I tried to swim, but my legs seemed to be weighted, while around me floated thousands of hideous jabbering things which I thought tried to lure me on to the rocks. I looked landward and the house in which I had been imprisoned appeared to shine in a strange ruddy light, until it looked like one of those enchanted houses which one sees in dreams. Then I thought I heard Naomi's voice again, "Help, Jasper, help!" But all my struggles seemed of no avail. I fancied I was being carried by the force of the waves farther and farther out to sea, while all the time Eli and the other man beckoned me onward, their boat rising and falling on the bosom of the ever-heaving waters. Then I felt cold hands grip me, and I was dragged I knew not whither, while everything was engulfed in impenetrable darkness. CHAPTER XVII TELLS OF THE MANNER OF MY ESCAPE, OF THE STRANGE MAN I MET, AND OF ELI'S STORY OF A BURIED TREASURE The next thing I can remember was a sensation of choking, of trying in vain to get my breath; then a weight seemed to be slowly rolled from me, and I felt myself free. I opened my eyes and found myself in a cave. At first I thought it was the one in which I had fought with Nick Tresidder, but I soon found myself to be mistaken. I lay upon coarse, dry sand, while close to me a fire burned. Its grateful light and warmth caused a pleasant sensation; then I realised that my wet clothes had been taken from me, and that I was rolled in a warm, dry blanket. "You be better now, Maaster Jasper, be'ant 'ee, then?" I looked up and saw Eli Fraddam bending over me. "How did I get here?" I asked, in a dazed kind of way, "and where am I?" "You be cloase to Bedruthan Steps, an tha's where you be, Maaster Jasper; you be in one of the caaves. 'Tes oal lew and coasy 'ere, and you'll be oal right again. But you've bin as sick as a shag, and as cowld as a coddle." I tried to call to memory what had passed. Then I said, "But how did I get here, Eli, and how long is it since we came?" "We brought 'ee 'ere, Maaster Jasper, in the booat, ya knaw. You tumbled in the say, and we was a goodish bit afore we cud git 'ee on boaard. We was feard for a long time that you was dead, but you're oal right now. Yer things 'll zoon be dry, and then you c'n dress up oal spruce and purty." Slowly my mind became clear; then I remembered the man who had been in the boat while Eli and I had been together in the secret passage. "Where is the man who helped you with the boat?" I asked. "Here 'ee es. Come 'ere, maaster." Then I saw a strange-looking man who, as far as I could judge, might be any age between fifty and seventy. I looked at him steadily for some time. Somehow his face seemed familiar. I could not call to mind where I had seen it, however. He had a long gray beard, while his hair was also long and unkempt. His eyes shone with a wild brilliancy, and he seemed to be always eagerly watching. "Thank you for helping me," I said; "it was very good of you."