ar,
as he went in one direction or the other toward the walls, and he stood
at last resting, in the most utter bewilderment of mind and helplessness
of body possible to conceive, while a curious feeling of awe began to
steal over him.

The smugglers had not dared to kill him or throw him into the sea, as he
had heard of them doing on more than one occasion, but as far as he
could make out they had cast him down into some terrible place to die.

The idea was terrible, and unable to contain himself he took a step or
two in one direction, then in another, and stopped short, not daring to
stir for fear some awful chasm such as he had seen among the rocks
should be yawning at his feet, and he should fall headlong down.

He stopped to wipe the cold perspiration away that was gathering on his
brow, and then, trying to keep himself cool, he stood thinking, and
finally, in utter weariness, sat down.

"I wish I wasn't such a coward," said the young midshipman, half aloud.
"It's like being a child to be frightened because it's dark. What's
that!"

He started up.

"_That_" was a gleam of light some distance off, shining on the rugged
walls of a vast chamber or set of chambers. He could only dimly see
this, for the light was but feeble, and the bearer hidden behind the
rugged pillars which supported the roof; but it was evidently coming
nearer, and as it approached he could see that he was in a vast
cavernous, flat-ceiled place, which appeared to have been a quarry, from
which masses of stone had been hewn, the floor here and there being
littered with refuse of all sorts and sizes.

As the light came on, the midshipman made out that quite a store of
spars, ropes, and blocks lay at a short distance, and that more dimly
seen was a large stack of tubs, from which doubtless emanated the odour
of brandy.

Archy's first idea was to go and meet the bearers of the light, but on
second thoughts he decided to stand upon his dignity and let them come
to him, and as the thought occurred to him that the visit might be of an
inimical nature, his hand stole into his breast in search of his dirk.
Vainly though: the weapon was gone.

All this time, as if the bearers were coming very leisurely, the light
slowly approached, and as the midshipman more fully grasped the fact
that he must be either in a stone quarry or a mine, he saw that the
light was an ordinary horn lanthorn, and from the shadows it cast he
could see that there were two