Chapter 7. "I Say, My Lad, What's Going To Be Done?"

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_ CHAPTER SEVEN. "I SAY, MY LAD, WHAT'S GOING TO BE DONE?"

"Why, what's the matter with you?" cried Josh angrily.

"I don't know. Nothing," replied Will. "I could not reach the rope."

"Ah! well, you've got it now," said Josh gruffly; "and the sooner we get out of this the better."

"Get out of it?" said Will hoarsely.

"Get out of it! To be sure. You didn't mean to come here to live, did you?"

"No," said Will, "but--"

He paused, for his nervous feeling was returning, and shame kept him from saying that he was afraid.

He might have spoken out frankly, though, for Josh Helston, blunt of perception as he was over many things, saw through him now, and in a gruff voice he said:

"Well, if anybody had told me that you could have got yourself skeered like this, Master Will, I should have told him he was a fool. But there, you couldn't help it, I s'pose. It was that diving as upset you, lad."

"Yes, yes; perhaps it was," cried Will, eagerly grasping at the excuse. "I'm not myself, Josh, just now."

Josh began to whistle a dreary old minor tune as they stood there in the dark, to the accompaniment of the dripping water, and for some few minutes no word was spoken.

"Hadn't we better get back?" said Josh at last.

"But how?" said Will despairingly.

"Rope," replied Josh laconically. "Swarm up!"

Will laid his hand upon the slight cord his companion had knotted round his waist.

"I could not climb up that," he said, "at any time. It's impossible now."

Josh whistled again and remained silent.

"Well, it is gashly thin to swarm up," he said. "I never thought of that till now."

"You did not think of getting back?" cried Will.

Josh rubbed the side of his nose with a bit of the rope.

"Well, no," he said slowly; "can't say as I did, lad. Seemed to me as you was in trouble, and I'd better come to you, and so I come."

"Josh!" cried the lad.

"Yes, my son. Well, what's going to be done? We can't stop down here. We shall be wanted aboard, and there ain't a bit o' anything to eat."

"Do you think when we are missed that they will come and look for us?"

"Well," said Josh slowly, "they might or they mightn't; but if they did they wouldn't find us."

"I don't know," said Will thoughtfully.

"Well, I think I do, lad," said Josh, after another scrub at his nose. "I don't s'pose anybody in Peter Churchtown knows that this gashly old hole is here, and it ain't likely they'd come up here to look for us."

"But they would hunt for us surely, Josh."

"Dunno. When they missed us they'd say we'd took a boat and gone out somewheres to fish, and happened on something--upset or took out to sea by the current."

"Yes," said Will thoughtfully.

"Seems to me, lad, as it's something like a lobster-pot--easy enough to get in, and no way out."

"Shall we shout for help?"

"You can if you like," said Josh quietly. "I sha'n't. It makes your throat sore, and don't do no good."

"Don't be cross with me, Josh," cried Will excitedly.

"Oh! I arn't cross with you, lad; I'm cross with myself. It's allus my way: I never did have no head. Think o' me walking straight into a corner like this, and no way hardly out. Well, anyhow, it's being mate-like to you, my lad, and it won't be so dull."

"But, Josh, you could climb out and go for help."

"Why, of course I could," he replied. "I never thought of that."

"Then go at once. Bring a couple of men; and then if you left me the rope you could haul me up."

"Why I could haul you up myself, couldn't I? and then nobody need know anything about it. Here goes."

Will could not help a shudder as his companion proceeded to haul up the portion of the rope that hung down in the shaft, coiling it in rings in the gallery till it was all there.

"Now, then, you mind as that don't fall while I go up again," said Josh. "I wish it warn't so gashly dark."

As he spoke he untied the loop from about his waist and drew the rope tight from above.

"Just like me," he grumbled. "If I'd had any head I should have made knots all down the rope, and then it would have been easy to climb; but here goes; and mind when I'm up you make a good hitch and sit in it, I'll soon have you up."

"Yes, I see," said Will, who was fighting hard against the nervous dread that began once more to assail him; "pray take care."

"Take care! why, of course I shall. Don't catch me letting go of the rope in a place like this. Here goes!"

He reached up as high as he could, holding the rope firmly, and then swung himself out of the gallery over the black void, becoming visible to Will as the faint light from above fell upon his upturned face. Then with legs twined round the rope, Josh began to draw himself up a little bit at a time, the work being evidently very laborious, while Will held the rope and saw him disappear as he ascended beyond the gallery; but the rope the lad held was like an electric communication, the efforts of the climber being felt through the strong fibres as he went up and up.

Then there was a pause, and as Josh rested it was evident that he could not keep himself quite stationary, but slipped a few inches at a time.

Then he started once more, and as the cord jerked and swung, the loud expirations of the climber's breath kept coming down to where, with moist palms and dewy forehead, Will listened.

How high was he now? How much farther had he got by this? Josh's arms were like iron, and the strength in that deformed wrist and hand was tremendous.

Up he went; Will could feel it; and he longed to gaze up and see how he progressed; but somehow that horrible shrinking sensation came over him, and he could only wait.

How long it seemed, and how the rope jerked! Was it quite strong enough? Suppose Josh were to fall headlong into the black water below!

Will shuddered, and tried to keep all these coward fancies out of his mind; but they would come as he stood listening and holding the rope just tight enough to feel the action of his friend.

What a tremendous effort it seemed; and how long he was! Surely he must be at the top by now.

"Nearly up, Josh?" he shouted.

"Up! No: not half-ways," replied the fisherman. "She's too thin, and as wet as wet. I can't get a hold."

Will's heart sank, for he felt that there was failure in his companion's words; and with parched lips and dry throat he listened to the climber's pantings and gaspings as he toiled on, paused, climbed again, and then there was a strange hissing noise that made Will hold his breath. The rope, too, was curiously agitated, not in a series of jerks, but in a continuous vibrating manner, and before Will could realise what it all meant Josh was level with the gallery once more, swinging to and fro in the faint light.

"Haul away, young un, and let's come in," he panted; and somehow he managed to scramble in as Will held the rope taut.

"It ain't to be done," said Josh, sitting down and panting like a dog. "If it were a cable I could go up it like a fly, but that there rope runs through your legs and you can't get no stay."

"How far did you get, Josh?" whispered Will.

"Not above half-ways," grumbled Josh, "and I might have gone on trying; but it was no good, I couldn't have reached. I say, my lad, what's going to be done?" _

Read next: Chapter 8. How Will Would Not Promise...

Read previous: Chapter 6. A Case Of Lost Nerve, And The Help That Came

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