“’Tain’t that,” said he; “’tain’t that. It’s the sperits--the ghosts of the old pirates, that allers haunts this island. No man dare live on it, except when they come in companies. One or two, men or boys, air at their mussy. ’Tain’t no or’nary uthly dume that’s come over them thar lads. It’s Kidd an his gang that’s ben an done for them.” XVIII. _A Place of Peril.--The Descent of the Darkness.--Dreadful Expectation.--The Sound from the nether Abyss.--The rising Waters.--Higher and higher.--A Gleam of Hope.--The Beams intermixed.--Borne upward on the Waters.--The last Chance.--A final Struggle.--Pat up to the Surface.--Dropping a Line to a Friend.--The midnight Sky, and the moonlit Sea.--The lone Hut.--The Explorers.--Despondency.--A last Resort.--Sleepers awake.--Wild and frantic Joy.--The Voice of the Landlord.--The Joint Stock Company, and the Steam Engine._ THE coming of darkness gave a new horror to those which already surrounded Bart and Pat far down in the pit. This made them perceive how long they had already been down, and threw a new difficulty in the way of escape. But that way of escape seemed already to be effectually closed when Pat brought back his terrible intelligence from the bottom of the pit. They had formed a new plan, which had given them hope; but now the only way of carrying out that plan into execution was snatched from them by the advance of the waters. There was nothing for them to do. To climb up the log casing was impossible, and to dig through the clay was equally so without some strong, sharp instrument, like the pickaxe. Nothing was visible down below, and up above it grew steadily darker. Whether the water below was rising higher in the pit or not they were unable to find out from actual sight, but they had a full conviction that it was steadily advancing higher and higher towards them, and that with its advance it was also unsettling or sapping away altogether the sides of the pit. Awful were the moments, and terrible the forebodings. The darkness intensified every fear, and made the actual dangers by which they were surrounded still more formidable.