"Cling to the ivy, then, and don't look down," retorted Job, coolly.
The captain took the advice, and Job opened the door.
With a spring, the captain landed beyond the threshold beside Job, and wiped the cold sweat from his brow.
"A hard bit, bean't it? But it's nothing when you are used to it. I've done it, off and on, three times a week, for the last three years. Now see: In front of ye is the master's study. This old door, by a whim of his, was left behind the bookcase; the bookcase opens out to it, and it was through that, ye see, we came t'other night. Look'ee here."
He touched a spring as he spoke, and passed through the opening bookcase into the study.
The change of scene from the dark horror of the narrow ledge and its abyss below to the dust-covered room with its modern furniture was striking and extraordinary.
The captain, who had practiced that maneuver, obeyed, and the two men cleared as narrow a strip of dust as possible.
"That will be all right when we come back," said Job.
As he spoke he diverted the captain's attention for a moment, and in that moment touched the spring of the opposite bookcase.
The bookcase drew back, and a gust of air, damp and chilly, rose from the aperture.
It was that chilly, moist atmosphere which the captain had noticed when the ghost disappeared.
He threw the light down the dark deep hole.
Job closed the door carefully, and stepped on to the ladder, following close upon the captain.
"Careful!" he warned. "Some of the steps be gone."
The warning was not unneeded, for as he spoke the captain's feet slipped through one of the missing links, and the ladder swayed to and fro.
After a silent descent for some moments he felt his feet touch the ground once more. He waited until Job came with the light, and then saw that he was standing in a small apartment cut out of the solid rock, and with only two means of egress apparent--the one by the ladder down which he had descended, and the other by a round hole just large enough to admit the body of a full-grown man.
"We are now just under the house, captain," said Job, turning the lantern. "Up above us they be comfortably asleep in their beds--rum, bean't it?"
With the lantern suspended to his neck, he commenced crawling through the hole, and the captain, whose courage was pretty severely tested, followed.