He moistened his lips, pressed his hat firmly on his head, then started forward and crossed the whole bridge at a run. "Here I be!" he panted. "Name it all! I’ll never do it again." "Then I shall leave you behind. My word! ’tis close and stuffy here." They went on. In a minute or two the passage widened, and looking round, they discovered that they were in what appeared to be the entrance to a huge cavern. Still advancing, they were brought up within a few yards by a rough and irregular wall, not wholly of granite, like the wall of the seal cave, but partly of rock, partly of earth. There were small heaps of soil and stones of different sizes on the uneven floor, and the wall was not perpendicular, but inclined like the eaves of a house. Dick gazed about him in search of a further opening. There was none. The way was blocked, just as it had been in the offshoot of the passage from the seal cave to the well. The general appearance of the place indicated that at some time or other the upper earth had fallen in. To make sure that there was not even the smallest orifice in the wall, Dick moved close along it, carefully examining it by the light of his candle. When about half-way round, he stopped, and placed his hand on something that protruded from the wall, which was here earthen. But this projecting object was neither earth nor rock. In shape it was convex and regular. He passed his hand over it, brushing off some adhering particles of soil. "Why, Sam," he said wonderingly, "’tis part of a tub." "Do ’ee tell o’t?" said Sam, moving his palm over the surface. "So ’tis, and be-dazed if there bean’t a rope on it." He tugged at the rope, and fell backwards, almost upsetting Dick. "Rot it all!" he exclaimed. "’Tis rotted already," said Dick smiling. "It must have been there a long time." "Cansta pull un out, Maister?" said Sam. "Maybe there’s summat inside, and I do be most tarrible dry." "We’ll see; but you shan’t drink neat spirit, Sam, so you needn’t think it. Lend a hand here." Between them the boys soon succeeded in working the tub from the loose earth in which it was imbedded. It was a small barrel about fourteen inches in diameter, bound with wooden hoops, exactly similar to those which the smugglers were wont to use. The broken rope, or "sling stuff," as it was called, attached to it proved that it had once formed part of a run cargo. Sam shook it; there was no "glug" of liquor. "’Tis spiled, sure enough," he said, "but the hoops bean’t broke." "Here’s another, Sam," said Dick, who had been looking into the hole left by the removal of the tub. "I can’t help thinking we have come to an old haunt of the smugglers; yes, I understand it now. You know there was a landslip hundreds of years ago, just beyond the cove. The earth must have fallen in on a cargo before it could be removed." "But why didn’ they dig ’em out arterwards? And why be the tub as empty as a drum?"