Part 46 (2/2)
”Then I'd better hide it or shut it,” said Eben, and, setting the lanthorn down upon the rocky floor, he slipped off his rough jacket and covered the lanthorn so that not a ray of light could be seen escaping through the panes of thinly-scraped horn
To the lad's wonderment, no sooner was the lanthorn hidden than instead of the place being intensely dark, it was lit up by a soft translucent twilight, which seemed to rise out of the water where it was disturbed
This light, where the water reathing and swaying softly, was of a delicious, transparent blue, and by degrees, as he gazed in awe and wonder, a low archway could bea considerable space, but beautifully indistinct, festooned as it was by filaments and ribands of seaweed and wrack, all apparently of a jetty black, seen through water of a wondrous blue But the whole archas inits shape, while the sea groayed and curved and undulated, and at tiht, as if swept by some swift current
”Is it always like this?” said Aleck, in a whisper, though he could not have explained why he spoke in such awe-stricken tones
”Oh, no, h”
”Tide--high?” said Aleck, in a startled voice ”Does the water ever fill the cavern? No, no, of course not,” he said, hastily ”I can see it never coht,” said the sler
”And the tide lays the ler ”Just at certain tides”
”But I must have seen the h; my lad, but I don't s'pose you were ever there when a boat could come in”
”Then a boat could coly, ”it could coh
”No, I don't know that I do,” said Aleck, shortly ”Now, then, I didn't come to see how beautiful the place looked I want to see and talk to that poor fellow you've got shut up here”
”Uler ”I don't know about 'poor fellow' He has been better off, I daresay, than I hile they keptthe et out”
”But why did you ler, contemptuously; ”it was the silly woot the silly idea in their heads that they could ive the pressed men back--if they held on to the lad”
”But you'll set him free at once?” said Aleck, quickly
”I don't know, my lad,” was the reply ”It's rather a 's officer like that; and it seeo”
”Oh, but you o The punish hi ashore after being pressed for a sailor”
”Yes,” cried Aleck; ”but--”
”Yes, sir; but,” said the sh, ”it's all one-sided like I didn't begin on thean on me, to rob a poor fellow of his liberty Now, I knoas a foolish thing for those woet hold of that boy, half smother him, and shut him up here; and I don't want to keep him”
”Of course not”
”But what ao, and say 'Run for it,' he'll be back before I knohere I a a man, I shall have to stand fire for everybody
'Sides which it'll beknown to the Revenue officers where our lair is, and that'll be ruin to everybody”