s a chaos of large stones, mingled with scrubby bushes. Here
he paused again, and the wrinkles of perplexity returned to his brow, as
he peered hither and thither.

Presently he observed a sharp-edged rock, which, projecting upwards,
touched, as it were, the sky-line behind it. Moving to the right until
he brought this rock exactly in line with another prominent boulder that
lay beyond it, he advanced for about fifty yards, and then, stopping,
looked cautiously round among the bushes.

"It must be hereabouts," he muttered, "for the Jew was werry partikler,
an' bid me be partikler likewise, seein' that the hole is well hid, an'
wan is apt to come on it raither--hah!"

Suddenly poor Ted fell headlong into the very hole in question, and
would infallibly have broken his neck, if he had not happened to descend
on the shoulders of a man who, crouched at the bottom of the hole, had
been listening intently to the sound of his approach, and who now seized
his throat in a grip that was obviously not that of a child!

The British tar was not slow to return the compliment with a grasp that
was still less childlike--at the same time he gasped in much anxiety--

"Howld on, ye spalpeen, it's after yersilf I've come, sure; what,
_won't_ ye let go--eh?"

It was quite evident, from the tightening of the grip, that Mariano had
no intention of letting go, for the good reason that, not understanding
a word of what was said, he regarded the seaman as an enemy. Feeling
rather than seeing this, for the hole was deep and dark, Flaggan was
under the necessity of showing fight in earnest, and there is no saying
what would have been the result had not Lucien suddenly appeared from
the interior of a subterranean cavern with which the hole communicated.

Lucien understood English well and spoke it fluently. One or two of
Flaggan's exclamations enlightened him as to the true character of their
unexpected visitor.

"Hold, Mariano!" he cried; "the man is evidently a friend."

"What's that ye're saying?" cried Flaggan, looking up, for he was still
busy attempting to throttle Mariano.

"I tell my brother that you are a friend," said Lucien, scarce able to
restrain laughter.

"Faix, then, it don't look like it from the tratement I resaive at yer
hands.--Howsoever," said the seaman, relaxing his grip and rising, while
Mariano did the same, "it's well for you that I am. Bacri sent me wid a
few words o' comfort to 'ee, an' some purvisions, w