CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
The next day the two lads could only think of their attempt with ashudder, for their efforts, though they did not quite grasp thenarrowness of their escape from death, had resulted in a peculiar shockto their system, one effect of which was to make then disinclined to doanything more than sit and lie in the darkness watching the faintsuggestion of dawn in the direction of the submerged archway. Then,too, they slept a good deal, while even on the following day they bothsuffered a good deal from want of energy.
Towards evening, though, Aleck roused up.
"Look here, sailor," he said, "this will not do. We ought to be doingsomething."
"What?" said the middy, sadly. "Try again to drown ourselves?"
"Oh, no; that was a bit of madness. We mustn't try that again."
"What then? It seems to me that we may as well keep going to sleep tillwe don't wake again."
"What!" shouted Aleck, his companion's words fully rousing him from hislethargic state. "Well, of all the cowardly things for a fellow tosay!"
"Cowardly!" cried the middy, literally galvanised into action by thesound of that word. "You want to quarrel, then, do you? You want tofight, eh? Very well, I'm your man. Let's light the lanthorn and haveit out at once."
"Oh, very well," cried Aleck. "There's a nice soft bit of sand yonderthat will just do."
The middy snorted like an angry animal and began to breathe hard, whileAleck, feeling regularly angry now, felt for the tinder-box and matches,and began to send the sparks flying in showers.
The tinder was soon glowing, the match well alight, and a fresh candlestuck in its place, the lanthorn being set upon a flat stone, with thedoor open, after which the two lads slipped off their jackets and rolledup their sleeves.
"Shut the lanthorn door, stupid," cried the middy.
"What for?"
"What for? To keep the candle from tumbling out the first time I knockyou up against that stone."
"I should like to catch you at it," said Aleck. "If I shut the door howam I to see to hit you on the nose?"
"You hit me on the nose? Ha, ha!" cried the middy. "Why, I shall haveyou calling out that you've had enough long before you get there."
"We shall see," said Aleck. "Don't you think that you're going tofrighten me with a lot of bounce. Now, then, are you ready?"
"Yes, I'm ready enough. I'll show you whether I'm a coward or not.Here, hold out your hand."
"What for?"
"To shake hands, of course, and show that we mean fair play."
"I never stopped for that when I had a fight with the Rockabie boys, butthere you are."
Hands were grasped, and the midshipman was about to withdraw his, but itwas held tightly, and somehow or another his own fingers began torespond in a tight clench.
And thus they stood for quite a minute, while some subtle fluid likecommon-sense in a gaseous form seemed to run up their arms through theirshoulders, and then divide, for part to feed their brains and the otherpart to make their hearts beat more calmly.
At last Aleck spoke.
"I say," he said, "aren't we going to make fools of ourselves?"
"I don't know," was the reply, "but I'll show you I'm not a coward."
"I never thought you were a coward, but you'd say I was one if I toldyou that I didn't want to fight."
"No, I shouldn't," said the middy, "because I can't help feeling that itis stupid, and I don't want to fight either."
"Then, why should we fight?"
"Oh," said the middy, "there are times when a gentleman's bound to standupon his honour. We ought to fight now with pistols; but as we havenone why, of course, it has to be fists. Besides, I don't suppose youcould use a pistol, and it wouldn't be fair for me to shoot you."
"I daresay I know as much about pistols as you do," said Aleck. "I'veshot at a mark with my uncle. But we needn't argue about that."
"No, we've got our fists, so let's get it done."
But they did not begin, for the idea that they really were about to makefools of themselves grew stronger, and as they dropped their hands toraise them again as fists, neither liked to strike the first blow.
Suddenly an idea struck Aleck as he glanced sidewise to see theirshadows stretched out in a horribly grotesque, distorted form upon thedark water, and he smiled to himself as he saw his fists elongated intoclubs, while he said, suddenly:
"I say, I don't want, you to think me a coward."
"Very well, then, you had better show you are not by fighting hard tokeep me from giving you an awful licking."
"You can't do it," said Aleck; "but _I_ say I don't want to fight."
"Perhaps not; but you'll soon find you'll have to, or I shall call youthe greatest coward I ever saw."
"But it seems so stupid when we are in such trouble to make things worseby knocking one another about."
"Well, yes, perhaps it does," replied the middy.
"Suppose, then, I do something brave than fighting you," said Aleck.
"What could you do?"
"Put the rope round me again and try to swim out. That would be doingsome good."
"You daren't do it?"
"Yes, I dare," cried Aleck, "and I will if you'll say that it's as braveas fighting you."
"I don't know whether it's as brave," said the middy, "but I'd soonerfight than try the other. Ugh! I wouldn't try that again foranything."
"Very well, then, I will," said Aleck, stoutly. "You must own now thatit's a braver thing to do than to begin trying to knock you about.There, put down your hands, I'm not going to fight."
"You're beaten then."
"Not a bit of it. I'm going to show you that I'm not a coward."
"No, you're not," said the middy, after a few minutes' pause, duringwhich Aleck ran to the rock and brought back the now dry rope in itsloose coil.
To his surprise the middy took a step forward and caught hold of ittightly to try and jerk it away.
"What are you going to do?" said Aleck, in wonder.
"Put it back," said the middy.
"Why?"
"Because you're trying to make me seem a coward now."
"I don't understand you."
"Do you think I'm going to be such a coward as to let you do what I'mafraid to do myself?"
"Then you would be afraid to go again?"
"Yes, of course I should be. So would you."
"Yes, I can't help feeling horribly afraid; but I'll do it," said Aleck.
"To show you're not a coward?"
"Partly that, and partly because I fancy that perhaps I could swim outthis time."
"And I'm sure you couldn't," said the middy, "and I shan't let you go."
"You can't stop me?"
"Yes, I can; I won't hold the rope."
"Then I'll go without."
"Why, there'll be no one to pull you back if you get stuck."
"I don't care; I'll go all the same."
"Then you are a coward," cried the middy, triumphantly.
"Mind what you're about," said Aleck, hotly. "Don't you say thatagain."
"Yes, I will. You're a coward, for you're going to try and swim out,and leave your comrade, who daren't do it, alone here to die."
"Didn't think of that," said Aleck. "There, I won't try to go now; sodon't be frightened."
"What!"
Aleck burst out laughing.
"I say," he cried, "what tempers we have both got into! Let's go and dosomething sensible to try and work it off."
"But there's nothing we can do," said the middy, despondently.
"Yes, there is. As the lanthorn's alight, let's go and have a try atthe zigzag."
The middy followed his companion without a word, and they both climbedup wearily and hopelessly to have another desperate try to dislodge thestones, but only to prove that it was an impossible task.
Literally wearied out, they descended, after being compelled to desistby the candle gradually failing, while it had gone right
out in thesocket before they reached the cave.
But their utter despondency was a little checked by the sight of thesoft pale light which seemed to rise from the water more clearly thanever before; and Aleck said so, but the middy was of the oppositeopinion.
"No," he said. "It only seems so after the horrible darkness of thathole."
"I don't know," said Aleck; "it certainly looks brighter to me. See howclear the arch looks with the seaweed waving about! I say, sailor, I'vea great mind to have another try."
"No, you haven't," growled the middy, wearily. "I can't spare you. I'mnot going to stop here and die all alone."
"You wouldn't, for I should drag you out after me."
"Couldn't do it after you were drowned."
"I shouldn't be drowned," said Aleck, slowly and thoughtfully.
"Be quiet--don't bother--I'm so tired--regularly beat out after all thattrying up yonder; and so are you. I say, Aleck, I'm beginning to beafraid that we shall never see the sunshine again."
Aleck said nothing, but lay gazing sadly at the dimly-seen arch in thewater, and followed the waving to and fro of the great fronds ofsea-wrack, till he shuddered once or twice and seemed to feel themclinging round his head and neck, making it dark, but somehow withoutcausing the horrible, strangling, helpless sensation he had sufferedfrom before. In fact, it seemed to be pleasant and restful, and bydegrees produced a sensation of coolness that was most welcome after thestifling heat at the top of the zigzag, which had been made worse by theodour of the burning candle.
Then Aleck ceased to think, but lay in the cool, soft darkness, till allat once he started up sitting and wondering.
"Why, I've been asleep," he said to himself. "Here, sailor."
"Yes; what was that?"
"I don't know. I seemed to hear something."
"Have you been asleep?"
"Yes; have you?"
"I think so," said the middy. "We must have been. But, I say, itreally is much lighter this time."
"So I thought," said Aleck. "And, I say, I can smell the fresh seaweed.Is the arch going to be open at last?"
_Phee-ew_! came a low, plaintive whistle.
"Hear that?" cried Aleck, wildly.
"Yes, I heard it in my sleep. The place is getting open then. There itgoes again. It must be a gull."
"No, no, no!" cried Aleck, wildly, his voice sounding cracked and brokenfrom the overpowering joy that seemed to choke him. "Don't you knowwhat it is?"
"A seagull, I tell you."
"No, no, no! It's Tom Bodger's whistle. You listen now."
There was a dead silence in the cavern, save that both lads felt orheard the throbbing in their breasts.
"I can't hear anything," said the middy, at last. "What was it?"
"Nothing," gasped Aleck. "I can't--can't whistle now."
But he made another effort to control his quivering tips, mastered theminto a state of rigidity, and produced a repetition of the same low,plaintive note that had reached their ears.
Directly after, the whistle was repeated from outside, and, as Aleckproduced it once more in trembling tones, the lads leaped to their feet,for, coming as it were right along the surface of the water, as ifthrough some invisible opening, there came the welcome sound:
"Ship ahoy! Master Aleck--a--" _suck--suck--flop--flop_--a whisper, andthen something like a sigh.
"It is Tom Bodger!" cried Aleck, in a voice he did not know for his own,and something seemed to clutch him about the throat, and he knelt theremuttering something inaudible to himself.
The Lost Middy: Being the Secret of the Smugglers' Gap Page 29