"What shall we do, then?"
"Give it up."
"And I just won't," cried Fred, emphatically. "I say, Scar, look here."
"Well?"
"If we can't get in one way, let's get in the other."
Scarlett stared at him wonderingly, "Let's go down the same way that you
were going, only not in such a hurry," he added with a grin.
"What, climb down the hole?" said Scarlett, thoughtfully, and ignoring
the smile. "Yes. Why not?"
"Oh yes, we could, with a rope. Drive an iron bar down into the earth,
and tie one end of the rope to it, and then go down."
"You would not dare to go down that way."
"Yes, I would," said Fred, stoutly; "and so would you," he added.
"I don't know," said Scarlett, dreamily. "But I do. Shall we do it?
I'm ready if you are. Come along, then, back to our place, and let's
make old Samson lend us a couple of good ropes."
Scarlett nodded acquiescence, and the two lads, little thinking how
their act would be of importance in the future, re-climbed the cliff and
started toward the Manor at a run.
It proved very easy to propose getting a rope, but much harder to get
one, for everything in the shape of hempen cord was under the care of
Samson Dee, who had to be found, not at all a difficult task, for he was
digging--at least, handling a spade--down the garden.
Samson greeted the coming of the lads with a smile, for it was another
excuse for taking a foot from the ground, and resting it upon the spade.
But as soon as he heard the want, the smile faded from his face. "You
want a what?" he said. "You know what I said, Samson, so no nonsense.
Let us have one directly."
"You want a rope, Master Fred?"
"There, I told you that you did hear me. Yes; I want the longest rope
about the place directly."
"What yer want it for?"
"Never you mind. I tell you I want the rope."
"To make a swing with, of course. Well, then, you can't have it."
"Can't I?" said Fred, sharply. "We'll soon see about that. Come along,
Scar. Any one would think the ropes were his."
"Look here, Master Fred, if you--"
Samson ceased speaking, for he was wise enough to see that he was
wasting words in shouting after the two lads. But he began muttering
directly about a "passell o' boys" coming and bothering him when he
hadn't a moment to spare.
"And look here," he shouted, as he saw his visitors trotting off with a
coil of strong new rope belonging to the waggon, "mind you bring that
rope back again. Now, I wonder what them two are going to do?" he ended
by muttering, and then set to work digging once more, but in so slow and
methodical a fashion that the worms had plenty of time to get away from
the sharp edge of the spade before it was driven home and cut them in
half.
"Poor old Samson!" said Fred; "he seems to think that everything belongs
to him."
"So does our Nat," replied Scarlett. "I often fancy he thinks I belong
to him as well, from the way he shouts and orders me about."
"But you never do what he tells you."
"Of course not; and--Oh, Fred!"
"What's the matter?"
"We've got the rope; but what are we going to fasten the end to when we
go down?" Fred stopped short, and rubbed one ear.
"You hold it while I go down, and I'll hold it while you go down."
"I shouldn't like to try that," said Scarlett. "We're not strong
enough."
"Nonsense! Not if we let the rope bite on the edge of the hole?"
"That would not do," said Scarlett, decisively.
"I know, then," cried Fred. "Come along."
"No. Let's go back and get an iron bar to drive down in the earth."
"I've got a better way than that," said Fred. "There's a pole across
the opening in that stone wall half-way up the hill. We'll lay that
across, and tie the rope to it."
Scarlett nodded acquiescence, and they trotted on to the rough stone
wall, built up of loose fragments piled one on the other, the gateway
left for the passage of cattle being closed by a couple of poles laid
across like bars, their ends being slipped in holes left for the
purpose.
The straighter of these two was slipped out by Scarlett and shouldered,
and they hastened on, attracted by the discovery they had made, but
recalling, as they went on, that they had been told before about the
existence of this opening by more than one person, though it had slipped
from their memory for the time.
"Who's going down first?" said Fred, as they slowly climbed the last
hundred yards of the slope.
"I will."
"No; I think I ought to go first."
"Long bent, short bent," said Scarlett, picking a couple of strands of
grass, breaking them off so that one was nearly double the length of the
other, and then, after placing two ends level and hiding the others,
offering them to his companion to draw one out.
Fred drew the shorter, and Scarlett had the right to go down first--a
right which but for the look of the thing he would willingly have
surrendered. For as they reached the long, narrow, grass-grown crack,
the strange whispering and plashing sounds which came from below
suggested unknown dangers, which were more repellent than the
attractions of the mysterious hole.
Fred looked curiously at Scarlett, who noted the look, and tightened
himself up, assuming a carelessness he did not feel.
"Doesn't go down quite straight, seemingly," he said.
"All the better. I say, shall I go down first?"
"What for? I won the choice, and I'm going," said Scarlett, sharply, as
he took one end of the rope and tied it to the middle of the pole, which
proved to be of ample length to go well across the opening.
"Tie it tightly, Scar," cried Fred.
"Never fear. Mind the rope is so that it will uncoil easily. There,
run it down, and let's see if it is long enough to get to the bottom."
Fred raised the rings of stiff twisted hemp, and dropped them down out
of sight; but it was evident that the rope did not descend very far, the
main portion lodging only a little way down; but Fred raised it a yard
or two and shook it, with the effect that more fell down and lodged, but
only to be shaken loose again and again, showing plainly enough that the
hole went down in a sharp slope for a long way, and then that the rope
had dropped over a perpendicular part, for as it was drawn up and down
it fell heavily now.
"There," said Fred, "that's it. I dare say that reaches the bottom. If
it doesn't, you must come up again. Ready?"
"Yes."
And with all the recklessness of boys who never see the reality of
danger until it is there, Scarlett stripped off his jerkin and lowered
himself down into the crack, hanging with one arm over the pole for a
few moments before seizing the rope, twisting his legs round it, and
letting himself slide down.
"Keep on calling out what it's like; and as soon as you get down, sing
`Bottom!' and then I'll come too."
Scarlett nodded, and let himself slide slowly, to find, and call up to
his companion, that the hole went down at a slope into the darkness, so
that he was not swinging by the rope, but supporting himself thereby, as
he glided down over the shaley earth of which the hill was composed, but
only to come to a sudden stop as he found that the hole zigzagged back
in the opposite direction at a similar angle to that by which he had
descended.
"Are you right?" cried Fred from above.
"Yes."
"Is it easy?"
"Yes, quite."
"Then I shall come down now."
"No, no," cried Scarlett; "the rope is not strong enough for two."
"Make haste, then. I want to see what there is. Found anything good?"
"No," said Scarlett, as he glided slowly down into the darkness, with
his companion's words buzzing in his ears, just as if they were spoken
close by, and listening as he descended to the peculiar, trickling,
rushing noise of the scraps of disintegrating slate which he dislodged
in passing, and which fell rapidly before him.
"Keep talking," said Fred from above.
"There's nothing to talk about," cried Scarlett. "I'm only sliding down
a slope, and--yes, now I'm hanging clear, and turning round. Hold the
rope: it's twisting so."
"I am holding it tight," came back; "but I can't help its turning round.
What's it like now?"
"Just like day beginning to break, and I can see something shining down
below."
"Is it the water?"
"Yes, I suppose so. Shall I go down any lower?"
"Yes, of course."
"It isn't water that's shining," said Scarlett, after turning slowly
round two or three times, as he descended another twenty feet.
"What is it, then?--gold or silver?"
"It's only a reflection, I suppose; but I can't quite see."
"Aren't you at the bottom yet?" cried Fred, impatiently.
"No."
"Make haste, then."
"Yes, I am at the bottom," cried Scarlett, directly after, as his feet
touched firm rock.
"Look out, then," cried Fred. "Down I come."
"No, no; wait a moment," was the reply. "I want to try and find out
what it's like."
_Whirr, whizz_!
"What's the matter?" cried Fred, as he heard his companion utter a loud,
"Oh!"
"Something rushed by me."
"What was it?"
"I couldn't see. Ah! there it is again."
"Hold tight; I'm coming," cried Fred. "I dare say it was an owl or a
bat. Oh my! doesn't it scrape you?"
Scarlett's response was a sharp ejaculation and a jerk at the rope.
"Here, what are you doing?" cried Fred.
There was no answer, only a panting noise.
"Don't swing the rope about like that, Scar! Do you hear? I won't come
down, if you don't leave off."
"Hah! that's it," came from below.
"What's the matter? What are you doing?" cried Fred, who had paused at
the bottom of the first slope, holding tightly by the rope, which
Scarlett seemed to be trying to jerk out of his hand.
"It's all right now," panted Scarlett. "You sent down a lot of slate
and earth, and it came on my head."
"Well, I couldn't help it. Why didn't you stand on one side?"
"I did," cried Scarlett, "and stepped back off the edge. Fortunately, I
had tight hold of the rope, but slipped down ever so far, and had to
climb up again. Come along down, now."
There was a serious sound and a spice of danger in this little recital,
which, added to the darkness into which Fred had plunged, made him
descend for the rest of the way slowly and very cautiously down the
second slope, and then, as he hung perpendicularly, and felt himself
slowly turning round, he kept on asking how much farther it was, till
his feet touched his companion's hands, and he stood directly by his
side in the faint grey light, which seemed to strike up from below, both
clutching the rope tightly in the excitement of the novel position, and
trying to pierce the gloom.
"Ugh! What's that?" cried Fred, suddenly, as he kicked against
something which made a rattling noise.
"I don't know. Sounds like pieces of wood."
"Ugh!" ejaculated Fred again, "bones! Come away, Scar; it's a
skeleton."
The two boys shrank away in horror, and for some moments neither
ventured to speak, while, as they clung together, each could feel his
fellow suffering from no little nervous tremor.
"Some one must have slipped down the hole and died here of starvation,"
whispered Scarlett at last. "You know how dangerous it is."
"Yes," said Fred, thoughtfully, and with his shrinking feeling on the
increase. "No," he exclaimed directly after, "I don't think it's that.
I know--at least, I should know if I touched it."
"What do you mean?"
"It's some sheep slipped down when feeding, and never been missed."
"Do you think it's that?" said Scarlett, eagerly.
"I feel sure of it. If it had been a man, he would have found some way
of getting out. I say, Scar, will you stoop down and touch it?"
"No," said Scarlett, with a shudder.
"Well, I will, then. Yes; I'm right. It is a sheep's bones."
"How do you know?"
"You can feel some wool down here. If it had been a man, it would have
been clothes. Well, I am glad."
Scarlett showed his satisfaction by drawing a long breath full of
relief, and the spirits of both seemed relieved by the knowledge that
the grisly relics told no tale of a human being's terrible fate.
"I dare say there are more bones about, if we were to search," said
Fred. "But what a great gloomy place it is! Who'd have thought that
there was such a cave on our shore?"
"I can't see any good, now we have got down in it," said Scarlett,
rather discontentedly. "I don't suppose we shall find anything."
"Why, we have found something."
"Yes; bones. I wish we had a light."
"Where was it you stepped over?" said Fred, speaking in a whisper now,
for the silence and darkness were not without their effect upon him.
"There."
"Where's there? I can't see which way you mean."
"Exactly behind you," said Scarlett.
Fred made an involuntary movement in the opposite direction, one
imitated by Scarlett, with the result that they edged along about a
dozen feet before they were stopped by the wall of rock, which sloped
away above their heads.
"I wish it wasn't dark," said Fred. "Now let's try how far we can get
this way."
Still holding on tightly by the rope, they moved in a fresh direction,
finding the rock upon which they stood made irregular by the heaps of
slate and earth which had crumbled down from above; but over this they
cautiously made their way for seven or eight yards, when they were again
stopped by the sloping wall of rock.
The next investigation suggested itself as being the edge over which
Scarlett had stepped, and for the moment they shrank from that, and made
their way cautiously back, keeping close to the wall.
"Let's see how far it goes in that direction," whispered Scarlett. "I
fancy that's where the light comes from."
Fred acquiesced, and the little mounds of slate were crossed, and the
way followed till they had nearly reached the limit of the line, when,
low down before them, they made out a dark, rough-looking edge, black
upon the very pale light which struck into the cave.
"Why, that's the edge of the rough shelf we are standing on," said
Scarlett. "Now, let's get close to the line there, and look over."
"Shall we?"
"Yes; why not? I don't feel half so frightened now I've got over that
fall."
"I never felt frightened at all," said Fred.
"Oh?"
"Well, not much. Come along."
They approached cautiously, finding that the shelf grew narrower, and
evidently ended in a point.
"Mind!"
"Mind what?"
"I've got to the end of the rope."
"Well, let's leave go, and creep to the edge without it."
"No," said Fred, who felt that the rope was like a hand connecting them
with the upper surface. "Perhaps it has caught somewhere, and we
haven't got it all loose. Wait till I give it a jerk. Here, leave go
for a moment."
Scarlett loosened his hold, and Fred stepped back a foot or two before
sending a wave along the cord, which was followed by a rattling noise,
as if a quantity of the shale and earth had been set at liberty, and was
falling in a shower upon the rocky floor.
"There, I told you so," cried Fred. "I can draw yards and yards in, and
yards and--"
He was suiting the action to the word, hauling more and more of the rope
towards him, when there was an end to the rattling sound, and one dull
flap.
"What is it, Fred?"
"I--I'm not sure."
"I am," cried Scarlett, in agony. "Why, you've dragged at the rope till
it has come untied."
"I'm afraid so," faltered Fred, in a husky voice.
"And nobody saw us come here," cried Scarlett. "Oh, Fred, Fred, we
shall be buried alive!"