CHAPTER XXV
_In Which There is a Landslide at Little Tickle Basin and Something of Great Interest and Peculiar Value is Discovered in the Cave_
NOON of the next day found the three boys at Little Tickle Basin, withthe punt moored to the mysterious ring. Many a vessel had floated inthat snug berth before, no doubt. But whose? And what flag did theyfly? When the tide was at the full, the boys set off across the basinin the punt; and they were soon ashore, with the head of the littlerock in line with the point of land, as the chart directed.
"Now for it!" cried Tom.
And up the cliff he started, Jack following, with Billy Topsail, whowas quite as deeply stirred as they, bringing up the rear, a pick inone hand and a shovel in the other. It was not hard climbing. Thedeclivity could hardly be called a cliff. Rather, it was a hill, risingsharply from the water's edge--steep, strewn with broken rock, looseturf and decaying stumps, and overgrown with moss and ill-nourishedshrubs. Jack was impressed with the instability of the whole mass.
"If it weren't for the juts of naked rock," he thought, with somealarm, "this stuff would all slip into the water, like snow from theroof of a house."
But he was far too deeply interested in the search to dwell upon suchspeculation, however threateningly the imagination might presentthe possibilities. They all kept to the perpendicular line, fromtheir landing place to the crest of the hill; and they searchedpainstakingly, tearing aside the shrubs, peering under overhangingrocks, prying into dark holes. It was all without reward. At last, Jackcame to the top of the hill. Tom was below him, following a narrowledge; and Billy Topsail, now wearied of the search, was sitting on aboulder, lower down.
"Hello, Tom!" Jack shouted. "What luck?"
Jack caught hold of a shrub, and leaned outward, in an attempt to catchsight of Tom.
"Nothing yet," Tom answered.
Then Jack's feet, which had been resting on an insecure footing ofloose stones, shot from under him. He clung to his shrub and held hisposition, but in the effort he dislodged a small boulder, which wentcrashing down, dislodging earth and the accumulations of broken rock inits course. He had started a little avalanche; and the most he could dowas to cry a horrified warning and watch it go rolling down, growinggreater as it went.
"Tom!" he called. "Oh, Tom!"
This time there was no answer. Dead silence followed the frantic calland the plunge of the avalanche into the water. What had become of Tom?Billy Topsail, who had found shelter in the "lee" of the boulder uponwhich he had been sitting, suggested, when Jack joined him, that Tomhad been swept into the water by the flood of stones and earth. Jackscouted the suggestion. Had he not watched the course of that selfsameflood? Tom had been on the ledge. He must still be there--unconscious,probably, and unable to answer to the call of his name.
"We'll look there first, at any rate," he determined.
A great part of the avalanche had lodged on the ledge. Stones and mossand new earth lay in slanting heaps in many places; but of Tom's bodythere was no sign.
"He've been swep' into the water, I fears," Billy declared.
"Or buried on the ledge," said Jack.
Jack called to his friend again. While they listened, straining theirears for the remotest response, he had his eye fixed on a remnant ofthe avalanche near by. To his unbounded astonishment, he perceivedevidences of some disturbance within the heap. The disturbance suddenlydeveloped into an upheaval. A foot and an ankle shot out. A momentlater Billy Topsail had that foot and its mate in his hands and washauling with small regard for the body behind.
It was Tom.
"I've found the cave!" he gasped, when they had set him on his feet,profusely perspiring, flushed and exceedingly dirty. "But what's up?How did I get shut in there? Part of the hill slipped away! I _thought_it was a landslide. I found the hole, and started to crawl in, to makesure that it was the place before I said anything. Then I heard aracket; and then the light was shut out. I thought I might as well goon, though, and find out afterwards what had happened. So on I went.And it's the cave, boy!" he cried. "When I made sure of that," hewent on, "I wanted to get out in a hurry. I was afraid to crawl intothat hole head foremost--afraid of being jammed. Of course, I knewthat something had fallen over the mouth of it; and I thought I couldkick the thing out of the way just as easily as I could push it, andmeantime have all the air there was. So out I came, feet first. Haveyou got that pick and shovel, Billy? Let's clear this stuff away fromthe hole and go in."
"What's in there, Tom?" Jack asked.
"You'll soon find out."
They left Billy Topsail outside, as a precaution against entombment.Tom went first with the lantern. When, looking along the passage, Jacksaw a flare of light, he followed. The passage was about six feetlong, and so narrow that he could not quite go upon hands and knees.He squirmed through, with his heart in his mouth, and found himself,at last, in a roomy chamber, apparently rough-hewn, wherein Tom wasdancing about like a wild Indian.
"Pirate gold!" he shouted. "Pirate gold!"
"Where is it?" Jack cried, believing, for the moment, that he haddiscovered it in sacks.
"Dig, boy!" said Tom. "It's underground."
At any rate, a glance about, by the light of the lantern, discovered notreasure. It was underground, if it were anywhere. So they set aboutunearthing it without delay. But there was no earth--nothing but brokenrock. The shovel was of small use; they took turns with the pick,labouring hard and excitedly, expecting, momentarily, to catch theglitter of gold. Occasionally, the strength of both was needed to liftsome great, obstinate stone out of the way; but, for the most part,while one wielded the pick, the other removed the loosened rock.
"What in the world is this thing?" Tom asked.
He had taken a round, brown object from the excavation. Suddenly he letit drop, with a little cry of horror, and started to his feet. Jackpicked it up and held it close to the lantern.
"Pirates!" whispered Tom, now utterly horrified.
"Last night," said Jack, "I told you that we'd find _something_. We'vefound it."
"We've found a pirates' den," said Tom.
"No," Jack replied, handing him the skull; "we've found a BeothukIndian burial cave. We've struck it rich for the Ethnological andAntiquarian Club!"
"Well," Tom admitted, ruefully, "that's _something_!"
Struck it rich? Indeed, they had! The most valuable part of thecollection of Indian relics, now in the club's museum, came from thatcave. The excavation occupied three days; and at the end of it, whenthey laid their treasures out at Ruddy Cove, they were thrown into atransport of delight. In addition to the skeleton remains, which havesince served a highly useful purpose, they had found stone hatchets,knives, spearheads, clubs, and various other implements of warfare andthe hunt; three clay masks, a curious clay figure in human form, andthree complete specimens of Indian pottery, with a number of fragments.
The rusted iron mooring-ring has never been explained.
The Adventures of Billy Topsail Page 28