on the top of the ladder leading down
into the vault, expecting the return of Tom or Charley, or else to
receive some signal from them announcing the progress they had made.
Peter listened attentively--"I hear them going round and round the vault
to look for the passage," he observed to old John. "It must be a large
place, larger than I thought for, and they don't seem to be able to find
the passage."

"Maybe there's no passage to find," said John sagaciously.

Still they did not come back, and Peter declared that he could no longer
hear their footsteps. They waited and waited, but the explorers did not
appear. Old John suggested that there might be some pit or hole into
which they had tumbled, and perhaps nothing would ever again be heard of
them; but the idea was too terrible to entertain, for Peter had a
sincere regard for Tom, and Charley's blithe voice and kind manners had
won his heart. They ought at once to have gone to Captain Askew, and
procured proper assistance, with lights, ropes, and ladders. Old John
was scarcely able to descend the ladder, and did any hole exist, the
blind man would most probably have fallen into it. Notwithstanding this
he proposed descending, till old John persuaded him to give up the idea,
and at length, when it would very likely be too late to save the lives
of the explorers, they agreed to summon the captain. Captain Askew
could scarcely understand the account he heard. That there was a vault
under the Tower he was ready to believe, as he now remembered hearing
the report that one existed, but that his young friend Charley and old
companion Tom should have gone into it and been irretrievably lost he
would not believe. He would immediately have descended himself to look
for them, but that his timber-toe and a rickety ladder did not suit each
other. He considered whom he could summon in the village, but they were
all more or less connected with the smugglers. He however determined to
ask the assistance of some of the most trustworthy among them. He took
his hat and was hurrying down the hill when he met one of the men of the
coastguard going his rounds. He at once agreed to accompany the
captain, but said that by the delay of twenty minutes or so he could
obtain the assistance of two or three of his mates, and as he could be
of little use by himself, the captain begged him to get them as soon as
possible.

The captain then went back to the Tower, and found blind Peter an