A FURTHER FIND.
I awoke quite naturally, as though from a deep sleep, to find myself in
bed, with Mrs. Coverthorne and a strange gentleman standing close by,
looking down at me as I lay. I recognized the room, and had some hazy
idea that this was a continuation of my summer holiday.
"Well?" said the gentleman, smiling; "feeling better after your nap?"
I felt too drowsy to reply, but languidly allowed the stranger to feel
my pulse, which he did after lugging a huge watch out of his fob.
"Keep him snug in bed for a day or two," I heard him say, "and he'll be
all right. Forty years ago I dare say I could have gone through it
myself without much hurt. I'll make up something, and send it by the
boy."
I was asleep again before they left the room, and did not wake till
Mrs. Coverthorne roused me to take some beef tea. Slowly, as I
swallowed the nourishment, I began to wonder why I was propped up in
bed, being fed with a spoon in my old room at Coverthorne. Had I been
ill? or had I met with an accident? What had Miles and I been doing?
Then suddenly, like a landscape coming into view through a
quickly-vanishing mist, the recollection of past events came flooding
into my mind. I remembered it all now--the captured coach, the sea
cavern, and the dark subterranean tunnel.
"George!" I cried--"George Woodley! Is he safe? He was with me in the
passage."
"Yes, he's quite safe," answered Mrs. Coverthorne, with a smile. "He's
down in the kitchen now, having his dinner. You shall see him again
by-and-by, but just for the present you must keep very quiet and not
talk."
It seemed no hardship for the time being to lie warm and snug in bed,
and in the wakeful intervals between my dozes I recalled and pieced
together the whole story of our adventure. Once when I woke I was
surprised to find Mr. Denny in the room, standing gazing out of the
window with his hands under his coat tails. Some slight movement on my
part caused him to turn; he smiled and nodded, and moved towards the
bed.
"Feeling as if you could relish a good beef-steak and slice of
pudding?" he inquired.
"Not just yet," I answered feebly. "O Mr. Denny," I continued,
remembering something which, since my return of memory, had been
puzzling my brain, "was that the secret place that George and I
discovered?"
"Yes," he answered; "but I fancy you discovered something more
important than the hidden chamber." He said this with a dry chuckle,
and producing his little tortoise-shell box took a pinch of snuff.
"What was that?" I asked languidly.
"Well, I don't think you'd understand if I told you. Better wait, and
you shall hear all in good time."
I must have slept most of that day. Thanks to my youth and good
constitution, I was suffering from nothing worse than exhaustion and a
severe cold, and I was much stronger when Miles came to see me the
following morning.
He had already heard our story from George Woodley; indeed, I think
that by this time there was hardly a man, woman, or child on the whole
countryside but had listened to a more or less exaggerated narrative of
our adventures. In some of these garbled accounts George and I were
reported to have done and endured the most extraordinary things. One
old lady, to her dying day, could never be persuaded otherwise than
that the convicts had locked us inside the coach, and then sent us and
it together bodily over the cliff.
"I shall never forget when we first heard that strange muffled knocking
and shouting in the west parlour," said Miles. "It was so strange and
unearthly that my blood ran cold with terror. John, the shepherd, was
in the yard, and noticed that his dog seemed uneasy, and kept barking
and growling at something. I was talking with him at the time. We
paused to listen, but I could hear nothing; so John ordered the dog to
lie down. Old 'Help' still kept grumbling to himself; then, just as
the man and I were turning to walk out of the yard, one of the maids
came out of the house screaming and bawling something about a ghost.
It was some seconds before we could get enough sense out of her to
understand what was wrong, and in the meantime Stokes, the wagoner,
came clattering out of the stable and joined the group. There was a
ghost knocking and calling in the haunted room, so the girl informed
us, and off we went to discover what was wrong. Old John shortened his
oak stick, and Stokes caught up a pitchfork: they evidently both meant
business.
"It seems funny enough now, but I can tell you I didn't feel much
inclined to laugh when we reached that fusty old parlour and heard that
mysterious bump, bump, and a faint, far-off voice, as it seemed, giving
unearthly whoops, and crying, 'Help!' Old John was the first to
recover his senses. 'There's some one under here!' he cried, striking
his stick on the hearthstone. Then he shouted, and sure enough there
was an answering hail. It seemed impossible that any living being
could be down under that solid slab of granite; but we fetched a pick
and crowbar, and worked at it till it fell into the tunnel. If we'd
only known the proper way to deal with it, we could have made it slide
along into a recess specially made for it at the back of the fireplace,
but we didn't discover that till later.
"Woodley says you fainted; but fortunately he heard our warning shout
to stand from under, and dragged you back into the tunnel, or you might
have been killed by the falling slab. I was so excited and astonished
as I looked down into that queer little vault, and you both were so
haggard, and ragged, and generally bedraggled, that at first I didn't
recognize you, and it was only when you called my name that I saw who
it was. Well, you may be very sure we soon had you out; and I think
you know the rest."
"The room will never be haunted any more," I said, laughing; "George
laid the ghost with his pistol. But tell me, when did you first know
that the convicts had escaped?"
"We heard about the coach having been seized the very next morning.
The alarm of their escape was given very much sooner than the men
expected. It so happened that a labourer had come into Rockymouth to
fetch the doctor for his child, who was very ill. Dr. Thomas--who came
to see you yesterday--was out in the country, and the man hurried off
to catch him before he returned home. Going along the road in the
darkness, he heard the trampling of horses' hoofs, and the sound of a
heavy vehicle coming towards him, and so stepped aside into a gateway.
None of your gang saw him; but, as you can imagine, he was mightily
surprised to see a mail-coach and team come jolting and floundering
down that byroad. Fortunately for him he didn't hail it; but he
thought something must be wrong, and he spoke about it when he met the
doctor. As luck would have it, Dr. Thomas, on his return journey, had
to go some distance along the highroad, and there he was accosted by a
man who was out of breath with running. This fellow turned out to be
one of the warders; he had managed to get the gag out of his mouth and
shout for help till some one came and untied his bonds. His story was
soon told, and Dr. Thomas rode as fast as he could back to Rockymouth,
and gave the alarm. George says you heard him coming just before you
got into the boat.
"For a time the whole place was in a state of panic, and every person
who lived in outlying cottages was expecting to be robbed, and perhaps
murdered, by the convicts. A large body of men, armed with all kinds
of weapons, from a gun to a reaping-hook, went out to hunt for them,
but with no result. Then a boat was seen floating bottom upwards some
distance from shore, and the report got about that the gang had
attempted to cross to France, but being landsmen had overturned the
boat, and were all drowned.
"The question which puzzled most people was what had become of the
_True Blue_; and the general opinion was that one or more of the men
had not gone with the others, but had stuck to the coach, and driven it
somewhere right away on to the moors. It was only yesterday that the
horses were found and identified."
"Were all the convicts drowned?" I asked.
"Very little doubt, I fear," was the reply. "There's a reef of rocks
just outside the mouth of that cave which, when the sea is at all
rough, makes a strong current and dangerous eddy. It's almost certain
that as soon as the boat got clear of the mouth of the cavern she was
caught in the swirl and swung round, and the men jumping up, or
throwing themselves about in a panic, turned her over."
Miles stood for a moment silently eyeing me with a curious look on his
face.
"I say, Sylvester," he began again, lowering his voice, "promise me you
won't say anything, but I believe one of them was saved."
"Who--old Lewis?" I asked excitedly.
My companion nodded.
"I've just heard the faintest rumour that his dog dragged him ashore on
a ledge below what's called the Old Quarry. At all events, the dog's
on land, and I take care not to ask too many questions about Lewis. A
man brought me a curious message, telling me to 'go down to the
seal-cave by the short cut, and see what I should find.' I couldn't
make head or tail out of it, and the man didn't seem to know the sense
of it either, but said it had been given him to pass on by a friend.
Now, when I come to think it over, I believe Lewis must sometime have
discovered the tunnel and hiding-place. He imagined I should know of
them too, and he thought he ought not to give the secret away to other
people. I suppose he judged this hint would be sufficient, and that I
should go down to the tunnel and rescue you and George.--By the way,"
added the speaker, turning on his heel to leave the room, "we've sent
word to your father and mother to say you're safe, and that you'll be
sent home to them as soon as you're well enough to travel."
After each long sleep I seemed to wake up stronger, and my thoughts
turned to Miles and his mother, from whom I was receiving so much
kindness. I remembered what the former had told me--of how his uncle
meant to claim half the estate at the commencement of the New Year,
which was now close at hand; and how, with straitened means, they
feared it would be impossible for them to live on at Coverthorne.
Several times I had been on the point of questioning Miles on the
matter, but it seemed such a painful subject that the words had died on
my lips.
Strangely enough, I could not but think that both he and his mother
looked more cheerful than when I had visited them last; and though
there still appeared an anxious expression in Mrs. Coverthorne's face,
there seemed also to be an air of hope and confidence about her at
which I greatly wondered.
Once there was a knock at the door, and George Woodley came to wish me
good-bye. He seemed in high spirits, and to have quite recovered from
the effects of our adventure, except that his left arm hung in a sling.
"My eye, Master Eden!" he exclaimed, "for the same rate of pay I
believe I'd go through it all again!"
"What d'you mean?" I asked.
"Why, look here, sir," he continued, producing a crisp five-pound note
from his pocket. "That there Mr. Denny gave me this! I didn't want to
take it, but he said I deserved it for laying the ghost. What's more,
I'm thinking before long of giving up the road and settling down in a
little dairy-farm business, which the missis and I could look after
between our two selves; and Master Miles has promised, when I do, that
he'll start my stock with one of the best beasts he's got on the farm.
Well, good-bye, sir. I hope I shall see you again quite well when
you're on your way back to school in January."
Liberal I knew the Coverthornes always were, but it astonished me
rather that they should bestow such handsome gifts on Woodley, to whom
they were really under no obligation. If it had been my own parents,
the case would have been different; for the man had certainly saved my
life, and I fully intended to ask my father to send him a suitable
reward.
On the third day after my strange and unceremonious arrival at the old
house, I was so far recovered as to be able to get up in the afternoon
and spend a few hours downstairs. Being for a time alone with Miles in
the parlour, my thoughts returned to the subject of his future.
"Miles," I said, "do tell me what you are going to do next year. Is
your uncle Nicholas still determined to take away half the land?"
"As far as I know, that's his intention--at present," was the reply.
There was something about the way in which the last two words were
uttered which made me prick up my ears.
"Look here! why did Mr. Denny give such a handsome present to George
Woodley?" I asked. "And why did you promise him that cow?"
"I suppose we can give him what presents we like, as long as the things
are ours to give," retorted Miles, smiling.
Another recollection had just flashed across my mind.
"Miles, Mr. Denny said that we had discovered something more important
than the hidden chamber. What did he mean?"
My companion turned away from me with a queer laugh.
"I'm under promise not to tell," he answered. "You may hear to-morrow."