pass without anyone happening to enter
the bushes.

Laying down his gun, Julian began to search in earnest. It was half an
hour before, feeling about in the coarse grass, he came upon a handle.
He pulled at it, gently at first, then as it did not yield, he exerted
his strength, and it gave way, and a section of the rough herbage rose,
while three feet away it sank in the same proportion. Raising it higher,
he saw that the trap-door--for such it was--was two feet wide by about
five feet long and eighteen inches deep; it was, in fact, a deep tray
pivoted on the centre and filled with earth, on which grass grew as
freely as in the ground adjoining.

The greater portion of the trap was overhung by bushes, which grew so
thickly around the part which sank that the probability was small indeed
that anyone would tread upon it. Julian saw, too, that under the handle
was a bolt that, when fastened, would hold the trap firmly down. No
doubt the man in his haste had forgotten to fasten it before he
descended. Looking down, Julian saw a circular hole like a well,
evidently artificially made in the chalk; a ladder was fastened against
one side.

[Illustration: JULIAN FINDS HIMSELF A PRISONER AMONG THE SMUGGLERS.]

Julian hesitated. Should he return to Weymouth, inform the authorities
that he had traced the murderer of Mr. Faulkner to a place of
concealment, and bring them there to arrest him, or should he go down
and encounter him single-handed? Although of a fearless disposition, he
would have decided on the more prudent course had it not been that to
have done so, would have let the authorities into the knowledge of the
smugglers' cave. Although he had determined to have nothing more to do
with them, this he felt would be an act of treachery, for it was only
because he had been believed by Bill to be absolutely trustworthy, that
the latter had told him of the existence of this cavern and of the
secret exit, and without that information he would never have searched
for and discovered the trap-door. Then, too, the thought that the credit
he would gain by the capture of the murderer single-handed would go far
to efface the memory of the disgrace that had befallen him, helped to
decide him.

He fetched his gun and slung it over his shoulder, got upon the ladder,
and pulled the trap-door down behind him. As he did so he found that it
moved easily, and that he could push it up again without any difficulty,
and feeling the bolt, di