them in it and blown it up to the skies.
It's only fit for ghosts."
The very weakening of the other man seemed for the moment to give Cecil
added courage. He laughed hoarsely.
"There are worse things to fear," he muttered, "than this. Hold hard,
Forrest. Here is the door. I'll undo the padlock. You stand by in case
he makes a rush."
But there was no rush about Engleton. He was lying on his back,
stretched on a rough mattress at the farther end of the room, moaning
slightly. The two men exchanged quick glances.
"We are not going to have much trouble," Forrest muttered. "What a
beastly atmosphere! No wonder he's knocked up."
Cecil, however, looked ab
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