by Louis Becke
CHAPTER III
'Walter,' said Harry, throwing down the pigeon which he had shot, andpointing to Little Nobby's, 'this is the lowest tide I have ever seen.Look, the topmost fringe of kelp on the rocks is quite dry, and six feetabove the water, and there is no surf. Let's swim across the gut intothe cave.'
'As you please, sir,' the young man answered, his sun-tanned facelighting up with pleasure; 'the wind is westerly, and the water veryclear; so, if there are any sharks about we can easily see them.'
So presently down we trooped, and, clambering over the jagged pinnaclesof rock, soon reached the seaward face of Little Nobby's. The cave ofwhich my brother had spoken was in the very centre of the cone, and theonly known way of access to it was by swimming across the narrow gutor channel which cleft in twain the base of the hill. A boat, in calmweather, might have easily rowed up to the mouth of the cave, but onlyduring a very low tide. No one, so far, had attempted this, and 'KingBilly,' when he saw my brother and Trenfield strip and jump into thewater, seemed much disturbed. The cave, he said, was the home of a'debbil-debbil,' and 'twas dangerous for any human being to enterit. But Harry and Trenfield had already swum across, clambered up thekelp-covered ledge of the cave and disappeared into the darkness beyond.
For nearly ten minutes, or perhaps a quarter of an hour, Will and Iwaited impatiently for their return, grumbling at not being allowedto go with them, for the sea was as smooth as a mountain lake, and thewater so clear that the smallest pebble could be discerned lying uponthe white sandy bottom five fathoms below.
Said Will presently, 'I don't believe there's a shark within a mile; doyou?'
'No,' I answered, looking longingly at the crystal water and then at theblack mouth of the cavern, which neither Will nor I had ever entered.
'Then come on,' said Will, quickly, and in a few seconds we were out ofour clothes, and paying no heed to 'King Billy's' exclamations of terrorwe dropped quietly into the water and swam across, telling him to staywhere he was and keep a look-out for sharks.
A few strokes brought us safely over, and then, as we climbed up andstood on the cold rocky floor of the dark cave, our hearts began to failus somewhat--the place was so grim, silent and terrifying.
Feeling our way carefully along, however, we advanced for some ten ortwelve yards and then stopped, for though we heard the voices, we couldsee the figures of Harry and Trenfield but dimly.
'Where are you?' cried Will.
'Over here,' answered my brother; 'you can come along if you like. Wethink that there's a way of getting out by climbing up--we can see thetrees on the back of the hill.'
This was a discovery indeed, and Will and I, as we made our way towhere they sat, found the darkness decreasing at every step, and whenwe reached them, we could see about us quite plainly, for thin, dimmedshafts of sunlight penetrated the cavern from above by a narrow cleft,through which we could see not only the dark foliage of the trees, whosebranches overhung the place, but a strip of blue sky.
'Listen!' said Will.
Somewhere near a 'butcher' bird was calling to its mate, who quicklyanswered, and then the pair whistled sweetly and joyously together;and when they ceased a bell-bird sounded his clear, resonant notethrice--then silence.
Presently Walter and Harry set about to attempt an ascent, laughingheartily at the thought of how we should startle poor 'King Billy' byreappearing out of the bowels of the earth, instead of by the way we hadleft him.
The top of the cleft was not more than thirty feet from the floor of thecave, and its very narrowness reduced the difficulty of climbing up itsrugged sides, which were composed of pieces of rock embedded in earth.In the centre, however, the walls approached so closely to each otherabout half way down--within a few inches, in fact--that they wereblocked up with what appeared to be a mass of decaying branches, fallenleaves and such _debris_.
Walter Trenfield went first, then Will, and Harry and I followed. Wefound it much easier working our way up than we anticipated, for thejutting points of rock gave us a good foothold, and the roots of trees,living and dead, helped us greatly, for some of these grew across fromone side of the cleft to the other, and afforded us ladder-like steps.
Walter had nearly reached the mouth of the chasm, when Will, who wasascending more leisurely and carefully behind him, put his foot upon thethick mass of leaves and rotting wood which blocked up its centre, and,finding it was firm, sat down upon it to rest himself. Presently,to have some amusement at the expense of Harry and myself, who weredirectly beneath him, he began to shower armfuls of dead leaves uponus--then suddenly he uttered a cry of terror, sprang to his feet, andclambered quickly to the top, where Trenfield seized him just as he wasabout to fall.
Thinking that he had been frightened, or perhaps bitten by a blacksnake or a death-adder, Harry and I climbed up after him as quicklyas possible, little heeding the cuts and bruises we inflicted uponour naked bodies. As soon as we reached the ledge and flung ourselves,panting and somewhat terrified, on the thick bed of leaves which coveredthe ground like a carpet, we saw Walter Trenfield bending his tall,naked figure over Will, who was crouched up in a heap and trying,through his sobs of terror, to tell what it was that he had seen.
'There is a dead man down there,' he gasped, 'a dead man! When I tookup the last armful of leaves to throw down on Tom and Harry, I saw adreadful face beneath... it was almost a skull, but there is some fleshon the face... and oh, Walter! _it has red hair like Tom May's._' Then,overcome by the terror of that which he had seen, he sobbed afresh.
'Come,' sir,' said Trenfield to my eldest brother, 'we must go down andlook.'
Leaning over the brink of the narrow cleft, I watched Harry andTrenfield descend, throw down the rotting leaves and timber which hadaccumulated in the centre; and then I saw a dreadful sight--a shrunken,awful face, with white, gleaming teeth, and two fleshless hands lyingtogether upon an all but skeleton chest. The rest of the body, exceptone leg, which from the knee downwards was partly raised and showed abone protruding from a rough raw-hide boot, was mercifully concealedfrom our sight by the coarse jumper and grey canvas trousers of aconvict.
Presently Walter looked up, and cried out in a strange, hoarse voice,--
'Go away, Master Tom, you must not look. Do you and Master Will wait forus on the rocks, but first tell Billy to come here with our clothes.'
Will and I at once obeyed, glad to get away, and hurrying round the baseof the hill we returned to 'King Billy,' who, poor simple savage, hadgiven us up for lost, and was crouched up in a-heap on the rocks, makinga low whining noise like the cry of a very young puppy. He did trulydance for joy when he heard our voices, and then at once, without askingus what had happened, went off to Walter and Harry, taking their clotheswith him.
Will and I dressed ourselves, and then we sat down to wait.
'Tom,' said Will, who had now recovered his composure, 'I am sure it ispoor Tom May who is lying there. Do you remember a red silk handkerchiefwhich mother gave him last Christmas Day? Well, there is one exactlylike it round _its_ neck. I was too frightened to look closer, but Tomalways wore his handkerchief round his neck in a sailor's knot. Andthen, too,' and here Will's eyes filled with tears and he began to sob,'_it_ had bright red hair... it had nearly all fallen off, and...'
'Oh, Will,' I cried, 'don't tell me any more! I feel so sick.'
Nearly half an hour passed, and then we saw Harry and Trenfield, holdingeach other's hand like two children, coming towards us. They sat downnear us, and then the young convict placed his big, brown hands over hisface, and heavy sobs broke from his broad chest.
'Oh, God! Master Harry!' he cried, 'is there no justice in the world?To die there, in that awful place, like a rat in a trap! oh, it isdreadful, dreadful! And then I thought that he was long ago far awayfrom here--a free man.'
'Do you think those two other men threw him down there, Walter?' askedmy eldest brother, almost in a whisper.
'No, sir,' he replied, catching his breath. 'Why should they murder
theman who alone was capable of taking the boat upon such a long voyage?This is what I think, sir. Poor Tom, instead of coming down in the boatwith the other two, left them on Saturday and walked here so that hemight light a fire on the top of Little Nobby's on Sunday night to guidethem to the place. He told Ruth's father that he thought he should dothis in case the night turned out very dark. And Billy says that a firewas made, and that when poor Tom was descending the hill to meet theboat he fell into the cleft and got jammed between the rocky walls.'
'But would not the two other men make a search for him?'
'God knows, sir! We shall never know. They may have thought that Tom hadbeen captured, and that the fire had been lit by Ruth's father. But Ithink that Billy is right, and that poor Tom, after lighting the fire,was coming down the hill to meet the boat, when in the darkness hewandered off the track and stepped into the crack at the widest part ofits mouth, which is right above where we found him. He must have fallenupon his back and become so tightly wedged in in that awful place thathe could not use his arms to free himself. And then, sir, even if he hadnot been stunned, his cries could not have been heard by the other twomen, who, unless they purposely made a search, would not have had anyreason to go within two hundred yards of the spot where he fell.'
Harry shuddered, and then for some time no one of us spoke. 'King Billy'had been sent off to tell my father of the discovery of the body, orrather skeleton, which Walter and Harry had at first attempted to freefrom the walls of the chasm, but were too overcome to complete the task.
Together we slowly ascended the bluff, and there a surprise awaited us;for, sitting on their horses, on the brow of the hill, were the dreadedminister and his convict orderly. They had no doubt seen our bags andguns lying on the grass, and had ridden to the crest of the bluff todiscover our whereabouts.
Mr Sampson eyed us all very sourly, and scarcely deigned to respond toour salutations, as one by one we walked past him and busied ourselvesin silence over our impedimenta. No doubt he saw that both Harry andWalter were very pale, and that Will and I had not yet dried our tears.
'Come here, boys,' he said in his harsh, pompous tones. 'What, may Iask, is the cause of this grief which seems to be shared by all alike?'Then, without waiting for an answer, his glance fell upon WalterTrenfield, who, after saluting him, had turned away, and with avertedface was strapping some of our belongings together.
I saw the clergyman's coarse red face, with its fat, terraced chins,grow purple with rage as I had seen it once before, and I instinctivelydrew back.
'Ha!' he said, and urging his horse forward, he bent down and touchedthe young convict on the shoulder with his whip. 'Ha! look up, fellow. Iwant a word with you, sirrah.'
Trenfield, who was stooping at the moment, stood erect, and then, facingthe parson, again raised his hand to his cap. His face was deadly pale,and his deep-set bright blue eyes seemed to have suddenly shrunken anddrawn back, and his whole body was trembling.
'Look at me, fellow,' said Mr Sampson, for the second time.
_'I am looking at you, sir._'
The words came from between his white lips and set teeth in a low,hoarse whisper, and all the hatred in his heart seemed to go with them.The clergyman eyed him for a few seconds in silence, but the convict methis gaze unfalteringly.
'So 'tis to you, you scoundrel, that your ruffianly fellow-criminalsare indebted for so much amusement at my expense! Tell me, you villain,where you got that picture, and who prompted you to display it? Answerme quickly, you unhanged rascal!'
Trenfield's lips moved, but ere he could speak, my eldest brotherstepped forward, bravely enough.
'Indeed, sir, Trenfield had nothing to do with the picture. It was givento me, but by some mischance was lost or stolen. I am sure, sir, thatTrenfield would not--'
'Trenfield is a villain. How dare you, presumptuous boy, seek to excusehim! A good birching, for which you are not too old, would teach youthat reverence and respect for a clergyman which your mother has soforgotten.'
Harry fired up quickly enough at the insulting words.
'How dare you, sir, speak to me in this fashion? My father shall hear ofthis.'
'Let _me_ deal with him, the bloody-minded dog!' said a voice.
It was that of Walter Trenfield, who, springing forward, presented mybrother's loaded fowling-piece at the minister's head. 'Listen to me,you beast in human form, you heartless fiend! I am going to send yourpoisonous soul to hell.'
He pulled the trigger, but the gun missed fire; then swiftly clubbingthe weapon he brought it with terrific force against the clergyman'schest and knocked him off the horse. The orderly at once turned, andfled as his master fell.
The Reverend Mr Sampson lay prone upon the sward, his once red faceblanched to a deathly white, and over him, with grounded gun, stood theyoung convict.
My brother tried to take the weapon from him, but Trenfield tossed himaside with one hand as if he were a straw. Then for a minute he lookedat the prostrate man in silence; once he raised the gun by the muzzle,then he threw it aside, and, kneeling beside the clergyman, placed hisface close to his.
'You dog, you dog, you damned dog! I could choke you now as you lie, youbrute beast. But I will let you live, to go to hell in God's own time,you cruel, flogging wretch! _You_ murdered Thomas May--his rotting bodyis not a hundred yards away. May the stink of it reach the nostrils ofAlmighty God--and be in yours for ever!'
He rose quickly, took the saddle and bridle off the clergyman's horse,and, striking the animal a sharp blow on the nose, sent it gallopingaway into the forest; then he returned and again stood over Mr Sampson,his face working with the violence of his passion.
'Are you going to murder me?' the minister asked gaspingly.
'No,' he replied savagely, kicking him again and again in the face, 'butlie there, you bloody-minded swab, till I tell you you can go.'
And then, his passion spent, he turned to us with outstretched hand,--
'God bless you all, young gentlemen! God bless you, Master Harry! andyour good mother and Miss Frances and little Miss Olive. I am done fornow. But tell Ruth that if I am taken I'll die a man. And tell her,Master Harry, that--that--'
My brother grasped his trembling hand, as for a moment he stood, gun inhand, and swayed to and fro as if he were like to fall. Then he plungedinto the forest.
* * * * *
One night, three weeks after this, and whilst Mr Sampson was recoveringfrom his injuries, and a force of constables, with a black tracker, werescouring the country for Walter, my mother called we children to herbedroom. She had retired, but Ruth Kenna, with tears in her blue Irisheyes, stood beside the bed.
'Quick, children,' said my mother, in a whisper, 'Ruth is going away.Quick, quick; kiss her goodbye.'
And then whilst we, wondering, put our arms around dear Ruth, my motherslipped out of bed, and taking some money out of a cabinet, put it intothe girl's hand, and said,--
'Good-bye, Ruth. You've been an honest girl to us. May God bless andkeep you always, my dear child, and do not fail to write.'
* * * * *
Next morning there was a great to-do, for Patrick Kenna's house wasfound to be empty, and he and his daughter and Walter Trenfield werenever seen again in our part. But away out on the horizon were the sailsof a whale-ship which had been cruising about the coast for some dayspast; and though my mother kept her own counsel for a long year, wechildren soon knew that all three had escaped in the whaler, for mybrother Harry had received a letter from Trenfield. It was handed tohim by the aboriginal 'King Billy,' and contained only thesewords,--'Good-bye, sir. Ruth and I and her father will be on the bluewater before daylight.'
When two years or more had passed, my mother received a letter. It waswritten from Boston in America, and was signed 'Ruth Trenfield.'
'I am glad she and Walter are happy at last,' said my mother, with thetears shining in her soft eyes.