Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/114

 out and run down the passage in the opposite direction. I suspected he was about some mischief, but said nothing.

"It was getting dark, as I have said, though not dark enough for lighting the lamps, and in some corners below it was as dark as midnight. To one of these places Jeff led us.

Mind how you go now,' whispered Jeff; 'it 's here somewhere, and there 's a hole too—look out—there it is!'

What! the ghost?' whispered Stumps, beginning to feel uneasy. To say truth, I began to feel uneasy myself without well knowing why. At that moment I fell over something, and came down with a crash that shook Stumps's nerves completely out of order.

I say, let 's go back,' he muttered in a tremulous voice.

No, no,' whispered Jeff, seizing Stumps by the arm with a sudden grip that made him give a short yelp, 'we are at the place now. It 's in this dark passage. Listen!

"We all held our breath and listened. For a few seconds we heard nothing, but presently a slight tapping was heard.

I 've heard,' whispered Jeff in a low tone, 'that when he big ship was buildin', one o' the plate-riveters disappeared in some hole between the two