IN THE CAVE
The other boats of the flotilla began to make the cove and soon there
was a loudly chattering crowd around the sunken boat.
"Are you sure that's the old rowboat Billy got from Mr. Norman?" asked
one of the other boys of Chet.
"Yes, sir! I've been out in it more than once with Short and Long,"
declared Laura's brother.
"But where can Billy be?" cried Josephine Morse.
"Surely, the poor fellow isn't drowned?" queried Nellie Agnew.
"Oh, don't suggest such a thing!" returned one of the twins. "If you'd
seen how badly his sister felt about his absence----"
"I expect the Longs are all broken up about it. And they have no
mother," said Laura Belding, softly.
"And Billy could swim like a fish," quoth Lance Darby.
"No chance of his being drowned," declared Chet.
"But, do you suppose he sank the boat here to hide it--sank it
purposely?" cried another girl. "Maybe he's hiding here. Why don't they
search the island for him?"
"And the caves?" cried another.
"_I'd_ like to get hold of him," Chetwood Belding said, gravely. "But
Billy never in this world crawled through that basement window and
opened the door for those burglars. I'll never believe it----"
"Not even if Billy said so himself, dear boy?" interposed Prettyman
Sweet.
"I'd doubt it then," rejoined Chet, grimly. "And let me tell you
fellows, this absence of Short and Long is a very bad thing for Central
High. We lost the game with Lumberport just because Billy wasn't at
short; you all know that. I'm mighty glad the game with West High was
called off for to-day. Without Billy Long, Central High is very likely
to win the booby prize on the diamond this season."
"Right you are, Chet," declared Lance Darby.
"I admit Billy is some little ball player," agreed another boy. "But it
looks bad, his running away."
"What would _you_ have done?" flashed out Dora Lockwood, for the twins
had become strong partisans of the absent Billy since talking with Alice
Long, "if that store detective had come and bullied _you_?"
"Put him through the third degree, did he?"
"Yes. And scared him by all sorts of threats. And then, everybody around
the neighborhood got hold of it, and said that Billy was just the boy to
do such a thing," Dorothy broke in.
"He _was_ up to all sorts of mischief," Nellie Agnew observed.
"Never did a mean thing in his life, Billy didn't," declared Chet.
"Come on ashore," said Lance, he and Otto Sitz pulling their heavy boat
in to a sloping landing. "No use gassing here about that old boat. We
can't raise it. But I'll tell Mr. Norman where it is when I go back."
"You're very right, Lance," said Purt Sweet. "It's time to have the
luncheon--don't you think? I'm getting howwibly hungry, dontcher know?"
"To see you eat strawberries up at Eve's house last Monday, I thought
you would never be hungry again--if you recovered," laughed Jess.
"Aw--now--Miss Josephine--weally, you know," gasped the dude. "You are
too, too cwuel!"
"Somebody throw that fellow overboard!" growled Chet. "He's getting
softer and softer every day."
"Never mind," whispered his sister, laughing, "he is dressed much less
gaudily to-day. What Bobby did to that sash of his last Monday seems to
have made Purt less vociferous in his sartorial taste."
"Gee, Laura!" cried Bobby Hargrew, from the next boat, "if Mammy Jinny
heard that, she sure would think that schools ought to teach only 'words
of one syllabub.'"
"Never mind Mammy Jinny," laughed Laura. "We've got some of Mammy's
finest efforts in pie and cake in our hamper. And I admit, like Purt, I
am hungry myself. Let's eat before we do another living thing!"
That was indeed a hilarious picnic. The girls had brought paper napkins
and tablecloths, as well as plenty of paper plates. No trouble about
washing dishes, or packing them home again, afterward. Chet had bought a
big tin pail and in this he made gallons of lemonade, and everybody ate
and drank to repletion.
"Now, if we were only at the park for just a little while, and could top
off on ice cream," said Lance, lying back on the greensward with a
contented sigh despite his spoken wish.
"I'd rather see that monkey again," laughed Jess. "That's the cutest
little beast."
"It weally is surprising how much the cweature knows," said Purt Sweet.
"It is weally almost human."
"So are you!" scoffed Lance. "It's an ugly little animal. Never did like
a monkey. And I think Tony Allegretto and his trained monkey are fakes.
We didn't see him do anything wonderful."
"Oh, they say that the monkey does lots of other tricks when Tony gets a
big crowd into his booth," said Laura.
"Now, who's for seeing the caves?" cried Chet, rising briskly. "You
girls declared you wanted to go 'way through the hill."
"Won't we get lost?" asked Nellie, timidly.
"Not a bit of it. It's a straight passage--nearly," said Chet. "Lance
and I have been through a couple of times. We come out into just the
prettiest little valley in the middle of the island--and not far from
the park, at that."
"But people _have_ been lost in the caves," objected one girl.
"Not of late years. There are side passages, I know, where a fellow
could get turned around."
"It's just like a maze, over at the east end," Lance observed. "But we
won't go into that part."
"And the way is marked along the walls of the straight cave in red
paint. I've got a box of tapers," said Chet, and ran to the boat for
them.
"Gas lighters," said Dorothy.
"Oh, Jolly!" ejaculated Bobby Hargrew. "You know what that new hired
girl of ours said when mother showed her how to cook macaroni? She says:
"'Sure, Mrs. Hargrew, do youse be atein' them things?'
"And when mother told her yes, Bridget said:
"'Well! well! Where I wor'rked last they used 'em to light the gas
wid!'"
The party of young folk had to follow a narrow path along the shore of
the cove for some distance ere they came to the first opening into the
caves. The sheer face of Boulder Head rose more than a hundred feet
above their heads. There were shelves and crevices in the rock, out of
which stunted trees and bushes grew in abundance; but there was no
practicable path to the top of the cliff.
"They say that, years ago, a man used to live on this island who could
climb that cliff like a goat," Chet said.
"Bet none of you boys could climb it," cried Bobby Hargrew.
"And we're not going to try it, Miss! Not on a double-dare," laughed
Chet. "We'll go through it, if you please. Now, here's the opening of
the main passage. You see, there's an arrow in red painted on the rock
just inside."
"It looks awfully dark," said Nellie, quaveringly.
"And suppose the 'lone pirate' should be hiding in there?" whispered
Dora to her twin.
"We--ell! I guess there are enough of us to frighten him away," said
Dorothy.
Chet took the lead with a lighted taper. Of course, when he was well
inside the small flame gave a very pale glow; but those behind could see
it. Then Lance followed with another light at about the middle of the
Indian file, and Otto Sitz brought up the rear with a third.
"You look out somebody doesn't creep up behind you and bite, Otto,"
laughed Bobby Hargrew, who was just ahead of the Swiss boy.
"Dat don't worry me von bit," growled Otto. "It iss only ha'ants I am
afraid of, and ha'nts don't live in caves."
"No," said Bobby, shivering. "B--r--r--r! they'd freeze to death in
here. Isn't it cold, after coming out of the warm sun?"
But when they were once well into the passage through the rock, and the
first 'shivery' feeling had worn off, the girls as well as the boys were
hilarious. When they shouted in the high and vaulted chambers their
voices were echoed thunderously in their ears. The flaming tapers were
reflected in places from many points of quartz, or mica. The floor of
the cavern was quite smooth, and rose only a little. In places the walls
were worn as smooth as glass. In some dim, past age the center of this
island must have been a great lake, and the water had found an outlet
through these passages.
At one point they found a little circular chamber at one side, in which
was a bed of pine branches. It really looked as though the place had
been used----and not so long before----as a camp. There were the ashes
of a fire on the floor.
"Here's where the pirate has been living," Dora declared to her sister.
"It would scare the girls into fits if we should tell them so."
"Hush!" said Dorothy. "Perhaps that man _is_ here somewhere," and she,
at least, was glad to hurry on, although Chet searched the chamber with
particular care.
"What do you expect to find here, old man?" asked Lance, laughing.
But his chum only shook his head and led the way toward the distant
outlet of the passage.