AN EVENING WALK.
"Yes, Madge, 'twas an awful time. I never felt anything like it in my
life; and as for Alfred, he was stunned with terror. You see, that old
mine shaft had followed the soft part of the cliff (there's not much
use in looking for copper in solid sandstone), and so was like a huge
telescope, pointed south at some angle or other--the angle, I think,
at which you are now holding your chin."
"Jerry, don't talk nonsense."
"You'd be very sorry indeed if I didn't. Well, we hauled the dreadful
thing we had found into the boat, and then began to think of getting
back; but Phelan, the boatman, swore he would not go through that
awful Red Cave with it on board.
"We looked round us to see the best thing we could do. We found we
were in what I may call an under-ground pool, from which there were
three ways out--one leading into the cliff, one leading in the
direction of the sea, and the one by which we had entered. Am I tiring
you with my long-winded description?"
"No, Jerry--go on; I came out to hear all," said Madge, pressing the
arm on which her own rested.
"We first tried the way towards the sea, and found, to Phelan's
amazement and consternation, that it led right under, or, rather,
through the Puffing Hole. No power on earth could induce Phelan to go
that way. When we made this discovery, I now plainly saw the meaning
of those mysterious measurements and instructions left by the
unfortunate Fahey, and the means by which he had effected his
extraordinary disappearance years ago. He had jumped down and swum
inward to where we had found his dead body. In his 'Memorandum,' 'Rise
15.6 lowest' meant what I had expected--the rise of the lowest tide.
'At lowest minute of lowest forward with all might undaunted,' meant
that one entering at the Whale's Mouth at the lowest minute of the
lowest tide was to push forward with all vigour.... But, Madge
darling, this must bore you to death?"
"No, Jerry, I love to hear it. Just fancy having the hero of such an
adventure telling it quietly to me on the Dulwich Road!"
"Twenty years hence how sick you'll be of these same adventures! You
will then have heard them told at least a thousand times to every
fresh acquaintance I make--man, woman, or child. But you'll be
very tired of me also, sweetheart, and you shall go to sleep in an
easy-chair while I prate on."
"Don't say such horrid things, or I shall cry. Please go on."
"Ah, well, you may bully me now, but you won't then. Where did I leave
off, darling?" He pressed her arm and she pressed his.
"At the man going up under the Puffing Hole. The paper he left with
your solicitor."
"Our solicitor--say our solicitor."
"Our solicitor. There! But how tiresome you are!"
"Oh, ay! I have the whole thing off by heart. The 'Memorandum' goes
on, 'The foregoing refers to s-c-u-l-l-s with only one s-k-u-l-l any
lowest, or any last quarter, but great forward pluck required for
this. In both cases (of course!) left.' You see, here he underlines
the words 'sculls' and 'skull,' which shows something unusual was
meant. Remembering everything, 'sculls' evidently meant _sculls_, as
very few people have more than one skull, and 'skull' meant what it
seems to mean--your head. By-the-way, I beg your pardon. It's only men
have skulls, not angels.'
"Jerry, I'm going home."
"Well, I won't, I won't! Put your arm back. Let us, in fact, have an
armed peace."
"This kind of thing, Jerry, is very bitter, and I feel as if--as
if--as if----"
"As if what?"
"As if I can't help liking you--sometimes when you're nice."
"I'll be good and nice. Well, what he meant was that when you wanted
to get at his hiding-place by the sea, in a boat pulling sculls, you
came and did certain things; and that when you wanted to get there by
jumping down the Puffing Hole, you did other things.
"When we came back to the foot of the shaft the sun had gone off it,
and it was comparatively dark. We tried the passage leading inward,
and here we found Fahey's hiding-place. It was a small low cave, with
a rocky ledge about as wide as the footway we are walking on....
Madge, are those new boots? They look new. I wonder did I ever tell
you I think you have awfully pretty feet."
"I give you up. You are incorrigible."
"As I was saying, we found a ledge of rock about as broad as your
foot. This was Fahey's retreat, and here were all the materials used
by the forgers of bank-notes. How Fahey got them there unobserved is
the puzzle. He must have brought them piecemeal Here, beyond all
doubt, were printed the notes forged upon the bank of Bordelon and
Company, of Paris, by means of which Mr. Davenport stole a colossal
fortune.
"Here we found an explanation of how Fahey's suit of clothes lasted
ten or twelve years. We found two suits precisely similar. He kept one
to wear, no doubt, while the other was drying. There was a place which
had evidently been used as a fireplace, and although there was water
so close to this ledge, it was above the highest reach of the highest
tide, and dry as tinder. The dryness of the place and the salt of the
sea-water had preserved these clothes from decay, while most of the
metal things had crumbled into dust.
"He must have discovered this place in his boat, and after that found
out the shaft of the mine communicated with the whole cavernous
system, which is so vast as to stagger the mind. Thus he had two means
of gaining his retreat; and when he said he had lost his boat, she was
safely moored in the cave in case of emergency--for we found the
painter-chain hanging from a bolt."
"But what of that light you saw that turned out to be water? And did
the miners work in the sea?"
"Attentive and intelligent darling, I thank thee. The theory is that
Fahey, in falling or sliding down the shaft, struck the western wall
of the pool in which we found him, and brought down a huge mass of
clay which was ripe for falling, or that it had fallen recently, or
that our gunshot had brought it down. The curtain of water was formed
by a spring of fresh water. There are always dozens of such springs in
cliffs. As to the foot of the shaft, the explanation is that at the
time the miners were at work the sea had not eaten so far inward. In
fact, that whole district is and has been gradually so enormously
undermined, that soon a mighty subsidence must take place."
"But you say that the hole down to the mine slanted. How did he get up
and down? It would have been barely possible, but dangerous, to crawl
up."
"He had a rope by which to hold on, and while holding on thus, he
could walk upright--that is, hand over hand. Before the fall of the
planks that covered the top of the shaft, Fahey had crept out by a
small opening looking seaward, and concealed from view, if any one
ever should be so foolhardy as to go there, by a thick growth of
furze."
"Well, what did you do afterwards?"
"When?"
"You told me only as far as coming back from the Puffing Hole."
"True. Well, we laid what remained of the unfortunate man on the rock
which had often been his resting-place before, and then rowed back
through the wonderful Red Cave, and put the matter in the hands of the
police. At the inquest all about the forgery of Davenport and Fahey
and the swindle on the Paris bank came out, and Mrs. Davenport was
examined, She admitted Fahey had made love to her, as you saw by the
papers. Wasn't it strange that Alfred should be the first to see her
husband and her husband's partner in guilt dead, and not by natural
means, and that at both inquests she spoke of a new lover, and that
Alfred, the newest lover of all three, should have been at both
inquests?"
"It is astonishing and terrible. I wonder what will come of it?"
"Heaven knows. But there, let it go now, Madge. When you come to
Ireland, love, you shall see those wonderful caves."
"I'd rather die," she said, "than go near them."
"What!--if they were lit by the glorious effulgence of this splendid
specimen of the O'Briens?"
This dialogue took place one day after dinner in the June following
the visit to the cave. The villainous Fishery Commissioners had been
overcome, and Jerry and Madge were to be married in a week.
Alfred Paulton was still at the "Strand Hotel," in the village of
Kilcash.