"Stop, True; lie down, sir!" he said, and the dog paused, though the chain was still strained tight. Then Edred was glad of his bedroom candle. He pulled it out and lighted it and blinked, perceiving almost at once that he was in the beginning of an underground passage. He looked up; he could see above him the stars plain through a net of furze bushes. He stood up and True went on. Next moment he knew that he was in the old smugglers' cave that he and Elfrida had so often tried to find. The dog and the boy went on, along a passage, down steps cut in the rock, through a rough, heavy door, and so into the smugglers' cave itself, an enormous cavern as big as a church. Out of an opening at the upper end a stream of water fell, and ran along the cave clear between shores of smooth sand. And, lying on the sand near the stream, was something dark. True gave a bound that jerked the chain out of Edred's hand, and leaped upon the dark thing, licking it, whining, and uttering little dog moans of pure love and joy. For the dark something was Dickie, fast asleep. He was bound with cords, his poor lame foot tied tight to the other one. His arms were bound too. And now he was awake. "Down, True!" he said. "Hush! Ssh!" "Where are they--the man and woman?" Edred whispered. "Oh, Edred! You! You perfect brick!" Dickie whispered back. "They're in the further cave. I heard them snoring before I went to sleep." "Lie still," said Edred; "I've got a knife. I'll cut the cords." He cut them, and Dickie tried to stand up. But his limbs were too stiff. Edred rubbed his legs, while Dickie stretched his fingers to get the pins and needles out of his arms. Edred had stuck the candle in the sand. It made a ring of light round them. That was why they did not see a dark figure that came quietly creeping across the sand towards them. It was quite close to them before Edred looked up. [Illustration: "'ELFRIDA!' SAID BOTH BOYS AT ONCE" _Page_ 272] "Oh!" he gasped, and Dickie, looking up, whispered, "It's all up--_run_. Never mind me. I shall get away all right." "No," said Edred, and then with a joyous leap of the heart perceived that the dark figure was Elfrida in her father's ulster. ("I hadn't time to put on my stockings," she explained later. "You'd have known me a mile off by my white legs if I hadn't covered them up with this.") "Elfrida!" said both boys at once. "Well, you didn't think I was going to be out of it," she said. "I've been behind you all the way, Edred. Don't tell me anything. I won't ask any questions, only come along out of it. Lean on me."