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Fire Island, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 44. A Tongue In A Knot |
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_ CHAPTER FORTY FOUR. A TONGUE IN A KNOT Oliver and the mate immediately made a sharp rush for the opening, and the first uttered a cry of astonishment as he got down into the men's place, for there, dimly seen by the faint light shed by a great disc of glass let into the fore part of the deck and well cemented with pitch, was a man in one of the bunks sleeping heavily, while in a tone indicative of his astonishment, the mate exclaimed,-- "What, Wriggs! You here?" "Ay, ay, sir," shouted the man, rising so suddenly that he struck his head a violent blow against the floor of the bunk above him. "I say, don't wake a man quite so hard!" he grumbled, and then, as he recognised the speaker, "Beg pardon, sir, didn't know it was you." "Why, how did you get here?" cried Oliver. "Get here, sir? Oh, I walked it, and was that bet out that I tumbled in at once. Tommy Smith got back?" "Yes, and all of them," cried the mate. "Here, pass the word for Smith, and tell him it isn't a ghost." "I'm here, sir," said a gruff voice as the hatchway was filled up by a body which darkened the light. "Is it alive?" "Tommy ahoy!" cried Wriggs hoarsely. "I got back fust." "But how?" cried Oliver. "You did not pass us and come out the way we went in." "No, sir; I went out t'other way by the back door." "Is he all right--alive?" cried Panton, in a voice full of hysterical excitement as he scrambled down, followed by Drew. "He seems to be," said the mate. "Are you sure you're alive, Wriggs?" "Yes, sir, I think so." "But how was it?" cried Oliver. "Ah, that's a queshtun, sir," said the man, rubbing one ear. "I don't quite know, on'y as I was walking along arter you one moment, and the next my legs seemed to run down a slide and I was in the water." "I thought so," cried Oliver. "I did holler, but there was such a row nobody heered me, and afore I knowed where I was I seemed to be going down with five hundred millions o' chaps sousing buckets o' water on my head till I was most stifled, and then I was going on again." "Going on where?" "Oh, I dunno, on'y as it was all dark and the water just deep enough to slide me along over the bottom which was smooth as glass." "Ah! the trough cut by the water in the lava stream," cried Panton, "continued right on after the fall." "Yes, sir, that's it. I continued right on arter the fall till I got rayther sick on it and tried to get out fust one side and then the other." "And did you?" cried Oliver. "No, sir, I just didn't, for it was all as slipper as slither, and as soon as I tried, the water seemed to lay hold on me and pull me back and send me on again." "And did you keep on like that?" "Oh, no; I got up sometimes and tried to walk, and other times I went along sittin'." "But didn't you try to come back?" "Try, sir? What was the good? Why, the water did just what it liked with me, and wouldn't even let me try to swim. Do you think I could ha' got back up that waterfall? Bless your 'art, sir, seems to me as if you might as well try to get up to the moon." "Never mind that," said Oliver, excitedly; "tell us about what followed," and then he turned his head sharply, for Smith was rubbing his hands down his legs and chuckling softly now in his intense delight to see his messmate back safe and sound. "Told you so--I told you so," he muttered. "Course I will, sir," said Wriggs. "Well, you see the water kept carrying me along in the dark, and as fast as I managed to get up it downed me again and began to stuffycate me, only I wouldn't have that, and got up again and tried to stand. But it warn't no use, the bottom was too slithery, and down I goes again in the darkness, thinking it was all over with me, but I gets the better of it again, and on I goes sailing along, sometimes up and sometimes down, and a-swallering enough water to last me for a week." "Yes, go on," cried Oliver. "Right, sir, I'm a-goin' on," said Wriggs. "Where was I?" "A-swallerin' the water, Billy," said Smith, interposing a word or two. "So I was, Tommy, lots of it. I kep' on swallerin' that water till I didn't swaller no more 'cause there warn't no room. So, of course, I left off, and went bobbin' up and bobbin' down, sometimes goin' head fust and sometimes legs fust. Oh, it was at a rate! And it was as dark as pitch, and you couldn't get out this side nor t'other side neither." "Well, go on," said Mr Rimmer, impatiently. "Yes, sir; and there I goes, getting in a puff o' wind now and then when I has a charnsh, and the water a-rooshin' me along and the bottom all slithery, and sometimes I was heads up and sometimes toes, and the water kep' a carryin' of me along so as I couldn't stand straight nor sit down nor kneel nor nothing. But on I keeps again, on and on and on, and sometimes I was down and--" "I say," said Panton, "wasn't it a very long way?" "Yes, sir, a mortal long ways, and sometimes the water got me down when I tried to swim and sometimes--" "Yes, yes, yes," cried Oliver, for the mate was roaring with laughter; "but you've told us all that over and over again. We want you to get to the end." "That's what I wanted to do, sir," said Wriggs, "but there didn't seem to be no end and the water kep' a--" "My good fellow, that isn't the way to tell a story," cried Oliver, impatiently. "Now, then, get on: we've had enough of that. The water swept you along a dark cavernous place where it had cut a way through the lava, and you couldn't keep your feet." "That's it, sir. You can tell it ever so much better nor me. Go on, please." "How can I?" cried Oliver, as there was a general burst of laughter at this. "I was not there, so how am I to tell your story?" "I d'know, sir; but you seems to know ever so much more about it than me, for it was so dark and the water kep' a-rooshin me along--" "Right to the entrance, where the stream swept you out into the open air, but before you got there you could see the light gleaming along on the top of the water, and this increased till you found yourself in' the full glow of daylight where the stream rushed out and down toward the sea." "Why, did you tumble in too, Mr Oliver Lane, sir?" cried Wriggs, staring open-eyed. "I? Of course not," cried Oliver. "But that were just how it was, sir. How did you know?" "I only supposed it was like that, my man." "Well that's a rum 'un, for I was washed right out with a regular fizz at last, like a cork in a drain." "And where?" said Mr Rimmer. "Oh, over yonder somewheres, sir, and I warn't long scuffling ashore, for there was two black fins out, and I knowed as Jack shark's shovel nose warn't far in front." "Was it in the lagoon?" "Yes, sir, that was it, and then I gets all my things off and wrings 'em, and lays 'em out ready for the sun to shine on when it come up, while I covers myself all over with sand, which was as nyste and warm as getting between blankets." "But I thought you said you were swept out into the broad daylight," cried Oliver. "No, sir, it was you as said that: I didn't. I couldn't cause it was the moon a-shining, and the stars and some o' them flying sparks in among the trees." "Well, you've got a rum way of telling a story, Wriggs," said the mate. "What did you do next?" "Oh, I snoozed on till it was quite warm, and my clothes was dry, and then I takes my bearin's and steered off through the woods for port." "Did you see any of the blacks?" said the mate. "No, sir, and didn't want to. It was black enough for me in that hole underground, to last me for a long time yet. Don't want any more black, sir, yet, thank-ye." "Well, you're safe back," said Panton, "and no one is more glad than I am, though we did have all our trouble for nothing, and you may thank Mr Lane and Smith for staying there in the dark waiting till lights were fetched." "Did Mr Lane do that, sir?" "To be sure he did." "And Tommy Smith stopped too, sir?" "Yes, to keep him company, though we thought once we'd lost him too." "Much ado about nothing," said the mate drily. "You gentlemen lead me a pretty dance. What's the next thing, Mr Panton--do you want to go down the crater of the volcano?" "Yes, if it is possible," replied the young man, so seriously that there was a general laugh, and soon after Wriggs was left to finish his sleep, while Panton retired to the cabin to number and make notes about a few of the crystals which he had brought back in his pockets, but thinking of how that cavern might be turned to use. _ |
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