Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/358

 the stranger, with a wider smile than before; "but I like to have my opinions corroborated or combated by other minds. We have now reached our destination; please follow me, and stoop a little, for the ceiling of the passage is rather low, and the poor people here cannot afford to light it."

The recent discussion had diverted Sam's mind from the character of the place into which he had been led, but a suspicion which had been growing now assailed him forcibly.

"Keep your stick handy," he whispered to Robin, at the same time grasping more firmly a stout cudgel which he carried.

These precautions seemed needless, however, for the stranger, opening with a latch-key a door at the further end of the dark passage, ushered them into a dimly lighted room, where about a dozen men were seated round a table drinking and smoking.

The men rose on the entrance of the visitors and received them with courtesy.

"Mr. Davis will be glad to see you, sir," said one; "he has been in much anxiety, but here he comes and will speak for himself."

A door at the other end of the room opened, and a tall slightly-built man entered. Sam saw at once that he was not Davis.

"Fool!" growled this man, with a savage look