The height of the aperture was insufficient to admit the passage of the boat with him sitting up; so putting the boat under headway he lay down and thus glided in. In high tide, this opening, he concluded, was covered by water, while in extreme low water the beach must be bare in front of the bluff, as the water at this juncture now was quite shallow. He almost immediately emerged into a cave in the heart of the bluff. It was as large as a couple of good-sized rooms, and looked as if the waters of many years had eaten it out. The work of man, however, was seen in the planks overhead, which, resting on wooden supports, held the roof in place. The water reached about midway into the chamber, and from its edge the pebbly ground ascended to the farther side of the cave, where a narrow aperture branched off--evidently cut as a passageway by the hand of man. Grounding his boat, Fritz stepped out and took a survey of his surroundings. "Dis don'd look ash if id vas a healthy blace at high tide, but I reckon dot id vas der blace vere dey run in smuggled goods," he mused. "Dot passage probably leads to a higher und dryer place." Holding his revolver ready for use in case of emergency, he stole softly toward the subterranean passage, with a view to exploring it. It was a dark, uninviting tunnel, of just sufficient width and height to admit of a person's passage, and looked as if it might have no connection with any other chamber, as he could see no light to indicate its terminus. Nothing daunted, however, he entered it and walked along softly, ready for any surprise. A score of steps he went, and then emerged into what he concluded was another large subterranean chamber, but where all was of Stygian darkness. Luckily he had a close metal pocket-box of matches with him, and lighting one after another he discovered a half dozen lamps in brackets around the chamber side. One of them he soon lit, when he proceeded to inspect his situation. As before stated, the sides of the cavern were walled up like a cellar; and in size it was a hundred and fifty feet square, by ten or twelve in height. The ceiling overhead was planked, and these supported by rude pillars resting upon the ground floor, as in the outer cave. Here and there, scattered about, were heaps of straw, pieces of wooden boxes and canvas, and occasionally a bottle, or a piece of damaged silk or lace. At the opposite side of this chamber was a round hole in the ceiling, similar to a well, down through which hung a rope ladder to the floor. This seemed to indicate that either there was another chamber, overhead, or else this was a means of access to the open air. In the stone wall, at either side of the room, were doorways supplied with strong, grated iron doors, which were fastened with padlocks and chains.