Chapter 30

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_ CHAPTER THIRTY.

_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." _

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