d, with the men spread out to right and left,
the officers in the centre, following the trail which led right to the
gully-like depression, once doubtless a well-worn track, but now
completely smoothed over and grass-grown; and there, sure enough, as
discovered only a short time before by Celia, was the scooped-out hollow
filled with fern, bramble, and wild clematis, and the rough steps down,
and the archway dimly seen beyond the loose stones.

"Halt!" cried the master; and, after a careful inspection had shown that
the footprints in the dewy grass had gone no farther than the entrance,
the men were called up, and stood round the pit.

There it all was, exactly as Archy had pictured it in his own mind: the
loose stones at the bottom of the hole covering, he was sure, the
trap-door he had so often heard opened and shut; but, as he went down a
few steps in his eagerness, and scanned the place, he was puzzled and
disappointed; for the trap-door, if that was the spot where it lay, was
covered, and therefore the men could not be in the cave.

"Bad job we've got no lanthorns," said Gurr, who was looking over
Archy's shoulder at the low-browed arch of the passage leading right in;
"and it looks bad travelling, but in we've got to go if they won't
surrender. Let me go first, my lad."

For answer the midshipman went down to the bottom of the rough steps,
and stood over the trap-door on the loose stones.

"No, no, my lad," said Gurr kindly, as he joined him. "Too rough a job
for you. I'll lead, and, hang it! I shall have to crawl. Not very
good work for one's clothes. Come along, my lads. You, Mr Raystoke,
and four men stop back, and form the reserve, to take prisoner any one
who tries to escape."

The men descended till every step was occupied, the little force
extending from top to bottom.

"Stop a minute, Mr Gurr. Let the bo's'n guard the entry here; I must
go with you to act as guide."

"It aren't all passage, then, like this?"

"No; it's a great open place supported by pillars, big enough to lose
yourselves in. But stop; that can't be the way, sir."

"Oh, hang it all, my lad!" cried the master in disappointed tones.
"Don't say that."

"But I do," cried Archy. "There ought to be a trap-door covered with
stones leading down a place like a well."

"Yes; that's what we've come down."

"No, no, another. I think it was down here."

He stamped his foot on the loose stones, and then uttered a cry of joy,