A MYSTERIOUS HAPPENING.
The barometer rose shortly and climbed up as rapidly as it had earlier
fallen. In a brief time the skies had cleared and the wind settled to a
steady breeze.
"It seems to me," said the professor, looking about him, "that it was a
difficult thing to get in here, but to get out is going to be a more
difficult one."
"It will be all right," replied the captain, "if Berwick will fix up
that old tea kettle of his and give us some steam." Then addressing the
engineer, "Can't you do this while we are in here?"
"Maybe I can," replied the engineer, "if there is no more of the devil's
handiwork. There would not be much the matter with the machinery, if
there was not somebody undoing things."
"The sailors will have few duties, now, and we will have a double watch
set over the engine room," said the captain.
The distance to shore was now so short that getting back and forth was a
simple task, and as security was so seemingly assured, permission was
given for any outside of those on duty, to land and rove about at will.
"As we have found the island, let's find the cave," suggested Jo, as
they were preparing for a trip ashore.
"Then we can go home," added Tom, who, however ready to venture forth,
was even more disposed toward the home journey. Whatever desire he may
have had toward early home going in this instance was destined by events
he could not forecast, to be blotted out.
"There is that column of smoke again," announced Jo, as he grasped the
oars. His brothers and Juarez were with him in the boat.
The others once more observed the curious signal, if such it were, but
gave no special heed other than to note its distance. On land, however,
they bent their footsteps in the direction of the phenomenon although
they could no longer see it for a guide.
They found themselves trailing off on a route they had not before taken,
and had gone perhaps half the distance which they had estimated as
required, when they came upon a curious clearing in the woods. It was
about forty yards in diameter, and surrounded by a complete circle of
trees, their boughs interlacing about seventy feet above to form a
lovely green canopy. So regular were the trees that it seemed as if they
had been planted by human hands hundreds of years before.
At first they did not notice, because of the somewhat dim light, that on
the far side of the amphitheatre there rose sheer a wall of rock well
covered with vines, and then all of one accord and simultaneously
exclaimed.
"There's a cave!"
"Hurrah, we've found it," added Tom.
"Don't go so fast," admonished Jim. "There may be more than one cave on
the island."
"But the opening is high up," demurred Tom, "and it looks as if it might
be hard to get into. How shall we do it?"
All thought of the column of smoke was blotted from their minds as they
surveyed the task before them, so suggestive of sought-for achievement.
The opening to the cave was fully forty feet above the level on which
they stood. No safe foothold could be discovered on close examination of
the face of the rock which rose sheer to the top, perhaps a hundred
feet.
"I'll warrant there is some other entrance," suggested Jim. "Seems to me
this place we are in was one time a sort of temple or auditorium, and
that opening up there in the rock may have been the pulpit."
"It's sure no easy job to get up there from this level," admitted Jo.
"Suppose we deploy around and hunt for the side door."
This they did, that is, Jim went one way, while Jo and Tom sought for an
opening in the opposite direction, but without success.
Juarez had meantime studied the face of the vine clad rock below the
mouth of the cave, and when his companions returned he undertook the
ascent or climb. Mounting first on Jim's stalwart shoulders he found
crevasses into which he dug his toes, and with his great knife scooped
out fragments at irregular distances, thus by degrees mounting to the
cave's mouth.
Once a secure footing gained, he let down his lariat, and one after the
other, the boys climbed up, and all stood looking out upon the
auditorium below. Surely a more beautiful green bower of exaggerated
proportions could not be imagined.
But it was not scenery that had induced them to seek the cave, and at
once their thoughts turned to the business at hand.
The floor of the cave was dry, and the place showed no signs of recent
occupancy. It extended into the rock beyond the limit of vision.
Jim had thoughtfully gathered and sent up a bundle of fagots, some dry
slow burning sticks, one of which was now lighted. The blaze cast a
fitful glare upon walls that shown in places with metallic gleams.
While Jim and Juarez busied themselves near the entrance with the
digging into and examination of some mounds of earth which excited their
curiosity, Jo and Tom with the burning fagot penetrated deeper into the
tunnel, for such it seemed to be. It presented at the start nothing out
of the ordinary. It was simply as Jo put it, an enlarged burrow of
irregular width and height, varying in width from six to eight feet and
in height the same. The sides were of earth with here and there a stone.
Whether of natural formation or an artificial construction the boys
could not determine.
"Doesn't seem to be anything worth seeing in here," said Tom, who was
in the lead and carrying the torch. "We might as well go back."
"Oh, go on a little further," urged Jo. "Perhaps we shall find
something."
"I'll bet, if we do, it's something we don't want," objected Tom.
"Well, we needn't take it if we don't want it," retorted Jo. "Let me go
ahead."
As Jo spoke, pressing forward they came to a sudden enlargement along
the way, the walls receding on either side. Jo raised his torch for a
better view when a grinning skull flashed out of the darkness, nodding
and bobbing at them, while a rattling and whirring noise resounded
through the cavern.
With a cry of astonishment, Jo let fall the torch which was quenched
as it fell upon the floor, and at the same time something big and
indescribable struck him full in the face.
So confused were they by the suddenness and unexpectedness of the
attack, and encompassed as they were by the absolute blackness, the
first thought of the boys was to run to the entrance of the cave, and
this they set about to do with the greatest possible promptness.
But both boys as they started were grappled by unseen antagonists with
whom they were locked in a deadly embrace, struggling and straining
as they wrestled in the darkness, until Tom almost at the point of
exhaustion was roused to a frenzy by the rattling of bones and the feel
of a skeleton hand on his arm. With a sudden, not to be denied effort,
he threw off his adversary and rushed wildly through the cave, followed
by Jo, who had bested his opponent.
In the meantime, Jim and Juarez were still poking in the little mounds
near the cave's mouth and wholly unconscious of the trying experience
of the two explorers. The commotion and sound of rapidly moving feet
aroused them, and almost immediately Jo and Tom appeared upon the scene.
Somewhat breathlessly, both speaking at once, they tried to describe
their uncanny experiences.
"Hold on a minute," said Jim. "Let's get the straight of this. We were
just about to follow you in, for we found nothing in the little mounds.
Let's know what to expect."
"I will have to go back anyway," said Jo. "I dropped my gun."
"Sure. We'll go with you," replied Jim. "Now what was it grabbed you?"
"It?" replied Tom. "I should say there were three or four of them."
"What were they like?" broke in Juarez. "Spirits?"
"Well, I don't know just what a spirit is like," replied Tom. "But it
was a pretty solid kind of thing that he had hold of me."
"Me, too," added Jo. "And it snorted and puffed like a grampus."
"Well, I suppose we are lucky to get off as easy as we did," said Tom,
"though I should like to know what they were. I thought the whole lot
of skeletons were coming after us, but I don't believe they could do
any puffing or snorting. It's time we were getting along."
"We will be ready for them this time, whatever they are," determined
Jim, who had been lighting torches so that each could be supplied with
one.
"Come on then," said Jo. "We must keep together and be on the lookout."
Arming themselves each with a heavy fagot which made a serviceable club,
the four bent their footsteps in the direction of the chamber of weird
experiences.
The silence in the cave was profound, the occupants, if any, not
betraying their presence by the least sound. Cautiously the boys
advanced, pausing now and then as they approached the place where the
surprise had occurred, to listen and gaze as far as they could into the
heavy darkness; but all was silence.
"I think they have gone," said Jo at length, in a voice in which there
was a tremor of excitement.
"No, there they are," replied Tom in a whisper.
"Where?" asked Jim.
"There!" responded Tom, indicating several suspended skeletons of full
length which were held against the walls, and which the light now
revealed.
"Oh," said Jo, "it wasn't them."
"Well, one of them was," returned Tom, "for I felt his hand on me."
"Must have been this one, then," said Jim, kicking a group of bones with
his foot. "Here is one of them lying on the floor. You must have knocked
him out, Tom."
"Here, Jo, is your gun all right," interposed Juarez.