"Aha!" he cried. "So you sall not try to escape any more?"
"No," said Vince coolly, looking the speaker full in the face. "I say,
what time do you have dinner?"
The Frenchman stared at him for a few moments fiercely, and then burst
into a boisterous fit of laughter.
"You are a _drole de garcon_" he said. "You are again hungry?"
"I shall be by the time it's ready. But, I say, captain, how much
longer are you going to keep us here?"
"Aha!" he said, with a shrug of the shoulders and a peculiar
gesticulation with his hand, as if he were throwing something away,
while he looked at them both sidewise through his half-closed eyes: "You
are fatigue so soon? You vant to go somevere else?"
"We want to go home."
"Good leetler boy: he vant to go home. But not yet, _mes amis_. You
give the good capitain all zis pains to move his cargo, and you vill not
help."
"Oh, I'm ready enough to help," said Vince. "So's he; but they will be
very anxious about us at home."
"Ta ta ta ta ta!" cried the captain. "Vy, you sink so mosh of your
selfs. Ze _bon papa_ vill say to _la maman_, `Ah! _ma chere_, dose boy
go and tomble zem selfs off ze cliff;' and ze _maman_ sall wipe her eye
and say, `_pauvre garcon_--poor boy, it is vat I expect.'"
"And instead of that," said Vince, "you are going to send us home, and
then they will not be fidgeting any more."
"Aha! you sink so. Vell, ve sall see. So I go to be vairy busy, and it
is better zat you two do not fight any more. So come vis me."
"Where?" said Vince suspiciously.
"Vere? Oh! you sall see, _mon brave_, vairy soon."
The boys exchanged glances, but feeling that it was hopeless to resist,
they followed the captain down to where the boat was lying, just as she
had returned a few minutes before, without Daygo.
The men in her were just keeping her afloat, but they ran her stern on
to the sand as they saw the captain coming, and one of them leaped out
to hold her steady.
"In vis you!" said the captain sharply.
"All right, Mike," whispered Vince. "Come on, and don't seem to mind."
He set the example by putting one foot on the gunwale and springing in
lightly. Mike followed, and then the captain; while the man standing
ankle-deep in the water waited till they were seated, and then, giving
the boat a good thrust out, sprang on the stern, and climbed in as they
glided over the transparent water, stepping forward quickly to seize an
oar, and pulling sharply with his companion.
The boys gazed eagerly upward as soon as they were clear of the great
overhanging archway, and saw the impossibility of escape by any
cliff-climbing; for the mighty rocks were at least twenty feet out of
the perpendicular, leaning over towards the little bay, whose waters
were running, eddying and boiling like a whirlpool as they raced along,
seizing the boat's head and seeming about to drag her right along
towards a jagged cluster of rocks, standing just above the surface, and
amidst which the current raged and foamed furiously.
But the men knew their work. One pulled hard, the other backed water,
and by their united efforts the boat was forced into an eddy close under
the cliff; and to their amazement the boys found that they were being
carried in the opposite direction to that in which the main body of the
water was racing along.
"You vill escape and climb ze cliff? No, _mes enfans_," said the
captain: "you cannot climb. You vill take my boat to go avay? Aha! you
sink so? No, it is not for you to manage ze boat. She vill capsize
herself if you try."
Vince said nothing, but eagerly looked around; but it was everywhere the
same--the roaring waters tearing wildly along in the crater-like cove,
and from their seat in the boat no entrance, no exit, was visible.
"Now I take you bose and drop you ovaire-board: you sink, you go home?"
said the captain, showing his teeth. "Yaas, you go home, but not to see
ze _bon papa_, ze _belle maman_. It is not possible. Von of my men say
von day he have sick of me, and he vill go. He shump ovaire-board to
svim, and he svim vis his arm and leg von, two, twenty stroke, and zen
he trow _les mains_ out of ze vater, and he cry for ze boat; but zere
vas no boat, and he turn round upon himself two time, and go down a hole
in ze vater. I stand and look at him, but he came up again nevaire. He
vas a good man--_bon matelot_--but he go. You like to shump in and
svim? _Eh bien_, you shake ze hand, shump in. _Au revoir_, but ve
shall meet again nevaire. You go? _Non? Eh bien_! I make you ze
offaire."
The boys felt that it was all true, and marvelled where they were going,
for the eddy was taking them along by the mighty rocks, which were
overhanging them again; and, as far as they could make out, the cliffs
under which they passed and the ridge away facing the cavern mouth,
which they had imagined to be an island, were all one.
The captain seemed to be paying little heed to them, sitting with his
eyes half-closed; but he was watching them all the time closely, and
noted their astonishment as the men suddenly began to tug at their oars
with all their might, apparently to avoid a rock, round one side of
which the water was rushing with tremendous force, just as if the eddy
stream along which they had been riding suddenly curved round it. The
men were making for the other end, and as they drew nearer the water
roared and splashed up, and it appeared to both that they must be
carried right upon it by some undertow.
But every foot of the place, and all its difficulties, were perfectly
familiar to the captain's crew, and by making use of the many cross
streams and eddies, they were able to guide the boat into safety, as in
this case; for just as Mike seized the gunwale with one hand, to be
prepared for the shock, and Vince clenched his fists and gave a glance
to the left, the boat's prow passed the end of the detached rock, they
glided into an opening like a gash cut down through the massive
rock-wall, and the next minute were swept into a comparatively calm
pool, surrounded by towering cliffs, which seemed to overlap on their
right; and there, right before them, rode by a couple of hawsers
attached to great rings fixed in the rock-face behind, a long, low
three-masted lugger of the kind known as a _chasse-maree_.
Vince looked sharply round for the channel by which this vessel must
come and go--for it seemed certain that such a way must exist, since so
large a boat could not by any means have entered the circular cove
facing the cavern; and he was not long in seeing that, some twenty or
thirty feet beyond her bow, the water was coming swiftly in round the
cliff, which lapped over another to its right, but so calmly did the
tide run that at the first its motion was unperceived.
Vince had hardly grasped this fact, when the boat was run up alongside,
one of the men sprang into the lugger with the boat's painter and made
it fast, while the boat seemed to tug to get away, and the captain
turned to his prisoners.
"Aboard!" he said sharply; and as there was nothing for it but to obey,
Vince made a virtue of necessity, and going forward, climbed up and over
the bulwark, to stand upon a beautifully white deck, and see that
rigging, sails and spars were all in the highest state of order.
Six or eight men were waiting, and they came aft at once, to stand as if
waiting for orders, while Mike and the captain stepped on board.
"Back at once!" said the Frenchman to a stern-looking, red-faced man,
who appeared to be the mate. "All ze boats; and work hard to get all on
board."
This order was given in a low tone, but Vince's ears were sharpened by
his position, and he divined its full meaning.
The men hurried to the side, and rapidly began to lower one of the boats
hanging to the davits; while in his close scrutiny Vince grasped the
fact that they were upon no peaceful vessel: there being a couple of
longish guns forward, and another pair aft, all evidently in the best of
trim, and ready for use at a very short notice.
While the men were busy the captain came to where the boys were standing
together aft, and laying his hands upon their shoulders, he led them
forward to where one of the stout hawsers ran over the side to the great
ring secured in the rock.
"You see zat hawser, _mon ami_?" he said.
"Yes," said Vince wonderingly.
"Look you zen at ze ozaire."
"Yes, I see it," said Vince.
"Vat you make of zem?"
"They look strained too much, and as if they would part."
"Good boy! You vould make a good sailor. Zey vill not part, for zey
are new, and _tres fort_--strong. Now you look here, _mon ami_."
As he spoke he picked up a heavy dwarf bucket, with its rope attached,
raised it above his head, and hurled it some twenty feet into the smooth
water between the lugger and the high cliff face.
The water was like glass, and streaked with fine threads apparently; and
the next minute the lads grasped the reason why, for the bucket had
hardly touched the water when it began to be borne towards the lugger's
side, striking it directly after sharply, and then diving down out of
sight.
Vince ran across the deck instantly to see it rise; and Mike followed,
the captain joining them to lay his hands upon their shoulders once
more.
"Aha! you see him come up again? No? Look _encore_ and _encore_, and
you nevaire sall see him. Vat you say to zat?"
"There must be a tremendous current," said Vince. "Yais,--now," said
the captain. "_Apres_, some time he run all ze ozaire vay and grind ze
sheep close up right to ze rock. Vat you sink now? You shump ovaire,
and svim avay? You creep along ze hawser and try to climb up ze cliff?
No, I sink not now. You stay here on ze deck and vait till I vant you--
ven ze boat come back. Dat is vy I show you how go avay ze bucket.
Look now again."
One of the boats was ready, and two men in her. The rope that held her
to the side was cast off, and in an instant she glided away across the
pool, towards an opening that had been unnoticed before, was deftly
steered, and passed out of sight.
"Why, she must come out where we saw the water rushing at the other end
of the rock!" thought Vince; and he stood watching while the other boats
left the side of the lugger, to be cleverly guided to the same spot, and
glide out of sight directly.
A feeling of helplessness came over the boys as they saw all this, and
realised that now they were, beside the captain and a man who kept going
in and out of a low, hutch-like place forward, the only occupants of the
vessel; and that if their captor had any particular designs upon them,
this would be the likely time for their happening. But they now had
proof that this was not going to be the case, for the Frenchman took no
further heed to them. He went to the cabin-hatch and descended, leaving
them with the deck to themselves.
"What do you think of it now?" asked Mike dolefully.
"I don't know," said Vince, gazing up at the towering rocks, dotted with
yellow ragwort and sea-pink, by which they were surrounded; "but it's a
change. I wouldn't care if they only knew at home about our being safe.
I say, isn't it likely that some one may come along the cliffs and be
searching for us, and then we can signal to him?"
"Who ever came along the cliffs and looked down here?" said Mike.
"We've been about as much as any one, but we never looked down into this
pool."
"No," said Vince thoughtfully: "it puzzles me. I hardly make out
whereabouts we are. I say, though, look forward: that's the galley, and
the chap we saw is the cook."
"Of course," said Mike; "there's the chimney, and the smoke coming out."
"Let's go and see what there is for dinner."
Mike's forehead wrinkled up, and he felt disposed to say something
reproachful; but he was silent, and followed his companion to the galley
door, where the man they had seen looked up at them grimly, and as if
resenting their presence.
"What's for dinner, old chap?" said Vince coolly.
The sour look on the man's face passed away. Vince's countenance, and
his free-and-easy way, seemed to find favour, and he said gruffly,--
"Lobscouse."
"What, for the skipper?" said Vince, who had a lively memory of the
captain's breakfast.
"Men," said the man laconically.
"And for the skipper?"
The man smiled grimly, and took the lid off a pot, which arose an
agreeable steam, that was appetising and suggested good soup. Then,
without a word, he pointed to a dish upon which lay a pair of thick
soles, and to another, on which, ready egged and crumbed, were about a
dozen neatly prepared veal cutlets.
"Got any potatoes," said Vince.
The man raised a lid and showed the familiar vegetable, bubbling away on
the little stove, which was roaring loudly, and put the saucepan down
again.
"Well, we shan't starve," said Vince, as they each gave the cook a nod
and walked as far forward as they could. "Captain hasn't a bad notion
about eating and drinking."
"And smuggling and kidnapping," said Mike bitterly.
"Kidnapping!" said Vince cheerily. "Ah, to be sure, that's the very
word: I thought something had been done to us that there's a proper word
for. That's it, Ladle--kidnapped. Yes, we've been kidnapped.--I say!"
"Well?"
"Look here: are we two chaps worth anything?"
"I don't feel to be now," said Mike; "I'm too miserable."
"Well, so am I miserable enough, but I suppose we must be worth
something, and that's why the skipper's going to feed us well."
"What nonsense have you got in your head now?"
"Nonsense? I call it some sense. For that's it, Ladle, as sure as you
stand there; he has kidnapped us, and he's going to take us right away
somewhere. Ladle, old chap, I feel as sure of it as if he'd told us.
It is all nonsense about making an end of us. I was sure it only meant
trying to frighten us; but we're two big, strong, healthy lads, and he's
going to take us right away."
"Do you mean it? What for?"
Vince looked sadly at his companion in misfortune for a few moments, and
then he said huskily,--
"To sell!"