CHAPTER VIII
"Not another step!" the Princess declared. "I am going back at once."
"I too," Forrest declared. "Your smuggling ancestors, my dear De laBorne, must indeed have loved adventure, if they spent much of theirtime crawling about here like rats."
"As you will," Cecil answered. "The expedition is Miss Jeanne's, notmine."
"And I am going on," Jeanne declared. "I want to see where we come outon the beach."
"This way, then," Cecil said. "You need not be afraid to walk upright.The roof is six feet high all the way. You must tread carefully,though. There are plenty of holes and stones about."
The Princess and Forrest disappeared. Jeanne, with her skirts held highin one hand, and an electric torch in the other, followed Cecil slowlyalong the gloomy way. The walls were oozing with damp, glisteningpatches, like illuminated salt stains, and queer fungi started out fromunexpected places. Sometimes their footsteps fell on the rock, awakingstrange echoes down the gallery. Sometimes they sank deep into thesand. Cecil looked often behind, and once held out his hand to help hiscompanion over a difficult place. At last he paused, and she heard himstruggling to turn a key in a great worm-eaten door on their right.
"This is the room," he explained, "where they held their meetings, andwhere the stuff was hidden. It was used for more than twenty years, andthe Customs' people never seemed to have had even an inkling of itsexistence."
He pushed the door open with difficulty. They found themselves in agloomy chamber, with vaulted roof and stone floor. A faint streak ofdaylight from an opening somewhere in the roof, partially lit theplace. Here, too, the walls were damp and the odour appalling. Therewere some fragments of broken barrels at one end, and an oak table inthe middle of the floor. Jeanne looked round and shivered.
"Let us go on to the end," she said.
Cecil nodded, and they made their way on down the passage.
"The roof is getting lower now," he said. "You had better stoop alittle."
She stopped short.
"What is that?" she asked fearfully.
A sound like rolling thunder, faint at first, but growing more distinctat every step, broke the chill silence of the place.
"The sea," Cecil answered. "We are getting near to the beach."
Jeanne nodded and crept on. Louder and louder the sound seemed tobecome, until at last she paused, half terrified.
"Where are we?" she gasped. "It sounds as though the sea were rightover our heads."
Cecil shook his head.
"It is an illusion," he said. "The sound comes from the air-hole there.We are forty yards from the cliff still."
They crept on, until at last, after a turn in the gallery, they saw afaint glimmering of light. A few more yards and they came to astandstill.
"The entrance is boarded up, you see," Cecil said, "but you can seethrough the chinks. There is the sea just below, and the rope ladderused to hang from these staples."
She looked out. Sheer below was the sea, breaking upon the rocks andsending a torrent of spray into the air with every wave.
"We can't get out this way, then?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"No, we should want a rope ladder," he said, "and a boat. Have you seenenough?"
"More than enough," Jeanne answered. "Let us get back."
* * * * *
Jeanne sank into a garden seat a few minutes later with a littleexclamation of relief.
"Never," she declared, "have I appreciated fresh air so much. I think,Mr. De la Borne, that smuggling, though it was a very romanticprofession, must have had its unpleasant side."
Cecil nodded.
"There were more air-holes in those days," he said, "but our ancestorswere a tougher race than we. Coarse brutes, most of them, I imagine,"he added, lighting a cigarette. "Drank beer for breakfast, and smokedclay pipes before meals. Fancy if one had their constitutions and ourtastes!"
"The two would scarcely go together," Jeanne remarked. "But after all Ishould think that absinthe and cigarettes are more destructive. I amdying for some tea. Let us go in and find the others."
Tea was set out in the hall, but only Engleton was there. Forrest andthe Princess were walking slowly up and down the avenue.
"I imagine," the latter was saying drily, "that we are fairly free fromeavesdroppers here. Now tell me what it is that you have to say, Nigel."
"I am bothered about Engleton," Forrest said. "I didn't like hisinsisting upon cutting last night. What do you think he meant by it?"
The Princess shrugged her shoulders.
"Nothing at all," she answered. "He may have thought that we were luckytogether, and of course he knows that you are the best player. There isno reason why he should be willing to play with Cecil de la Borne, whenby cutting with you he would be more likely to win."
"You think that that is all?" Forrest asked.
"I think so," the Princess answered. "What had you in your mind?"
"I wondered," Forrest said thoughtfully, "whether he had heard any ofthe gossip at the club."
The Princess frowned impatiently.
"For Heaven's sake, don't be imaginative, Nigel!" she declared. "If yougive way like this you will lose your nerve in no time."
"Very well," Forrest said. "Let us take it for granted, then, that hedid it only because he preferred to play with me to playing against me.What is to become of our little scheme if we cut as we did last nightall the time?"
The Princess smiled.
"You ought to be able to manage that," she said carelessly. "You are sogood at card tricks that you should be able to get an ace when you wantit. I always cut third from the end, as you know."
"That's all very well," Forrest answered, "but we can't go on cuttingtwo aces all the time. I ran it pretty fine last night, when for thesecond time I gave you a three or a four, and drew a two myself. But heseems to have the devil's own luck. They cut under us, as you know."
The Princess looked up toward the house. She had seen Jeanne and Cecilappear.
"Those people are back from their underground pilgrimage," sheremarked. "Have you anything definite to suggest? If not, we had bettergo in."
"There is only one way, Ena," Forrest said, "in which we could improvematters."
"And what is that?" she asked quickly.
"Don't you think we could get our host in?"
The Princess was silent for several moments.
"It is a little dangerous, I am afraid," she said.
"I don't see why," Forrest answered. "If he were once in he'd have tohold his tongue, and you can do just what you like with him. He seemsto me to be just one of those pulpy sort of persons whom you couldpersuade into a thing before he had had time to think about it."
"I will drop him a hint if you like," the Princess said thoughtfully,"and see how he takes it. Are you sure that the game is worth thecandle?"
"Absolutely," Forrest answered eagerly. "I saw Engleton drop twothousand playing baccarat one night, and he never turned a hair. Iwasn't playing, worse luck."
"If I can get Cecil alone before dinner," the Princess said, "I willsound him. I think we had better go back now. We are a little old forromantic wanderings, and the wind is beginning to disarrange my hair."
"See what you can do with him, then," Forrest said, as they retracedtheir steps. "I'll call in and hear if you've anything to tell me on myway down for dinner."
The Princess nodded. They entered the hall, and Cecil at once drew aneasy-chair to the tea-table.
"My good people," the Princess declared, "I am famished. Your sea air,Cecil, is the most wonderful thing in the world. For years I have notknown what it was like to be hungry. Hot cakes, please! And, Jeanne,please make my tea. Jeanne knows just how I like it. Tell us about thesmuggler's cave, Jeanne. Was it really so wonderful?"
Jeanne laughed.
"It was very, very weird and very smelly," she said. "I think that youwere wise to turn back."
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