Chapter 31. A Bi-Startler

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_ CHAPTER THIRTY ONE. A BI-STARTLER

"What's that?" cried Jack, starting up into a sitting position, to face Ned, who rubbed his eyes and stared.

"I dunno, sir; sounded to me like a horrid shriek."

"Yes; that was what woke me, Ned," said Jack in an awestricken whisper. "It sounded like some one being killed."

"There it is again!" cried Ned, as a harsh, shrill sound arose from close at hand, to be followed by a chorus of discordant cries, which seemed to run in by them to be echoed and made more hollow and strange.

"Talk about sharpening saws," said Ned, as he hurriedly began to dress, "why that's lovely to it. Cockatoos, that's what it is. Good job it's daylight, or I should have been thinking that we'd come to sleep in an awful place."

"I couldn't make out where we were, Ned, for some time. Did you sleep well?"

"I dunno, sir. Don't know nothing about it, only that I lay down and snuggled the sand over me a bit. Next thing I heard was those birds. How did you get on, sir?"

"Slept! oh, so soundly!"

"And feel all the better for it, sir?"

"Yes--no, my head aches and feels sore from the blow."

"Ah, I should like to have a turn at those chaps, Mr Jack, sir; I owe 'em one, and you owe 'em one too. Perhaps we shall get a chance to pay 'em some day."

"I hope not," said Jack, who was hurrying on his clothes.

"You hope not, sir?"

"Yes, of course. I hope we may never see or hear anything of them again. And perhaps they're waiting on the mountain side to seize us as soon as we go out of this cave."

"Then we mustn't go out till they're gone, sir. Clothes pretty dry, sir?"

"Yes, Ned, they seem quite dry; but I want to bathe."

"What, again, sir? I got washed enough last night to last me for a bit. Fine place this would be to bring a cargo of umbrellas, if there was any one to buy 'em. I never saw it rain like that."

"Oh, Ned--Ned, do try and talk sensibly," cried Jack. "How can you make jokes when we are in such danger?"

"I dunno about being in danger now, sir. We're pretty safe at present. I say, sir, this must be the way down into the kitchen," continued Ned, as he went on dressing, and trying to peer into the darkness of the cavernous place. "My word, can't you smell the black beadles?"

"I do smell something," replied Jack thoughtfully. "It must be volcanic."

"Beadly, sir. There, it's quite strong." At that moment from farther in a fluttering and squealing sound was heard, and Ned started back. "There, sir, I said so. Mice and rats too."

"Nonsense; it is the great fruit bats."

"What, those we see of a night, sir, bigger than pigeons?"

"Yes; this is one of their roosting-places."

"And do they smell like beadles, sir?"

"Yes; very much like. But now, Ned, what shall we do next?"

"Well, sir, if I did what I liked I should choose a good breakfast; but as I can't, what do you say to going a bit farther in here to see what it's like?"

"Not now. I want to make out whereabouts we are, and whether the blacks are on the look-out for us still; and then I want to communicate with my father; he must be horribly anxious about us, Ned."

"Yes; I expect he thinks we've gone down some hole, sir, and it strikes me he'll be saying something to the doctor for going and leaving us behind."

"I'm afraid that it was our fault, Ned, for not keeping up."

"Well, sir, we can't help it now. Next best thing is to get back to the yacht, so as soon as you're ready we'll make a start; but I'm afraid it will be a long walk before breakfast."

"Terribly long, I'm afraid."

"But there's always a good side to everything, sir, even if it's a looking-glass," continued Ned philosophically. "We're better off than you might think."

"I can't see it, Ned."

"Why, we've got no guns, nor wallets, nor cartridges to carry, sir. Now then, will you lead?"

"Yes; be cautious. We don't know but what some of the blacks may be near."

"That's true, sir. First thing I s'pose is to get what old Lenny calls our bearings."

"Yes; we must find out where we face," said Jack, and he advanced cautiously to the cavern's entrance, and began to peer round warily for danger.

But there was no sign of any. They were very high up, the morning was clear, the sun was gilding the vapours which rose from the rifts and valleys, and the sea glittered gloriously. Far below they obtained glimpses of the reef with its fringe of foam; but not a murmur of the beating waves reached them, while overhead, partially hidden in clouds, the crater of the volcano showed some of its craggy slopes, and the forest beneath seemed to be less dense.

"I can't make out where we are, Ned," said Jack at last. "Yes, I can; we have worked round more to the south, and must have done nothing but get farther and farther away from the yacht."

"Think so, sir? Let's see; we anchored east side first, then we went round and anchored west, and you say we've been travelling south. Well, I dare say you're right, and that means we must keep to the west again. Why, those black fellows must have taken us out of that little valley and put us in another one. I must say it's rather puzzling, sir. But you lead, and I'll follow, for it's of no use for me to pretend to be able to steer."

Jack made no reply, but stood looking downward, seeing nothing of the glorious prospect below, his mind being taken up with thoughts of trying to hit the head of the ravine up which they had travelled, for he knew the difficulties attendant upon going down another, to be led right to the edge of the lagoon, with the puzzle before him of not knowing whether to travel to right or left.

"There's that flock of shriekers coming along below there, Mr Jack, sir," said the man, breaking in upon the lad's reverie. "No, it ain't: it's pigs. I can see 'em, sir; there they go. My word, I wish I had a gun, and they came within reach; I'd have a shot at one of 'em, and before long it would be roast pork for breakfast. See 'em, sir? There they go."

They were plain enough to see at times, a drove of twenty or so, of all sizes, down to quite small porkers, as they raced along over the open patches, and then disappeared in amongst the trees, to re-appear once more as they made for the denser portions of the forest.

"Why, there's one left behind, Ned," said Jack suddenly. "It looks as if it was lame."

"Why, it has broken down. Look, sir, how it keeps limping. I say, we must have him. We can't let a chance like that go when we're starving. Keep your eye on the spot, sir, while I try and hit off some mark to know him by."

Jack's response, as Ned moved to get into a better position for observation, was to leap upon the man and drag him back into the entrance of the cavern.

"What did you do that for, sir?" he cried angrily.

"Couldn't you see what was coming?"

"No, sir," cried Ned surlily; "could you?"

"Go down on hands and knees to that block of stone lying there, and peep over cautiously."

Ned obeyed in an ill-used fashion, and dropped down again to crawl back into the cavern.

"Oh, I say, Mr Jack, seven or eight of them."

"I only saw two."

"Quite what I said, sir. They must have been hunting the drove, and speared the one that hung behind. Now, then, they'll be stopping to cook and have another feast. Suppose they come in here to make this their kitchen? Hadn't we better slip out at once and make a run for it?"

"Run for it?" cried Jack. "How can we up here, where it is all slow climb? No, we must keep in hiding."

"But suppose they choose this place and come here?"

"Not likely, Ned. If they do we must go farther into its depths."

"Ugh!" cried the man with a shudder. "I want to get out of the hole. It's hot and steamy, and unnatural. I believe some of the melted stuff came out this way."

"What, the molten lava? Of course," said Jack coolly. "I don't understand much about it, but it's plain enough that this was all liquid molten matter once, and that it ran out along here."

"What, this rock, Mr Jack? Do you mean melted like lead and running down?"

"Of course."

"Oh, I say, Mr Jack, is this a time, with black Indians close at hand, to go stuffing a fellow with cranky tales?"

"I am only telling you the simple truth, Ned."

"But hard stone can't melt."

"Yes, it can, if the heat is great enough. This was all running like molten metal once, this part under our feet."

"And what about this where we are, sir?"

"It seems to me, Ned, as if it were the cindery froth on the top, that was full of gas and steam, so that when it cooled it left all these holes and cracks and crevices. Look at that piece lying there; only that it's of a beautiful silvery grey, it looks just like one of the pieces of cinder which pop out of the fire."

"Want a pretty good-sized fire for a piece like that to pop out of, sir," said the man scornfully.

"Well, it must have been a good-sized fire when this great mountain was in eruption, and the red-hot lava boiling over the sides of the crater and running down."

"But do you really think it ever did, sir?"

"I have no doubt about it whatever. Look at that piece lying half buried in the black sand. What is that?"

"Looks like black glass, sir," said Ned, kicking a piece of obsidian.

"Well, it is volcanic glass. How could that have been made without heat?"

"I dunno, sir. It caps me."

"You said the place was hot."

"No need to say it, sir. I'm as hot as hot. Brings me out in a prespiration."

"St! don't talk so loudly, Ned. The place echoes so."

At that moment the man laid his hand upon Jack's arm and pointed downward.

The lad followed the direction of the pointing hand, to see that a group of the blacks were coming in their direction, and for the moment Jack felt that they must be seen, until he saw that they were standing well in the shadow.

His first impulse was to catch Ned's arm, stoop down and hurry away to reach the shelter of the trees, but Ned stopped him.

"No good, sir. We should be seen. Let's go right in here."

"What, to be trapped?"

"They mightn't come in here, sir, and if they did, perhaps they couldn't find us. Anyhow they're sure to see us and come after us if we go outside."

The wisdom of the words was evident enough, and with a sigh Jack drew back with his companion, startling some birds from a shelf where they seemed to be nesting within reach of his hand, and sending them rushing out uttering their alarm notes.

"Are we in far enough, Mr Jack?" said Ned.

"No: any one could see us here. Come along."

They went on inward for another twenty yards, the mouth of the entrance still being in full view. It was awkward travelling, the black sand having given place to loose pieces of scoria and obsidian, some pieces of which crackled under their boots, and took revenge by entering into the soles. As they went in the place widened out, but remained much about the same height overhead, the highest portions of the roof being nearly within touch of Ned's hand.

Here the latter stopped again.

"Don't let's go any farther, sir," he said nervously. "Don't you feel a bit frightened?"

"Of course I do. It would be horrible if they caught us again. They would kill us."

"Yes, sir; most likely," said Ned. "Be awkward, wouldn't it? But don't you feel scared-like about this great black hole?"

"Scared? No; I like it, Ned."

"Oh, no, you don't, sir. You can't. Don't say that. There! There it is again. Just over your head."

He shrank back with his fist doubled as if prepared to strike.

"What is it?" cried Jack, startled now.

"I dunno, sir. Let's go back," cried the man in an agitated whisper. "It's very horrid though. There's lots of 'em shuffling and scrambling about in the cracks and holes, staring at you with their wicked-looking eyes, and more 'n once I've seen 'em flapping their wings. I don't like it. Let's go back."

"Go back to be taken? Impossible. Look, they are only bats."

"Bats with wings a yard across, sir? Oh, come, I know better than that."

"What are they then?" said Jack angrily.

"Oh, I dunno, sir. Something horrid as lives in this dreadful place. They make me feel creepy all down my back. I'd rather have a set-to with one of the ugliest blacks yonder."

"I tell you they are bats--the great fruit bats. Why, Captain Bradleigh pointed them out to me the other night, flying overhead in the darkness just like big crows."

"Are you sure, sir? There, look at that thing staring down at you and making noises. Mind, pray, Mr Jack, sir, or he'll have you. Perhaps their bite's poison."

"They will not bite if we leave them alone. They are flying foxes."

"Flying wolves, I think, sir. I say, hadn't we better go back?"

"No," said Jack firmly. "Why, Ned, are you going to turn coward?"

"Hope not, sir; and that's what worries me--me being a man and feeling as I do, while you're only a boy and don't seem to mind a bit. I wouldn't care so much if you were frightened too."

"Well, I am frightened, Ned--horribly frightened, but not of the flying foxes."

"But you don't seem to mind what might be farther in, sir," said Ned, staring wildly into the darkness ahead.

"Oh yes, I do," replied Jack. "I'm afraid we might slip down into some horrible black pit; but we need not if we're careful."

"Ah, you don't seem to understand me, sir, and I don't quite understand myself. I suppose it's from only being half myself again, for one of my arms is no good at all. That's what makes me feel a bit cowardly like."

"Yes, of course, it makes you nervous," said Jack quietly.

"There! Feel that, sir?" whispered Ned in a horror-stricken voice.

"That hot puff of air? Yes, it's curious. I suppose it would grow warmer the farther we went in."

"And you taking it as cool as can be, sir," said Ned in a voice full of reproach.

"Well, why not? We've only got to be careful, just as we should have to be if we were climbing up to the crater. There would be hot steamy puffs of air there, and--Quick, don't speak. Take hold of my hand, and let's go softly right in."

Ned did not hesitate, but obeyed at once, and they walked softly on into the darkness ahead, for from apparently close behind them--though the speakers had not yet reached the mouth of the low cavern--there came the confused angry gabble of many voices, and on looking back Ned saw the mouth of the place darkened, and it seemed as if the enemy were about to come in; but some were apparently hesitating, and protesting against its being done.

Ned's dread of the unseen departed at sight of the seen, and he walked firmly onward, gripping Jack's hand tightly.

"Come on in, sir," he whispered; "they're after us. Let's get into a dark corner, and let 'em have it with stones--some of these sharp bits."

Everything seemed to point to the fact that they must either get right into the depths of the cavern and trust to finding a place of concealment, or stand on their defence as Ned suggested, and meet their enemies with stones.

They must have retreated quite fifty yards over the sharp cracking fragments, when the light which shone in upon them from the mouth suddenly ceased, and looking round for the cause, they found that the passage had made a sudden turn, so that they had to go back three or four yards before they could catch sight of the enemy.

That which they saw was enough to startle them, showing as it did the imminence of their danger, and that the blacks were probably coming in search of them, under the belief that they were in hiding. For one, evidently the leader, was in advance, with bow and arrow in hand ready to shoot, and his companions held their spears prepared for action as they came on in a stooping attitude.

"Shall we shoot at 'em?" whispered Ned, feeling now in the presence of danger.

"No. Let's get a little heap of stones and be ready to throw when they are well in reach."

"Oh, if I could only use my other arm!" muttered Ned. "Come on then, sir. They can't see us now. Perhaps there's a narrower place farther in, and the darker it is the better for us and the worse for them."

The change in the poor fellow was wonderful. He did not seem like the same. It struck Jack for the moment, but he had something else to think about, and he followed his companion quickly, at the risk of slipping into some precipitous place.

It was too dark to see much when they stopped again, but they could feel plenty of rough pieces of stone beneath their feet, and the place was narrow enough to make the chances of a successful defence greater.

"It's an ugly job, Mr Jack, sir," said Ned, "and I feel precious shaky about my throwing, though there was a time when I'd hurl a cricket-ball with any man I knew. If they think they're coming nobbling us about with their war-clubs and getting nothing back, they're precious well mistaken, so scuffle up all you can, and--Oh! Murder!"

Ned dropped down on his face, and Jack crawled against the wall, for at the first attempt made to pull a stone from a heap there was a sharp rustling sound, a little avalanche of fragments was set in motion, and they fell with a tremendous splash into some subterranean natural reservoir; a loud reverberation followed, and instantaneously, as the echoes went bellowing out through the passage by which the fugitives had entered, there was a strange rushing fluttering, and the sound as of a roaring mighty wind unchained from some vast chasm where it had lain at rest.

Jack felt the wind touching him as it passed. Then in a flash he knew that it was caused by the beating of thousands of wings, and then, with his heart beating heavily, he was listening to an outburst of shrieks and yells, and lastly nothing was to be heard but Ned groaning and muttering:

"Oh dear! oh dear! it 'd frighten any man, let alone a poor chap who's been wounded mortal bad!"

A few minutes of time only were occupied by the whole of what took place, from the first rattle of the stones to Ned's piteous ejaculations, and Jack crouched there listening till the poor fellow exclaimed--

"Mr Jack, sir, where are you? Don't say you're dead."

"No, Ned, I won't."

"Oh, my dear lad, where are you then?" gasped the poor fellow wildly.

"Here, quite safe; but don't move, there must be a terrible gulf close beside you."

"Yes, sir, and I thought it had swallowed you. I say, is it all over with us?"

"I hope not," said Jack quietly. "But listen, Ned; can you hear the blacks?"

"Hear 'em! No, sir. My ears seem full of the shrieks and cries of those things as they tore out of the place, and you would stick out that they were bats. Phew, can't you smell 'em?"

"Yes, plainly enough; but it was not the bats made those noises, it must have been the blacks."

"No, no, sir, it was those horrid things. I felt 'em hitting me with their wings as they swooped by."

"Nonsense, nonsense. They were scared by the noise of the stones falling, and the echoes, and it seems to me that they scared the blacks as well as us, and they have run out again."

"What!" cried Ned. "You don't mean that, Mr Jack?"

"But I do. Ned, they've gone."

"Well! and I was only just before thinking that I was getting over being so shaky and nervous, and not so queer about myself, and then for me to break down like that. Of all the cowardly cranks I ever did come across! Oh, I say, Mr Jack, sir, ain't you ashamed of me?"

"I'm quite as ashamed of myself, Ned. I don't know who could help being frightened; my heart's beating tremendously still. But they've gone, Ned, I feel sure."

"Well, I believe they have, sir, 'pon my word. But I say, Mr Jack, sir, don't be offended at what I say."

"Of course not. Say it quick."

"It's on'y this, sir; are you the same young gent as sailed with us from Dartmouth a short time ago? because you cap me."

"Here, give me your hand," cried Jack. "No; stop. Don't move. You might slip. Can't we get a light?"

"Light, sir? Yes; of course. I've got a little box of wax matches in my pocket."

There was a faint rustling sound in the darkness, and then Ned uttered a groan.

"Lost them?"

"No, sir; here they are, but I forgot about the rain last night. They must be all soaked and spoiled."

"Try one."

"Yes, sir, I'll try. But I say, Mr Jack, this is like being in a mine, and it must be fiery, as they call it, being so hot. Will there be any danger of an explosion from gas?"

"Oh, surely not. This isn't a coal-mine, but a sort of grotto under a flow of lava. Try if one of them will light."

"All right, sir. I say, they rattle all right, as if they were hard."

The box clicked as Ned opened it; he took out a match, rubbed it sharply, and there was a faint line of phosphorescent light.

"No go, sir; just like one of them fishy things we get alongside."

"Try another."

_Whisk_--_crick_--_crick_--_crack_--and a flash of light.

"Hooray!" cried Ned, as the tiny taper blazed up and burned steadily, showing that the holder was close to the edge of a huge chasm, down which a couple of strides would have taken him, and as the light burned lower Jack crept quickly to where Ned still crouched by the side of the passage.

"Why, Ned, I could not see much, but this opens out here into a vast place."

"Yes, sir; I got a glimpse of it. Shall I light another match?"

"No, no, save them."

"But we ought to get out of here as soon as we can, sir."

"Of course, but we shall see a faint gleam from the entrance directly our eyes have grown used to the change."

"Shall we, sir?"

"Of course."

"Well, I don't want to show the white feather again, but I can't help feeling that we ought to be out of this."

"Wait and listen."

"Can't hear nothing, sir," said the man after a minute's pause.

"No, and I can see the faint dawn of light there gleaming against the wall yonder. Let's begin to go back very quietly in case the blacks are still there."

"I'm more than ready, sir."

"Then lead on, Ned."

"Mean it, sir?"

"Yes, go on."

Ned rose, and Jack followed suit, to begin stepping cautiously on, till by slow degrees they reached the sharp angle in the passage, and could look straight out to the entrance and see that all was clear, while there before them was the bright sunny sky, and away in the distance the gleaming sea.

"I say, who's afraid?" cried Ned excitedly. "But, Mr Jack, sir, what a rum thing darkness is! I felt twice as much scared over that as I did about the niggers, and--Oh, I say, look at that!"

Before the lad could grasp what he was about to do, Ned ran forward toward the light till he was half-way to the mouth of the cavern, when Jack saw the dark silhouette-like figure stoop down again and again, to pick up something each time, and he returned laughing, bearing quite a bundle of spears, bows, and arrows.

"There, I was right," cried Jack; "they were frightened--so scared that they dropped their weapons and ran."

"Yes, sir, and set us up with some tools. Oh, if it had only been our guns!" _

Read next: Chapter 32. The Evil Of Not Being Used To It

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