Part 48 (1/2)
”To--to--to help asped
”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 gentle?”
”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 ti 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 ain, 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 hiht now There's a boat's crew and an officer fro to find you”
”What!” cried theon to Aleck noith 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 theto 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 ht you wereyour pardon”
”There's nothing to beg pardon about,” said Aleck, cheerfully ”There, I' the light closer Where did these fetters co's shi+p as recked off Black Point, Master Aleck We got dozens out of the sands They're what they use when they put men in irons”
”Nonsense”
”I tell you they are, sir You ask Toular irons,” said the midshi+pman, huskily; and Aleck, who still held his hand, felt that he was all of a tremble
”So, you see, Master Aleck, it's on'y fair tit for tat, you know”
”That will do, sir,” cried the lad, sharply ”Don't be a coward as well as cruel to this gentleman Now, then, set down the lanthorn on one of the stones and unlock this fetter, or whatever it is”
”Can't, sir,” said the ruffly