They climbed down from their rock and pushed their way among the groups of pageant actors, unwanted spectators, and children who were beginning to tire of running about. They scrambled over a ridge of sharp rocks and dropped on to a broad track covered, like the beach outside, with round white stones. The sound of the voices behind them grew fainter. Even Mrs. Eames's voice died away. Their steps upon the rolling stones made a hollow, growling sound which reverberated from the walls and roof of the cave, multiplied and increased in volume. The light grew feebler as they went on. They felt, rather than saw, that they were ascending steeply. But the roof of the cave was still remotely high, only dimly discernible in the gloom, and the walls were still far apart. There were no signs of coming to the end. Beth turned and looked round. The sea and sky were like a picture in a frame, very distant, incredibly bright. Bunce's boat, the crew still crouched over their oars, was plainly to be seen. The moving figures at the entrance to the cave were silhouetted black outlines against the background of sea and sky. Beth, in a voice which sounded strangely deep, called Jimmy to look. After that they saw the world outside no more. The cave bent to the right. The light got feebler, so dim that now and then Jimmy had to strike matches in order to be able to see what was before them. It was plain at last that the walls were closing in, that the way was narrowed and the roof lower than it had been. "Getting near the end," said Jimmy. "If we're to come on a ghost of any sort it must be now or never." Chapter XV "Listen," said Beth suddenly. She spoke in a gasp, the toneless whisper of someone who is frightened. From far above them came sounds, sometimes of light tapping, sometimes as if a man were scraping at the roof of the cave. Jimmy struck another match, one of the last left in his box, and held it out in front of him. They had reached the end of the cave. The roof above them descended sharply and met a wall of solid rock through which there was no possibility of passing. But in the roof there was a hole. The match held aloft revealed it, very black, wide as the chimneys of the fireplaces to be found in old houses. It was from the hole that the sounds of tapping and scraping came. Suddenly from very far up came a new sound, a distant rattling. It increased and drew nearer. A large stone, striking the sides of the chimney sharply as it descended, crashed at their feet and was shattered into atoms. Such a thing was alarming enough without any suggestion of the supernatural about it. The force with which the stone struck the ground showed that it had fallen from a considerable height. Jimmy seized Beth by the arm and pulled her to one side of the cave, out of reach of other stones which might come crashing down. "Oh," gasped Beth, "what is it?"