ABANDONED.
There was a pause as we stood in the deepening darkness at the end of
that horrible tunnel. Cold, hungry, and despairing, I think if I had
been alone I should have broken down completely; but George Woodley,
though no doubt sharing to a great extent my own feelings, did his best
for my sake to put as cheerful a face on the matter as was possible
under the circumstances.
"Cheer up, Master Eden," he exclaimed. "While there's life there's
hope, and we're a good way off being dead yet, sir. I shouldn't
wonder," he continued, "if this doesn't turn out all for the best as
far as we're concerned. These men, drunk as they are, will be certain
to be captured as soon as they step ashore. Lewis will think of us and
say where we are, and my belief is we shall be rescued to-morrow
morning."
There certainly did seem some probability that things would turn out as
the guard suggested; anyway, it was a ray of hope to lighten the gloom
of our present situation. Still, the prospect of spending another
night in that dark cavern, with the danger of the sea rising ever
present in our minds, seemed almost unbearable.
"We mustn't let the fire out," said my companion. "There's that bird
to cook, and I'm fairly famished."
I myself was faint with hunger, for, owing to the drunken outbreak
among the convicts, we had spent the whole day since our scanty
breakfast without food. The pheasant which one of the men had drawn
and plucked had lain unheeded and forgotten since the appearance of the
brandy kegs, and this we decided should form our evening meal.
Building up the fire and improvising a spit on which to roast the bird
occupied our attention, and relieved our minds by diverting our
thoughts from our forlorn and perilous position. We found the metal
cup which Rodwood had flung down, and also the wine bottle, the neck of
which had been broken off, and this we placed under a trickle of fresh
water--the dipper having been carried off in the boat.
"The rascals have taken the coach lamp with them," said George. "We
shall have to feel our way about as best we can."
Almost as he spoke my foot struck against something which slid along
the rock with a metallic clatter, and stooping down, to my joy I picked
up the guard's clasp-knife, which had also been overlooked by the
drunken gang at the time of their departure. The find gave us
considerable satisfaction, as the knife had proved of great service in
many ways, and we were already contemplating the necessity of tearing
the pheasant apart with our fingers.
The meal was no more appetizing than the one which had preceded it on
the previous evening. How I longed for a morsel of bread and salt!
The last defect I tried to rectify by dipping my meat in salt water;
but the result was not all that could be desired, and Woodley laughed
at the wry faces which I pulled.
However, the flesh of the bird, followed by a mince-pie, and an apple
by way of dessert, certainly appeased our hunger, and in doing so
enabled us to face our position with more fortitude. Reclining on the
hard rock as near as we could get to the smouldering fire, we went over
the whole of our strange adventure from the moment the convicts had
seized the coach to the time they had left us in the boat.
"We might be worse off," said George. "I believe that if they'd tied
us up in that copse, as that rascal Rodwood suggested, we should have
been frozen stiff by morning. I wonder how poor Tom got on! That was
a nasty fall of his; I heard his head strike on the hard ground, and I
made sure he'd be picked up dead. Them warders, too--I hope the warmth
of the straw and the shelter of the cottage kept them alive."
"I believe those villains would have killed any one who had tried to
stop them," I remarked. "Do you remember that fellow close to me
digging out that stone with his fingers in the pit on the cliff, when
the sheep made that false alarm? The way he did it made me tremble. I
believe he'd have brained some one with it if we really had been
surrounded."
"Well, the whole lot of them are taken by this time, dead or alive; at
least that's my belief," answered George. "They were crazy with drink,
and would walk straight into the net. That man we heard gallop into
the village last night may have given the alarm, and I'll wager there's
been a hue and cry and a sharp lookout all to-day. As long as the sea
don't prevent it, we shall have a boat sent here for us to-morrow, and
then a fine story you'll have to tell the folks at home, and the boys
at school next term, Master Sylvester!"
His last remark, though intended to cheer me up, had rather the
opposite effect. I must confess that, up to the present, I had been so
much concerned with my own personal safety as to give hardly a thought
to the friends at home, and to the anxiety which my father and mother
must be now feeling at my non-arrival; for by this time the news would
no doubt have reached them of the disappearance of the coach. In those
days there were no telegraph wires by means of which messages could be
sent and replies received in the course of at most a few hours. A
messenger had probably been dispatched on horseback to Round Green, to
learn whether I had travelled by the ill-fated True Blue; but he would
probably not return to Castlefield till late that night. And even now,
as I sat blinking at the glowing logs, my parents would be in a state
of anxious uncertainty as to whether I was really missing, or had been
detained for some reason at the school.
George did not notice my silence, but went on, following up his own
line of thought.
"I believe there's been a boat out to-day spying down the coast, and
'twas that the blind fellow heard when he talked about distant voices.
My stars! it gave me quite a turn for the minute. I almost thought it
was ghosts, and so did some of the rest, I suppose, by the scared look
on their faces. You didn't hear nothing, I suppose, did you, Master
Eden?"
"No," I replied. "But I hardly expected to; for I've got a bit of a
cold in my head, and it's made me rather deaf."
"It was a queer thing," murmured George. "That man had such sharp ears
I don't think 'twas fancy; and if not, then what could it have been, I
wonder?"
"The dog didn't seem to notice it," I answered, "and a dog can hear
better than a man. I dare say it was the water gurgling in some hole
or hollow, and it may have sounded like a voice."
How endless seemed that long December night! The cold did not appear
to be so intense, but I was less weary than on the previous evening,
and less inclined for sleep. Every now and again Woodley would raise
himself on his elbow to readjust the smouldering logs; and we would
speculate as to what could be the time, for the man had forgotten to
wind his watch the night before, and it had run down. We cheered each
other with the assertion that the people in Rockymouth must know now of
our whereabouts, and that when day dawned we should be rescued. At
length we must both have fallen into an uneasy slumber, and when I
recovered consciousness the mouth of the cavern was showing like a
distant window in the pale gray light of morning. Rising, and
stretching our stiffened limbs, we stirred up the fire, and slapped our
arms across our breasts to restore the circulation. To my joy I
noticed that the sea was calmer; the wind had dropped, and what waves
there were outside reached our platform in little more than gentle
ripples.
"They won't be long fetching us now," said George. "I wonder how far
those rascals got before they were collared? Not much farther than the
pierhead, I fancy. The villains, sending the old _True Blue_ over the
cliffs like a worthless piece of rock! I hope they'll get a sound
flogging for it, every man Jack of 'em, when they get aboard the hulk.
I'd like to give it 'em myself!"
We stood watching the light strengthen in the entrance to the cave,
momentarily expecting to see the aperture darkened by the prow of a
boat, and prepared to give a simultaneous hail with all the force of
our voices.
"Well, some of those lazy dogs of villagers might have been up and
about by this time," grumbled George. "I know I would if it were a
case of rescuing fellow-creatures in distress. They needn't have
waited for dawn; I'll warrant there's some of them could have guided a
boat in here with a lamp if there'd been a cargo of brandy kegs to be
fetched, instead of two human beings!"
"Perhaps they don't know we're here," I suggested, rather reluctantly.
"Of course they do," answered George, who had fully made up his mind on
the subject. "That gang of rascals must have been caught yesterday.
How could it have been otherwise when most of them were too drunk to
walk, let alone run? That being the case, for their own sakes they'd
be ready enough to say what had become of us. They'll be held
responsible for our safety, and it would go hard with them if--if we
weren't found."
"But they might have got into hiding, and be waiting to get on board
some vessel."
"Not they! The harbour was empty when we got into the boat--I noticed
that; so there was no craft lying alongside the wharf which would take
them on board, we'll say, and stow them down in the hold. No; they'd
have to go ashore. It's risky enough for men who know their way about
to beach a boat along this coast among the rocks and breakers, and
especially after dark; and the only chance for these fellows would be
to make the harbour and land on the quay. Bless you, they were too
reckless and fuddled to think of the chances of being caught. They've
all been nabbed safe enough, and had time by now to cool their heads
and remember whom they left behind. We shall be taken off directly,
and in the meanwhile I don't see why we shouldn't have breakfast."
I sat down readily enough, and ate my share of what was left of the
pheasant, and a small wedge of cheese, washing down the repast with a
draught of the fresh water in the broken bottle. Still there was no
sign of the relief party, for the arrival of which we kept a constant
lookout, and I thought I noticed an uneasy look on Woodley's face,
which did not tend to allay my own misgivings.
Growing restless at this delay, we longed to be doing something, and at
length decided to try to secure some more pieces of the floating
wreckage. George was the first to rise to his feet, and as he did so
he exclaimed,--
"Hullo! here's a find!"
Lying on the ledge of rock where Rodwood had left it on the previous
evening was the warder's pistol. My companion examined it, and finding
that it was loaded and primed, clambered up and put it in a niche of
the rock high above his head, remarking as he did so,--
"There, that's safer than letting it lie about on the ground. A chance
kick might send it off, and one of us get the ball in his foot."
The set of the current seemed to have drifted more wreckage into the
cavern, and the flowing tide had brought a quantity of it close to the
extreme end of the cave, where it floated in a jumbled mass at the foot
of our platform. By clambering down to the water's edge and "fishing"
with another broken spar, we had no difficulty in drawing it towards us
and then throwing it up to the rock above. One piece of timber which
seemed a portion of a mast had a quantity of rope attached to it, and a
couple of blocks with more cordage were also secured. At length my eye
rested on another of those mischievous kegs, but this one apparently
half or wholly empty, judging from the manner in which the greater
portion of it appeared above the surface of the water.
"There's another of those little barrels," I said to George, half
jestingly. "Haul it out, and we'll use it as our water-butt."
The keg was accordingly fished out of the sea, and added to our little
pile of salvage. One or two more small fragments of wood were next
recovered; then George pointed to a long, slender spar which I had
already noticed, but which was floating close to the opposite wall of
the cavern, and beyond our reach.
"That looks like an oar, Master Eden," he said. "We'll get that
somehow. I think I can manage it with a line and slip-knot made out of
some of that rope."
It did not take long for this simple tackle to be prepared, and with
its aid George soon secured the oar, and handed it up to me as I stood
above him on the rock. He passed it up, I say, blade first, and I
remember, as I caught hold of it, having given a sudden cry, almost as
though the wood had been red-hot iron.
"What's the matter?" shouted the astonished guard.
"O George, look here!--look at this!"
With a bound Woodley was at my side; but even then he could not guess
the reason for my outcry. There was, after all, little for him to
see--merely a letter "L" branded into the water-worn surface of the
wood.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
"Matter!" I cried. "Don't you see that mark? This is one of the oars
from Lewis's boat. O Woodley! can't you guess what's happened? She's
capsized, and all those drunken rascals are drowned. I remember now
there was a yell as they passed out of the cave, and then silence. I
thought they'd gone beyond our hearing, but when they got into the
swirl of the backwash at the foot of the cliffs they must have
overturned. Lewis himself told me how dangerous it was. It would have
been a difficult thing for a sober and experienced crew to get safely
out to sea, but with the first bad lurch those madmen would have flung
themselves about, and lost their balance in no time."
"It can't have been that," said George, who stood aghast at my
suggestion. "Ten men drowned within fifty yards of us, and we none the
wiser! No, no, Master Eden; I won't believe it."
"You forget they were all of them drunk," I answered. "Even if any of
them had floated for a moment, we weren't likely to hear their stifled
cries right back here, and above the noise the wash of the sea was
making."
"How d'you know that oar came out of the boat? Its being marked with
an 'L' is no proof that it belonged to Lewis."
"You forget I went out in his boat several times last summer, and
learned to row. I remember the oar as well as if it was my own; it's
got a smaller 'L' carved with a knife just below the button. There,
see for yourself."
Still George stood staring at me as though unwilling to be convinced
that the worst had happened.
"Look at that keg," I continued, "and see if it isn't the one they took
with them in the boat. If so, you'll find the small hole they made
with your knife."
On examination, the spot where the convicts had broached the anker was
clearly visible. There could no longer be any doubt as to how it came
to be floating on the water.
"Some of them must have got to land," muttered George doggedly.
"Not they!" I replied; "there wasn't a man of them could swim. Don't
you remember what Rodwood said? I know Lewis couldn't, because he told
us so last summer; and we remarked at the time how strange it was he
had never learned, when he had spent most of his life on the water.
Besides, what difference does it make to a man whether he can swim or
not, if he's flung into the water stupefied with drink?"
The oar dropped from my hands as I spoke, and for some minutes each
stood staring blankly in the other's face. That short space of silence
did as much as an hour's feverish discussion of the subject to impress
upon our minds how hazardous and almost hopeless our position had now
become. No gloomy underground dungeon in some ancient prison, made
secure by locks and bolts and watchful jailers, could have afforded
less chance of escape than in our case did this cavern; for even if a
boat had been waiting close outside, as neither of us could swim, there
was enough deep water between us and the sunshine to drown us twenty
times over. It was probable that even the smugglers only entered the
cave on rare occasions, for too frequent visits would draw attention to
the spot; and especially at this time of the year, close on Christmas,
the chances were a thousand to one against any boat coming near the
place till we had either died of starvation or been washed away in one
of the fierce storms which raged constantly during the winter months.
With the loss of the boat and its occupants all chance of communication
with the outer world was ended; and if we had been marooned on an
island or coral reef in the Pacific, far out of the usual track of
ships, there could hardly have been less prospect of a timely rescue.
Though all these thoughts flashed through our minds, we neither of us
seemed willing to put them into words; both shrank from being the first
to pronounce the sentence of our doom. George Woodley at length broke
the silence, and he did so in a voice the tone of which betrayed strong
emotion.
"This is a bad lookout for us, Master Eden," he said. "What are we to
do?"
"We must portion out the food," I answered, "and make it last as long
as possible. There's the other pheasant, and the hare, two or three
mince-pies, and a few apples, and part of the cheese. With that we
ought to keep from starving a few days longer."
George shook his head, as if to imply that it would be only lengthening
the agony of our suspense; and for a time we remained doing nothing but
listlessly watching the sparkling patch of sea beyond the mouth of the
cavern, in the vague hope that some boat would pass within hail. Owing
to the fact that the entrance arch was low, and our platform was raised
some distance above the water level, our view of the outside world was
very limited, and unless a boat had come close in to the foot of the
cliff we could not have seen her.
How long we remained thus in a state of hopeless inactivity I cannot
tell. The hours of daylight seemed hardly less long and dragging than
those of darkness. Woodley sat by the fire nursing his knees and
sullenly chewing a splinter of wood. At last he roused himself and
stood up.
"It's no good sitting here like this and not making a single bid for
freedom!" he exclaimed. "A thought's just come into my head, and if
you can't suggest anything better, why, I vote we try my plan."
"What is it?" I cried eagerly.
"Why, it's this," he answered. "We must at least try to get outside
where folks can see us, and we can cry for help. Neither of us can
swim, but here's wood, and rope to fasten it together. Why shouldn't
we make a raft?"
The proposal was one exactly calculated to appeal to a boy's
imagination; but when I cast my eyes over our stock of timber, the
possibility of putting the project into actual execution seemed almost
out of the question.
"There's never enough wood here for that!" I answered.
"There may not be sufficient to make a raft that would carry us both,
but there ought to be enough to keep one of us afloat. Look here,
sir," continued the man earnestly: "we've got to get out of this place
somehow, and the sooner the better. If it means running risks, why, we
shall have to run them. We're in peril of our lives as it is, standing
here upon this rock. If it should come to blow really hard to-night,
it would be good-bye to us before morning. My idea is this:--We must
fasten enough of these logs together to make a raft big enough to carry
me. That oar will serve as a paddle, or to shove off from the rocks,
and so doing I ought, at all events, to be able to get outside into
open water; and once out there I should be bound either to be seen or
to drift ashore somewhere where I could climb the rocks. Then, you may
be sure, it won't be long before I bring a boat round to rescue you."
"O George," I exclaimed, "I don't think I can stand being left quite
alone in this awful place! Besides, what if you are washed off into
the sea? You can't swim."
"I must take my chance of that, sir, as you must of being left," was
the answer. "I'd suggest your going, only I think I'm the stronger,
and could hold on longer if, as is sure to be the case, the waves wash
over the logs. Think, sir, what'll happen in the first gale, even if
our food lasts, and then take your choice."
I glanced round at the dark walls of our prison, which, though now high
and dry, had been worn smooth by the storms of ages; and the very
thought of the mountainous seas forcing their way in irresistible fury
through the entrance of the cavern made me shudder. Take a bottle
three parts full of water, I thought, and shake it violently from side
to side, and that, on an infinitely larger scale, might be taken to
represent what the interior of this cave would be like in a winter
storm.
"Very well," I answered desperately. "If that's your plan, let's carry
it out; I know of none better."
He turned at once, and worked with feverish eagerness, as though we
knew that the dreaded storm was then brewing. Every piece of wreckage
of any size which still remained within reach we fished out of the
water and added to our store. The next business was to collect and
untangle the rope and cord, and this took us far longer than we
expected. The sodden knots wore the skin off the ends of our fingers,
and made the job all the more laborious and painful. It was late in
the afternoon before this portion of our task was accomplished. Then
came selecting the most suitable pieces of timber, and planning how
they should be arranged and joined together. All this while we kept
glancing anxiously towards the entrance of the cave, still hoping
against hope that some of the convicts might have escaped a watery
grave, and either by capture or giving themselves up have made known
our whereabouts to the good folks of Rockymouth. No help arrived,
however, and it became more and more evident that none was to be
expected. The patch of sea grew gray and misty as the second day of
our captivity drew towards its close.
Kneeling in the quickly-gathering darkness of the cavern, George
completed the first lashing of the logs; then gathering up all the
remainder of the rope, that we might not entangle our feet, he stowed
it away high up on the rocky ledge which had served as a shelf for our
provisions.
All day we had hardly thought of food--a bite of cheese while we worked
having proved sufficient; but now, though wearied with our labour, we
set to work to pluck and cook the second pheasant--an operation which,
as we sat in the darkness with no means of telling how time was
passing, seemed to last far into the night. With most of our wood gone
to form the raft, we had to be chary of our fuel. The bird was only
half cooked, and I had little inclination for eating; but we forced
ourselves to swallow something, for on George's strength keeping up, if
not on mine, our last chance of rescue depended.
My cold was worse, and I felt utterly miserable as I sat crouching by
the glowing embers, the warmth from which was not sufficient to temper
the bitter breeze from the sea, which swept through the cavern as
through a draughty tunnel.
"George," I said, "it would be awful to die here alone in the dark, and
no one ever to know what had become of us. Are you sure that raft will
carry you safely?"
"Oh, bless you, Master Eden, don't talk about dying," answered the man;
"that's not the way the true Briton looks at things. 'Never say die'
is his motto. There's many poor fellows been in worse plights than we
are, and not thrown up the sponge. Bless you, sir, I shall help to
carry you to and from school many a time yet, I hope. 'Woodley,'
you'll say, 'this is better than the two nights we spent in that cave!'
'You're right, sir,' I shall answer; and then all the other outsides'll
want to hear the story. Ho, ho! my eye! but I doubt if they'll believe
it's all true!"
He went on cheering me with his lively talk, though his teeth chattered
with the cold. He had never seemed more gay when perched on the back
seat of the old _Regulator_. Yet if I could have read his thoughts, I
might have discovered that he more than half believed that this was to
be his last night on earth; for though determined for my sake, as well
as for the wife and child dependent on him, to attempt an escape from
the cave by means of the raft, he did not doubt that the chances were
very much against his ever reaching the shore. So, for the sake of the
youngster at his side, he hid his fears and made light of the uncertain
future. Such was George Woodley, and as such I like to remember him:
on the highroad a mail-coach guard, in the presence of death a very
gallant gentleman.
The day had been tiring as well as anxious, and in spite of cold and
discomforts my heavy eyelids began at length to droop and my head to
nod, until before long my troubles were swallowed up in blissful
forgetfulness.
I must have slept some hours, totally unconscious of what was going on
around me. I have a distinct recollection that I was dreaming of
making a journey by coach as an inside passenger. Mile by mile we went
rumbling on; it was windy, for the blast came in gusts through the open
windows, and roared in the tops of the wayside trees. We stopped to
change horses, and as I looked out an hostler lifted a pail of water
and, with a shout, flung it in my face!
I awoke gasping and choking. The water and the shout had been no
dream, nor, for that matter, the unceasing sound which had seemed to me
the noise of the wind and the lumbering vehicle. The next instant my
arm was seized and shaken by Woodley.
"Rouse up, Master Eden!" he cried; "rouse up, sir! There's a storm
coming on, and the sea is splashing over the rock!"