Chapter 15. An Exploring Trip Along Beneath The Cliffs...

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_ CHAPTER FIFTEEN. AN EXPLORING TRIP ALONG BENEATH THE CLIFFS OF THE ROCKY SHORE

Josh and Will were in waiting with the boat, not the one that had been used on the previous night, for it had been determined to send that in to hospital, but a rather larger and lighter boat, belonging to Uncle Abram; and this had been carefully mopped out, with the result that there were not quite so many fish-scales visible, though even now they were sticking tenaciously as acorn barnacles to every level spot.

"All ready, sir," said Will, coming forward; "and my uncle says you're welcome to a boat whenever there's one in, and that as to payment, you're to please give our man Josh a trifle, and that's all."

Mr Temple was about to make an objection, but he determined to see Uncle Abram, as he was called, himself, and he at once went down the steps and into the boat.

"Dick," said Arthur, plucking at his brother's sleeve, "what's that fisher-fellow grinning at? Is there anything particular about my clothes?"

"No. He was only smiling because he was glad to see you. There, go along down."

Josh, who had been spoken of as "that fisher-fellow," endorsed Dick's words by singing just as if it was a Gregorian chant:

"Glad to see you, sir. Nice morning for a row. Give's your hand, sir. Mine looks mucky, but it don't come off. It's only tar."

"I can get down, thank you," said Arthur haughtily, and he began to descend the perpendicular steps to where the boat slowly rose and fell, some six feet below.

But though Arthur descended backwards like a bear, it was without that animal's deliberate caution. He wanted experience too, and the knowledge that the steps, that were washed by every tide, were covered with a peculiar green weedy growth that was very slippery. He was in a hurry lest he should be helped--aid being exceedingly offensive to his dignity, and the consequence was, that when he was half-way down there was a slip and a bang, caused by Arthur finishing his descent most rapidly, and going down in a sitting position upon the bottom of the boat.

"I say," said Josh, "if that had been your foots you'd ha' gone through."

Arthur leaped up red as a turkey-cock, and in answer to his father's inquiry whether he was hurt, shook his head violently.

"Don't laugh, Will, don't look at him," said Dick, stifling his own mirth and turning his back, pretending to draw Will's attention to the fishing cord and hooks he had bought.

"All right, Master Dick!" said Will cordially; and he began to examine the hooks; but Arthur could see through the device and, kindly as it was meant, he chafed all the more. In fact, he had hurt himself a good deal, but his dignity was injured more.

"Yes, they're the best," said Will; "but I've got a whiffing-line ready, and some bait, and laid it for you in the stern. I thought you'd like to fish."

"So I should," cried Dick, looking his thanks, and thinking what a frank, manly-looking fellow his new companion was; "but we must let my brother fish to-day. He'll pretend that he don't care for it, but he wants to try horribly, and you must coax him a bit. Then he will."

"What's the use of begging him?" said Will, who was rather taken aback.

"Oh! because I want him to have a turn, and I hope he'll get some luck. If he don't he'll be so disappointed."

"All ready?" cried Mr Temple just then, and Dick proceeded to scuffle down the steps, Arthur watching him eagerly to see him slip on the worst step. But Dick was not going to slip, and he stepped lightly on to one of the thwarts, closely followed by Will with the painter, and the next minute they were on their way to the mouth of the harbour, where there was a gentle swell.

Mr Temple and Dick were smiling as they looked back at the fishing village so picturesquely nestling in the slope of the steep cliff, and they paid no heed to Arthur, who suddenly snatched at his father on one side, at the boat on the other.

"What's the matter, my boy?" cried Mr Temple.

"Is--is anything wrong?" gasped Arthur. "The boat seemed sinking!"

"Hor--hor!" began Josh; but Arthur turned upon him so angrily, that the fisherman changed his hoarse laugh into a grotesque cough, screwing his face up till it resembled the countenance of a wooden South Sea image, such as the Polynesians place in the prow of their canoes.

"Gettin' so wet lars night, I think," he said in a good-tempered, apologetic growl, as he addressed himself to Will. "Sea-water don't hurt you though."

"There we are sinking again, Arthur," said Mr Temple, for the boat mounted the swell, as the wave came lapping the stone wall, raising them up a couple of feet, and letting them glide down four. "Let go!" he whispered. "Don't be a coward."

Arthur snatched his hands away, and from being very white he turned red.

"I suppose the sea comes in pretty rough sometimes," said Mr Temple to Josh.

"Tidyish, sir, but not bad. She gives a pretty good swish at the face o' the harbour when the weather's rough from the south-east, and flies over on to the boats; but Bar Lea Point yonder takes all the rough of it and shelters us like. If the young gent looks down now, he can see Tom Dodder's Rock."

Mr Temple looked over the side.

"Yes, here it is, Arthur," he exclaimed, "about six feet beneath us."

"Five an' half at this time o' the tide," said Josh correctively.

"Oh! five and a half, is it?" said Mr Temple, smiling. "Can you see, Arthur?"

"Yes, papa," said the boy, looking quickly over the side and sitting up again as if he did not approve of it. "Do you mean that great rough thing?"

"That's her," said Josh. "Tom Dodder, as used to live long ago, wouldn't keep a good look-out, and he used to say as his boat would ride over any rock as there was on the coast. He went right over that rock to get into the harbour lots of times out of sheer impudence, and to show his mates as he wouldn't take advice from nobody; but one morning as he was running in, heavy loaded with pilchar's, after being out all night, and getting the biggest haul ever known, such a haul as they never get nowadays, he was coming right in, and a chap on the pier there shouts to him, 'luff, Tom, luff! She won't do it this tide.' 'Then she shall jump it,' says Tom, who wouldn't luff a bit, but rams his tiller so as to drive right at the rock. You see there was lots o' room at the sides, but he wouldn't go one way nor yet the other, out o' cheek like. He was one o' these sort of chaps as wouldn't be helped, you see; and as soon as the lads on the pier heared him say as his boat should jump over the rock--lep it, you know--they began to stare, as if they expected something was coming."

"And was something coming?" said Dick, who was deeply interested, though he could not help thinking about his brother's refusal of help.

"Coming! I should think there was, for just as the boat comes up to the rock, she acts just like a Chrishtun dog, or a horse might when her master wanted her to--what does she do but rises at the rock to lep right over her, but the water seemed to fail just then, and down she come sodge!"

"How?" said Arthur, who had become interested, and had not understood the comparison.

"Sodge, sir, sodge; breaks her back, melts all to pieces like a tub with the hoops shook off; and the sea was covered with pilchar's right and left, and they all went scoopin' 'em off the bay."

"And was any one drowned?" said Arthur.

"Well, sir, you see the story don't say," said Josh, moistening first one hand and then the other as he rowed; "but that's why she were called Tom Dodder's Rock; and there's the rock, as you see, so it must be true."

As soon as they were clear of the bar at the mouth of the harbour the sea had become smoother, and in the interest he had taken in Josh's narrative about Tom Dodder's Rock, Arthur had forgotten a little of his discomfort and dread; but now that the boat was getting farther from land and the story was at an end, he began to show his nervousness in various ways, the more that nobody but Josh seemed to be noticing him, for his father was busy with a small glass, inspecting the various headlands and points, and looking long and earnestly at the old mines, whose position was indicated by the crumbling stone engine-houses.

"Is the sea very deep here?" said Arthur to his brother, who did not answer; he was too intent upon the preparation of a fishing-line with Will.

"Deep? No," said Josh, "not here."

"But it looks deep," said Arthur, gazing over the side.

"Ah! but it ar'n't. 'Bout three fathom, p'r'aps."

"Three fathoms!" cried Arthur. "Why, that's eighteen feet, and over my head!"

"Well, yes, you ar'n't quite so tall as that!" cried Josh, with a bit of a chuckle.

"But suppose the boat was overset?" said Arthur.

"Oh, she won't overset, my lad. You couldn't overset her; and if she did--can you swim?"

"A little--not much. I'm not very fond of the water."

"Ah! that's a pity," said Josh; "everybody ought to be able to swim. You'd better come down to me every morning, and I'll take you out in the boat here and you can jump in and have a good swim round, and then come in again and dress."

Arthur looked at him in horror. The idea seemed frightful. To come out away from land, and plunge into water eighteen feet deep, where he might go to the bottom and perhaps never come up again, was enough to stun him mentally for the moment, and he turned away from Josh with a shudder.

"Here you are, Taff!" said Dick just then. "Now have a try for a fish. Come and sit here; change places."

Dick jumped up and stepped over the thwarts, vacating his seat right in the stern. In fact he looked as if he could have run all round the boat easily enough on the narrow gunwale had there been any need, while, in spite of his call and the sight of the fishing-line, Arthur sat fast.

"Well, why don't you get up?"

"I--I prefer staying here," said Arthur, who looked rather white.

"But you said you would like to fish!" cried Dick in a disappointed tone.

"Did I? Oh yes, I remember. But I don't wish to fish to-day. You can go on."

"Oh, all right!" said Dick lightly. "I daresay I can soon get something;" and he set the line dragging behind.

"Like to be rowed over to yon mine, sir, on the cliff?" said Josh, nodding in the direction of the old shaft, the scene of his adventures with Will.

"Where, my man? I can see no remains. Oh yes, I can," he continued, as he brought his glass to bear on the regular bank-slope formed by the material that had been dug and blasted out. "I see; that's a very old place. Yes; I should like to inspect that first."

"Me and him went down it lass week," said Josh, as he tugged at the oar, Will having now joined him in forcing the boat along.

"It's not a deep one, then," said Mr Temple carelessly.

"Dunno how deep she be," said Josh, "because she's full o' water up to the adit."

"Oh, there is an adit then?"

"Yes, as was most covered over. She begins up on that level nigh the cliff top, where you can see the bit o' brown rock with the blackberry bushes in it, and she comes out down in that creek place there where the bank's green."

"I see!" said Mr Temple eagerly. "Ah! that must be an old place. When was it given up?"

"Oh, long before we was born, or our grandfathers, I expect!" said Josh.

"The more reason why I should examine it," said Mr Temple. "I suppose," he added aloud, "we can land here?"

"Oh yes, while the sea's like this! You couldn't if she was rough. The rocks would come through her bottom before you knowed where you were."

"Is it going to be rough, did you say?" said Arthur eagerly.

"Yes, some day," said Josh. "Not while the wind's off the shore."

"Taff, Taff! Here! I've got him!" cried Dick excitedly; and his words had such an effect upon Arthur that he started up and was nearly pitched overboard; only saving himself by making a snatch at his father, one hand knocking off Mr Temple's hat, the other seizing his collar.

"You had better practise getting your sea-legs, Master Arthur," said his father. "There, give me your hand."

Arthur longed to refuse the proffered help, for he knew that both Josh and Will were smiling; but he felt as if the boat kept running away from beneath him, and then, out of a sheer teasing spirit, rose up again to give the soles of his feet a good push, and when it did this there was a curious giddy feeling in his head.

So he held tightly by his father's hand while he stepped over the seat, and then hurriedly went down upon his knees by where Dick was holding the line, at the end of which some fish was tugging and straining furiously.

"Here you are!" cried Dick, handing the line to his brother. "He's a beauty! A pollack, I know; and when you get him he's all orange, and green, and gold!"

"But it's dragging the line out of my hands!" said Arthur.

"Don't let it! Hold tight!" cried Dick, whose cheeks were flushed with excitement.

"But it cuts my hands," said Arthur pettishly.

"Never mind that! All the better! It's a big one! Let a little more line out."

Arthur obeyed, and the fish darted off so vigorously that it would have carried off all there was had not Dick checked it.

"Now, hold tight!" cried Dick. "Play him. Now begin to haul in."

"But the line's all messy," said Arthur, in tones full of disgust.

"Oh, what a fellow you are! Now, then, never mind the line being messy; haul away!"

"What, pull?" said Arthur feebly.

"To be sure! Pull away hand over hand. I know he's a monster."

Mr Temple and the little crew of two were so intent upon the old mine that they paid no heed to the boys. Hence it was that Dick took the lead and gave his directions to his brother how to catch fish, in a manner that would have been heartily condemned by both Josh and Will, whose ideas of playing a fish consisted in hauling it aboard as soon as they could.

"Oh, you're not half hauling it in!" cried Dick, as he grew out of patience with his brother's fumbling ways. "You'll lose it."

"You be quiet and let me alone," said Arthur quickly. "I daresay I know as much about sea-fishing as you do."

"Then why don't you haul in the line?"

"Because the fish won't come, stupid! There, you see, he will now!" continued Arthur, hauling pretty fast, as the captive began to give way. "Oh, how nasty! I'm getting my knees quite wet."

Quite! For he had remained kneeling in the bottom of the boat, too much excited to notice that he was drawing the dripping line over his legs, and making a little pool about his knees.

"Never mind the wet--haul!" cried Dick; and he hardly keep his fingers off the line.

Urged in this way by his brother, Arthur went on pulling the line in feebly enough, till the fish made a fresh dash for liberty.

"Oh!" cried Arthur; "it's cutting my hands horribly. There--he's gone!"

Not quite, for Dick made a dash at the flying line, which was rushing over the gunwale, caught it in time, and began a steady pull at it till the fish was more exhausted, and he could turn its head, when he pulled the line in rapidly, and the boys could soon after see the bright silvery fish darting here and there.

"Got a gaff, Will?" shouted Dick.

"There's the old one stuck in the side, sir," replied the lad; and, holding on with one hand, Dick reached the gaff-hook with the other; but though he got his fish close up to the stern two or three times, he found that he was not experienced fisherman enough to hold the line with his left hand and gaff it with the other.

"Here!" he cried at last, for Arthur was looking on helplessly. "You catch hold of the line while I gaff him!"

Arthur obeyed with a grimace indicative of disgust as he felt the wet and slippery line; and, in obedience to his brother's orders, he dragged the fish close in; but just as Dick made a lunge at it with the big hook it darted off again, cutting Arthur's hands horribly. The next time it was dragged in Dick was successful, getting his hook in its gills, and hoisting it on board, flapping and bounding about as if filled with so much steel spring.

"Hallo! you've got one then, Dick!" cried his father, turning round; Josh and Will having been quietly observant the while.

"Yes, father!" cried Dick in the most disinterested way; "Arthur held him and I gaffed him. Isn't it a beauty? What is it, Josh--a silver pollack?"

"A-mussy me, no!" cried Josh, who had ceased rowing. "That be no pollack; that be a bass. Dessay there be a shoal out there."

"Mind his back tin, Master Dick!" cried Will excitedly, as he saw Dick take hold of his prize.

"Yes, I'll mind," said Dick. "Here, never mind, it being wet," he went on; "catch hold of him with both hands, Arthur, I'll get out the hook."

"Oh--oh--oh!" shouted Arthur, snatching back his hands. "It pricks!"

"What pricks?" cried Dick, seizing the fish and throwing it down again sharply. "Oh, I say, it's like a knife."

"Shall I take it off, sir?" said Will.

"No, I'm not going to be beaten!" cried Dick, whose hand was bleeding. "I didn't know what you meant. Why, it's a big stickleback!"

He took hold of the prize more cautiously, disengaged the hook, and then laid the fish before his father--a fine salmon bass of eight or nine pounds.

"Bravo, my boy!" said Mr Temple; "but is your hand much cut?"

"Oh, no! it's nothing," said Dick, hastily twisting his handkerchief round his hurt. "I say, isn't it a beauty? But what is the use of that fin?"

"Means of defence, I suppose," said his father, raising the keen perch-like back fin of the fish.--"But there, we are close inshore now. Run her in, my men."

The next minute the boat was grating upon the rocks. Will leaped out and held it steady, for the waves rocked it about a good deal; and the party landed close to the adit, the boat being moored with a grapnel; and then they all walked up to the hole in the foot of the rock, through which Josh and Will had made their escape after their adventure in the mine-shaft a short time before. _

Read next: Chapter 16. Arthur Temple Catches His Largest Fish...

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