from the entrance; but as he ran his left hand along the wall for safety
and guidance, he found that instead of its being solid wall upon his
left, he had been touching a mere sheet of stone, which screened another
opening leading back to the original direction. Upon holding tight and
peering round a sharp corner Aleck found that he was gazing into black
darkness; but a breath of cool, moist air and the peculiar odour told
their own tale of what was beyond, and to endorse this came the soft,
sighing, whispering rush of waves sweeping over pebbles far enough
below.

"Now you know the way down, my lad," said Eben.

"Yes, I suppose I do."

"But even if you'd found it all by yourself I suppose you wouldn't have
ventured down."

"What, into that horrible cavern?"

"'Tarn't a horrible cavern, my lad, only a sort of a dark passage going
straight down for a bit. Had enough, or will you come further?"

"I'll come, of course," said the lad, firmly.

"All right, then. That's right; there's nothing to be afraid of. You
do as I do."

It was a faint twilight now where the pair were standing, with a dark
forbidding chasm just in front, and Aleck was longing for a lanthorn,
which he half expected to see the smuggler produce. But instead of
doing so he stepped suddenly into the darkness.

"Now, then," he said, "you'll do as I do. It's nothing to what you did
just now in jumping, for there's no danger; only that looked better, for
it was in the light. This is in the darkness. That was straight down;
this is only a slope, and you'll hear me slide. I'll tell you when to
come after me."

"I understand," said Aleck; and then suddenly, "What's that?"

"What's what, my lad?"

"It felt as if something soft had come right up in my face."

"Wind," said the smuggler.

"But it's blowing the back of my head now, just as if something touched
me," said Aleck, in a husky voice.

"Yes, I know," said the smuggler. "It's just as if little soft snaky
fingers were feeling about your head."

"Yes, just like that," said Aleck, in a husky whisper. "I don't think
it could be the wind."

"Yes, it is. That's right; only the wind, my lad. The cave's sucking
because the sea keeps on opening and shutting the mouth at this time of
the tide, and one minute the air's rushing in here and the next it's
rushing out. Now do you see?"

"Yes, I think so," said Aleck.

"Then here goes."

Through the dim light the boy now saw his compa