'
'Tut, man,' retorted Ratsey testily, 'and if they waked, they would but
pull the blankets tight about their ears, and say 'twas Blackbeard piping
his crew of lost Mohunes to help him dig for treasure.'
Yet for all that 'twas plain that Block ruled the roost, for there was
silence for a minute, and then one said, 'Ay, Master Elzevir is right;
let us away, the night is far spent, and we have nothing but the sweeps
to take the lugger out of sight by dawn.'
So the meeting broke up, and the torchlight grew dimmer, and died away
as it had come in a red flicker on the roof, and the footsteps sounded
fainter as they went up the passage, until the vault was left to the dead
men and me. Yet for a very long time--it seemed hours--after all had gone
I could hear a murmur of distant voices, and knew that some were talking
at the end of the passage, and perhaps considering how the landslip might
best be restored. So while I heard them thus conversing I dared not
descend from my perch, lest someone might turn back to the vault, though
I was glad enough to sit up, and ease my aching back and limbs. Yet in
the awful blackness of the place even the echo of these human voices
seemed a kindly and blessed thing, and a certain shrinking loneliness
fell on me when they ceased at last and all was silent.
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