_Phee-ew! Phee-ew_! The peculiar gull-like whistle once more, to run
in a softened series of echoes right up into the farthest part of the
cavern. Then there came the peculiar sucking, ploshing sound as of
water filling up an opening. A minute later "Ship ahoy!" from outside.
"Tom! Ahoy!" yelled Aleck, wildly.
"Ahoy, my lad! Ahoy!" and something else was cut off by the soft
sucking splash of water again, while to make the lads' position more
painful in their efforts to reply, twice over they were conscious of the
fact that when they replied with a shout their cries did not pass
through the orifice, which the water had closed.
But the tide was ebbing steadily, and the tiny arc of the rocks which
showed the way in was growing more open, so that at the end of a few
minutes they heard plainly:
"Where'bouts are yer, my lad?"
"In here!" shouted Aleck, but only in face of a dull _plosh_.
Another minute and the question was repeated, but from whence the lads
could hardly tell, for instead of coming from the cavern mouth the words
seemed to come from far up the cavern, to be followed by another splash.
It was quite half a minute before, taught by experience, Aleck shouted:
"Shut in here! Cave!"
There was another plosh, but they had proof soon after that the words
had been heard, for the hail now came:
"Are yer 'live, my lad?"
"Ye-es," cried Aleck. "Quite!" and then he could in his excitement
hardly control a hysterical laugh at the absurdity of the question and
answer.
"Thought yer was dead and gone, my lad," came now, in company with a
fainter splashing.
"Tom Bodger!"
"Hullo!" came quickly.
"We're shut in by the water."
"Who's `we'?"
"The cutter's midshipman and I."
"Wha-a-at! Then there arn't nayther on yer dead and drownded, my lad?"
"No-o-o-o!"
"Then I say hooray! hooray! But can't you swim out?"
"No. We've tried."
"Ho!" came back. "Wait a bit."
"What for? Can't you get help for us, Tom?"
"Ay, ay, my lad," came back. "But jest you wait."
Then there was silence, and the prisoners joined hands, to kneel,
waiting and listening.
"He has gone for help," said the middy.
"Yes, and before he gets back that little hole that let his words in
will be shut up again."
"Never mind," said the middy, sagely; "he knows we're here."
"Oh, but why didn't I think to tell him of the zigzag path? I daresay
they could get the stones out from above where they were pushed in."
"Perhaps he hasn't gone," said the middy. "Ahoy there!"
There was a peculiar sound as of the water rising up and gurgling along
a channel, while a lapping sound at their feet told that the water
inside was being put in motion.
"Why, he has dived down," cried Aleck, suddenly, "so as to try and get
to us."
"Tchah! Nonsense. That squat little wooden-legged man couldn't swim."
But at the end of what seemed to be a long period they heard a louder
splash, followed by another, and the illuminated water began to dance
and a curious ebullition to be faintly seen.
Then there was a panting sigh, and a familiar voice cried:
"Where'bouts are yer?"
"Here, here!" cried the lads, in a breath, and the next minute they were
conscious of something swimming towards them, which took shape more and
more till they saw that it was a man swimming on his back.
"What cheer-ho!" came now, in the midst of a lot of splashing. "Lend us
a hand, my lads, for I'm all at sea here. Thanky! Steady! Let's get
soundings for my legs. Mind bringing that lanthorn a bit forrarder?
That's right; now I can see where I go."
Tom Bodger had managed to find a hold for his stumps, and stood shaking
himself as well as he could for the fact that he had a lad holding
tightly on to each hand.
"Well, yer don't feel like ghostses, my lads!" cried the sailor. "This
here's solid flesh and bone, and it's rayther disappynting like."
"Disappointing, Tom?"
"Yes, Master Aleck. Yer see, your uncle says: `You find the poor lad's
remains, Bodger,'--remains, that's what he called it--`and I'll give yer
a ten-pound Bank o' Hengland note,' he says."
"Oh!" cried Aleck, passionately.
"And the orficer there from the Revenoo cutter, he says: `You find the
body o' young Mr Wrighton of the man-o'-war sloop, and there'll be the
same reward for that.'"
"Humph! I should have thought I was worth more than that," said the
midshipman.
"Ay, ay, sir!" cried Tom Bodger, who was squeezing his shirt and
breeches as he talked. "So says I, sir; but it's disappynting, for I
arn't found no corpses, on'y you young gents all as live-ho as fish; and
what's to come o' my rewards?"
"Oh, bother the rewards, Tom! How did you get in?"
"Dove, sir, and swimmed on my back with my flippers going like one o'
the seals I've seen come in here."
"But we tried to do that, both of us, and we couldn't do it."
"Dessay not, sir. Didn't try on the right tide."
"Nearly got drowned, both of us, my lad," said the midshipman. "But
don't let's lose time. You show the way, and we'll follow you."
"No hurry, sir; plenty o' time. Be easier bimeby. Tide's got another
hour o' ebb yet. But how in the name o' oakum did you two gents manage
to get in here? I knowed there was a hole here where the seals dove in,
and I did mean to come sploring like at some time or other; but it's
on'y once in a way as you can row in."
Aleck told him in a few words, and the man whistled.
"Well, I'll be blessed!" he said. "I allus knowed that Eben Megg and
his mates must have a store hole somewhere, and p'raps if I'd ha' lay
out to sarch for it I might ha' found it out. But I didn't want to go
spying about and get a crack o' the head for my pains. The Revenoo
lads'll find out for theirselves some day; and so you young gents have
been the first?"
"Stop a minute," said Aleck. "What about Eben Megg?"
"Oh, they cotched him days ago, sir--cutter's men dropped upon him while
they was hunting for this young gent's corpus, and he's aboard your
ship, sir, I expect, along with the other pressed men."
"But haven't they been looking for me any more?" said the middy.
"No, sir; they give it up arter they'd caught Eben; and, as I telled
yer, there was a reward offered for to find yer dead as they couldn't
find yer living."
"So that's why Eben didn't come back, sailor," said Aleck, quietly.
"Yes," said the middy, "but why didn't he tell the cutter's officer that
we were shut up here?"
"Too bitter about his capture, perhaps, or he might not have had a
chance to speak while he was ashore."
"I don't believe it was that," said the middy. "I believe he wouldn't
tell where their storehouse was."
"And so this here's the smugglers' cave, is it?" said Tom Bodger,
looking about. "But where's t'other way out, sir?"
Aleck explained that the smuggler had closed the way up.
"Well, sir, it's a wery artful sort o' place, I will say that. Lot o'
good things stored up here, I s'pose?"
"Plenty."
"Hah! Is there now? Well, it means some prize money, Mr Wrighton,
sir, and enough to get a big share."
"And I deserve it, my man," said the middy, with something of his old
consequential way; "but let's get out into the daylight. I'm afraid--
I'm--that is, I shouldn't like to be shut in again."
"No fear, sir. You trust me. Lot more time yet. 'Sides, the tide'll
fall lower to-morrow morning; but I'll get you out as soon as I can, for
your poor uncle's quite took to his bed, Master Aleck."
"Uncle has?"
"Yes, sir. Chuffy sharp-spoken gent as he always was, blest if he
didn't say quite soft to me, with the big tears a-standing in his eyes:
`It's all over, Bodger, my man,' he says, `and you may have the poor
boy's boat, for I know if he could speak now he would say, "Give it to
poor old Tom."'"
"Poor old uncle!" said Aleck, huskily. "Then you're cheated again, Tom,
and have lost your boat?"
"And hearty glad on it, too, Master Aleck, say I. A-mussy me, my lad,
what would the Den ha' been without you there? The captain wouldn't ha'
wanted me. I don't wonder as I couldn't rest, but come over here every
morning and stayed till dark, climbing about the rocks and cliffs, with
the birds a-shouting at me and thinking all the time that I'd come arter
their young 'uns--bubblins, as we calls 'em, 'cause they're so fat."
"And so they haven't been looking for me any more?" said the middy, in a
disappointed tone.
"No, sir; not since they telled me to keep on looking for yer. You see,
everybody said as you must ha' gone overboard and been washed out to
sea, same as the captain felt that you'd slipped off the cliff
somewhere, Master Aleck, and been drowned. But I kep' on thinking as
both on yer might ha' been washed into some crivissy place and stuck
there, and that's why I kep' on peeking and peering about, hoping I
might come upon one of you if I didn't find both; and sure enough, here
you are. I don't know what you gents think on it, but I call it a
right-down good morning's work for such a man as me."
"But you did not walk over from Rockabie this morning, my man?" said the
middy.
"Not walk over, sir? Oh, yes, I did."
"You must be very tired?"
"Not me, sir. My legs never get tired; and yet the queerest thing about
it is that they allus feel stiff."
"Don't talk any more, Tom," said Aleck. "I want to get to business.
Now, then, don't you think we might get out now?"
"Well, yes, sir; p'raps we might. It's a good deal lighter, you see,
since I come, but she's far from low water yet, and it'll come much
easier when tide's right down. But can't I have a bit of a look round,
Master Aleck?"
"Of course," was the reply, and the sailor grinned and chuckled as he
ran his eyes over what he looked upon as a regular treasure house for
anyone whose dealings were on the sea with boats.
The cavern was lighter now than the two prisoners had ever seen it, so
that Tom was able to have a good look; and he finished off by trotting
down as near to the mouth of the great place as he could, and then
turning to Aleck.
"There," he said, "I think we might venture out now. You can swim out
now without having to dive. What do you say, Mr Wrighton, sir?"
"I think we ought to go at once."
"Come on, then, gen'lemen. You'll get a bit wet, but there's a long
climb arterwards up the hot rocks in the sunshine, and you'll be 'most
dry 'fore you get home."
"Oh, never mind the water," cried the middy. "My uniform's spoilt. I'm
ready to do anything to get out of here."
"Will you go first, sir?" cried Tom Bodger.
"No, you found the way in," was the reply, "so lead the way out."
"Right, sir. Ready?"
"Then come on."
The man took three or four of his queer steps, to stand for a moment on
the edge of the deep pool, and then went in sidewise to swim like a seal
for the low archway, whose weed-hung edges were only a few inches above
the surface of the water, and as he reached it to pass under he laid his
head sidewise so that the dripping shell-covered weed wiped his cheek.
There had been no hesitation on the part of the prisoners. Aleck sprang
in as soon as their guide was a few feet away, and the middy followed,
both finding their task delightfully easy as they swam some fifty yards
through a low tunnel, whose roof was for the most part so close to the
surface that more than once, as the smooth water heaved, Aleck's face
just touched the impending smoothly-worn stone.
But there were two places, only a few yards in, where the arch was
broken into a yawning crack, from which the water dripped in a heavy
shower.
"Look up as you come along here," cried Aleck to his companion, and then
he shuddered, for his voice raised a peculiar echo, suggesting weird
hollows and tunnels, while as he increased his strokes to get past and
the middy came under in turn, he shouted again after his leader:
"Why, Tom, that must be where the water snatched us up and nearly
drowned us."
Five minutes later all three were swimming for a rough natural pier, and
Tom Bodger gave his head a sidewise wag towards another low cavernous
arch.
"'Nother way in there," he said. "Jynes the one we came out of. You
must have seen how the waves dance and splash there in rough weather,
Master Aleck?"
"No," was the reply. "I've only seen that it's a terribly rough bit of
coast. I never came down here, and of course I was never out in my boat
when it was rough."
"Course not, sir. It is a coarse bit. I had no end of a job to get
down, and I spect that it's going to be a bit worse going up agen. What
do you say to sitting up yonder in the sunshine on that there shelf?
The birds'll soon go. You can make yourselves comf'able and get dry
while I go up and get a rope. Dessay I can be back in an hour or so."
"No," cried the lads, in a breath. "We'll climb it if you can."
Climb up the dangerous cliff they did by helping one another, and with
several halts to look down at the still falling tide; and in one of
these intervals Aleck exclaimed:
"But I still can't see how the smugglers could run a boat up and row
into that cavern."
"Course they couldn't row, sir," replied Tom, "on'y shove her in. But
don't you see what a beautiful deep cut there is? Bound to say that at
the right time they'd run a big lugger close in. Look yonder! It's
just like the way into a dock, and sheltered lovely. Ah, they're an
artful lot, smugglers! You never know what they're after."
It was about an hour later that, without passing a soul on their
solitary way, the party reached the cliff path down into the Den garden,
where no Dunning was visible, and a chill came over Aleck like a warning
of something fresh in the way of disaster that he was to encounter.
It came suddenly, but it was as suddenly chased away by his hearing the
voice of Jane crooning over the words of some doleful old West Country
ballad, not of a cheering nature certainly, but sufficient to prove that
someone was at the house.
"Wait here," he whispered to his companions. "Let me go and see my
uncle first."
He crept in unheard, glanced round to see that the lower room was empty,
and then went softly up the stairs, his well-soaked boots making as
little noise as if they had been of indiarubber.
The study door yielded to a touch, and he stood gazing at the figure of
his uncle, seated in his usual place, but with pen, ink and papers
thrust aside so that he could bow his grey head down upon his clasped
hands.
"Asleep, uncle?" said the lad, softly.
"Aleck, my boy!" cried the old man, springing up to catch the lost one
in his arms. "Heaven be thanked! I was mourning for you as dead."