"GREAT IS THE TROUBLE OF FOOT ILL-TRIPPING."
Our boys woke up early next morning, for a chill wind sweeping over
Swarta Stack was as effectual a rouser as the dressing-bell.
When fully awake they looked (as if led by one instinct) to the open
sea, for from thence was coming the deep mournful moaning which
precedes a storm.
"Mither," said Gloy, "wad say that the sea was sending its warning tae
wiz."
"We will certainly pay heed to that warning," answered Yaspard, "as
soon as we have had breakfast. Let's look alive, boys, and get our
fire up as fast as we can, for there's going to be a gale before night,
and we should be at Broch then."
"The _Osprey_ won't take long to run into Burra Wick," said Tom; "and
we must make a jolly good breakfast here before returning to civilised
life."
"There will be time to inspect the Stack, I hope," Harry remarked. "We
must have a full report of this isle that has a bad name, according to
Gloy."
They lit their fire, and boiled the last of their potatoes, brewed the
last of their tea, and finished the biscuits and ham.
"Not much to carry back," one said, and another added, "I shouldn't
like to be left on a skerry now that the ferdimet is all but done."
When breakfast was ended no time was lost in starting for a tour round
Swarta Stack, which is a lofty island about a mile long, very
picturesque in outline, and surrounded by lesser islands, as well as
isolated rocks, which are the terror of all who know them. The lads
found a great deal to interest them in the Stack; but their main object
was to find the caves which tradition said had been the abode of
lawless men in olden times.
There was one large cavern in a cliff easily found and well known; but
that was not the Wrecker's Den, for the sea came into it, and in stormy
weather filled its vast solitudes with the body and voice of many
waters. This cave, however, was supposed to communicate with one
inland, as many helyers[1] do, and our boys were determined to discover
the hidden abode.
For a long time the search was a vain one; but at last an idea was
suggested to Harry, who had halted by a small cairn.
"Boys," he said, "I should not wonder if we are on a wrong tack looking
for a natural cave. It is more likely that the wreckers' den was a
place dug out of the earth by themselves."
"That was a common dodge long ago," quoth Yaspard; and Tom added, "We
got a good illustration of that sort of thing in the old Broch of Burra
Isle."
"And you are thinking, Harry," Yaspard exclaimed, "that this cairn may
cover some portion of the den--perhaps be the entrance to it?"
Harry nodded, and after a careful inspection of the rougue, remarked,
"I think we shall find something here; but we must not come to grief in
a ruin, as Garth Halsen did when he dug into the old Broch."
They went to work with a will, and soon removed the cairn and laid bare
what was evidently the entrance to a vault of some sort. The mouth of
the pit was covered by two enormous stones, and it took a long time to
remove these; but so interested were the adventurers in their
investigations, that they forgot the warning of the sea and the rising
of the wind.
"It is curious," said Harry, peering into the dark pit at their feet,
"that there seems no foul air to speak of down there, and yet I don't
see any speck of light that would indicate a passage to the outer
world."
"Might the way not be curved, or sufficiently blocked to exclude
light?" Yaspard suggested; and Harry frankly answered, "Of course. You
are wiser than I. Has any one got a match in his pocket?"
Matches were produced, and a piece of paper was lighted; but such a
meagre illumination revealed nothing beyond the fact that the vault
seemed a large one, and roughly built round with a rude kind of masonry.
Bill was despatched to the boat for candles--which you may remember
were part of the "prül" that Yaspard hid in the chimney; but the
impatience of his companions to learn more would not allow them to wait
on his return before descending into the chamber. They could see that
there was solid ground some seven or eight feet beneath the opening,
and Harry swung down, and soon reported himself as standing on a
"decently paved floor;" but he was too cautious to explore farther
until some light was thrown on the subject. Not so Tom Holtum. He did
not see the fun in waiting for candles, and down he jumped beside Harry.
"There's an awful draught here," he exclaimed. "There must be passages
and perhaps other rooms knocking around. I vote we explore," and
without listening a moment to Harry's warning, Tom made for a part of
the vault from whence the current of air proceeded.
"You are extremely foolish, Tom," said Harry.
"You are a timid ca----" Tom began to reply, but was cut short. With
an exclamation he suddenly disappeared; and next moment a fall and a
groan told, not only Harry but those above ground, that an accident had
taken place.
By that time Bill was back with the candles, and Yaspard hastened to
join Harry. After him came the others, as fast as they could, and all
gathered around Harry, who by that time stood with a lighted candle in
his hand over the mouth of a dark hole, peering down and calling, "Tom!
old chap." But "Tom! old chap" made no response, and all attempts to
hold the light over the opening proved futile, as a current of air
rushing upward put it out.
The lads gazed into each other's white, terror-stricken faces with mute
fear. The darkness and silence were enough to appal any one; but the
courage of our Viking-boy rose to the occasion.
"He must be awfully hurt, poor chap," he said, "and we must do our best
to find and help him. What do you suggest, Harry? _I'll_ do anything."
"Some one must be lowered with a rope," answered the wise head of the
party.
"That some one is me," was Yaspard's prompt reply. "Get your rope,
boys."
They always carried ropes with them. "We can do nothing without a
rope," they would say. But the ropes had been dropped, of course, on
the turf above, and the emergency which had made all hurry into the
vault had caused them to neglect providing for an easy ascent again.
The only thing to do was for two to hoist a third on their shoulders so
that he could get his hands on the aperture and thus clamber out.
Lowrie was chosen as the messenger to the outer world, and Harry said
to him when shoving him aloft, "Drop us one rope at once, but fix the
other to a boulder and slide down by it. That will give us help in
scrambling out of here."
The rope was soon in their hands, and Yaspard, seizing the end, tied it
round his waist, while Harry instructed him how to strike a light when
lowered, and what signals to make to those above. In breathless
excitement they stood around that gruesome hole, and slowly lowered
their young leader into its dark and gaping jaws. Lower, lower; and
the rope was almost all paid out when a sharp jerk told (as agreed
upon) that Yaspard had reached the bottom.
"Not so deep as I feared," Harry whispered with a sigh of relief.
Then there came a sudden flare of light, which showed that Yaspard was
trying to illumine the scene; but it was extinguished again directly.
Again and again he tried, but evidently in vain. Then came darkness
and silence as before. But after a little time of fearful suspense the
rope was jerked twice, and Yaspard was hauled up again.
"What of Tom?" Harry asked as soon as Yaspard's head appeared in sight;
but Yaspard did not reply until he was standing beside them. Then he
said, "He is lying there senseless, but he is alive."
"Oh, your hands!" Bill screamed, and all eyes turned on Yaspard's
hands, which were red with blood.
"Tom is badly hurt. I put my hands on his face and chest," explained
too surely that horrible sign. "There is no keeping a match or candle
alight down there. The wind is rushing through it as if it were a
funnel," Yaspard went on, "and I can't think how he is to be got out."
"Bill," said Harry, with the imperious decision which he always assumed
in any emergency, where one cool head was worth a score of able
undirected hands, "Bill, you run for your life to the boat again.
Bring the tar-pot and a stick or two, the potato bag, and a towel, and
a can of water; some more rope, if you can find it handy. Gloy, go
with him to help carry; and mind, both of you, Tom's life is possibly
depending on your speed. Don't forget anything. Keep your wits clear."
The two little chaps were off without a moment's delay, scudding across
the Stack, and too engrossed with their errand and its urgency to note
the rising storm, which had set the white horses rampant on the deep
and driven the sea-birds to the Stack in clamouring crowds.
Meanwhile Harry said, "Undo that rope, Yaspard. _I_ will go down this
time. I can probably be of more use to him than you. You can follow
with those things when the chaps return. And look you, Lowrie, be
canny in lowering him, and in your management of the rope. See that
the youngsters are careful; for Yaspard and I will send Tom up first if
possible. You know what to do with the tar and sticks, Yaspard?"
"Make a torch?"
"Yes; and we shall want the bag and rope to make a sort of hammock for
Tom. Now send me below. But first--your handkerchiefs, boys."
He stuffed the collection of grimy "wipes" (as the lads styled their
pocket-handkerchiefs) in his pocket, and was carefully lowered into the
dismal cavern where poor Tom lay.
[1] Sea-caves.