for there was a curious hollow sound, and on stooping down he pulled
away some of the great shaley fragments, and laid bare a rough plank
with a bolt partly visible.

"Right! Got 'em at last," cried Gurr. "Clear off more stones, my lads.
No; stop!" he said.

"Yes, I know what you are thinking, Mr Gurr," said Archy. "The men
couldn't have shut themselves in there."

"Course not, my lad. But you are right, that's the way down to their
curiosity shop, and they're hiding in this hole here."

Then, thrusting in his head, and holding on by the rugged stones, he
shouted into the hollow passage,--

"Now then, my lads, out you come!"

A pause.

"D'yer hear? The game's up, and if you don't come out quietly, we shall
have to fetch you out on the rough."

Still no reply.

"Come, come, my lads, no nonsense! Surrender. I don't want to use
pistols and cutlashes to Englishmen. You know the game's up.
Surrender."

Still no reply.

"I don't think that hole goes in far, Mr Raystoke," whispered the
master. "There's no echo like, and it sounds smothered." Then aloud,--

"Now, then, is it surrender? Oh, very well; I've got some nice little
round messengers to send in after you."

He drew a pistol from his belt and cocked it, winking at Archy as he did
so. "Now, then, once--twice--fire!"

He pointed the mouth of the pistol downward, and drew the trigger, and
in the semi-darkness below the overhanging brambles and clematis there
was a dull flash, the report sounded smothered, and the place was filled
with the dank, heavy-scented smoke.

"There's precious little room in there," whispered the master. "If
there'd been much of it, we should have heard the sound go rolling along
instead of coming back like a slap in the face. Here, one of you,
reload that. You, Dick, follow me. If they show fight, you come on
next, bo's'n, with the whole of your boat's crew."

"Ay, ay, sir."

"Hi! In there. Do you surrender?"

There was not a sound, and, after a momentary pause, the master spat in
his fist, gripped his cutlass, went down on all fours, after driving his
hat on tightly, and crawled into the hole, followed by Dick.

"Keep a cheery heart on it, lad," said one of the men just before to
Dick. "We'll fetch you out and bury you at sea."

Dick drove his elbow into the man's chest for an answer, grinned as he
felt the point of his cutlass, and dived into the hole, while the
boatswain and his men stood waiting ea