"Pirates, Cinder!"
Mike was down at the gate waiting for Vince to come with his roll of
exercises, ready for the morning's work; and as soon as Vince came
within earshot he fired off the word that he had been dreaming about all
night--
"Pirates!"
"Where?" cried Vince, looking sharply round and out to sea.
"Get out! You know what I mean. It's pirates, not smugglers."
Vince stared at him for a few moments, and then burst out laughing.
"Well, you've got it this time," he said, "if you mean the cave."
"And I do," said Mike quietly. "Pirates; and that's some of the plunder
and booty they took from a ship over a hundred years ago. So now whose
will it be?"
"Stop a moment," said Vince, looking preternaturally serious; "let's be
certain who it was. Let me see: there was Paul Jones, and Blackbeard,
and the Buccaneers. What do you say to its having belonged to the
Buccaneers?"
"Ah! you may laugh, but my father said last night that he never knew of
smugglers being on the island, but that there was a story about pirates
having a cave here, and going out in their vessel to plunder the outward
and homeward bound merchantmen."
"Humph!" grunted Vince, with a sceptical look.
"And look here: he said the people had a superstitious belief that the
pirates used to sail towards the Crag, and then disappear."
"What!" cried Vince eagerly.
"Disappear quite suddenly."
"Behind that line of rocks when they sailed into the little cove, Mike?"
"To be sure. Now, then, why don't you laugh and sneer?" cried Mike.
"Does it sound so stupid now?"
"I don't know," said Vince, beginning to be dubious again.
"Then I do," said Mike warmly. "I never knew of such an unbelieving
sort of chap as you are. There's the cave, and there's all the plunder
in it--just such stuff as the pirates would get out of a ship homeward
bound."
"Yes; but why did they leave it there and not sell it?"
"I know," cried Mike excitedly: "because one day they went out and
attacked a ship so as to plunder her, and found out all at once that it
was a man-o'-war; and as soon as the man-o'-war's captain found out that
they were pirates he had all the guns double-shotted, and gave the order
to fire a broadside, and sank the pirate."
"That's the way," said Vince, laughing; "and the pirate captain ran up
the rigging with a hammer and some tin-tacks, and nailed the colours to
the mast."
"Ah! you may laugh," said Mike. "You're disappointed because you didn't
find it out first. There it all is, as plain as plain. The people used
to think the pirate vessel disappeared, because she sailed out of sight
and used to lie in hiding till they wanted to attack another ship.
Well, I shan't say any more about it if you are going to laugh, but
there's the treasure in the cave: we found it; and half's yours and
half's mine. Now then, what did the Doctor say?"
"That he never heard of any smugglers ever being here."
"There!" cried Mike triumphantly.
"He said there was no one here to buy smuggled goods, and nothing here
to smuggle."
"Of course not: the other's the idea, and I vote we go down and properly
examine our treasure after dinner."
"That is curious," said Vince, "about the tradition of the pirate ship
disappearing, because it proves that there is a channel big enough for a
small ship."
"Oh you're beginning to believe, then, now?"
"No, I'm not; for I feel sure those are smuggled goods. But, Mike, we
must get old Joe to lend us his boat, and sail along there ourselves."
"He wouldn't lend it to us."
"Then I know what we'll do--"
"Now, gentlemen, I'm waiting," said a familiar voice.
"All right, Mr Deane; we're coming," cried Mike. "Now, Cinder, what
shall we do?"
"Go and ask the old chap to lend us his boat, and if he won't we'll come
back disappointed."
"And what's the good of that?"
"Slip round another way and borrow her. You and I could manage her,
couldn't we?"
"Why, I could manage her myself."
"Of course you could. We shouldn't hurt the boat; and we could feel our
way in, and see from outside whether it has been a smugglers' place or
no."
"That's it," said Mike; and five minutes after they were working hard
with the tutor, as if they had nothing on their minds.
That afternoon, with the sun brighter and the sea and sky looking bluer
than ever, the two boys were off for their afternoon expedition, making
their way along a rough lane that was very beautiful and very bad. It
was bad from the point of view that the fisher-farmers of the island
looked upon it as a sort of "no man's land," and never favoured it by
spreading donkey-cart loads of pebbles or broken granite to fill up the
holes trodden in by cows in wet weather, or the tracks made by carts
laden with vraick, the sea-weed they collected for manuring their potato
and parsnep fields. Consequently, in bad seasons Vince said it was
"squishy," and Mike that it was "squashy." But in fine summer weather
it was beautiful indeed, for Nature seemed to have made up her mind that
it was nonsense for a roadway to be made there to act like a scar on the
landscape, just to accommodate a few people who wanted to bring up
sea-weed, sand and fish from the shore, and harness donkeys to rough
carts to do the work when they might more easily have done it themselves
by making a rough windlass, such as they had over their wells, and
dragging all they wanted directly up the cliff face to the top--a plan
which would have done in fifty yards what the donkeys had to go round
nearly half a mile to achieve. As to the road being kept up solely
because old Joe Daygo had a cottage down in a notch in the granite walls
overlooking the sea, that seemed to be absurd.
Consequently, Nature went to work regularly every year to do away with
that road, and she set all her children to help. The gorse bushes hung
from the sides, thrusting out their prickly sprays covered with orange
and yellow blossom and encroached all they could; the heather sprouted
and slowly crept here and there, in company with a lovely fine grass
that would have made a lover of smooth lawns frantic with envy. Over
the heath, ling, and furze the dodder wreathed and wove its delicate
tangle, and the thrift raised its lavender heads to nod with
satisfaction at the way in which all the plants and wild shrubs were
doing their work.
But there were two things which left all the rest behind, and did by far
the most to bring the crooked lane back to beauty. They laughed at the
two brionies, black and white; for though they made a glorious show,
with their convolvulus and deeply cut leaves, and sent forth strands of
wonderfully rapid growth to run over the sturdy blackthorn, which
produced such splendid sloes, and then hung down festoons of glossy
leaves into the lane that quite put the more slow-growing ivy to the
blush, still these lovely trailing festoons died back in the winter,
while their rival growths kept on. These rivals were the brambles and
the wild clematis, which grew and grew in friendly emulation, and ended,
in spite of many rebuffs from trampling feet, by shaking hands across
the road; the clematis, not content with that, going farther and
embracing and tangling themselves up till rudely broken apart by the
passers-by--notably by old Joe Daygo, when he went that way home to his
solitary cot, instead of walking, out of sheer awkwardness, across
somebody's field or patch.
"I wish father would buy old Joe's cottage," said Vince, as the two lads
trudged down the lane that afternoon. "We could make it such a lovely
place."
"Yours is right enough," said Mike, pausing in whistling an old French
air a good deal affected by the people.
"Oh yes, and I shouldn't like to leave it; but I always like this bit
down here; the lane is so jolly. Look."
"What at?"
"Two swallow-tail butterflies. Let's have them."
"Shan't. I'm not going to make myself red-hot running after them if
we're going out in the boat. Besides, we haven't got any of your
father's pill boxes to put 'em in. I say, how the things do grow down
here! Look at that fern and the bracken."
"Yes, and the old foxgloves. They are a height!"
"It's so warm and sheltered. What's that?"
They stopped, for there was a quick, rushing sound amongst the herbage.
"Snake," said Vince, after a pause; "and we've no sticks to hunt him
out."
"Down his hole by this time. Come along. What a fellow you are! You
always want to be off after something. Why can't you keep to one
purpose at a time, as Mr Deane says, so as to master it?"
"Hark at old Ladle beginning to lay down the law," cried Vince merrily.
"You're just as bad. I say, shall we stop about here this afternoon?
Look at that gull--how it seems to watch us."
Vince threw back his head to gaze up at the beautiful, white-breasted
bird, which was keeping them company, and sailing about here and there
some twenty feet overhead, watching them all the time.
"Bother the gull!" said Mike. "Let's go on and speak to old Joe about
the boat."
"Oh, very well," said Vince; "but what's the hurry? I hate racing along
when there's so much to see. Here, Ladle: look--look! My! what a
chance for a seine!"
They had just reached a turn in the lane where they could look down at
an embayed portion of the deep blue sea, in which a wide patch was
sparkling and flashing in the most dazzling way, and literally seeming
to boil as if some large volcanic fire were at work below.
"Mackerel," said Vince.
"Pilchards," said Mike.
"'Taint: it's too soon. It's mackerel. What a chance!"
"Have it your own way," said Mike; "but a nice chance! Ha! ha! Why, if
they surrounded them they'd get their nets all torn to pieces. There's
sand all round, but the middle there is full of the worst rocks off the
coast."
"Yes I s'pose it would be rocky," said Vince thoughtfully. "Well, do
come on."
Mike turned upon him to resent the order, feeling that it was nice to be
accused of delaying their progress; but the mirthful look on Vince's
face disarmed him, and after a skirmish and spar to get rid of a little
of their effervescing vitality, consequent upon the stimulating effects
of the glorious air, they broke into a trot and went past a large patch
where a man was busy hoeing away at a grand crop of carrots, destined
for winter food for his soft-eyed cow, tethered close at hand; and soon
after came in sight of a massive, rough chimney-stack of granite,
apparently level with the road. But this latter made a sudden dip down
into a steep hollow, and there stood the comfortable-looking cottage
inhabited by the old fisherman, with its goodly garden, cow-shed, and
many little additions which betokened prosperity.
The door was open, and, quite at home, the boys walked into the half
parlour, half kitchen-like place, with its walls decorated with
fishing-gear and dried fish, with various shells, spars, and minerals,
which the old man called his "koorosseties," some native, but many
obtained from men who had made long voyages in ocean-going ships.
"Hi, Joe! where are you?" cried Vince, hammering on the open door. But
there was not a sound to be heard; and they came out, climbed up the
rocks at the back till they were above the chimneys, and looked round,
expecting to find that he had gone off to the granite-hedged field where
he tethered his cows.
But the two sleek creatures were browsing away, and no one was in sight
but the man, some hundred yards or so distant, hoeing the weeds from his
carrots.
"How tiresome!" said Mike.
"All right: he'll know," cried Vince; and they trotted to where the man
was very slowly freeing his vegetables from intruders.
"Hi, Jemmy Carnach!" shouted the lad, "seen Joe Daygo?"
"Ay,--hour ago," said the man, straightening himself slowly, and passing
one hand behind him to begin softly rubbing his back: "he've gone yonder
to do somethin' to his boat."
"Come on, Mike; we'll cut straight across here and catch him. It's much
nearer."
"Going fishing, young sirs?" said the man.
"Yes, and for a sail."
"If you see that boy o' mine--"
"What, Lobster?" said Vince.
"Eh? lobster?" said the man eagerly. "Ay, if you ketch any, you might
leave us one as you come back. I arn't seen one for a week."
"All right," said Mike, after a merry glance at Vince; "if we get any
we'll leave you one."
"Ay, do, lad," said the man. "Good for them as has to tyle all day. If
you see my boy, tell him I want him. I'm not going to do all the work
and him nothing."
"We'll tell him," said Vince.
"And if he says he won't come, you lick him, mind. Don't you be
feared."
The boys were pretty well out of hearing when the last words were
spoken; and after a sharp trot, along by the side of the cliff where it
was possible, they came to the rugged descent leading to old Daygo's
tiny port.
This time they were not disappointed, for they caught sight of the old
man's cap as he stood below with his back to them, driving a wooden peg
into a crack in the rock with a rounded boulder, ready for hanging up
some article of fishing-gear.
"You ask him," said Mike: "he likes you best."
"All right," said Vince; and, putting his hands to his lips, he shouted
out, "Daygo, ahoy!"
"Ahoy!" cried the old man, without turning his head; and he kept on
thumping away till the boys had reached him, when he slowly turned to
face them, and threw down the great pebble.
Vince was too thorough to hesitate, and he opened the business at once,
in his outspoken way:
"Here, Joe!" he cried; "we want you to lend us your boat to go for a
sail."
"To lend you my boat to go for a sail?" said the old man, nodding his
head softly.
"Yes; and we shan't be very long, because we must be back to tea."
"And you won't be very long, because you must be back to tea?"
"Yes; and we won't trouble you. We can get it out ourselves."
"And you won't trouble me, because you can get it out yourselves?"
"That's right."
"Oh, that's right, is it, Master Vince? That's what you thinks," said
the old fisherman.
"But you'll lend it to us, won't you?"
"Nay, my lad--I won't."
"Why?"
"Why?" said Daygo, beginning to rasp his nose, according to custom, with
his rough forefinger. "He says why? Mebbe you'd lose her."
"No, we wouldn't, Joe."
"Mebbe you'd run her on the rocks."
"Nonsense!--just as if we don't know where the rocks are. Know 'em
nearly as well as you do."
Daygo chuckled.
"Oh, come, Joe, don't be disagreeable. We'll take plenty of care of it,
and pay you what you like."
"Your fathers tell you to come to me?"
"No."
"Thought not. Nay, my lads, I won't lend you my boat, and there's an
end on it. I'm not going to have your two fathers coming to ask me why
I sent you both to the bottom."
"Such stuff!" cried Vince angrily. "Just as if we could come to harm on
a day like this."
"Ah! you don't know, lad; I do. Never can tell when a squall's coming
off the land."
"Well, I do call it disagreeable," said Vince. "Will you take us out?"
"Nay, not to-day."
"Oh, very well. Never mind, but I shan't forget it. Did think you'd
have done that, Joe. Come on, Mike; let's go and get some lines and
fish off the rocks."
"Ay, that's the best game for boys like you," said the old man; and,
stooping down, he picked up the boulder and began to knock again at the
wooden peg without taking any notice of his visitors.
"Come on, Vince," said Mike; and they walked back up the cliff, climbing
slowly, but as soon as they were out of the old man's sight starting off
quickly to gain a clump of rocks, which they placed between them and the
way down. Here they began to climb carefully till they had reached a
spot from whence they could look down upon the little winding channel
leading from the tunnel to Daygo's natural dock.
They could see the old man, too, moving about far below, evidently
fetching something to hang upon the great peg he had finished driving
in; and, after disappearing for a few minutes, he came into sight again,
and they saw him hang the something up--but what, at that distance, they
could not make out.
At the end of a few minutes the old man went down to his boat, stayed
with it another five minutes or so, and then stood looking about him.
"It's no go, Cinder," said Mike, in a disappointed tone; "we shan't get
off to-day, and perhaps it's best. We oughtn't to take his boat."
"Why not? It's only like borrowing anything of a neighbour. He was
sour to-day, or else he'd have lent it."
"But suppose he finds out?"
"Well, then he'll only laugh. You'll see: he'll be off directly."
Mike shook his head as they lay there upon their breasts, with their
heads hidden behind tufts of heather; but Vince was right as to the old
man soon going, for directly after they saw him begin to climb
deliberately up to the level, look cautiously round, and then, bent of
back, trudge slowly off in the direction of his home; while, as soon as
he was well on his way, the boys crept downward till they were at the
foot of the rocks, when Vince cried:
"Now then: lizards!" and began to crawl at a pretty good rate towards
the way down to the natural dock, quite out of sight of the old man if
he had looked back.
The rugged way down was reached, and here they were able to rise erect
and begin to descend in the normal way, Vince starting off rapidly.
"Come on!" he cried; "old Joe will never know. I say, we have
`sarcumwented' him, as he'd call it."
"Yes, it's all very well," said Mike, whose conscience was pricking him,
"but it always seems so precious easy to do what you oughtn't to."
"Pooh!" cried Vince; "this is nothing."
"Some one is sure to say he has seen the boat out."
"Well, I don't care if he does. Joe ought to have lent us the boat; I'm
sure we've done things enough for him. There, don't talk; let's get
her. He might come back for something, and stop us."