there, scraping away the mortar
from between the stones, Charley and Tom helping him, while blind Peter
held the lantern. They worked on patiently, knowing that by such means
people have frequently let themselves out through the thick walls of a
prison. More than half-an-hour had been thus employed when Charley felt
the stone on which he stood move; jumping off it, with but little
difficulty he lifted it up, when a regular wooden trap-door appeared
below. This it was soon found was made to open downwards and how to
force it open without making a noise was the question.

Again Charley had to hurry off to the captain's room to borrow a
centrepiece, a small saw and a file, and by labouring with these
steadily the bolt which held up the trap was cut round, and Tom then
having securely fastened a rope to it, the trap was noiselessly lowered
and a dark vault appeared below. There could now be little doubt by
which way the pretended ghosts had found their way into the Tower. On a
lantern being lowered a ladder was seen, on to which Charley immediately
jumped, and fearlessly descended into the vault. As a sailor, he knew
the importance of securing a fresh hold before letting go of the first,
so he held on to the beam above till he had found a firm rest for his
feet. He thus descended for a considerable depth, while Tom let down
the lantern by a rope that he might see the nature of the place into
which he had got. He at length reached the bottom, and taking the
lantern from the end of the rope, commenced an examination of the place
in which he found himself. It was a large roughly-hewn vault, which
looked as if it had been the quarry from whence the stone with which the
fortress was built had been taken. Around it were cells, where some
rusty iron bars and ring bolts let into the rock showed that it had been
the prison of the castle, and Charley shuddered as he thought of the
unhappy people who had once been confined there, where not a gleam of
light nor the slightest sound could pierce through the solid rock. As
soon as Tom found that Charley had reached the bottom, he also
descended--holding his cutlass in his teeth--as actively as most men
could have done with two hands. Peter and old John Trowel were directed
to wait above. Peter said that from his acuteness of hearing he should
be able to judge what progress they were making, and to let Captain
Askew know where they were gone.

Blind Peter and old John waited