ARTHUR TEMPLE CATCHES HIS LARGEST FISH--AN ODD ONE--AND EVEN THEN IS NOT
AT REST.
Mr Temple took a small flat lantern from his pocket, struck a match
inside, and lit the lamp, which burned with a clear, bright flame.
"Is the shaft belonging to this open at the top?" he said to Will.
"Yes, sir--quite."
"Ah! then there's no foul air. Now, Arthur, come along and you shall
see what a mine adit is like."
"I--er--I'd rather not come this time, papa," said Arthur in a rather
off-hand way; "the knees of my trousers are so wet."
"Oh! are they?" said Mr Temple quietly. "You will come, I suppose,
Dick?"
"Yes, father. May I carry the lamp?"
"Yes; and go first. Slowly, now. Rather hard to get through;" and
after a little squeezing the whole party, save Arthur, crept into the
low gallery, the light showing the roof and sides to be covered with wet
moss of a glittering metallic green.
There was not much to reward the seekers,--nothing but this narrow
passage leading to a black square pool of water, upon which the light of
the lamp played, and seemed to be battling with a patch of reflected
daylight, the image of the square opening, a hundred and fifty feet
above.
"Hah!" said Mr Temple after a few minutes' inspection of the adit and
the shaft, whose walls, as far as he could reach, he chipped with a
sharp-pointed little hammer formed almost like a wedge of steel. "A
good hundred years since this was worked, if ever it got beyond the
search. Copper decidedly."
"And you think it is very rich?" said Will excitedly, for he had been
watching Mr Temple with the greatest eagerness.
"Rich! No, my lad. What, have you got the Cornish complaint?"
"Cornish complaint, sir?" said Will wonderingly.
"The longing to search for mineral treasures?"
"Yes, sir," said Will bluntly after a few moments' pause.
"Then you need not waste time here, my lad."
"But there's copper here. I proved it; and now you say there is."
"Yes; tons of it," said Mr Temple.
"There, Josh!" cried Will triumphantly.
"But," continued Mr Temple as they all stood there half-crouching in
the narrow adit, "it is in quantities and in a bed that would be hard to
work, and every hundredweight you got out and smelted would have cost
more in wages than you could obtain when you sold your copper."
"There, lad, what did I gashly say?" cried Josh eagerly. "Didn't I say
as the true mining was for silver in the sea--ketching fish with boats
and nets."
"No, you did not," cried Will hotly; "and you meant nothing of the kind
in what you did say."
"Ah! there's nought like the sea for making a living," said Josh in an
ill-used tone. "I wouldn't work in one of these gashly places on no
account; not for two pound a week, I wouldn't."
"Well, let's get out in the open air at all events, now," said Mr
Temple. "I should like to see the mouth of the shaft."
"I'll show you, sir," said Will eagerly; and Mr Temple watched him
closely as they stood once more out in the bright sunshine, and, lithe
and strong, he began to climb up the rocks, Dick following him almost as
quickly, but without his cleverness in making his way from block to
block.
Mr Temple followed, then Josh, lastly Arthur, who got on very badly,
but indignantly refused Josh's rough tarry hand when he good-naturedly
offered to help him up the rough cliff.
"Here's where Josh and I went down," said Will, as they all stood at the
shaft mouth.
"And did you go down there, my lad?"
"Yes, sir."
"Swinging on a rope?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then you've a good nerve, my lad. It wants a cool head to do that."
Will winced and glanced at Josh, who wrinkled up his forehead in a
curious way.
"A tremendous nerve," continued Mr Temple. "You wouldn't care to go
down, Dick?"
"No, father; but I'd go if you told me, and the rope was safe."
"That's right," said Mr Temple, smiling; "but, as I said before, it
would require tremendous nerve--like that of our friend here."
Will looked from one to the other uneasily, and turned his cap first to
right, and then to left. Suddenly he drew a long breath.
"I felt when I got out of the shaft, sir, as if I never dared try to do
it again," he said hastily.
"Indeed!"
"Yes, sir; I wasn't at all brave over it."
"Steady, my lad--steady!" said Josh in a reproving tone. "I think you
did well. P'raps the gentleman would like to go now to Blee Vor."
"Yes, I should," said Mr Temple, "so let's go at once. There is
nothing to be done here."
Josh led the way down the cliff--rather a dangerous road, but one which
seemed easy enough to him, while Arthur shuddered and stopped two or
three times on the way down, as if the descent made him giddy. He was
always well enough, though, to resent any offer of assistance, even into
the boat when it was hauled close up to the rock. Josh would have
lifted him in; Will was ready to lay a back for him and porter him in
like a sack; but the sensitive London boy looked upon these offers of
aid as insulting; and the consequence was that he got on board with one
of his shoes full of water, and a very small piece of skin taken off his
shin.
"Shall we row you on to Blee Vor," said Josh.
Mr Temple nodded in a short business-like way, and taking out his
glass, he began to examine the rock as they went along.
All of a sudden, though, he turned to Dick.
"Go and take that oar," he said sharply; and then to Will--"Come here,
my lad."
Will coloured a little as he gave up his oar to Dick, who began rowing
with a great deal of vigour and a great deal of splash, but with little
effect upon the progress of the boat.
"And so you are spending your spare time hunting for metals, are you, my
lad?" said Mr Temple, gazing sharply at Will.
"Yes, sir."
"Why?"
Will hesitated for a moment and then said frankly:
"I want to get on, sir, and make myself independent."
"Capital idea!" said Mr Temple; "but what knowledge have you on the
subject? Have you studied mineralogy?"
"Not from books, sir. Only what the miners about here could teach me."
"But you know a little about these things?"
"Very little, sir; but I'm trying to learn more."
"Ah! that's what we are all trying to do," said Mr Temple quickly.
"That will do. Perhaps we shall see a little more of each other."
He took up his glass once more; and feeling himself to be dismissed,
Will went back to his seat, and would have taken the oar, but Dick
wanted to learn how to row, and would not give it up.
"Go and help my brother catch another bass," he said; so rather
unwillingly the lad went to where Arthur was diligently dragging the
whiffing-line through the water.
"Don't you get any bites, sir?" said Will.
"No. I don't think there are many fish hero now," said Arthur
haughtily.
"But there are a few," said Will smiling. "Did you put on a good bait?"
"Good bait!" said Arthur, looking at his questioner in a half-offended
tone.
"Yes, you must have a good lask on your hook, or the fish will not rise
at it."
"Why, I've got the same hook on that my brother used when he caught that
fish."
"Let me look," said Will quietly.
Arthur frowned, and would have declined, but Will did not wait for
permission, and drew in the line till he came to the lead, lifted it
carefully inboard, and then hauled up the hook.
"You might have kept on trying all day," said Will. "There's no bait."
"Oh, indeed! then some fish must have bitten it off," said Arthur in the
most nonchalant way. "I thought I felt a tug."
Will had his back turned to the fisherman, so that he could smile
unobserved, for he knew that there had been no bait left on the hook,
and that Arthur would not have soiled his fingers to put one on.
"There," he said as he hooked on a good bright lask; "now try."
He threw the bait over and then dropped in the lead, when the bait
seemed to dart away astern, drawing out the line; but to Arthur's
surprise Will checked it instantly, caught the line from the gunwale and
handed it to him, Will's quick eyes having detected the dash of a fish
at the flying bait.
"Why, there's one on!" cried Arthur excitedly.
"Small pollack," said Will smiling. "Haul him in."
Arthur forgot all about the wetness of the line this time, and soon drew
one of the brightly coloured fish inboard and called to his brother.
"Here, look!" he cried, "you never saw anything so beautiful as this."
"Just like mine," cried Dick, "only it was ten times as big."
"Oh!" said Arthur in a disappointed tone. Then, in a whisper to Will,
"I say, boy, put on a big bait this time. I want to catch a large one."
Will felt amused at the other's dictatorial importance, but he said
nothing: placing a bait on the hook, and the line was once more trailed
behind, but this time without success, and at the end of a few minutes
the boat was guided into a narrow passage amongst the rocks, below a
high forbidding headland where the long slimy sea-weed that clung to the
granite was washing to and fro, as the waves rushed foaming in and out
among the huge blocks of stone, some of which were every now and then
invisible, and then seemed to rise out of the sea like the backs of huge
shaggy sea-monsters playing in the nook.
Josh had taken the oar from Dick, and had now assumed the sole guidance
of the boat, rowing slowly with his head turned towards the shore, and
once or twice there was a scraping, bumping noise and a jerk or two,
which made Arthur seize hold of the side.
"Is it safe to go in here?" said Mr Temple.
"Oh! you may trust Josh, sir," exclaimed Will. "It wouldn't be safe at
high water, but there's no danger now."
"Not of getting a hole through the boat?"
"Boomp--craunch!"
Arthur turned quite white, while Dick laughed.
"That's only her iron keel, sir," said Will, for Josh was too intent
upon his work to turn his head for answer. "The wave dropped us on that
rock, and we slid off, you see, on the keel. Now we're in deep water
again."
The action of the waves close inshore on that rugged coast, even in that
calm weather, was sufficient to raise them up three or four feet and
then let them down, while the water was so clear that they could see the
weeds waving and streaming here and there over the tinted rock, patches
of which, where they were washed bare, were of the most brilliant
crimsons, purples, and greens.
Josh was guiding the boat in and out along a most intricate channel, now
almost doubling back, but always the next minute getting nearer to a
beautiful white patch of strand, beyond which was a dark forbidding
clump of rocks piled-up in picturesque confusion, and above which the
gaunt cliff ran up perpendicularly in places till it was at least three
hundred feet above their heads, and everywhere seeming to be built up in
great blocks like rugged ashlar work, the joints fitting closely, but
all plainly marked and worn by the weather.
"Sit fast all!" said Josh; "here's a wave coming!"
He gave one oar a sharp tug to set the boat's head a little farther
round, and Arthur sprang up and with a sort of bound leaped to his
father's side, clinging to him tightly, as a loud rushing, hissing sound
rose from behind, and a good-sized wave came foaming in and out among
the great blocks of stone, as if bent on leaping into and swamping the
boat; but instead of this, as it reached them it lifted the boat, bore
it forward, bumping and scraping two or three rocks below the keel, and
then letting it glide over the surface of a good-sized rock-pool,
swirling and dancing with the newly coming water.
Josh then rowed steadily on for a few strokes, pausing by some
glistening rocks that, after lying dry for a few hours, were being
covered again by the title.
"Your young gents like to look at the dollygobs, master?" said Josh.
"Look at the what!" exclaimed Mr Temple.
"Them there gashly things," said Josh, pointing to a number of round
patches of what seemed to be deep-red jelly, with here and there one of
an olive green.
"Sea-anemones, boys," said Mr Temple. Then to Josh, "No, they must
hunt them out another time; I want to land. I suppose we can climb up
to that shelf?"
He pointed to a flat place about a hundred feet above them.
"Dessay we can, if it arn't too gashly orkard," growled Josh. "If she
be, we'll bring the rope another time and let you down. Sit fast
again!"
For another wave came rushing in, seeming to gather force as it ran,
while Josh so cleverly managed the boat that he made it ride on the
surface of the wave right over a low ridge of rocks, and then rowed
close in and ran her head upon what looked to be coarse sand. Then in
went the oars, Josh and Will leaped out, waited a few moments, and then,
another smaller wave helping them, they drew the boat higher, so that
she was left half dry, and her passengers were able to step out on the
dry patch beneath the rocks.
"Why, it isn't sand, but little broken shells," cried Dick excitedly, as
Mr Temple casually picked up a handful to examine.
"Yes, Dick, broken shells, and not siliceous," said Mr Temple.
"What are those red and green rocks, father?" asked Dick.
"Serpentine; and that white vein running through is soapstone. Ah! now
we shall get to know a little about what is inside."
"But why have we come here?" asked Arthur.
"Because there has been a working here. Some one must have dug down and
thrown out all that mass of broken rock. Part has been washed away; but
all this, you see, though worn and rounded by the waves washing it
about, has been dug out of the rock."
He had walked to a long slope of wave-worn fragments of rock as he
spoke, forming a steep ascent that ran up into a rift in the great
cliff; and he drew Dick's attention to the fact that what seemed like a
level place a hundred feet above was so situated that anything thrown
down would have fallen in the niche or combe of the cliff just beyond
them.
"Now, my fine fellow," said Mr Temple, as he picked up a piece of
wave-polished stone, "what's that?"
"Serpentine," said Will quietly.
"And this?" said Mr Temple.
"Granite, sir."
"Eight; and this?"
"Gneiss," replied Will.
"Quite correct. Now this," he continued, breaking a piece of stone in
two with his hammer.
"Cop--no, only mundic," cried Will, who had nearly been caught tripping.
"Right again. Now this?"
He picked up a reddish piece of stone which, when broken, showed bright
clear crystals, and close to the ruddy stone a number of little black
grains.
"Tin," cried Will eagerly; "and a rich piece."
"Let me look at the tin," cried Arthur eagerly; and the piece being
handed to him, "where?" he cried; "there's no tin here."
"Tin ore, my boy," said Mr Temple quietly. "Those black grains are
rich tin."
"Well, I shouldn't have thought that," said Arthur; "and I should have
thought that was gold or brass."
"Then you would have thought wrong," said Mr Temple sharply. "All is
not gold that glitters, my boy; and you can't find brass in the earth.
What can you find, my lad?" he continued, turning sharply to Will.
"Copper, sir, and tin and zinc."
"Then what is brass?" said Mr Temple.
"Copper and zinc mixed."
"Not copper and tin?"
"Copper and tin, sir, make fine bronze, same as the ancient people used
to hammer for swords and spears; but I can't understand, sir, why two
soft metals like copper and tin should make a hard one when they are
mixed."
"And I cannot explain it to you," said Mr Temple smiling.
"Are we going to stop here long?" said Arthur impatiently.
"Oh? don't go yet," cried Dick, laughing; "I want to hear Will say his
miner's catechism."
"Oh! very well," said Mr Temple, smiling. "What is mundic, then, my
lad?"
"A mussy me! as if every lad here didn't know what mundic was!" cried
Josh to himself; but he spoke loud enough for the others to hear.
"Well, what is mundic, then?" said Mr Temple quickly to Josh.
"What's mundic?" growled Josh, picking up a yellow metallic-looking
piece of rock; "why, that is, and that is, and that is. There's tons of
it everywhere."
"To be sure there is, my man; but what is it?" said Mr Temple.
"Well, ain't I showing of you!" growled Josh. "This here's mundic."
"The gentleman means what is it made of?" whispered Will, and then he
added two or three words.
"Why, how should I know? Made of! 'Tain't made of anything, nor more
ar'n't tin. I suppose it grows."
"Do you know?" said Mr Temple.
"I think so, sir," said Will modestly; "sulphur and iron."
"Let's go on now," said Arthur; "I want to fish."
"Stop and learn something, my boy," said Mr Temple sternly.
"Oh! go on, please," cried Dick, who was delighted to find so much
knowledge in his new friend.
"What is this, then?" said Mr Temple, picking up a whitish
metallic-looking piece of mineral.
"I don't know exactly, sir," said Will eagerly; "but I think it is
partly antimony and partly silver."
"Quite right again, my lad," cried Mr Temple, clapping Will upon the
shoulder of his fish-scaly blue jersey; "a great deal of antimony, and
there is sulphur and iron too, I think, in this piece."
"This must have come out of the working above there," cried Will
eagerly.
"Undoubtedly, my lad."
"I didn't know that there had been a mine here," said Will.
"Or you would have had a look at it before now, eh?"
"Yes, sir," said Will, colouring.
"We'll go and have a look at it now," said Mr Temple; "but I don't
think we shall find anything of much good."
"Here, papa, what's this?" cried Arthur eagerly. "This must be gold."
"Copper," cried Will. "Then there is copper here too!"
"Yes, that is copper," said Mr Temple, examining and re-fracturing a
glistening piece of stone full of purple and gold reflections, with
touches of blue and crimson. "Peacock ore some people call it. Now,
let's have a climb. Or stop, let's have a look at that cave. I should
not wonder if the adit is there."
"Beggin' yer pardon, sir," said Josh respectfully, "I don't think as I'd
go in there, if I was you."
"Why not?" said Mr Temple, as he stood just inside the rugged cavern,
whose mouth was fringed with sea-ferns.
"Well, you see, sir, they say gashly things about these here old zorns."
"What sort of things, Josh?" cried Dick. "Wild beasts in 'em?"
"Well, no, Master Ditchard, sir," said Josh, who was confused as to the
proper way of using the names Dick and Richard; "not wild beasts here."
"You must go two miles farther," said Will, "and we can show you the
seal-caves."
"With seals in them?" cried Richard.
"Oh, yes, plenty," said Will. "Josh thinks there is something
unpleasant lives in these zorns."
"No, not exactly lives," said Josh, hesitating; "and don't you get
making game of 'em, young fellow," he added, turning to Will. "Them as
is a deal older than us wouldn't go in 'em to save their lives."
"Why, what is there in the cave, my man?" said Mr Temple.
"Oh! I shouldn't like to say, sir," said Josh, gazing furtively into
the darksome hole in the rock.
"But you are not afraid?"
"Afraid, sir! Oh, no, I'm not afraid; but I don't think it's right to
go in and disturb what's there."
"Ah, well, Dick, we'll go," said Mr Temple; "and we must apologise if
the occupants object."
"I wouldn't go, really, sir," protested Josh.
"You can stay behind, my man," said Mr Temple.
"Then don't take Master Dick, sir. You see he's so young."
"My son can stay outside if he likes," said Mr Temple in a tone of
voice that made Dick tighten himself up and fasten the lower, button of
his jacket.
"There," said Mr Temple as he closed his lanthorn and held it up; "now
we shall see."
He stepped in over the shelly sand which filled up the vacancies between
the rocks that strewed the floor, and Dick stepped in after him.
Will turned and looked half-mockingly at Josh as he stepped in next.
"Oh! well, I can't stand that," growled Josh. "Here goes."
He moistened both of his hands as if he were going to get a grip of some
rope or spar, and then hurried in, leaving Arthur alone at the mouth of
the zorn, peering in at the dancing light and the strange shadows cast
upon the glistening stone of roof and wall.
"Shall I go in?" he said to himself. "I know Dick will laugh at me if I
don't."
Then he hesitated: the place looked so dark and cold and forbidding,
while without it was so light and bright and sunshiny.
"I sha'n't go," he muttered. "Let him laugh if he likes, and that
Cornish fisher-boy as well. I don't see why I should go into the nasty
old cellar."
Then he peered in, and thought that he would like to go in just a little
way; and stretching out one leg he was about to set his foot down when
there was a black shadow cast at his feet, a rushing noise, and
something came quite close, uttered a harsh cry, and dashed off.
Arthur Temple bounded back into the broad sunshine with his heart
beating painfully; and even when he saw that it was one of the great
black fishing-birds that had dipped down and dashed off again he was not
much better.
"I wish I were not so nervous!" he muttered; and he looked about
hastily.
"I'm glad no one was here, though," he added. "How Dick would have
laughed! Now I'll follow them in. No, I won't. I'll say I wanted to
fish;" and snatching at this idea he ran down to the boat, got in, and
arranging the line, gave the lead a swing and threw it seaward, so that
it should fall in the deep channel among the rocks, where there was not
the slightest likelihood of his getting a fish.
But it requires some skill to throw out lead attached to a fishing-line,
especially when there are ten or twelve feet of line between the lead
and the hook.
Hence it was then that when Arthur Temple swung the lead to and fro, and
finally let it go seaward, there was a sharp tug and a splash, the lead
falling into the water about a couple of yards from the stern, and the
hook sticking tightly in the gunwale of the boat.
"Bother!" exclaimed Arthur angrily as he proceeded to haul the lead in,
and then to extricate the hook, whose bait wanted rearranging, while the
hook itself was a good deal opened out in drawing it from the wood.
He got all right at last, screwing up his face a good deal at having to
replace the bait, and then stopping to wash his hands very carefully and
wipe them upon his pocket-handkerchief. This done, he smelt his
fingers.
"Pah!" he ejaculated; and he proceeded to wash and wipe them again
before rearranging the line; and then after swinging the lead to and fro
four or five times, he let it go, giving it a tremendous jerk, which
recoiled so upon his frame, and caused the boat to swerve so much, that
he nearly fell overboard, and only saved himself by throwing himself
down and catching at the thwarts.
"Bother the beastly, abominable old boat!" he cried angrily as he
scrambled up, and with all the pettishness of a spoiled child, kicked
the side with all his might, a satisfactory proceeding which resulted in
the wood giving forth a hollow sound, and a painful sensation arising
from an injured toe.
He felt a little better, though, after getting rid of this touch of
spite, and he smiled with satisfaction, too, for the lead had descended
some distance off in the water, and with a self-complacent smile Arthur
Temple sat down on the edge of the boat and waited for a bite.
"This is better than getting wet and dirty in that cavern," he said.
"It's warm and sunshiny, and old Dick will be as savage as savage if he
finds that I've caught three or four good fish before he comes. Was
that a touch?"
It did not seem to be, so Arthur sat patiently on waiting for the bite,
and sometimes looking over the side, where, in the clear water,
half-hidden by a shelf of rock, he could see what at first made him
start, for it looked like an enormous flat spider lying about three feet
down, watching him with a couple of eyes like small peas, mounted,
mushroom-fashion, on a stalk.
"Why, it's an old crab," he said; "only a small one, though. Ugh! what
a disgusting-looking beast!"
He remained watching the crab for some few minutes, and then looked
straight along the line, which washed up and down on a piece of rock as
the waves came softly in, bearing that peculiar sea-weedy scent from the
shore. Then he had another look at the crab, and could distinctly see
its peculiar water-breathing apparatus at work, playing like some piece
of mechanism about its mouth, while sometimes one claw would be raised a
little way, then another, as if the mollusc were sparring at Arthur, and
asking him to come on.
"Ugh! the ridiculous-looking little monster!" he muttered. "I wonder
how long they'll be! What a while it is before I get a bite!"
But he did not get a bite all the same. For, in the first place, there
were none but very small fish in and about the rocks--little wrasse, and
blennies wherever the bottom was sandy, and tiny crabs scuffling in and
out among the stones, where jelly-fish were opening and shutting and
expanding their tentacles in search of minute food.
In the second place, Arthur sat on fishing, happily unconscious of the
fact that he was in a similar position to the short-sighted old man in
the caricature. This individual is by a river side comfortably seated
beneath a tree, his rod horizontally held above the water, but his line
and float, where he has jerked them, four or five feet above his head in
an overhanging bough.
There were no overhanging boughs near Arthur, and no trees; but when he
threw in his line the lead had gone into a rock-pool, the hook had
stopped in a patch of sea-weed on a rock high and dry, and the bait of
squid was being nicely cooked and frizzled in the sun.
"I think it wants a new bait," said our fisherman at last very
importantly; and, drawing in the line, the lead came with a bump up
against the side of the boat, while the bait was dragged through the
water, and came in thoroughly wet once more.
"I thought so," said Arthur complacently as he examined the shrunken
bait. "Something has been at it and sucked all the goodness away. I
wish that fisher-boy was here to put on a fresh one."
But that fisher-boy was right in the cavern, so Arthur had to put on a
fresh bait himself. This done, and very badly too, he took the line in
hand once more, stood up on the thwart, spreading his legs wide apart to
steady himself, because the boat rocked; and then, after giving the
heavy lead a good swing, sent it off with a thrill of triumph, which
rapidly changed to a look of horror, accompanied by a yell of pain.
"Oh! oh! oh! oh!" cried Arthur. "My leg! my leg! my leg! Oh! help!
help! help!" and sitting down in the boat he began to drag in the line
rapidly, as he thoroughly realised the fact that he had caught a very
large and a very odd fish this time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Zorn, the Cornish name for a sea-cave.