Without a word Geoffrey obeyed, and watched him curiously as, after taking both sculls now, he turned the boat's head towards the rocks, and waiting his time, as he pulled gently on, he paused till a good wave came in, and then, balancing the little boat on the top, allowed it to be carried right in between a couple of masses of rock, barely wide enough apart to admit of its passing. Then, pulling one oar sharply, he turned round by another mass of rock, and Geoffrey found that they were in smooth water, floating in under a rough arch, so low that they had to bend right down in the boat for a minute; after which the ceiling rose, and he found that they were in a rugged cavern, whose light only came from the low opening through which they had passed. It was a gloomy, weird-looking place, in which the waves plashed, and sucked, and sounded hollow, echoing, and strange, each wave that came softly rolling in, carrying them forward as it passed under them, and then seemed to continue its journey into the darkness ahead. "Mouth's covered at high water," said old Prawle, as he laid the oars in the boat. "Then how shall we get out?" said Geoffrey, to whom the idea of being caught by the tide and drowned in such a place as this had, in spite of his troubles, no attraction. "Same as we got in," growled old Prawle. "'Fraid?" "No," said Geoffrey, sturdily. "I don't want to be caught though." "I've been several times," said the old man, with a hoarse chuckle. "It scared me the first time, but I soon found there was plenty of room." "Bit of smuggling?" said Geoffrey. "Iss, my son," said the old man, with a laugh. "I don't believe there's a soul ever been in this zorn besides me." "But you don't smuggle now?" said Geoffrey. "No, not unless I want a drop of brandy or Hollands gin." "Then why have you come here?" "Ha, ha, ha! I'll show you," said the old man, laughing. "I haven't lived here for nothing. Wait till I've lit the lantern, and we'll see." He took the matches, and as he struck one the roof and sides of the cave seemed to flash with metallic green, but Geoffrey saw that it was only the bright, wet moss that he had found in the adit of the old mine, and he sat there watching the old man, as he lit and closed the lantern, set it down on the thwart, and then proceeded to guide the boat forward along the narrow channel of water, over which the granite roof spread in a low arch, sometimes rising ten or twenty feet, but more often coming down as if to crush them. They must have gone several hundred yards, and still they went on, though it grew much more narrow, till there was little more than room enough for the boat to go along, but the water seemed deep beneath her keel, and the cavern or rift still wound on.