wildly, for the fit of rage
and command into which he had forced himself was fast dying down into
misery and despair.

"I've come to help you, middy," cried Aleck, warmly, and he sank upon
one knee and caught the poor fellow's hand.

"To--to--to help me?" he gasped.

"Yes, and to have you out into the daylight again. You, Eben Megg, take
off the chain directly!" cried Aleck. "How dare you chain an officer
and a gentleman as if he were a thief or a dog?"

"Oh!" cried the prisoner, and the ejaculation sounded wildly hysterical
and passionate as that of a girl. "Oh--oh! Don't--don't speak to me--
don't! Oh, you--I can't bear it! I'm not a coward, but I've been shut
up down here in the horrible darkness of this place till I've been half
mad at times, and--and I'm half mad now. It's the loneliness--the being
alone down here night and day."

"Of course it is," cried Aleck, feeling half choked as he spoke; and
holding the lad's hand tightly between his own, he kept pressing it
hard, and ended by shaking it more and more warmly as he spoke. "Of
course, of course it is. It would have driven me quite mad; but you
shan't feel the loneliness again, for I'll stop with you till you're
out, happen what may."

"Hah! Thank you, thank you!" whispered the prisoner. "I couldn't help
breaking down. I did try so very hard. I didn't think that I should
behave like a girl."

"Hush!" whispered Aleck, who had interposed between the prisoner and the
gaoler with his lanthorn. "Hold up; don't let him see. There, it's
going to be all right now. There's a boat's crew and an officer from
the cutter somewhere above on the cliff, trying to find you."

"What!" cried the midshipman, holding on to Aleck now with both hands.
"Is that true, or are you saying it to keep up my spirits?"

"It's as true as true," cried Aleck.

"Then I'll hail again. Oh, how I have hailed! Do you think they could
hear me now the water's up?"

"Perhaps," said Aleck. "I heard you, and I've been hunting for long
enough to find the way down."

"What!" cried the middy, who was beginning to master the emotion from
which he had suffered. "Then you didn't know the way?"

"No, not till just now."

"But you knew of this horrible cave?"

"No; though it isn't above a mile from where I live."

"I--I thought you were mixed up with these smugglers, and--and--I beg
your pardon."

"There's nothing to beg pardon about," said Aleck, cheerfully. "There,
I'