Some few days afterwards, Mr. Mildmay, visiting the Towers once more,
chanced to mention that as he passed St. Cuby's Cove in his cutter he
had seen a couple of seals disporting themselves in the shallow water
under the cliff. The conversation passed at once to other matters, but
next morning Dick told Sam what the lieutenant had said, and suggested
that they should go seal-hunting. Sam was nothing loth, and promised to
accompany his young master as soon as he had fed the poultry and cleaned
out the sties.
Seals were not often seen on the coast; indeed, Dick had only once
before heard of their appearance, so that the proposed expedition had
all the charm of novelty. While waiting for Sam, he went to the
kitchen, where Reuben Pollex was washing the dishes, and asked him if he
could tell him how to tackle a seal.
"That's more than I can do, Maister Dick," said the old man. "I never
caught nawthin' but fish and rabbits, and maybe a stoat now and again;
never seed a seal in my life."
"They're valuable, Reuben," said Dick. "The skins are worth a good
deal. They are made into coats and tippets and such things for ladies,
you know."
"The mistress wants a new coat, so 'twould come handy, and I wish 'ee
luck. I've heerd tell that the critters sometimes hide in the cave
yonder, though as no man, 's far 's I know, ever did see 'em there, it
may be only guesswork."
The cave mentioned was at the head of St. Cuby's Cove. Its entrance was
exposed only at low tide, and Dick had more than once visited it at such
times, exploring its recesses by the light of a torch or one of the
house lanterns. He had never made any interesting discovery there, and
had for some years ceased to visit it.
"Didn't you tell me once that there is an entrance to the cave from the
land side, Reuben?" he asked.
"Ay, folks used to say so when I was a boy, but I don't know as there be
any truth in it. Once upon a time, long afore my day, there was a mine
thereabouts, and maybe one of the adits ran down to the cave; but 'tis
sixty year or more since the mine give out--in yer grandfer's time--and
not a soul have been down in the workings ever since, 's far 's I know."
Here Sam appeared and announced that he was ready. The two lads,
provided with a gun, a cutlass, a lantern, and a few candle-ends,
proceeded to the spot on the beach of Trevanion Bay where their boat was
moored, launched her, and rowed round the promontory to St. Cuby's Cove.
The tide was running out, and as the interval during which the cave was
free from water was very short, Dick and his companion worked the boat
through the entrance with their hands as soon as there was room for them
to pass between the roof and the surface of the sea.
The opening was at first a narrow tunnel in the cliff, but after some
yards it began to widen gradually, and at length enlarged itself into a
spacious vault, in which there was a continuous murmur, such as is heard
on putting a shell to one's ear. By the time the boys reached it the
tide had completely left the cave, and the boat stranded on a sandy
beach, littered with rocks of all shapes and sizes, which had apparently
fallen at various times from the roof. They lit their lantern, whose
yellow rays fell on jagged granite walls, glistening shells, and slimy
seaweed covering the rocks on the floor. Here and there were small
pools which the tide never left dry, and where the light of the lantern
revealed innumerable little marine creatures darting this way and that
with extraordinary rapidity.
The boys made the boat fast by looping the painter round a jagged
boulder. They moved warily, for the seal was a beast unknown to either
of them, though Dick, in his total ignorance of these creatures of the
deep, hardly expected to find them in the cave now that the sea had
receded. Presently, however, they heard above the hollow murmur another
sound, like the feeble bleat of a very young lamb. They peered about,
moving the lantern to and fro, and at length discovered, lying on a
rocky ledge at the inmost end of the cave, two small cream-coloured
objects, scarcely more than a foot long, whose soft eyes blinked in the
light, and from whose mouths issued plaintive cries of alarm.
"Bean't they proper little mites!" said Sam, putting out his hand to
touch them.
"Don't do that!" cried Dick hastily; "the old ones may be about, and if
they're like other beasts, they'll attack us if they think we'll hurt
their young."
"Shan't we take 'em, then?" asked Sam.
"Of course not; they're too young."
"And shan't we look for the old uns?"
"No; the young ones would die if we killed the parents. We must come
again later on, when they're old enough to take care of themselves. But
our day shan't be wasted. We'll see if we can find the other entrance
to the cave."
"What other entrance?"
"Your father says 'tis thought that at one time there was a way in from
an adit above."
"I can't believe it. The free-traders would have found it long afore
this if so 'twere."
"I don't know. The adit wouldn't be an easy passage for them with their
bales and kegs. But don't let us waste time; the tide will be running
back soon."
They followed the irregular circuit of the cave, thrusting the lantern
into every recess and hollow, holding it high and low, but discovering
nothing except the same rugged and apparently impenetrable wall.
"There bean't no opening," said Sam at length. "'Twas fiddle-faddle to
say there be."
"Perhaps it is high above us, out of reach," suggested Dick.
"Where's the sense o' that?" replied Sam, disappointed of the
anticipated sport. "What mortal good would it be to any soul alive to
make an opening where 'ee'd break yer neck if you come to it?"
Dick did not answer, craning his neck to scan the heights above him.
The light of the lantern failed to penetrate the overarching gloom. The
roof of the cave was invisible, and the walls appeared to rise
perpendicularly, with projections here and there that looked, in the
spectral glimmer, like the grotesque gargoyles on a church-tower.
"I'd like to climb up there," said Dick at length.
"Lawk-a-massy, you'd break yer neck for sure. 'Tis a 'mazing hard job to
climb the cliff arter gulls' eggs, but this be death and burial."
"We could do it with a ladder."
"Our ladder bean't long enough by half; the only ladders long enough be
they in church-tower, and they be too heavy to lug here, and sexton
wouldn't let us take 'em. Scrounch it all, Maister Dick, I do think 'ee
be muddled in yer head to think o' sech daring doings. See now, tide's
comin' in, and we don't want to be drownded."
"That's the most sensible thing you've said for a while, Sam. We'll go
now, but I won't give it up. We'll get a ladder, or make one, and come
back another day. I'm determined to find out if there really is an
opening."
"Well, Feyther says most heads do have a magget in 'em, like turmits,
and this be yours; 'tis indeed."
They loosed the boat, and paddled out as they had come, Dick resolving,
in spite of his follower's damping attitude, to return before long, and
make a thorough exploration of the place.
Later in the day, as he walked home from the Parsonage, he was struck
with an idea of a contrivance for serving his purpose. He consulted old
Reuben about it when he got home, and Sam, on returning from an errand
in the village, found his father and Dick hard at work in an outhouse,
splicing short lengths of rope, and fixing them at regular intervals
between two thin but strong poles about six feet long.
"What be doin', Feyther?" asked Sam.
"Use yer eyes, sonny, and put a name to 't yerself," replied Reuben.
"Well, if I was to speak my thought, I'd say 'ee was makin' a ladder
that 'ud let a man down as soon as he put a foot on it."
"Then 'tis for you to make it stronger, my son, babe and sucklin' as 'ee
be. T'ud be a sin to let so much cleverness run to seed. Strip off yer
coat and lay into it, and keep yer tongue quiet, for if 'ee set all the
organs of yer body goin' at once, you'll die young."
This implied rebuke had the effect of making Sam enter zealously into
the work, and before supper two light ladders were finished, each six
feet long, which, together with a short ladder of the ordinary kind that
Reuben used in his duties about the premises, provided Dick with a total
length of eighteen or twenty feet. His notion was to carry these
separate pieces down to the cave, and then lash them together to form
one continuous whole.
He fixed on the following afternoon for his second visit to the cave.
The morning turned out very wet, the rain pouring down in quite unusual
volume; but the sky cleared after dinner, and the two boys set off,
timing themselves as before to reach the cave when the ebbing tide left
the entrance free. Again the baby seals were alone, and much as Dick
would have liked a tussle with their parents, his sporting bent was for
the time subordinate to his wish to find the supposed landward entrance
to the cave.
The ladder perfectly answered its purpose, but it was disappointing to
find that it was by no means long enough. Even when Dick, the taller of
the two, stood on the topmost rung, Sam holding the ladder steady at the
bottom, he saw that the walls still stretched for several feet above
him. But the roof was now in sight, an irregular arch, consisting of
knobs, wedges, and inverted pyramids of rock, and Dick felt the
tantalising certainty that the opening, if opening there was, could not
be far away.
They went all round the cave, setting the ladder up at frequent
intervals, Dick exploring every foot of the jagged wall with the aid of
his lantern. There were plenty of recesses and depressions, ranging
from a finger's breadth to the length of his arm; but he did not find
one where he was unable to touch the back of it with his outstretched
hand. It was clear that the opening, if it existed, must be above his
head.
"We shall have to make another length of ladder, and come back again,"
he said to Sam. "I won't give it up."
He was standing high on the ladder as he spoke, dangling the lantern by
a ring at the top. The words were scarcely out of his mouth when there
was a tremendous crash, which shook the place, and so much startled him
that, in an instinctive movement to cling on to something, he let the
lantern fall. It lighted fairly on the top of Sam's head, bounced off,
and dropped with a thud to the sandy floor, where the candle was
instantly extinguished.
"Are you hurt, Sam?" cried Dick, anxiously.
"Rabbit it all!" roared Sam, in high indignation. "Do 'ee think my head
be wood then? Bean't I got feelings like any other common man? My
skull have got a furrow in it a yard long, and I may rub it till I'm
dead, I'll never straighten it out again."
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it, Sam. Light the candle again, will
you, so that we can see what has happened."
Sam growled and grunted as he struck a light from his tinder-box. The
rekindled candle revealed a strange catastrophe. A huge mass of the
wall and roof of the cavern had collapsed, owing perhaps to the heavy
rains in the morning, and the debris was lying in a heap against the
opening of the tunnel leading to the exterior.
"If this bean't a pretty kettle of fish, never call me Sam again," said
the boy in consternation. "'Tis closed up; we be shet in."
Dick climbed down the ladder, and crossed the floor of the cave to see
the extent of the mischief. It was as Sam had said. Their exit was
barred by a mass of rock and loose soil that must weigh several tons.
"Quick, Sam!" cried Dick, "we must work hard to clear it away. The tide
will be on the turn, and we don't want to be imprisoned here all night."
They began to work with all haste, but soon found that the task would be
a long one. The smaller pieces of rock were easily cast aside; but
there were many large masses which, besides being heavy and cumbersome
themselves, were very difficult to move by reason of the earth in which
they were imbedded. The boys had made but little progress when the sea
began to creep in.
"We'll be drownded alive!" said Sam, now in a state of terror.
"Work, then. Shove your hardest, Sam; we'll do it yet."
They tugged and hauled and pushed with fierce energy, and by employing
their united strength upon the largest masses, they succeeded in
clearing a path wide enough to allow room for the boat. By this time
the water was almost up to their knees, and they heard the boat graze
the rocks as it floated on the incoming tide. Loosing the painter, they
pushed the craft through the tunnel, only to find, when they approached
the seaward opening, that but a small segment of the sky was visible,
the gap being too shallow to afford a passage.
"We are trapped, Sam; there's no denying it," said Dick quietly. "But
don't be alarmed. I don't suppose the water reaches the roof of the
cave even at high tide, so that we can float in the boat quite safely.
It only means a few hours' imprisonment."
"If I've got to be jailed, I'd rather be in village lock-up; 'tis dry at
any rate. Can't we swim out, Maister Dick?"
"Of course we can, but I doubt whether we had better do it. There's a
dozen yards or more under water first, and then a good half-mile outside
before we can land. We should get pretty well knocked about on the
rocks if there's any swell on the sea. We had much better stay here."
Sam gloomily assented to this course. They got into the boat, and sat
there for some time watching it rise gradually as the tide grew higher.
"Hang me for a jackass!" cried Dick suddenly.
"What have 'ee been and done?" asked Sam with concern.
"Why, we haven't got gun, cutlass, or any other weapon."
"'A b'lieve not," said Sam, "but we couldn't keep out the tide with un
if we had forty guns and fifty cutlasses."
"The seals! They'll come back with the tide, and be in a terrible rage
with us, thinking we're after their babies."
"Be-jowned if I thought of it! 'Twas a true word; you do be a great
jackass, sure enough."
"Mind what you say, Sam, or I'll throw you out."
"'Twas your word, not mine. I wouldn't go so far as that. Ninnyhammer
is the worst I'd call 'ee. But I told 'ee how 'twould be, with yer head
itchin' with this magget of openin's and ladders and all that."
"Be ready to use the boat-hook, or the anchor, if the seals attack us.
I'll use one of the oars."
"I don't believe we'll have to fight at all," cried Sam. "Look 'ee!
There be they two young seals swimmin' out to find the old uns. They
bean't so young as you thought if they can swim like that, and we med as
well have took 'em yesterday as not."
"Well, 'tis too late now. They're gone."
"To get their supper, I reckon. I be mortal hungry, Maister Dick, arter
all that work. Have 'ee got a morsel of bread in yer pocket?"
"Not a bit."
"Not a apple or codling?"
"Not one."
"I could eat a turmit or a raw tater. But don't name 'em to me, or I
shall feel very bad for thinkin' of 'em. Best thing is to go to sleep
when yer hungry, 'cos you don't feel it then."
"Well, sleep. I'll wake you if anything happens."
The boy curled himself up in the bottom of the boat, and soon filled the
cavern with his snores.