Page 536 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

instinctively feeling the boat drawn towards some unknown
peril, held off the shelf of rocks out of reach of the current.
A sudden flash of fire, as from a flourished brand, burst out
above them, and floating downwards through the darkness,
in erratic circles, came an atom of burning wood. Surely no
one but a hunted man would lurk in such a savage retreat.
Blunt, in desperate anxiety, determined to risk all upon
one venture. ‘John Rex!’ he shouted up through his rounded
hands. The light flashed again at the eye-hole of the moun-
tain, and on the point above them appeared a wild figure,
holding in its hands a burning log, whose fierce glow il-
lumined a face so contorted by deadly fear and agony of
expectation that it was scarce human.
‘Here! here!’
‘The poor devil seems half-crazy,’ said Will Staples, un-
der his breath; and then aloud, ‘We’re FRIENDS!’ A few
moments sufficed to explain matters. The terrors which had
oppressed John Rex disappeared in human presence, and
the villain’s coolness returned. Kneeling on the rock plat-
form, he held parley.
‘It is impossible for me to come down now,’ he said. ‘The
tide covers the only way out of the cavern.’
‘Can’t you dive through it?’ said Will Staples.
‘No, nor you neither,’ said Rex, shuddering at the thought
of trusting himself to that horrible whirlpool.
‘What’s to be done? You can’t come down that wall.’
‘Wait until morning,’ returned Rex coolly. ‘It will be dead
low tide at seven o’clock. You must send a boat at six, or
there-abouts. It will be low enough for me to get out, I dare