CHAPTER THE FOURTH
The Cave of Seals
Some few days afterwards, Mr. Mildmay, visiting the Towers once more,chanced to mention that as he passed St. Cuby's Cove in his cutter hehad seen a couple of seals disporting themselves in the shallow waterunder the cliff. The conversation passed at once to other matters, butnext morning Dick told Sam what the lieutenant had said, and suggestedthat they should go seal-hunting. Sam was nothing loth, and promised toaccompany his young master as soon as he had fed the poultry and cleanedout the sties.
Seals were not often seen on the coast; indeed, Dick had only oncebefore heard of their appearance, so that the proposed expedition hadall the charm of novelty. While waiting for Sam, he went to thekitchen, where Reuben Pollex was washing the dishes, and asked him if hecould tell him how to tackle a seal.
"That's more than I can do, Maister Dick," said the old man. "I nevercaught nawthin' but fish and rabbits, and maybe a stoat now and again;never seed a seal in my life."
"They're valuable, Reuben," said Dick. "The skins are worth a gooddeal. They are made into coats and tippets and such things for ladies,you know."
"The mistress wants a new coat, so 'twould come handy, and I wish 'eeluck. I've heerd tell that the critters sometimes hide in the caveyonder, though as no man, 's far 's I know, ever did see 'em there, itmay be only guesswork."
The cave mentioned was at the head of St. Cuby's Cove. Its entrance wasexposed only at low tide, and Dick had more than once visited it at suchtimes, exploring its recesses by the light of a torch or one of thehouse lanterns. He had never made any interesting discovery there, andhad for some years ceased to visit it.
"Didn't you tell me once that there is an entrance to the cave from theland side, Reuben?" he asked.
"Ay, folks used to say so when I was a boy, but I don't know as there beany truth in it. Once upon a time, long afore my day, there was a minethereabouts, and maybe one of the adits ran down to the cave; but 'tissixty year or more since the mine give out--in yer grandfer's time--andnot a soul have been down in the workings ever since, 's far 's I know."
Here Sam appeared and announced that he was ready. The two lads,provided with a gun, a cutlass, a lantern, and a few candle-ends,proceeded to the spot on the beach of Trevanion Bay where their boat wasmoored, launched her, and rowed round the promontory to St. Cuby's Cove.The tide was running out, and as the interval during which the cave wasfree from water was very short, Dick and his companion worked the boatthrough the entrance with their hands as soon as there was room for themto pass between the roof and the surface of the sea.
The opening was at first a narrow tunnel in the cliff, but after someyards it began to widen gradually, and at length enlarged itself into aspacious vault, in which there was a continuous murmur, such as is heardon putting a shell to one's ear. By the time the boys reached it thetide had completely left the cave, and the boat stranded on a sandybeach, littered with rocks of all shapes and sizes, which had apparentlyfallen at various times from the roof. They lit their lantern, whoseyellow rays fell on jagged granite walls, glistening shells, and slimyseaweed covering the rocks on the floor. Here and there were smallpools which the tide never left dry, and where the light of the lanternrevealed innumerable little marine creatures darting this way and thatwith extraordinary rapidity.
The boys made the boat fast by looping the painter round a jaggedboulder. They moved warily, for the seal was a beast unknown to eitherof them, though Dick, in his total ignorance of these creatures of thedeep, hardly expected to find them in the cave now that the sea hadreceded. Presently, however, they heard above the hollow murmur anothersound, like the feeble bleat of a very young lamb. They peered about,moving the lantern to and fro, and at length discovered, lying on arocky ledge at the inmost end of the cave, two small cream-colouredobjects, scarcely more than a foot long, whose soft eyes blinked in thelight, and from whose mouths issued plaintive cries of alarm.
"Bean't they proper little mites!" said Sam, putting out his hand totouch them.
"Don't do that!" cried Dick hastily; "the old ones may be about, and ifthey're like other beasts, they'll attack us if they think we'll hurttheir young."
"Shan't we take 'em, then?" asked Sam.
"Of course not; they're too young."
"And shan't we look for the old uns?"
"No; the young ones would die if we killed the parents. We must comeagain later on, when they're old enough to take care of themselves. Butour day shan't be wasted. We'll see if we can find the other entranceto the cave."
"What other entrance?"
"Your father says 'tis thought that at one time there was a way in froman adit above."
"I can't believe it. The free-traders would have found it long aforethis if so 'twere."
"I don't know. The adit wouldn't be an easy passage for them with theirbales and kegs. But don't let us waste time; the tide will be runningback soon."
They followed the irregular circuit of the cave, thrusting the lanterninto every recess and hollow, holding it high and low, but discoveringnothing except the same rugged and apparently impenetrable wall.
"There bean't no opening," said Sam at length. "'Twas fiddle-faddle tosay there be."
"Perhaps it is high above us, out of reach," suggested Dick.
"Where's the sense o' that?" replied Sam, disappointed of theanticipated sport. "What mortal good would it be to any soul alive tomake an opening where 'ee'd break yer neck if you come to it?"
Dick did not answer, craning his neck to scan the heights above him.The light of the lantern failed to penetrate the overarching gloom. Theroof of the cave was invisible, and the walls appeared to riseperpendicularly, with projections here and there that looked, in thespectral glimmer, like the grotesque gargoyles on a church-tower.
"I'd like to climb up there," said Dick at length.
"Lawk-a-massy, you'd break yer neck for sure. 'Tis a 'mazing hard job toclimb the cliff arter gulls' eggs, but this be death and burial."
"We could do it with a ladder."
"Our ladder bean't long enough by half; the only ladders long enough bethey in church-tower, and they be too heavy to lug here, and sextonwouldn't let us take 'em. Scrounch it all, Maister Dick, I do think 'eebe muddled in yer head to think o' sech daring doings. See now, tide'scomin' in, and we don't want to be drownded."
"That's the most sensible thing you've said for a while, Sam. We'll gonow, but I won't give it up. We'll get a ladder, or make one, and comeback another day. I'm determined to find out if there really is anopening."
"Well, Feyther says most heads do have a magget in 'em, like turmits,and this be yours; 'tis indeed."
They loosed the boat, and paddled out as they had come, Dick resolving,in spite of his follower's damping attitude, to return before long, andmake a thorough exploration of the place.
Later in the day, as he walked home from the Parsonage, he was struckwith an idea of a contrivance for serving his purpose. He consulted oldReuben about it when he got home, and Sam, on returning from an errandin the village, found his father and Dick hard at work in an outhouse,splicing short lengths of rope, and fixing them at regular intervalsbetween two thin but strong poles about six feet long.
"What be doin', Feyther?" asked Sam.
"Use yer eyes, sonny, and put a name to 't yerself," replied Reuben.
"Well, if I was to speak my thought, I'd say 'ee was makin' a ladderthat 'ud let a man down as soon as he put a foot on it."
"Then 'tis for you to make it stronger, my son, babe and sucklin' as 'eebe. T'ud be a sin to let so much cleverness run to seed. Strip off yercoat and lay into it, and keep yer tongue quiet, for if 'ee set all theorgans of yer body goin' at once, you'll die young."
This implied rebuke had the effect of making Sam enter zealously intothe work, and before supper two light ladders were finished, each sixfeet long, which, together with a short ladder of the ordinary kind
thatReuben used in his duties about the premises, provided Dick with a totallength of eighteen or twenty feet. His notion was to carry theseseparate pieces down to the cave, and then lash them together to formone continuous whole.
He fixed on the following afternoon for his second visit to the cave.The morning turned out very wet, the rain pouring down in quite unusualvolume; but the sky cleared after dinner, and the two boys set off,timing themselves as before to reach the cave when the ebbing tide leftthe entrance free. Again the baby seals were alone, and much as Dickwould have liked a tussle with their parents, his sporting bent was forthe time subordinate to his wish to find the supposed landward entranceto the cave.
The ladder perfectly answered its purpose, but it was disappointing tofind that it was by no means long enough. Even when Dick, the taller ofthe two, stood on the topmost rung, Sam holding the ladder steady at thebottom, he saw that the walls still stretched for several feet abovehim. But the roof was now in sight, an irregular arch, consisting ofknobs, wedges, and inverted pyramids of rock, and Dick felt thetantalising certainty that the opening, if opening there was, could notbe far away.
They went all round the cave, setting the ladder up at frequentintervals, Dick exploring every foot of the jagged wall with the aid ofhis lantern. There were plenty of recesses and depressions, rangingfrom a finger's breadth to the length of his arm; but he did not findone where he was unable to touch the back of it with his outstretchedhand. It was clear that the opening, if it existed, must be above hishead.
"We shall have to make another length of ladder, and come back again,"he said to Sam. "I won't give it up."
He was standing high on the ladder as he spoke, dangling the lantern bya ring at the top. The words were scarcely out of his mouth when therewas a tremendous crash, which shook the place, and so much startled himthat, in an instinctive movement to cling on to something, he let thelantern fall. It lighted fairly on the top of Sam's head, bounced off,and dropped with a thud to the sandy floor, where the candle wasinstantly extinguished.
"Are you hurt, Sam?" cried Dick, anxiously.
"Rabbit it all!" roared Sam, in high indignation. "Do 'ee think my headbe wood then? Bean't I got feelings like any other common man? Myskull have got a furrow in it a yard long, and I may rub it till I'mdead, I'll never straighten it out again."
"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it, Sam. Light the candle again, willyou, so that we can see what has happened."
Sam growled and grunted as he struck a light from his tinder-box. Therekindled candle revealed a strange catastrophe. A huge mass of thewall and roof of the cavern had collapsed, owing perhaps to the heavyrains in the morning, and the debris was lying in a heap against theopening of the tunnel leading to the exterior.
"If this bean't a pretty kettle of fish, never call me Sam again," saidthe boy in consternation. "'Tis closed up; we be shet in."
Dick climbed down the ladder, and crossed the floor of the cave to seethe extent of the mischief. It was as Sam had said. Their exit wasbarred by a mass of rock and loose soil that must weigh several tons.
"Quick, Sam!" cried Dick, "we must work hard to clear it away. The tidewill be on the turn, and we don't want to be imprisoned here all night."
They began to work with all haste, but soon found that the task would bea long one. The smaller pieces of rock were easily cast aside; butthere were many large masses which, besides being heavy and cumbersomethemselves, were very difficult to move by reason of the earth in whichthey were imbedded. The boys had made but little progress when the seabegan to creep in.
"We'll be drownded alive!" said Sam, now in a state of terror.
"Work, then. Shove your hardest, Sam; we'll do it yet."
They tugged and hauled and pushed with fierce energy, and by employingtheir united strength upon the largest masses, they succeeded inclearing a path wide enough to allow room for the boat. By this timethe water was almost up to their knees, and they heard the boat grazethe rocks as it floated on the incoming tide. Loosing the painter, theypushed the craft through the tunnel, only to find, when they approachedthe seaward opening, that but a small segment of the sky was visible,the gap being too shallow to afford a passage.
"We are trapped, Sam; there's no denying it," said Dick quietly. "Butdon't be alarmed. I don't suppose the water reaches the roof of thecave even at high tide, so that we can float in the boat quite safely.It only means a few hours' imprisonment."
"If I've got to be jailed, I'd rather be in village lock-up; 'tis dry atany rate. Can't we swim out, Maister Dick?"
"Of course we can, but I doubt whether we had better do it. There's adozen yards or more under water first, and then a good half-mile outsidebefore we can land. We should get pretty well knocked about on therocks if there's any swell on the sea. We had much better stay here."
Sam gloomily assented to this course. They got into the boat, and satthere for some time watching it rise gradually as the tide grew higher.
"Hang me for a jackass!" cried Dick suddenly.
"What have 'ee been and done?" asked Sam with concern.
"Why, we haven't got gun, cutlass, or any other weapon."
"'A b'lieve not," said Sam, "but we couldn't keep out the tide with unif we had forty guns and fifty cutlasses."
"The seals! They'll come back with the tide, and be in a terrible ragewith us, thinking we're after their babies."
"Be-jowned if I thought of it! 'Twas a true word; you do be a greatjackass, sure enough."
"Mind what you say, Sam, or I'll throw you out."
"'Twas your word, not mine. I wouldn't go so far as that. Ninnyhammeris the worst I'd call 'ee. But I told 'ee how 'twould be, with yer headitchin' with this magget of openin's and ladders and all that."
"Be ready to use the boat-hook, or the anchor, if the seals attack us.I'll use one of the oars."
"I don't believe we'll have to fight at all," cried Sam. "Look 'ee!There be they two young seals swimmin' out to find the old uns. Theybean't so young as you thought if they can swim like that, and we med aswell have took 'em yesterday as not."
"Well, 'tis too late now. They're gone."
"To get their supper, I reckon. I be mortal hungry, Maister Dick, arterall that work. Have 'ee got a morsel of bread in yer pocket?"
"Not a bit."
"Not a apple or codling?"
"Not one."
"I could eat a turmit or a raw tater. But don't name 'em to me, or Ishall feel very bad for thinkin' of 'em. Best thing is to go to sleepwhen yer hungry, 'cos you don't feel it then."
"Well, sleep. I'll wake you if anything happens."
The boy curled himself up in the bottom of the boat, and soon filled thecavern with his snores.
The Adventures of Dick Trevanion: A Story of Eighteen Hundred and Four Page 4