find me, for
certain, and then--

"Well, what then?" he thought, as he came to a sudden stop. "Suppose
they do catch me and ask me why I'm here! Why, I can tell them I came
to try and find someone whom I heard calling for help; and I can't help
what Eben says, I must let the sailors help me then."

He listened, and felt certain that the sailors and their leader came
along as far as the great piece of rock he had been obliged to
circumvent, and once round that the men were bound to find him.

"Ahoy!" came faintly again.

"Ahoy yourself!" said a voice. "Who's that so far off? Some fellow has
wandered right away and lost himself. Idiot! Why didn't he keep within
touch of his messmates? Ahoy, there! Ahoy! Ahoy!"

The cry was answered, and in a few minutes Aleck was able to detect the
fact from the dying-away of the voices that the search party were
growing more distant, so that the next mournful "Ahoy!" fell upon his
ears alone, sounding so despairing that the desire to go in search of
the appealer for help was stronger than he could restrain.

Glancing back and upward then at the spot where Eben had disappeared, he
went cautiously forward for a few yards, to find to his astonishment
that from being fairly broad the rugged shelf along which he was
proceeding rapidly narrowed till progress grew risky, while at the end
of another dozen feet or so it ceased, and he came to a dead stand,
looking in vain for a way forward and a sight of some crack or passage
along which he could descend towards the sea.

Then he listened for a repetition of the call for help as a guide to his
next proceedings; but all was still save the querulous cry of a gull.

"I can't understand it a bit," he said, looking about him in a more
perplexed way than ever. "Eben Megg spoke as if he knew about someone
being in trouble; yes, and that if he did not return I was to go to his
wife. Why, what nonsense it seems! How could he who has been away for
days know anything about--about--oh! Was there ever such a dense,
wooden-headed idiot as I am!" he raged out. "Why, of course! I can see
now as clear as clear. It's that young middy--what's his name?--calling
for help. They must have trapped him during the struggle, and there is
a regular smugglers' cave somewhere, after all. The poor fellow must be
shut up in it; and that explains why Eben looked so furiously at me when
he found me here. He thought I had discovered the secret hiding-p