Chapter 21. The Mystery Unrolls

________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. THE MYSTERY UNROLLS

Four more days passed before the weather broke, and then two more when they were not at liberty. But at last came one when their tutor announced that they could have the whole day to themselves, and it was not long before each announced at home that he was off out for a good long cliff ramble.

This meant taking a supply of provisions, with which each was soon furnished, so as not to break into the holiday by having to come back to dinner.

No questions were asked, for it was taken for granted, both at the Mount and at the Doctor's cottage, that they would be going fishing or collecting; and the boys set off in high glee, meaning to supplement their dinner with freshly cooked fish, and plenty of excitement by climbing about the rocks at the entrance of the caves.

Everything seemed gloriously fresh and bright after the late rains: the birds were circling overhead, and the sea was of a wonderfully vivid blue. In fact, so bright was the day that Vince said,--

"I say, isn't it a shame to go and bury ourselves underground?"

"Not a bit of it," cried Mike; "it's glorious! Why, it's a regular treat, after being away so long. Have you enough wood for cooking?"

"Plenty."

"And what about water?"

"We took a big bottle full last time."

"That's right. I say, keep your eyes open. See anything of old Joe Daygo? Don't seem to be looking on purpose."

They both kept their eyes well open, but there was no sign of the old fisherman; and before long the reason why was plain, for on their coming a little nearer to the cliff edge, on their way to where they struck off for the oak wood, Vince suddenly pointed outward:--

"There he goes."

"Who?" said Mike.

"Old Joe. He has got his boat mended, then."

"That can't be his boat."

"It is. Why, look at that patch on the sail. It's a long way off, but I'm sure it's the boat. He's gone out a long way, seemingly."

"Yes: going out to the sands, I suppose, to try if he can't get some soles."

"Well, we shan't have him playing the spy to-day," said Vince, who was in capital spirits. "Now, if we could see old Lobster going too, we should be all right."

"I dare say his father's got him hoeing carrots or something. We shan't see him."

They did not see Jemmy Carnach's hopeful son, nor any other living being but a cow, which raised its soft eyes to gaze at them sadly, and remained looking after them till they plunged into the scrub-wood, and, once there, felt safe. Then, after their usual laborious work beneath the trees, they reached the granite wilderness, clambered in and out and over the great blocks, keeping an eye as much as they could on the ridge up to their right, in case of the Lobster being there, and finally reached the opening, jumped down through the brambles, and at once made for the spot where the lanthorn and tinder-box were stowed.

"I say, isn't it jolly?" cried Mike eagerly. "Just like old times, getting back here again. What a while it seems!"

"Yes, it does seem a good while," said Vince, beginning to strike a light. "I hope nothing has happened since we were here."

"Eh?" cried Mike excitedly. "What can have happened?"

"Sea washed the place out, and taken all our kitchen and parlour things away."

"Nonsense!" said Mike contemptuously. "Oh, it might, you know; there would have been no waves, but there might have been a high tide. There must have been tremendously high tides down there at one time, so as to have washed out those caves."

"Ah! it's a precious long time since they've been washed out, I know," said Mike, laughing. "They don't ever get swept out now."

"No, but they're kept neat, with sand on the floor," said Vince, snapping to the door of the lanthorn and holding it up for the soft yellow light to shine upon the granite walls. "I say, Mike, don't you think we're a pair of old stupids to make all this fuss over a hole in the ground?"

"No: why should we be?"

"Because it doesn't seem any good. Here we take all this trouble hiding away and going down the hole like worms, so as to crawl about there in the sand."

"And what about the beautiful caves, and the rocks where we sit and watch the sea-birds?"

"We could see them just as well off the cliffs."

"But the cove with the great walls of rock all round, and the current racing round like a whirlpool?"

"Plenty of currents and eddies anywhere off the coast."

"But the fishing?"

"We could fish in easier places," said Vince, talking loudly now they were well down in the passage. "Why, we've had better luck everywhere than here."

"Oh, you are a discontented chap!" said Mike. "You ought to think yourself wonderfully well off, to be able to come down to such a place. See what jolly feasts we've had down here all alone."

"Yes, but it seems to me sometimes like nonsense to be cooking potatoes and frying fish down in a cave, when we could sit comfortably at a table at your house or ours, and have no trouble at all."

"Well, you are a fellow!" cried Mike. "You said one day that the fish we cooked down there tasted twice as good as it did at home."

"Yes, I did one day when we hadn't got it smoky."

"We don't often get it smoky," protested Mike. "But I say, don't talk like that. You were as eager to make our little secret place there as I was. You don't mean to say you're getting tired of it?"

"I don't know," said Vince. "Yes, I do. No, I'm not getting tired of it yet, for it does seem very jolly, as you say, when we do get down here all alone, and feel as if we were thousands of miles from everywhere. But I shall get tired of it some day. I don't think it's half so good since we found the way into the other cave."

"I do," said Mike. "It's splendid to have made such a discovery, and to find that once upon a time there were pirates or smugglers here."

Meanwhile they were slowly descending the bed of the ancient underground rivulet, so familiar with every turn and hollow that they knew exactly where to place their feet when they reached the little falls, and never thinking of stopping to examine the pot-holes, where the great rounded boulders, that had turned and turned by the force of the falling water, still remained. Vince's light danced about in the darkness like a large glowworm, and Mike followed it, humming a tune, whistling, or making a few remarks from time to time; but he was very thoughtful all the same, as his mind dwelt upon the packages in the far cavern, and he felt the desire to examine them increase, till he was quite in a state of fever.

"Pretty close, aren't we?" said Mike at last, to break the silence of the gloomy tunnel.

"Yes, we shall be there in five minutes now. But, I say, suppose we find that some one has been since we were here?"

"Well, whoever it was, couldn't have taken the caves away."

"No; but if Lobster has found out the way down?--and I dare say he has, after tumbling into the front hall."

"'Tisn't the front hall," said Mike laughingly; "it's the back door. Front hall's down by the sea, where the seal cave is."

"Have it which way you like," said Vince, giving the lanthorn a swing, "but it seems to me most like the back attic window. I say, though, if Lobster has found it out, he'll have devoured every scrap we left there, and, I daresay, carried off the fishing tackle and pans."

"A thief! He'd better not," cried Mike.

"Ha--ha--ha!" laughed Vince. "I do call that good."

"What? I don't know what you mean."

"Your calling him a thief for taking away the things he discovered there."

"Well, so he would be. They're not his."

"No," said Vince, laughing; "and those things in the far cavern aren't ours, but you want to take them."

"That's different," said Mike hastily. "We only put our things there a few weeks ago; those bales and barrels have been there perhaps hundreds of years."

"Say thousands while you're about it, Ladle," cried Vince cheerily. "Hold hard. _Puff_!"

The candle was blown out through a hole in the lanthorn, and the latter lowered down to the usual niche close to the cavern wall, where they were accustomed to keep it.

"Down with you!" cried Vince; and Mike required no second telling, but glided down the slope so sharply that he rolled over in the sand at the bottom.

"Below!" shouted Vince; and he charged down after him, sitting on his heels, and also having his upset. "I say, though, I hope no one has been."

They walked across the deep, yielding sand, with the soft pearly light playing on the ceiling; peered through into the outer cave; and then Mike, who was first, darted back, for there was a loud splash and the sound as of some one wallowing through the water at the cave mouth.

"Only a seal," cried Vince. "There goes another."

He ran forward over the sand in time to see a third pass out of a low, dark archway at the right of the place where the clear water was all in motion from the powerful creatures swimming through.

"I say, Mike, why don't we take the light some day and wade in there to see how far it goes?" said Vince, as he looked curiously at the doorway of what was evidently a regular seal's lurking-place.

"Because it's wet and dark; and how do we know that we could wade in there?"

"Because you can see the rock bottom. It's shallow as shallow."

"And how do you know that it doesn't go down like a wall as soon as you get in?"

"We could feel our way with a stick, step by step; or, I know, we'd get the rope--bring a good long one--and I'd fasten it round your waist and stand at the door and send you in. Of course I'd soon pull you out if you went down."

"Thank you," cried Mike, "you are kind. My mother said you were such a nice boy, Cinder, and she was glad I had you for a companion, as the Crag was so lonely. You are a very nice boy, 'pon my word."

"Yes; I wouldn't let you drown," said Vince.

"Thank ye. I say, Cinder, when you catch me going into a place like that, just you tell me of it, there's a good fellow."

Vince laughed.

"Why, who knows what's in there?" said Mike, with a shiver.

"Ah! who knows?" said Vince merrily. "I tell you what it is, Ladle: that must be the place where the things live that old Joe talked about."

"What things?"

"Those that take hold of a boat under water, and pull it along till it can't come back and is never heard of again."

"Ah, you may grin, Cinder," said Mike seriously; "but, do you know, I thought all that when we were out yonder in the boat. It felt just as if some great fish had seized it and was racing it along as hard as it could, and more than once I fancied we should never get back."

"Did you?" said Vince quietly.

"Yes, you needn't sneer. You're such a wooden-headed, solid chap, nothing ever shakes you; but it was a very awful sensation."

"I wasn't sneering," said Vince, "because I felt just the same."

"You did?"

"Yes, that I did, and though I wanted to laugh at it because it was absurd, I couldn't then. But, I say, though, we might try and get to the end of that cave, just to see how far it goes."

"Ugh! It's bad enough going through a dark hole with a stone floor."

"Till you're used to it. See how we came down this morning."

"Yes, but we weren't wading through cold, black water, with all kinds of live things waiting to make a grab at you."

"Nonsense! If there were any things there they'd soon scuttle out of our way."

"Ah, you don't know," said Mike. "In a place like this they grow big because they're not interfered with. Those were the biggest seals I ever saw."

"Yes, they were tidy ones. The biggest, I think."

"Yes, and there may be suckers there. Ugh! fancy one of those things getting one of his eight legs, all over suckers, round you, and trying to pull you into his hole."

"Take out your knife and cut the arm off. They're not legs."

"I don't know what they are: just as much legs as arms. They walk on 'em. Might be lobsters and crabs, too, as big as we are. Think of one of them giving you a nip!"

"Wish he would," said Vince, with a grin. "We'd soon have him out and cook him."

"Couldn't," said Mike. "Take too big a pot."

"Then we'd roast him; and, I say, fancy asking Jemmy Carnach down to dinner!"

"Yes," cried Mike, joining in the laugh. "He'd eat till his eyes would look lobstery too, and your father would have to give him such a dose."

"It don't want my father to cure Jemmy Carnach when he's ill," said Vince scornfully. "I could do that easy enough."

"And how would you do it, old clever?"

"Tie him up for two or three days without anything to eat. Pst! Hear that?"

"Yes," said Mike, in a whisper, as a peculiar hollow plashing sound arose some distance down the low dark passage, and the water at the mouth became disturbed. "Shoal of congers, perhaps--monsters."

"Pooh! It was another seal coming out till it saw or heard us, and then it gave a wallop and turned back. Look here, I'll wade in this afternoon if you will."

Mike spun round on his heels. "No, thank you," he cried. "Come on, and let's look round to see if all's right."

A few minutes proved that everything was precisely as they had left it; and as soon as they had come to this conclusion, they found themselves opposite the fissure which led into the other cavern.

Mike glanced at the rope and grapnel, and then back inquiringly at his companion.

"No!" said Vince, answering the unspoken question that he could plainly read in Mike's eyes; "we can have a good afternoon without going there."

"How? What are we going to do?"

"Fish," said Vince shortly.

"But I should like to go and see if everything is there just the same as it was."

"If it has been there for a hundred years, as you say, it's there all right still. Come on."

"But I should just like to have a peep in one or two of the packages, Cinder."

"Yes, I know you would; but you promised not to want to meddle, or I wouldn't have come. Now didn't you?"

"All right," said Mike sulkily; "but I did think you were a fellow who had more stuff in you. There, you won't do anything adventurous."

"Yes, I will," cried Vince quickly: "I'll get the lanthorn and go and explore the seal's hole, if you'll come."

"And get bitten to death by the brutes. No, thankye."

"Bitten to death! Just as if we couldn't settle any number of seals with sticks or conger clubs!"

"Ah, well, you go and settle 'em, and call me when you've done."

"No need to. You wouldn't let me go alone. Now then, we'll get some fish, and have a good fry."

Vince ran to the wall, where their lines hung upon a peg; and now they noticed, for the first time, that there had been a high tide during the late storm, for the sand had been driven up in a ridge at one side of the cave mouth, but had only come in some twenty or thirty feet.

Their baits, in a box pierced with holes to let the water in and out, were quite well and lively; and putting some of these in a tray, they went cautiously out from rock to rock in the wide archway till there was deep water just beyond for quite another twenty feet; then rocks again, and beyond them the gurgling rush and hurry of the swift currents, while the pool before them, though in motion, looked smooth and still, save that a close inspection showed that the surface was marked with the lines of a gentle current, which apparently rose from below the rocks on the right.

It was an ideal place for sea-fishing, for the great deep pool was free from rocks save those which surrounded it, and not a thread of weed or wrack to be seen ready to entangle their lines or catch their hooks; while they knew from old experience that it was the sheltered home of large shoals, which sought it as a sanctuary from the seals or large fish which preyed upon them.

In addition, the place they stood upon was a dry, rocky platform, shut off from the cave by a low ridge, against which they could lean their backs, whilst another much lower ridge was just in front, as if on purpose to hide them from the fish in the crystal water of the great pool.

Partly behind them and away to their right was the entrance to the seals' hole, from which came a hollow splashing from time to time, as something moved; every sound making Mike turn his head quickly in that direction, and bringing a smile to Vince's lips.

"Ah! it's all very well," said Mike sourly, "but everybody isn't so brave as you are."

"Might as well have lit our fire before we came here," said Vince, ignoring the remark.

"What's the good of lighting the fire till we know whether we shall get any fish?" said Mike. "We didn't catch one last time, though you could see hundreds."

"To boil the kettle and make some tea," replied Vince; and he rose to get hold of the bait, pausing to look back over the ridge which shut him off from the cave, and hesitating.

"I think I'll go back and light the fire," he said, as he fixed his eyes on the dark spot which they made their fireplace, it looking almost black from the bright spot they occupied, which was as far as they could get out towards the open cove.

"No, no; sit down," said Mike impatiently. "We didn't catch any last time because you would keep dancing about on the rocks here, and showing the fish that you were come on purpose to hook them. We can get a good fire in a few minutes. There's plenty of wood, and we're in no hurry."

"You mean you kept dancing about," retorted Vince. "Very well," he added, seating himself, "it shan't be me, Ladle: I won't stir. But it's the wrong time for them. If we were to come here just before daylight, or to stop till it was dark, we should be hauling them out as fast as we could throw in our--our"--_splash_--"lines."

For as Vince spoke he had resumed his seat, deftly placed a lug-worm on his hook and thrown the lead into the water, where it sank rapidly, drawing after it the line over the low ridge of rock.

"There," said Vince, as his companion followed his example, "I won't move, and I won't make a sound."

"Don't," said Mike: "I do want to catch something this time."

"All right: I won't speak if you don't."

"First who speaks pays sixpence," said Mike.

"Agreed. Silence!"

The fishing began, but fishing did not mean catching, and the time went on with nothing to take their attention but an unusual clamouring on the part of the sea-birds, which, instead of sitting about preening and drying their plumage, or with their feathers almost on end, till they looked like balls as they sat asleep in the sun, kept on rising in flights, making a loud fluttering whistling as they swept round and round the cove, constantly passing out of sight before swooping down again upon the great rocks which shut out the view of the open sea.

Lines were drawn up, rebaited, and thrown in again, with the faint splashes made by the leads, and they tried close in to the side, to the other side, to right and left; but all in vain,--the baits were eaten off, and they felt that something was at their hooks, but whether they struck directly, or gave plenty of time, it was always the same, nothing was taken and the hours passed away.

They were performing, though, what was for them quite a feat, for each boy had fully made up his mind that he would not have to pay that sixpence. They looked at each other, and laughingly grimaced, and moved their lips rapidly, as if forming words, and abused the fish silently for not caring to be caught, but not a word was spoken; till all at once, after a tremendous display of patience, Vince suddenly struck and cried:

"Got him at last!"

"Sixpence!" said Mike.

"All right!" said Vince quietly: "I was ready to pay ninepence so as to say something. I've got him, though, and he's a big one too."

"Be steady, then. Don't lose him, for I'm sick of trying, and I did want for us to have something for tea."

"Oh, I've hooked him right enough; but he don't stir."

"Bah! Caught in the bottom."

"Oh no, I'm not. He was walking right away with the bait, and when I struck I felt him give a regular good wallop."

"Then it's a conger, and it's got its tail round a rock."

"May be," said Vince. "Well, congers aren't bad eating."

"B-r-r-ur!" shuddered Mike. "I hate hooking them. Line gets twisted into such a knot. You may cut it up: I shan't."

"Yes, I'll cut him in chunks and fry him when I get him," said Vince. "He's coming, but it isn't a conger. Comes up like a flat fish, only there can't be any here."

"Oh, I don't know," said Mike. "I daresay there's plenty of sand down below."

"Well, it is a flat fish, and a heavy one too," said Vince, as he hauled in cautiously, full of excitement, drawing in foot after foot of his line; and then he cried, with a laugh, "Why, it's a big crab!"

"Then you'll lose it, for certain. 'Tisn't hooked."

"Shall I lose him!" said Vince, with another laugh, as he lifted out his prize for it to come on to the rock with a bang. "Why, he has got the line twisted all round his claw, and--Ah! would you bite! I've got him safe this time, Mike."

Safe enough; for, after the huge claws of the monstrous crab had been carefully tied with a couple of bits of fishing line, it was quite a task to disentangle the creature, which, in its eagerness to seize the bait, had passed the line round and under its curious armoured joints, and in its struggles to escape, made matters worse.

"This is about the finest we've seen, Mike," said Vince. "Well, I'm sorry for him, and we'll try and kill him first; but his fate is to be cooked in his own shell, and delicious he'll be."

"I should like to take him home," said Mike, as he wound up his line.

"So should I; but if either of us did we should be bothered with questions as to where we got it, and we couldn't say. We shall have to cook it and eat it ourselves, Ladle. Come on; we don't want any more fish to-day."

They stepped back over the rocks, and while Mike hung up the lines Vince thrust his prize into the big creel they had close to the place they used for their fire, and then hurried towards the inner cave to fetch the tinder-box and a portion of the wood they had stored up there for firing, as well as the extra provisions they had brought with them that day.

"It strikes me, Mikey, that we're going to have a regular feast," said Vince. "Lucky I caught that fellow!--if I hadn't we should have come short off."

"Hark at him bragging! I say, why didn't you catch a lobster instead?"

_Phew_! came a soft whistle from the opening into the passage--a whistle softened by its journey through the subterranean place; but sounding pretty loudly in their ears, and as if it had been given by some one half-way through.

"Lobster!" ejaculated Vince excitedly. "Why, there he is coming down."

"Oh, Vince!" cried Mike, "that spoils all. I felt sure he would, after falling in as he did. He saw the hole, and he is searching it."

"Yes, and he'll come right on, feeling sure we're here."

"What shall we do? I know: frighten him."

"Frighten him? How?"

"Go up and stand at the bottom of one of the steep bits, and when he comes up, throw stones at him and groan."

"Bah!" ejaculated Vince contemptuously; "that wouldn't frighten him. He'd know it was us. I say, it's all over with the place now."

"Yes, for he'll tell everybody, and they'll come and find the outer cave with all the treasure in it."

"Yes, that won't do, Ladle. There's no help for it now; there'll be no secret caves. You must tell your father to-night, and he'll take proper possession of the place. If he don't, every one in the island will come and plunder."

"Yes, that's right," said Mike; "but it's a horrible pity. I am sorry. But what shall we do now?"

"There's only one thing I can think of now--yes, two things," whispered Vince: "either go up and stop him, fight for it and not let him come; or hide."

"Hide?" said Mike dubiously.

"Yes, down here in the sand. It's dark enough. We could cover ourselves."

"Or go and hide in the other cave," said Mike. "Yes, we'll get the rope and grapnel, and get up into the great crack, pull the rope up, and we can watch from there."

"That's it," said Vince. "We only want to gain time till Sir Francis knows."

"And your father," said Mike. "Fair play's a jewel, Cinder. Look sharp! Come on!"

They listened in the gloom of the inner cave for a few moments, and then Mike led the way to the opening between the two caves, passing behind the rock, and as he did so he turned to whisper to his companion--

"Perhaps he won't find this way through."

Then he stepped on over the deep, soft sand, and was about to pass through into the outer cavern, when he saw something which made him dart back, to come heavily in collision with Vince; but not until the latter had seen that which startled Mike.

For there, standing in the sand, gazing up at the fissure, was a heavy, thick-set, foreign-looking man, with short black hair, a very brown skin, and wearing glistening gold earrings, each as far across as a half-crown piece. The glance taken by the boys was short enough, but they saw more than that, for they caught sight of a rope hanging down and a man's legs just appearing.

"_Vite! vite_!" cried the foreign-looking fellow. "_Depechez_; make you haste, you slow swab you."

There was a growl from above, and something was said, but the boys did not hear what. They heard the beating of their hearts, though, and a choking sensation rose to their throats as they stood in the narrow way between the two caverns, asking themselves the same question--What to do?

For they were between two fires. The caves were in foreign occupation, that was plain enough; and the whistle had not come from young Carnach, but from some one else.

There could be no doubt about it: these were not strangers, but the smuggling crew come to life again after being dead a hundred years, if Mike was right; a crew of the present day, come to see about their stores, if Vince's was the right version.

Whichever it was, they seemed to be quite at home, for a second whistle came chirruping out of the long passage, as the boys hurried into the gloomy inner cave for safety, and this was answered by the Frenchman, who roared:

"Ah, tousan tonderres! Make you cease if I come;" but all the same an answering whistle came from the outer cave.

What to do? Where to hide? They were hemmed in; and it was evident that either the party in the long passage was coming down, and might even now be close to the slope, or the Frenchman and the others were going to him.

It took little time to grasp all this, and almost as little to decide what to do. The boys had but the two courses open to them--to face it out with the foreign-looking man, who seemed to be leader, and his followers; or to hide.

They felt that they dared not do the former then, and on the impulse of the moment, and as if one spirit moved them both, they decided to hide-- if they could!

The inner cavern was gloomy enough, and they could only dimly make out the top of the opening above the slope; all below was deep in shadow, for the faint pearly light only bathed the roof. But still they felt sure that if they entered from the upper entrance or from below they must be seen, unless they did one thing--and that was, carried out the idea suggested for hiding from young Carnach.

They had no time for hesitation; and any hope of its being still possible to escape by the upper passage was extinguished by a clinking noise, as of a big hammer upon stone, coming echoing out of the opening, suggestive of some novel kind of work going on up there; so, dashing to the darkest part of the cave--that close down by where the slope came from above--the boys thrust the lanthorn and tinder-box on one side and began to scoop away at the deep, loose sand near the wall. Then, shuffling themselves down something after the fashion of a crab upon the shore, they cast the sand back over their legs and then over their breasts and faces, closing their eyes tightly, and finally shuffling down their arms and hands.

Anywhere else the manoeuvre would have been absurd to a degree; but there, in the gloom of that cavern, there was just a faint chance of any one passing up or down the slope without noticing that they were hiding, while all they could hope for now was that the heavy, dull throb, throb, of their hearts might not be heard.

Vince had covered his face with sand, but a few laboured breathings cleared his nostrils, and one of his ears was fully exposed; and as he lay he longed to do something more to conceal both himself and his companion; but he dared not stir, for the people in the outer cave were moving about, and their leader could be heard in broken English cursing angrily whoever it was that had dared to come down into his cave.

They heard enough to make them lie breathlessly, almost, waiting, while the moments seemed to be terribly prolonged; and at last Vince found himself longing for the time to come when they would be discovered, for he felt that if this terrible suspense were drawn out much longer he must spring up and shout aloud.

Possibly the two lads did not lie there much more than two minutes, but they were to Vince like an hour, before he heard the rough, domineering voice in the outer cavern cry out--

"Now, _mes enfans_, forvard march!" And there was a dull sound following, as of men's heavily booted feet shuffling and ploughing up the sand. _

Read next: Chapter 22. Two Boys In A Hobble

Read previous: Chapter 20. Fresh Pulls From The Magnet

Table of content of Cormorant Crag; A Tale of the Smuggling Days


GO TO TOP OF SCREEN

Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book