CHAPTER V. A HIDDEN CAVE
It was a little after eleven o'clock when Tom left the hotel. His mindwas so occupied with the events of the evening that he started at oncetoward his camp, forgetting an intention he had earlier in the night ofvisiting the locality of Jack Harvey's camp in search of the missing box.He stopped every few minutes to laugh long and heartily, as, one by one,the mishaps of Colonel Witham came to his mind.
All at once he remembered the missing box. He had nearly reached his tentby this time, but he stopped short. He called to mind the contents of thebox; among other things, a certain big cake, with frosting on it, and,although he and Bob, as young athletes, were bound to hold such food inlittle regard, there was one thing about it which particularly impressedhim just now, and that was the remembrance of how he had watched Bob'ssister, with her dainty little fingers, mould the frosting on the top,and how she had slyly wondered--as if there could be any doubt ofit--whether they, meaning Tom, would think of her while they were eatingit.
The thought of that cake falling into the hands of Jack Harvey and of TimReardon and the others of Harvey's crew, and of the jokes they wouldcrack at Tom's expense, made his blood boil. He started in the directionof Harvey's camp, then turned back to get Bob to accompany him,--and thenpaused and went on again, saying to himself that he would not awaken hischum at that hour of the night. He started off through the woods alone.
The night was warm and pleasant, though it was quite dark, as there wasno moon. He passed by the cottages, and then turned into a foot-path thatfollowed the windings of the shore. The path led for some distancethrough a thicket of alders and underbrush, from which at length itemerged into an open field. Crossing this, Tom again entered a growth ofwood, the path winding among the roots of some old hemlocks and cedars.
All at once he saw a light shining indistinctly through the trees, andknew that it must be in the immediate vicinity of Harvey's camp.
"So much the better, if they are up," muttered Tom. "If they're sittingaround that fire they are sure to be talking." He hurried on in thedirection of the light, still following the path.
The fire soon became plainly visible. At a point where the path dividedhe could see the white tent, lit up by a big fire of driftwood thatblazed in front of it. He could hear the sound of voices, anddistinguished that of Harvey above the others. There seemed to be someinsubordination in camp, for Harvey's tones were loud and angry.
Tom concluded not to take the path to the left, which was the one leadingdirect to the camp, but continued on for a distance along the main path.It was well he did so, for presently he heard some one coming toward him.The paths were at this point so near together that he could notdistinguish which one the person was taking; so he drew aside andcrouched in the bushes, which were very dense between the two paths. Aboy, whom he recognized as Tim Reardon, soon came in sight, and passedclose by the spot where Tom was concealed. He carried a pail in his hand,and was evidently going to a spring near by for water. He was grumblingto himself as he passed along.
"I'm always the one!" he said. "Why don't he make some one else lug thewater part of the time? I'm not going to be bullied by any Jack Harvey,and he needn't think I am."
He kept on to the spring, however. Tom remained where he was, and Timsoon returned, carrying the pail filled with water. Tom waited till hesaw Tim arrive at the camp and deposit the pail of water near the fire,before he again emerged from the clump of bushes into the path that ledpast the camp. He followed this cautiously. He could not as yet seewhether all the members of the crew were present about the camp-fire, andhe knew that to encounter any one of them at that hour near the campwould not only put an end to all hopes of recovering the box, byrevealing to Harvey and his crew that he suspected them of having stolenit, but that, once an alarm being given, he should have the whole crew athis heels in a twinkling.
Tom was sufficiently acquainted with the reputation of Harvey's crew toknow that it would go hard with him if they found him there. He stolequietly along past the camp some little distance, and then, turning fromthe path, got down on his hands and knees and crept toward the campthrough the bushes.
Near the camp was a hemlock-tree, with large, broad, heavy branches, thatgrew so low down on the trunk that some of them rested on the ground. Itoffered a place of concealment, and Tom, at the imminent risk of beingdiscovered, reached it and crawled in between the branches. If thecampers had been expecting any one, and had been on the watch, he mustsurely have been discovered, for several times branches cracked underhim, and once so loudly that he thought it was all up with him, expectingthem to come and see what had made the noise. But they took no notice ofit, either because they were accustomed to hearing noises in the woods,of cattle or dogs, or thought nothing at all about it.
From where he now lay, Tom could see the entire camp, and hear everythingthe boys said. It was a picturesque spot which Harvey had chosen. Theland here ran out in one of those irregular points which wascharacteristic of the shores of the island, and ended in a little,low-lying bluff, that overlooked the bay. On the side nearer the village,the shore curved in with a graceful sweep, making a perfect bow, and theland for some distance back sloped gradually down to the beach. The beachhere was composed of a fine white sand, making an ideal landing-place forrowboats. On the side farther from the village, the waterfront was of adifferent character. It rounded out, instead of curving in, and the shorewas bold, instead of sloping. It was not easily approached, even by smallboats, as the water, for some distance out, was choked up with reefs andledges, which were barely covered at high tide, and at low water wereexposed here and there.
This apparently unapproachable shore had been taken advantage of byHarvey in a way which no one in the village had ever suspected. There wasa channel among the reefs, which a small sailboat could pursue, if onewere accurately acquainted with its windings. With this channel, whichthey had discovered by chance, the campers had become thoroughlyfamiliar, at both low and high water.
The point had been cleared of undergrowth, and most of the larger treeshad been cut down for some little distance back from the water. In therear of this clearing there were thick woods, extending into the islandfor a mile or more.
The campers had pitched a big canvas tent at the edge of the clearing,where they lived in free and easy fashion, cooking mostly out-of-doors.They scorned the idea of making bunks, as smacking too much ofcivilization, and at night slept on boughs covered with blankets. Theylived out-of-doors in front of the tent when the weather was pleasant,and, when it was stormy, they went aboard the yacht and did their cookingin the cabin, over a small sheet-iron stove.
It was altogether a romantic and picturesque sight that Tom saw as helooked out from his hiding-place. At a little distance from the tent thefire was blazing, while the members of the crew either sat around it orlay, stretched out at full length, upon the ground. A pot of coffee wasplaced on a flat stone by the side of the fire, near enough to get theheat from it, and the delicious odour of it as it steamed made Tomhungry.
The members of Harvey's crew were utterly without restraint, saving thatwhich was imposed capriciously by Harvey himself. Harvey was notnaturally vicious. His mind had been perverted by the books he had read,so that he failed to see that his acts of petty thievery were meannessesand acts of cowardice of which he would some day be ashamed.
He fashioned his conduct as much according to the books he read aspossible, and, if he had been but trained rightly, would have been proudto do courageous things, instead of playing mean jokes, for he had atheart much bravery. He rarely wore a hat, and was as bronzed as anysailor. The sleeves of his flannel blouse were usually rolled up to theelbows, showing on his forearms several tattooed designs in red and blueink. He was large and strong.
The boys around the fire were telling stories and relating in turnincidents of adventure that had taken place since their arrival on theisland. At the close of their story-telling, they ar
ose and began makingpreparations for a meal. Near by the fireplace they had built a roughtable, of stakes driven into the ground, and boards, with benches oneither side of it, fashioned in the same way. Two of the boys went to thetent and brought out some tin dishes, and the steaming pot of coffee wastaken from the stone and set on the table.
Then Joe Hinman, taking a long pole in his hand, went to the fire andproceeded to scatter the brands about, while a shower of sparks rose upand floated off into the forest. Presently Joe raked from among theembers a dozen or more black, shapeless objects. These he placed one byone on a block of wood and broke the clay--for such it was--with ahatchet. The odour of cooked fish pervaded the camp and saluted Tom'snostrils most temptingly. Inside of the lumps of clay were fish of somekind, which Tom took to be cunners. As fast as they were ready, TimReardon carried them to the table, where they were heaped up on a bigearthen platter.
The boys then fell to and ate as though they were starving. Tom wonderedfor some time if this could be their usual hour for supper; butremembered that he had seen the _Surprise_ several miles off in the baythat evening, and concluded that the evening meal had been long delayed.The _Surprise_ now lay a few rods offshore, with a lantern hanging at hermast.
The boys continued to talk, as they ate, of tricks they had played and ofraids they had taken part in, down the island. In fact, the good citizensof Southport would have given a good deal for the secrets Tom learnedfrom his hiding-place that night. Tom waited impatiently, however, forsome mention of the missing box. Could he be mistaken in suspecting themof having taken it? No, he was sure not. That they were capable of doingso, their own conversation left no room for doubt. Tom felt certain thebox was in their possession.
But he began to feel that his errand of discovery to-night would befruitless. They must, he argued, have some sort of storehouse, where theyhid such plunder as this, but no one had as yet made the slightestmention of it. It was clearly useless for him to grope about in thevicinity of the camp at night, and he began to think it would be betterafter all to wait until day and select a time for his search, ifpossible, when all the members of the crew were off on the yacht. Butthat might come too late, and Tom wondered what to do.
All at once Joe Hinman made a remark that caused Tom to raise himselfupon his elbow and listen intently.
"Boys," said Joe, "I've got a little surprise for you."
The crew, one and all, stopped eating, rested their elbows on the table,and looked at Joe curiously.
"I'll bet it's a salmon from old Slade's nets," said George Baker. "Joe'ssworn for a week that he'd have one."
"He's all right, is Joe," remarked Harvey, patronizingly. "There isn'tone of you that can touch Joe for smartness."
Thus encouraged, Joe told how he had seen the box that had been a part ofTom's and Bob's luggage left on the wharf the night it arrived; how hehad ascertained that it contained food, by prying up the cover; and how,early on the following morning, he had rowed up under cover of the fog,and had brought back the box to the camp.
"It's down in the cave now," said Joe. Tom gave a start. "There's ameat-pie in it that is good for a dinner to-morrow, and a big frostedcake, if you fellows want it to-night."
"Hooray!" cried Jack Harvey. "You and I will go and get it." Whereupon heand Joe sprang up and made directly for the spot where Tom lay, passingby so close that he could have reached out and touched them, and hurriedalong the bank, down to the shore.
Tom allowed them to get well in advance before he ventured to crawl fromhis hiding-place and follow them. He saw them at length disappear overthe bank at a point where there grew a thick clump of cedars. He turnedfrom the path into the woods, made his way cautiously past the placewhere he had seen them disappear, turned into the path again, and thenclimbed down the bank, which was there very steep, holding on to thebushes, and looked for the boys, but they were nowhere to be seen.
Tom knew they could not have passed him. They had not reappeared over theedge of the bank, and they were nowhere in sight along the shore. Therecould be but one conclusion. The entrance to the cave must be located inthe clump of cedars.
It seemed to Tom that he had waited at least a quarter of an hour,though, in fact, it was not more than five minutes, when he saw the boysreappear. Tom groaned as he saw the big cake in Joe's hand. Joe laid itdown on the ground, while he and Jack picked up several armfuls of looseboughs lying about, and threw them up carelessly against the bank. ThenJoe took up the cake again, and they emerged from the cedars, climbed upover the bank, and disappeared in the direction of their camp.
Tom lost no time in scrambling to the spot. The hiding-place wascunningly concealed. It was an awkward place to crawl to from any part ofthe bank, and no one would have thought of trying to land there in aboat. The entrance to the cave might have been left open, with littlechance of its ever being discovered. Tom threw aside the boughssufficiently to discover that beneath them was a sort of trap-door, madeof pieces of board carelessly nailed together. Then he replaced theboughs and, without even attempting to lift the board door, regained thepath at the top of the bank.
"There'll be time enough to explore that later," he muttered. "I'm notthe only one that will have lost something out of that cave beforemorning, though." He made his way cautiously past the camp once more, andthen started on a run for his own camp. His hare and hounds practice atschool stood him in good stead, and he did not stop running till he hadcome to the door of his tent. He unfastened the flap and entered, pantingfor breath. Bob was sleeping soundly. He shook him, but Bob was loath toawake, and resented being so roughly disturbed.
"Wake up, Bob! Wake!" cried Tom, shaking him again.
Bob opened his eyes. "Why, is it morning, Tom?" he asked.
"No, it isn't, Bob, but it soon will be. I've found the box, Bob.Harvey's got it, and I know where it is hidden,--down near his camp in acave."
Bob shivered, for Tom had pulled the blanket off the bed, and the moistsea air penetrated the tent. He dressed, stupidly, for he was not fullyrid of his drowsiness.
The boys went down to the beach, and Bob washed his face in the saltwater.
"I'm all right now, Tom, old fellow," he said, "but, honest, Tom, I feelugly enough at being waked up, not at you, though, to just enjoy a fightwith those fellows."
"There's little prospect of that, if we are careful," answered Tom. "Whatwe want to do is to show them we are smart enough to get the box back,and, perhaps, play them a trick of our own."
Then they carried the canoe down to the shore, launched it, and set off.It was about one o'clock in the morning. They paddled away from the tentand down along the shore, noiselessly as Indians. Past the village andpast the cottages, and not a sign of life anywhere, not even a wisp ofsmoke from a chimney. The canoe glided swiftly along, making the onlyripples there were on the glassy surface of the bay.
As they came to the beach near Harvey's camp, they landed, and Tom creptup over the bank to reconnoitre. He came back presently, reporting thatthe crew were all sound asleep, and everything quiet around the camp.Then they paddled quickly by the end of the bluff and along the boldshore beyond, picking their way carefully among the reefs, as they couldnot have done in these unknown waters with any other craft than thebuoyant canoe.
They disembarked at the clump of cedars, and made the canoe fast to thetrunk of one that overhung the water. Tom took from the bow of the canoea lantern, and they scrambled up the bank. Throwing aside the boughs,they disclosed the trap-door, which they lifted up. Tom lit the lanternand they entered the cave.
They found it much larger than the opening indicated. It was excavatedfrom the hard clay of which the bank was composed, and, though not highenough for them to stand quite erect, it was about eight feet long andfive feet wide.
It was filled with stuff of all sorts. There were spare topsailsand staysails,--possibly from coasters that had anchored in theharbour,--sets of oars from ships' boats, several boxes of canned goods,that the grocer of the village had hunted for far a
nd wide, coils ofrope, two shotguns, carefully wrapped in pieces of flannel and welloiled, to prevent the rust from eating them, four lanterns, two axes anda hatchet, and odds and ends of all descriptions useful in and about acamp or a yacht.
The roof of the cave was shored up with boards, supported by joists. Inone corner of the cave was the box for which they sought, broken into,and with the gorgeous cake gone; but that was all. The rest of thecontents were untouched.
They took the box, carried it down to the shore and placed it in thecanoe. Tom started to return to the cave.
"What are you going to do now, Tom?" queried Bob. "We don't want to takeanything of theirs, of course."
"Not a thing," answered Tom. "We don't go in for that sort of business,but I just want to show them that we have been here and had theopportunity to destroy anything that we were of a mind to. Perhaps itwill teach them a good lesson. It will show them that we are as smart asthey are, anyway."
So saying, Tom began to gather up the guns, the good sails, the boxes ofprovisions, and other things of value, and carry them outside the cave,setting them down on the bank at some distance from the mouth of it.
"We won't destroy anything of value," said Tom. "But here are some oddsand ends of old stuff, some of these pieces of oars, empty crates,bagging, and that sort of thing, which will make a good blaze, and whichwould have to be thrown away some day. They are of no use to anybody. Ipropose to make a bonfire of these in the cave, just to show Jack Harveythat we have been here. He'll find all his stuff that's good for anythingput carefully outside the cave, and no harm come to it. But he'll be justas furious to find his cave discovered and on fire, for all that."
"All right," said Bob, "here goes."
Bob was thinking of that cake.
Tom took one of the axes and chopped a small hole in the top of the cave,some distance above the door.
"That will make a draught," he said, in answer to Bob's inquiry.
Then he blew out the lantern and poured the oil with which it was filledover the pile of rubbish. There was still a small heap of stuff in onecorner of the cave, some old boards, and a few pieces of sail, throwncarelessly in a pile, as though of no value. They did not stop to botherwith these, as they seemed of no consequence, and they were in a hurry.
Tom struck a match and set fire to the heap that he had accumulated.
"We can't get away from here any too soon, now, Bob," he said. "There'llbe some furious chaps out here, when that fire gets to crackling andsmoking. We don't care to be about here at that time. They are too manyfor us."
The boys scrambled down the bank, got into the canoe, and pushed off. Asthey paddled away, the light of the fire gleamed in the mouth of thecave. As soon as they had gotten clear of the reefs, they did not stop toreconnoitre the camp, but pushed by at full speed. It was a race againstfire--and they little dreamed of its swiftness, nor of the hidden forcewhich they had let loose.
Along the shore they sped, speaking not a word till they had got thevillage in sight and their arms were cracking in the joints. Then theypaused a moment for breath, for their little craft was out of sight ofthe camp now, in the dull morning light.
Tom, who had the stern paddle, had looked back from time to time, but ifthere was any light to be seen through the bushes it was very slight. Thespot was hidden now, too, by the intervening point of land.
"I don't know whether I see a light or not," he said. "There's a lot ofsmoke, though, and I can imagine, anyway, that I see a gleam of fire inthe midst of it."
The words were scarcely out of his mouth before he swung the canoe aroundwith one quick sweep of his paddle.
"Look, Bob! Look!" he cried. "What have we done?"
The sight that met their eyes was amazing.
A sheet of flame shot suddenly into the sky. It looked like a tinyvolcano, belching up fire and debris and pushing up through the midst ofit a great black canopy of smoke. This was followed by the report of anexplosion that echoed and reechoed through the village, reverberating onthe rocks across the harbour, and filling the whole country around withits noise--at once startling and terrifying. Then the light as suddenlywent out, a shower of burning sticks and shreds of blazing canvas driftedlazily down through the air, and a cloud of smoke hung over the spot.
Tom and Bob trembled like rushes. It seemed as though every particle ofstrength had left them. There could be but one conclusion. They had blownup the camp. Harvey and all his crew were, perhaps, killed.
Bob was the first to speak.
"Come, Tom," he said. "We must get to camp before we are seen. Brace upand try to paddle."
Somehow or other they got to camp and dragged the canoe ashore. Theycarried the box up to the tent and locked it up in the big chest. Bob'shand trembled so he could hardly put the key into the lock.
Tom seated himself, dejectedly, on the edge of one of the bunks, thepicture of despair.
"I guess I may as well go and give myself up first as last," he said. "Isuppose I'll have to go to jail, if they're killed. What can there havebeen in the cave? I didn't see anything to explode, did you?"
"No," answered Bob, "unless it was something over in that pile of stuffin one corner. I didn't examine it, but they must have had somethingstored or hidden underneath there, either kerosene or gunpowder. By Jove!Tom, I remember now hearing Captain Sam Curtis say he had missed a keg ofblasting-powder that he had bought for the Fourth of July, and he said hethought some of the sailors down the island had stolen it. That's whereit went to; it was hidden in that corner."
"That doesn't help matters much, if they're all dead," said Tom. "I'll beto blame, just the same. Oh, Bob, what shall I do?"
"Whatever you do," answered Bob, "I stand my share of it, just as much asyou. I'm just as guilty as you are. But don't go to pieces that way, Tom.We don't know yet whether they are hurt or not. The best thing we can dois to get down there as quick as ever we can. Shall we take the canoe andmake a race for it?"
"I can't do it," answered Tom. "I haven't got the strength,--and, to behonest, Bob, the courage. It's taken every bit of strength and nerve outof me. Bob, I tell you, I'm afraid we've killed them,--and I, for one,don't dare to go and look."
And Tom hid his face in his hands, while the tears trickled through hisfingers.
"I don't believe they're killed," said Bob, stoutly. "They were somedistance away from the cave, you know. Come, we'll go with the crowd, forthe whole town must be out by this time."
And so he half-persuaded, half-dragged Tom away from the tent, and theystarted for the hotel.
The explosion had, indeed, aroused every one. Men were running to andfro, and the greatest excitement prevailed. The news quickly spread thatsome frightful accident had happened at Harvey's camp, and Tom and Bobheard expressions of sympathy for them on all sides, from many who hadbeen the victims of their tricks, and who had time and again wished theisland rid of them. A rumour spread among the crowd of villagers--no oneknew where it originated--that a keg of powder, which the campers hadleft to dry near the fire, had exploded, and blown them all to pieces.This was only one of a number of wild rumours that were noised about thatmorning in the confusion and uncertainty. It was generally believed thatthe crew must have been killed.
Tom and Bob hung on to the edge of the excited crowd, which had assembledin front of the hotel, and listened to these various expressions withhorror. Then, when the crowd moved on for the camp, they followed, withsinking hearts.
It was a strange procession that went down along the shore that morning.There were cottage-owners, who had grievances against the crew;villagers, who had been tormented and tricked by them time and again; andfishermen, who had lost many a tide's fishing, because their dories hadbeen found sunk alongside the wharf, with heaping loads of stones aboard.Yet, now that disaster had befallen the crew, they were one and allwilling to condone the offences, and anxious to render what help theycould.
They went on rapidly. Tom and Bob soon heard a cry from those in advancethat the tent was
still standing. Then hope rose in Tom's heart, thatspurred him forward.
He dashed ahead, rushed past the leaders, cutting through the woods wherethe path made a circuit. There was the tent still standing, andapparently uninjured by the storm of stones and debris that had raineddown about it. But the crew! Not the sound of a voice was to be heard.Not a soul was stirring anywhere in the locality.
The Rival Campers; Or, The Adventures of Henry Burns Page 6