For, see you," had been Morgan's view, "coing in a hole after a man
what hass a gun iss not a nice pissness, no inteet!" and the Cornishman
agreed with him.

However, they put off, and Nance crouched in the bracken and watched all
their doings.

She had long since caught sight of John Drillot and Peter Vaudin sitting
on the rock wall, and wondered what kind of a hiding-place Gard could
possibly have found therein. A poor one, she feared, and that the end
would be quick.

The boat disappeared round the corner, and presently she saw the three
men join the others at the wall, and they all clustered there and
talked, and then one by one they disappeared into the wall itself, and
she sat watching in fear and trembling.

CHAPTER XXXI

HOW TWO WENT IN AND THREE CAME OUT

"It iss better to sit here two, three days till he comse out than to go
in and get yourself killt, yes inteet!" was the burden of Evan Morgan's
answer to all their arguments for a speedy assault. And "Iss, sure!" was
Trevna's curt, complete endorsement.

But when, at John Drillot's suggestion, they had squeezed under the slab
to have a look at what lay below, and had peered down the slit that Gard
tried first, and had then lighted on the tunnel, and had found the gun
and powder-flask jammed in a crevice--that put a different face on the
matter.

And, after prolonged discussion as to the proper method of procedure,
especially in the matter of precedence, it was at last arranged that
Evan Morgan should go first with his miner's lamp, and that John Trevna
should follow close behind, carrying the gun.

"And iss it understood that I shoot him if I see him?" asked Trevna, to
make sure of his ground and make his conscience easy.

"Pardi, yes, mon gars! Shoot straight, and the Island will thank you,"
asserted John Drillot.

"Ant for Heaven's sake, John Trevna, see you ton't shoot me behint by
mistake," urged Evan Morgan; and they disappeared slowly into the
tunnel, while the other two stood waiting expectantly in the well.

Accustomed as they were to narrow places, this long worm-hole of a
tunnel, with the doubtful possibilities that lay beyond it, seemed as
endless to the militant members of the expedition as it did to the
waiters outside.

Occasionally a hollow sound came booming down the tunnel, when one or
other grunted out a word of objurgation on the narrowness of things, but
for the most part they wormed along in silence, Morgan shiftin