Oliver and the mate immediately made a sharp rush for the opening, and
the first uttered a cry of astonishment as he got down into the men's
place, for there, dimly seen by the faint light shed by a great disc of
glass let into the fore part of the deck and well cemented with pitch,
was a man in one of the bunks sleeping heavily, while in a tone
indicative of his astonishment, the mate exclaimed,--
"What, Wriggs! You here?"
"Ay, ay, sir," shouted the man, rising so suddenly that he struck his
head a violent blow against the floor of the bunk above him. "I say,
don't wake a man quite so hard!" he grumbled, and then, as he recognised
the speaker, "Beg pardon, sir, didn't know it was you."
"Why, how did you get here?" cried Oliver.
"Get here, sir? Oh, I walked it, and was that bet out that I tumbled in
at once. Tommy Smith got back?"
"Yes, and all of them," cried the mate. "Here, pass the word for Smith,
and tell him it isn't a ghost."
"I'm here, sir," said a gruff voice as the hatchway was filled up by a
body which darkened the light. "Is it alive?"
"Tommy ahoy!" cried Wriggs hoarsely. "I got back fust."
"But how?" cried Oliver. "You did not pass us and come out the way we
went in."
"No, sir; I went out t'other way by the back door."
"Is he all right--alive?" cried Panton, in a voice full of hysterical
excitement as he scrambled down, followed by Drew.
"He seems to be," said the mate. "Are you sure you're alive, Wriggs?"
"Yes, sir, I think so."
"But how was it?" cried Oliver.
"Ah, that's a queshtun, sir," said the man, rubbing one ear. "I don't
quite know, on'y as I was walking along arter you one moment, and the
next my legs seemed to run down a slide and I was in the water."
"I thought so," cried Oliver.
"I did holler, but there was such a row nobody heered me, and afore I
knowed where I was I seemed to be going down with five hundred millions
o' chaps sousing buckets o' water on my head till I was most stifled,
and then I was going on again."
"Going on where?"
"Oh, I dunno, on'y as it was all dark and the water just deep enough to
slide me along over the bottom which was smooth as glass."
"Ah! the trough cut by the water in the lava stream," cried Panton,
"continued right on after the fall."
"Yes, sir, that's it. I continued right on arter the fall till I got
rayther sick on it and tried to get out fust one side and then the
other."
"And did you?" cried Oliver.
"No, sir, I just didn't, for it was all as slipper as slither, and as
soon as I tried, the water seemed to lay hold on me and pull me back and
send me on again."
"And did you keep on like that?"
"Oh, no; I got up sometimes and tried to walk, and other times I went
along sittin'."
"But didn't you try to come back?"
"Try, sir? What was the good? Why, the water did just what it liked
with me, and wouldn't even let me try to swim. Do you think I could ha'
got back up that waterfall? Bless your 'art, sir, seems to me as if you
might as well try to get up to the moon."
"Never mind that," said Oliver, excitedly; "tell us about what
followed," and then he turned his head sharply, for Smith was rubbing
his hands down his legs and chuckling softly now in his intense delight
to see his messmate back safe and sound.
"Told you so--I told you so," he muttered.
"Course I will, sir," said Wriggs. "Well, you see the water kept
carrying me along in the dark, and as fast as I managed to get up it
downed me again and began to stuffycate me, only I wouldn't have that,
and got up again and tried to stand. But it warn't no use, the bottom
was too slithery, and down I goes again in the darkness, thinking it was
all over with me, but I gets the better of it again, and on I goes
sailing along, sometimes up and sometimes down, and a-swallering enough
water to last me for a week."
"Yes, go on," cried Oliver.
"Right, sir, I'm a-goin' on," said Wriggs. "Where was I?"
"A-swallerin' the water, Billy," said Smith, interposing a word or two.
"So I was, Tommy, lots of it. I kep' on swallerin' that water till I
didn't swaller no more 'cause there warn't no room. So, of course, I
left off, and went bobbin' up and bobbin' down, sometimes goin' head
fust and sometimes legs fust. Oh, it was at a rate! And it was as dark
as pitch, and you couldn't get out this side nor t'other side neither."
"Well, go on," said Mr Rimmer, impatiently.
"Yes, sir; and there I goes, getting in a puff o' wind now and then when
I has a charnsh, and the water a-rooshin' me along and the bottom all
slithery, and sometimes I was heads up and sometimes toes, and the water
kep' a carryin' of me along so as I couldn't stand straight nor sit down
nor kneel nor nothing. But on I keeps again, on and on and on, and
sometimes I was down and--"
"I say," said Panton, "wasn't it a very long way?"
"Yes, sir, a mortal long ways, and sometimes the water got me down when
I tried to swim and sometimes--"
"Yes, yes, yes," cried Oliver, for the mate was roaring with laughter;
"but you've told us all that over and over again. We want you to get to
the end."
"That's what I wanted to do, sir," said Wriggs, "but there didn't seem
to be no end and the water kep' a--"
"My good fellow, that isn't the way to tell a story," cried Oliver,
impatiently. "Now, then, get on: we've had enough of that. The water
swept you along a dark cavernous place where it had cut a way through
the lava, and you couldn't keep your feet."
"That's it, sir. You can tell it ever so much better nor me. Go on,
please."
"How can I?" cried Oliver, as there was a general burst of laughter at
this. "I was not there, so how am I to tell your story?"
"I d'know, sir; but you seems to know ever so much more about it than
me, for it was so dark and the water kep' a-rooshin me along--"
"Right to the entrance, where the stream swept you out into the open
air, but before you got there you could see the light gleaming along on
the top of the water, and this increased till you found yourself in' the
full glow of daylight where the stream rushed out and down toward the
sea."
"Why, did you tumble in too, Mr Oliver Lane, sir?" cried Wriggs,
staring open-eyed.
"I? Of course not," cried Oliver.
"But that were just how it was, sir. How did you know?"
"I only supposed it was like that, my man."
"Well that's a rum 'un, for I was washed right out with a regular fizz
at last, like a cork in a drain."
"And where?" said Mr Rimmer.
"Oh, over yonder somewheres, sir, and I warn't long scuffling ashore,
for there was two black fins out, and I knowed as Jack shark's shovel
nose warn't far in front."
"Was it in the lagoon?"
"Yes, sir, that was it, and then I gets all my things off and wrings
'em, and lays 'em out ready for the sun to shine on when it come up,
while I covers myself all over with sand, which was as nyste and warm as
getting between blankets."
"But I thought you said you were swept out into the broad daylight,"
cried Oliver.
"No, sir, it was you as said that: I didn't. I couldn't cause it was
the moon a-shining, and the stars and some o' them flying sparks in
among the trees."
"Well, you've got a rum way of telling a story, Wriggs," said the mate.
"What did you do next?"
"Oh, I snoozed on till it was quite warm, and my clothes was dry, and
then I takes my bearin's and steered off through the woods for port."
"Did you see any of the blacks?" said the mate.
"No, sir, and didn't want to. It was black enough for me in that hole
underground, to last me for a long time yet. Don't want any more black,
sir, yet, thank-ye."
"Well, you're safe back," said Panton, "and no one is more glad than I
am, though we did have all our trouble for nothing, and you may thank
Mr Lane and Smith for staying there in the dark waiting till lights
were fetched."
"Did Mr Lane do that, sir?"
"To be sure he did."
"And Tommy Smith stopped too, sir?"
"Yes, to keep him company, though we thought once we'd lost him too."
"Much ado about nothing," said the mate drily. "You gentlemen lead me a
pretty dance. What's the next thing, Mr Panton--do you want to go down
the crater of the volcano?"
"Yes, if it is possible," replied the young man, so seriously that there
was a general laugh, and soon after Wriggs was left to finish his sleep,
while Panton retired to the cabin to number and make notes about a few
of the crystals which he had brought back in his pockets, but thinking
of how that cavern might be turned to use.