CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
Aleck woke up wondering, for he felt as if he had had a good night'srest and that it ought to be morning, whereas it was very dark.
This was puzzling, and what was more curious was the fact that on movinghe found that he had his clothes on.
Naturally enough he moved, and turned upon his other side, to find thatit was not so dark now, for he was looking at what seemed to be abeautifully blue dawn. Then someone yawned, and the lad was fully awaketo his position.
"Sailor!" he said, loudly.
"Eh? My watch? My--my--I'll--here, Aleck, that you?"
"Yes, it's morning; rouse up. I fancy it must be late."
"Looks to me as if it is dreadfully early. I fancied I was being rousedup to go on deck. What are you doing?"
"Going to get a light."
This Aleck did after the customary nicking and blowing. The candle inthe lanthorn was lit, and the lads, after cautiously testing the depthof the water, indulged in a good bathe, gaining confidence as they swam,and finally dried themselves upon an exceedingly harsh towel formed of apiece of canvas, one of many hanging where they had been thrown overpieces of rock.
As they dressed they could see that it was getting lighter inside thearch, which gradually showed more plainly, and as the water grew lowerduring the time that they partook of the meal which formed theirbreakfast, the twilight had broadened, so that both became hopeful ofseeing the tide sink beneath the crown of the arch so as to give them aglance at the sunlit surface of the sea.
"How long are you going to wait for the smuggler?" asked the middy,suddenly.
"Not long," was the reply. "It is not fair to you. But I should liketo give him a little law. What do you say to waiting here till the tidehas got to its lowest, and as soon as it turns we'll start?"
"Very well, I agree," said the midshipman, "for I don't think that weshall have long to wait. I was expecting it to go down so low that Ishould see the full daylight yesterday, but before I got the slightestpeep it began to rise again."
"But it came lighter than this?" said Aleck.
"No; I don't think it was so light as this. I believe it is just aboutturning now."
The sailor proved to be right; and as soon as Aleck felt quite sure heturned to his companion and proposed that they should start.
"I don't know what my uncle will say," he said. "You'd better come homewith me. He will be astonished when he sees that I have found you."
"Did he know that I was lost?"
"Of course. Your fellow officer came straight to our place to searchit, thinking we knew where you were. Well, uncle will be very glad.Come along. I shall take the lanthorn with us to see our way up thezigzag. I think I could manage in the dark, as I came down and knowsomething of the place, but it would be awkward for you."
"Oh, yes; let's have all the light we can," said the midshipman. "I'mquite ready. Shall we start?"
"Yes, come on," was the reply, and, holding the lanthorn well down,Aleck led the way along by the waterside till the rocks which had actedas stepping-stones were reached, and which were now quite bare.
These were passed in safety, but not without two or three slips; andthen after a walk back towards the twilight, somewhere about equal tothe distance they had come, Aleck struck off up a slope and in and outamong the blocks that had fallen from the roof to where he easily foundthe lowest slope of the zigzag, which they prepared to mount, the lightfrom the lanthorn showing the nicks cut in the stone at the side.
"It's much harder work climbing up than sliding down," said Aleck.
"Of course," replied the midshipman, who toiled on steadily in the rear;"but it's very glorious to have one's leg free, and to know that beforelong one will be up in the glorious light of day. I say, are youcounting how many of these slopes we have come up?"
"No," said Aleck, "I lost count; but I think we must be half way up."
"Bravo! But, I say, these smugglers are no fools. Who'd ever expect tofind such a place as this? It must have taken them years to make."
"They were making it or improving it for years," said Aleck; "but theyfound the crack already made--it was natural."
"Think so?"
"Yes; the rock split just like a flash of lightning. Mind how youcome--the roof is lower down here. Let's see, this must be where I hitmy head in coming down. No, it can't be, for that was somewhere aboutthe middle of one of the slopes, I think, and this is the end, justwhere it turns back and forms another slope."
Aleck ceased speaking and raised the lanthorn so as to examine the rockabove and around him more attentively.
"Nice work this for a fellow's uniform. What with the climbing andsleeping in it I shall be in rags. But why don't you go on?" said themidshipman.
"I--I don't quite know," said Aleck, hesitating. "It seems differenthere to what it was when I came down."
"But you said you came down in the dark?"
"I did, and I suppose that's why it seems different."
"Well, never mind. Go on. It hurts my feet standing so long resting inthis nick."
Aleck was still busy with the lanthorn, and remained silent, making hiscompanion more impatient still.
"I say, go on," he said. "Why do you stop?"
"Because it seems to me as if I had come the wrong way, taken a wrongturning that I did not know of--one, I suppose, that I passed in thedark."
"But this must be right," said the midshipman; "it goes up. Here areall the nicks for one's feet, and the part in the middle is all groundout as if things were dragged up. Go on, old chap; you must be right."
"So I think," said Aleck; "but I can't go on. It seems to me as if theplace comes to an end here, and I can get no farther."
"That's a nice sort of a story. But you carried the light; have youtaken a wrong turning?"
"I didn't know that there were any turnings."
"Have another good look, and make sure."
Aleck peered in all directions by the aid of the lanthorn--a very shorttask, seeing how they were shut in--and then carefully felt the stones.
"Well?" said the midshipman.
"I'm regularly puzzled," said Aleck. "Of course, it's very differentcoming in the other direction, and by candlelight instead of thedarkness."
"Then you're regularly at fault."
"Quite."
"Try back, then. You light me and I'll lead."
They slid down to the bottom of the slope and stopped.
"I say," cried the midshipman; "you'll have to take me to your place andfind me some clothes, for I shan't have a rag on if we're going to domuch of this sort of thing."
"This must be right," said Aleck, without heeding the remark. "I canshut my eyes here and be sure of it by the feel."
"Then it's of no use to go down any farther?"
"Not a bit," said Aleck, firmly. "Look for yourself. Here are the footnicks at the side, and the floor is all worn smooth. We must be right."
"Then forward once more. You must have missed something."
Aleck toiled up the slope again, reached the top, where the crack shouldhave run in a fresh direction and at a different inclination, andcarefully examined the place with his light, while his heart began tobeat faster and faster from the excitement that was growing upon himrapidly. For as he ran his hands over the rock in front, whichcompletely blocked his way, he noted that there were three greatpieces--one which ran right into the angle, where the pathway shouldhave made its turn; a second, which lay between it and the smooth wallat the bend; and another smaller piece, which lay over both, jammedtightly in between the two other stones and the roof, and carryingconviction to Aleck's mind as he now recalled the peculiar gratingsounds he had heard soon after the smuggler left them the previous day.
He was brought out of his musings by his companion, who suddenlyexclaimed:
"I say, look here; I'm not a puffin."
"Eh? No, of course not. What made you say that?"
"Because you
seemed to think I was, keeping me perched up on a piece ofrock like this. Now, then, are you going on?"
Aleck was silent, for he had not the heart to say that which was within.
"Are you going dumb? If you've lost your way say so, and let's beginagain."
"It's worse than that," said Aleck.
"Worse? What do you mean?"
"Look here," said Aleck, holding the lanthorn up high with one hand, andpointing with the other.
"Well, I'm looking, and I can see nothing but stone--rough stone."
"Neither can I. We can go no farther."
"What! You don't mean to say that the roof has fallen in?"
"No; it's worse than that."
"Can't be," cried the middy.
"Yes, it is, for we could have dug the fallen stones away. Sailor, I'mobliged to say it--we're regularly trapped!"
"What! Who by? Oh, nonsense!"
"It's true enough, I'm afraid. The smuggler would not do as we did. Wetrusted him, but he would not trust us."
"You don't mean to say he has blocked us in?"
"I'm obliged to say so. I heard him forcing down the stones after he'dgone. Look for yourself. I can't move one."
"No," said the midshipman, quietly, as he reached past Aleck and triedto give the top one a shake. "He has been too clever for us. Think wecan move these lumps? No; their own weight will keep them down. That'sit, Aleck; the things here are too good to lose, and he has got ussafe."
To Aleck's astonishment he had begun to whistle a dismal old air in aminor key after propping himself across the rough crack so that he couldnot slip.
"What's to be done?" said Aleck, at last.
"Done, eh?" was the reply. "Well, I'm afraid if I had been alone andfound this out, I should have lain down, let myself slide to the bottom,and then set to and howled; but the old saying goes, `Two's company,even if you're going to be hanged,' and you're pretty good company, solet's go back to the cave. We can breathe there. The heat here isawful. This shows that it doesn't do to be too cocksure of anything.Come on down."
"But we must have a thoroughly good try to move the stones," said Aleck,angrily.
"Not a bit of use. That brute has wedged them in and jumped upon them.Why, we may push and heave till we're black in the face and do no good.We're fixed up safe."
"And you're going to give up like that?"
"Not I," said the midshipman, calmly. "Show me what I can do, and ifit's likely to be any good I'll work as long as you like; but it's of nouse to make ourselves more miserable than we are. Come on down."
The young sailor spoke in so commanding a tone that Aleck yielded, and,following his comrade's example, he slid down slope after slope, andfinally stood in the great open cavern, breathing in long deep breathsof the fresh soft air.
"Hah! That's better," said the midshipman. "I felt stifled up in thathole. Now I don't bear malice against anybody, but I think I shouldlike to see that smuggling ruffian shut up here for a few days. Lookhere, Aleck; all he said was pretence--he never meant us to get outagain."
"Oh, I don't know," said Aleck, passionately. "He might, or he mightnot. Now, then, what's to be done--try and find some tools, and thenget to work to chip those stones to pieces?"
"No, it would only mean try and try in vain."
"Here, what has come to you?" cried Aleck. "You take it all as coollyas if it were of no consequence at all. I don't believe you canunderstand yet how bad it all is."
"Oh, yes, I can," said the midshipman, coolly; "but I've got no moremiserables left in me. I used 'em all up when I was chained up bymyself in the dark. I feel now quite jolly compared to what I was."
"Nonsense. You can't grasp what a terrible strait we're in."
"Oh, yes, I can. We're buried alive."
"Well, isn't that horrible?" said Aleck.
"Pretty tidy, but not half so bad as being buried dead. It would be allover then; but as we're buried alive perhaps we shall be able to unburyourselves."
"You must be half mad," said Aleck, angrily, "or you'd never talk solightly."
"Lightly? I don't talk lightly. I'm as serious as a judge."
"But what are we to do?"
"Wait a bit and let's think. We can live down here for ever so long;that is, as long as the rations last. Then we shall have to try someother way out."
"Yes; but what way?"
The midshipman pointed towards the dimly-seen submerged arch.
"Can you swim?" he said.
"Of course. Pretty well."
"And dive?"
"Yes."
"Then my notion is that we take it as coolly as we can till we thinkit's a suitable time. Then we'll strip, make a couple of bundles of ourclothes, go in as near to that arch as we can, and then try to diveunder and out to the daylight."
Aleck raised the lanthorn to bring its dim light full upon hiscompanion's face, gazing at him hard as if in doubt of his sanity. Forthe words were spoken as calmly and coolly as if he had been proposingsome ordinary jump into clear water at a bathing-place.
But he only saw that the speaker's countenance was perfectly unruffled,and his next words convinced him that he was speaking in allseriousness.
"Well, don't look so horrified," he said, half laughingly. "You haven'tbeen bragging, have you? Don't say you can't swim?"
"Oh, I can swim easily enough," said Aleck, impatiently; "but supposeone rose too soon, right up amongst those rugged rocks, with thesea-wrack hanging down in long strips ready to strangle us?"
"I'm not going to suppose anything of the sort," said the midshipman."Why should you suppose such horrors? I might just as well say: supposea great shark should rush in open-mouthed to swallow me down and thengrab you by the leg, throw you over on to his back, and carry you abouttill he felt hungry again?"
"But you don't see the danger?" cried Aleck.
"And don't want to see it. I daresay it is dangerous, but nearlyeverything is if you look at it in that way. Well, what now? Why doyou look at me like that?"
"Because I don't understand you," said Aleck. "Yesterday you seemed asweak as a girl, while now you are proposing impossible things, and seemto be trying to brag as if to make me feel that you are not so weak asyou were then."
"Perhaps so," said the middy, laughing good-humouredly. "I was as weakas a girl yesterday, but I don't feel so now; and though you are partlyright, and I don't want you to think me such a molly, I really am readyto make a dash at it if you will."
"I'll do anything that I think is possible," said Aleck, gravely, "but Idon't want to be rash."
"Then you think it would be rash to try and dive out under thatarchway?"
"Horribly," said Aleck, with a shudder; and at that moment the candle,which, unnoticed through the dull horn, had burned down and begunflickering in the socket, suddenly flashed up brightly, flickered for amoment or two, and went out.
The Lost Middy: Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap Page 26