Certainly Lobster did not know how near the two boys were, and he soon
proved it by coming closer, looking down, and then turning to
reconnoitre in another direction.
Vince stared at Mike, and their eyes simultaneously said the same thing:
"He must have been watching us, and seen us come in this direction."
It was evident that he had soon lost the clue in following them,
although, judging from circumstances, he must have tracked them close to
where they were.
They recollected now that they had not exercised their regular caution--
though, even if they had, it is very doubtful whether they would have
detected a spy who crawled after them, for the cover was too thick--and
a feeling of anger troubled both for allowing themselves to be outwitted
by a lout they both held in utter contempt.
They stood watching their spy for nearly a quarter of an hour, and were
able to judge from his actions that he had seen them disappear somewhere
in this direction; and in profound ignorance in this game of hide and
seek that he was having, Carnach scanned the high slope and the ridge,
and the bottom where the stones lay so thickly again and again, ending
by ensconcing himself behind one of them, after plucking some fern
fronds, and putting them on the top of his cap to act as a kind of
screen in case those he sought should come into sight somewhere
overhead.
The two boys hardly dared stir, but at last, with his eyes fixed upon
Carnach to see if he heard their movement, Vince pointed softly back
into the dark passage, and Mike crept away without making the slightest
sound. Then, as soon as he was satisfied of the coast being clear
behind him, Vince began to back away till he felt it safe to turn, and
followed his companion some fifty yards into the darkness, which now
seemed to be quite a refuge to them.
"Where are you?" whispered Vince.
A low cough told him that he was not yet far enough; and, keeping one
hand upon the wall, he followed until he felt himself touched.
"I say," he whispered, "this is nice: smugglers at one end and that
miserable Lobster at the other! What are we to do?"
"I don't know," said Mike dolefully. "He must have seen us go out of
sight, and feels sure that we shall come back again, and he'll wait till
we do."
"No, no; he'll soon get tired."
"Not he," said Mike; "he's just one of those stupid, heavy chaps who
will sit or lie down and wait for us for a week."
"But I want to get home. I'm growing hungry."
"Let's go back and fish, and light a fire and cook it."
"What, for him to smell the frying? He would, as sure as could be. No;
we must wait."
"I say, Cinder," whispered Mike, "what an unlucky day we are having!
Everything seems to go wrong."
"It'll go worse still if you whisper so loud," said Vince; "the sound
runs along the walls here, and gets stronger, I believe, as it goes."
"Well, I can't help it; I feel so wild. I say, couldn't we creep out
without being seen, and get home?"
"Yes, when it's dark; not before."
"But that means waiting here for hours, and I feel as if I can't settle
to anything now. Let's go back down to the cave. The smugglers can't
come to-day. It would be too bad."
"Better wait here and watch till Lobster goes," said Vince; but,
yielding at last to his companion's importunity, he was about to follow
him back, when there was a loud rustling, a heavy thud, and then a
dismal howl.
The Lobster had slipped and fallen into the rift while backing so as to
get a better view of the ridge.
"Oh my! Oh my! Oh, mother! Oh, crikey! Oh my head--my head! Oh, my
arm! Oh, it's broke! And I'm bleeding! Won't nobody come and help
me?"
The above, uttered in a piteous, dismal wail, was too much for Vince's
feelings; and, pushing his companion aside, he was about to hurry to the
lad's help, but Mike seized him by the arm, and at the same moment they
heard Carnach junior jump up and begin stamping about.
"Here, who did this?" he roared. "What fool's been digging stone here
and left this hole o' purpose for any one to fall in? Wish he'd tumbled
in himself, and broke his stoopid old head. Yah! Oh my, how it hurts!"
He stamped about in the hollow, and they heard him kick one of the
stones with his heavy boots in his rage.
"Wish them two had tumbled in 'stead o' me. Oh dear, oh! Here's a mess
I'm in! Making a great hole like this, and never leaving no stuff
outside. Might ha' been deep, and killed a chap. It aren't broke
through," he grumbled, after a pause. "Wonder where they've got to. Oh
dear! oh dear! what a crack on the head! That comes o' going backwards.
Yah!"
This last ejaculation was accompanied by the rattle of stones, as the
great lad evidently kicked another piece that was in his way; and,
feeling now that there was nothing serious in the fall, Vince gave
Mike's hand a squeeze as they stood listening and expecting every moment
to hear the young fisherman say something in the way of surprise as he
saw the dark hole going downward. But they listened in vain,--full of
anxiety, though, for it was like a second blow to find that their secret
place was becoming very plain, known as it evidently was to people at
the sea entrance, and now from the landward side discovered by the
greatest enemy they had.
Vince felt this so strongly that, in spite of the risk of being heard,
he put his lips to Mike's ear and whispered: "This spoils all."
Mike responded in the same way: "I say, what's he doing? Shall I go and
see?"
"No, I will," whispered back Vince.
"Take care."
Vince's answer was a squeeze of the hand. Then, going down upon all
fours, he crept silently and slowly up the slope till he could see the
lad, expecting to find him peering about the mouth of the passage, and
trying to see whether they were there.
But nothing of the kind. There was the young fisherman seated upon a
piece of stone, with the light shining down upon him through the
brambles, busily tying his neckerchief round his head, making it into a
bandage to cover a cut somewhere on the back, and tying it in front over
his forehead. Then, picking up his cap, which lay beside him, he drew
it on over the handkerchief, having most trouble to cover the knot, but
succeeding at last.
Then he stood up and began to examine his hands, which appeared to be
scratched and bleeding; and making Vince start and feel that he was
seen, for the boy turned in the direction of the dark passage and cried
viciously:
"All right, Doctor: I'll let yer have it next time I ketches yer--and
you too, old Squire. Oh my! how it smarts, though! Wonder wherever
they got."
Those last words came like a fillip to Vince's spirits, for he felt now
that there was nothing to mind, as he could not give the Lobster credit
for knowing that they were close at hand and acting his part so as to
make believe he was in ignorance.
Just then a light touch told Vince that Mike had crawled silently up
behind him; and they both crouched there now, in the darkness, watching
the lad, till he suddenly seemed to become impressed by the fact that
the hole went right in underground, and he stood staring in till the two
boys felt that he was looking at them and seeing them plainly.
"Goes right in," he said aloud--"ever so far, p'r'aps. Well, let it. I
aren't going to get myself all wet and muddy. Oh! how it do hurt!"
He raised his hand to the back of his head; but he remained staring in,
the boys hardly daring to breathe, as each doubled his fists, and
prepared for an encounter.
"He must see us," thought Vince; and when he felt most certain, his
heart gave a throb of satisfaction, for a slight movement on the lad's
part brought his face more into the light, and Vince could see that
there was a vague look in the lad's eyes, as if he were thinking; and
then he turned slowly round and began to look about for the best way out
of the trap into which he had fallen, proceeding to drag at the brambles
in one spot where an exit seemed easiest; but a sharp prick or two made
him snatch away his hands with an angry ejaculation, and, looking about
again, he noticed that there was a simpler way out at the end--that used
by the two boys for returning, their entries always now being by a
sudden jump down through the pendent green shoots.
"I'll let 'em have it for this when I do find 'em," grumbled the lad.
"Must ha' gone home'ards some other way." And they could hear him
muttering and grumbling as the twigs and strands rustled where he
passed, till they knew that he was well outside, for they heard him give
a stamp on one of the blocks of granite.
Vince rose silently.
"Come on," he said,--"the brambles will screen us;" and he crept forward
carefully, till he was close to the hole, and then cautiously advanced
his head, to peer upward, raising his hand warningly to Mike, who was
just behind. For the lad had not gone away, but was standing at the
edge with his back to them, and his eyes sheltered, gazing upward at the
ridge.
He remained there watching intently for quite ten minutes without
moving, and then went off out of sight, the only guide to the direction
he took being the rustling of displaced bushes and the musical clink of
a loose block of stone moved by his passing feet.
They did not trust themselves to speak for some time after the last
faint sound had died out, and then they began to discuss the question
whether they could escape unseen.
"Must chance it," said Vince at last. "I'm tired of staying here. Come
on."
Mike was evidently quite as weary, for he showed his agreement by
following at once. They were both cautious in the extreme, going out on
all fours, and then crawling in and out between the blocks of granite--a
pleasant enough task so long as the growth between was whortleberry,
heath or ferns, but as for the most part it was the long thorny strands
of the blackberry, the travelling became more and more painful. At
last, after progressing in this way some three hundred yards, a horribly
thorny strand hooked Vince in the leg of his trousers and skin as well,
with the result that he started to his feet angrily.
"Here, I've had enough of this," he cried. "Hang the old cavern! it
isn't worth the trouble."
"Hist!" exclaimed Mike, seizing him by the leg and pointing straight
away to their right.
Vince dropped forward, with his arms stretched over the nearest block of
grey stone, staring at the object pointed out, and seeing Carnach junior
right up close to the highest part of the ridge.
For a few moments he could not be sure whether the young fisherman was
looking in their direction, or away; from them; but a movement on the
part of the lad set this at rest directly after, and they saw him go
slowly on, helping himself by clutching at the saw-like row of jagged
stones which divided one slope from the other; and, satisfied that they
had not been seen, they recommenced their crawl, till they reached the
cover of a pile of the loose rocks, which were pretty well covered with
growth.
Placing this between them and the lad, now far away upon the ridge, they
made for the cover of the stunted oaks, and there breathed freely.
Mike was the first to speak, and he began just as if his companion had
the moment before made his impatient remarks about the adventure not
being worth the trouble.
"I don't know," he said. "This is the first time we have had any
bother, and I don't see why we should give such a jolly place up just
because that thick-headed old Lobster came watching us."
"Ah! but that isn't all," said Vince. "We can't go down there any more,
on account of the smugglers."
"But I don't believe you are right. Those things looked new, I know;
but they must be as old as old, for if any smuggling had been going on
here we must have seen or heard of it."
"But the sand--the sand! Those footprints must be new."
"I don't see it," said Mike, rather stubbornly. "Because the wind blows
into one cave and drifts the light sand all over, that's no reason why
it should do so in another cave, which may be regularly sheltered."
"It's no good to argue with you," said Vince sourly, for he was weary
and put out. "You can have it your own way, only I tell you this,--
smugglers don't stand any nonsense; they'll shoot at any one who tries
to stop them or find out where they land cargoes, and we should look
nice if they suddenly came upon us."
"People don't come suddenly on you when they've been dead a hundred
years," replied Mike. "Now, just look here: we must do it as if we took
no interest in it, but you ask your father to-night, and I'll ask mine,
whether they ever heard of there being smugglers in the Crag."
"Well, I will," said Vince; "but you must do the same."
"Of course I shall; and we shall find that it must have been an enormous
time ago, and that we've as good a right to those things as anybody, for
they were brought there and then forgotten."
"Well, we shall see," said Vince; and that night, at their late tea, he
started the subject with--
"Have you ever known any smugglers to be here, father?"
"Smugglers? No, Vince," said the Doctor, smiling. "There's nothing
ever made here that would carry duty, for people to want to get it into
England free; and on the other hand, it would not be of any use for
smugglers to bring anything here, for there is no one to buy smuggled
goods, such as they might bring from Holland or France."
Somewhere about the same time Mike approached the question at the old
manor house.
"Smugglers, Mike?" said Sir Francis. "Oh no, my boy, we've never had
smugglers here. The place is too dangerous, and perfectly useless to
such people, for they land contraband goods only where they can find a
good market for them. Now, if you had said pirates, I could tell you
something different."
"Were there ever pirates, then?" cried Mike excitedly. Sir Francis
laughed.
"It's strange," he said, "what interest boys always have taken in
smugglers, pirates, and brigand stories. Why, you're as bad as the
rest, boy! But there, I'm running away from your question. Yes, I
believe there were pirates here at one time; but it is over a hundred
years ago, and they were a crew of low, ruffianly scoundrels, who got
possession of a vessel and lived for years by plundering the outward and
inward bound merchantmen; and being on a fast sailing vessel they always
escaped by running for shore, and from their knowledge of the rocks and
currents they could sail where strangers dared not follow. But the
whole history has been dressed up tremendously, and made romantic. It
was said that they brought supernatural aid to bear in navigating their
craft, and that they would sail right up to the Crag and then become
invisible: people would see them one minute and they'd be gone the
next."
"Hah!" ejaculated Mike, and his father smiled. "All superstitious
nonsense, of course, my boy; but the ignorant people get hold of these
traditions and believe in them. Mr Deane here will soon tell you how
in history molehills got stretched up into mountains."
"Or snowballs grew into historical avalanches," said the tutor.
"Exactly," said Sir Francis. "I fancy, Mike, that those people may have
had a nest here. One of the men--Carnach I think it was--told me that
they had a cave, and only sailed from it at night."
"Did he know where it was, father?"
"I remember now he said it was `sumwers about,' which is rather vague;
but still there are several holes on the west coast which might have
been made habitable; though I have never seen such a cave on the island,
nor even one that could have been serviceable as a store."
Mike winced a little, for he fully expected to hear his father say "Have
you?" But then Sir Francis went off to another subject, and the boy
nursed up his ideas ready for his next meeting with Vince, which was on
the following day.