Chapter 36

________________________________________________
_ CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

Everything was arranged on board, so that no watcher armed with a glass who scanned the ship should suspect that an expedition was on hand; but as soon as it was dark the men were ordered into two boats, one commanded by Gurr, with whom was Archy, the other by the boatswain, only leaving a very small crew on board with the lieutenant. Then they pushed off, rowing with muffled oars, and keeping right away from the cliffs, so that any watcher there should have no indication of their passing.

The quiet little cove was still a couple of miles away, when Archy suddenly touched the master's arm as he sat there holding his cutlass.

"Yes; what is it?"

For answer the midshipman leaned forward, and pointed to where, far back and apparently opposite to the cutter, a couple of faint lights could be seen high up and away from the cliff.

"Humph! Lights," said Gurr; "but they may be up at some cottage. What do you think?"

"I thought they might be signals."

"Well, my lad, if they be, it's to bring the smugglers ashore, where we may have the luck to be in waiting for 'em. But before that the skipper may have seen them, and, though he's short-handed, they could manage to shake out a sail or two, and manage a gun."

"You would not put back, then, after seeing these lights?"

"Not likely, with the orders we've got, sir," said the master; and the men rowed on, and in due time reached the cove, where all was perfectly quiet, the tide falling, and as they landed quite a noisy tramp had to be made over the fine pebbles, in which the men's feet sank.

A couple of men were left in charge of the boats, the others were formed up, and, after passing the cottages of the few fishermen of the place, the party struck off for the top of the cliffs, to follow the rugged, faint track which was more often lost, and the arduous tramp was continued hour after hour, till, partly from the schooner's lights, partly from his idea of the run of the coast, the late prisoner began to calculate that they must be approaching the land side of the large cliff.

It had been a terrible walk in the darkness, for the cliff tops were as if a gigantic storm had taken place when that part of the coast was formed, and a series of mountainous--really mountainous--waves had run along and became suddenly congealed, leaving sharp-crested hill and deeply grooved valley, which had to be climbed and descended in turn, till the men vowed that the distance was double what it would have been by road, and they certainly were not exaggerating much.

It was only here and there that the party had been able to follow the edge of the cliff. For the most part prudence forced them to keep well in, but at times they had some arduous climbs, and walked along the sides of slopes of thin short grass, covered with tiny snails, whose shells crushed beneath their feet with a peculiar crisp sound; and had it been daylight, the probabilities were that they would have given these risky spots a wider berth.

"Call a halt, Gurr," whispered Archy at last; and it was done. Then, giving the master his ideas, the men were allowed a few minutes' breathing space before being formed in a line, with a space of a few yards between the men, one end of the line being close to the edge of the cliff, the other some distance inland.

In this way the men were instructed to walk slowly on, scanning every depression and clump of bared stone carefully, and at a word uttered by the man who felt that he had found any place likely to prove to be an entrance to a cave or quarry, all were to halt, the word was to be passed along, and the officers were to examine the place before the line went on again.

The plan was good, and the long line swept slowly along, the halt being called soon after they had started, but the stoppage was in vain, the midshipman and Gurr finding before them only a rough piled-up collection of stones from which the earth had in the course of ages crumbled or been washed away.

On again in the darkness, the officers pacing along portions of the line to urge on the men to be careful, and warning those near the cliff edge.

The advice was needed, for all at once, just as Archy was leaving the edge, there was a faint cry; the halt was called, and the young officer, closely followed by Dick, went quickly to the spot from whence the cry had come.

"It's Bob Harris, sir," said the last man they reached. "I see him a moment ago, and heard him cry out, and then he was gone."

With his blood seeming to chill, Archy crept in the darkness close to the cliff edge, to find that it sloped down where he stood.

"Give me your hand, Dick," he whispered.

"Lie down, my lad, and I'll go down too," said the sailor in a husky voice, which told of the horror he felt.

It was good advice, and the midshipman was putting it in force just as Gurr came tearing up.

"What is it?" he panted.

"Bob Harris gone over, sir," whispered Dick.

"And no rope with us!" exclaimed the master. "See anything, my lad?"

"Yes; he is just below here on a ledge. Hi! Are you hurt?"

"No, sir," came up faintly; "but I durstn't move, or I should go over."

"Lie still, then, till we pull you up. Mr Gurr, I can almost touch him. I could, if some one lowered me a little more."

"No, no, my lad, no, no!" whispered the master. "Here, Dick, and you," he said in short, quick, decisive tones, as he lay down and looked over. "Now, then, four more men here. Now, who'll volunteer to lean over and get a good grip of him, while we hold by your legs?"

"I will," said Dick.

"'Spose I'm as strong as any on 'em. But who's going to hold my legs?"

"Two men, my lad, and there'll be others to hold them."

"Right," said Dick shortly; and the men lay down, forming themselves into a human chain, the end of which Dick was lowered slowly down the slope and over the edge.

"Look here, my man," said Archy, as he lay with his head and chest over the edge of the awful precipice, listening to the faint beat of the waves, and involuntarily thinking of his adventure with Ram, "as soon as Dick grips you, get tight hold of him too."

"Ay," came up in a hoarse whisper. "Please be quick. I feel as if I was going."

"Now," said the master, "ready, lads? Steady! You, Dick, give the word yourself to lower away."

"Ay, ay, sir; lower away." Then again, "Lower away! Lower away!"

The suspense in the darkness seemed strained to breaking point, and Archy lay with his heart beating painfully, watching till it seemed as if the case was hopeless, and that if Dick, now nearly off the cliff, could grip hold of the fallen man, they would never be able to get him and his burden back.

"'Nother inch," came up out of the void. "Touched him. 'Nother inch!"

At each order, given in a hoarse, smothered way, the men shuffled themselves forward a little, and lowered Dick down.

"Just a shade more, my lads," came up.

"Can't!" said one of the men who held one of Dick's legs.

"Right. Got him," came up, as a thrill of horror ran along the chain at that word _can't_. "Haul away!"

How that hauling up was managed the midshipman hardly knew, but he had some consciousness of having joined in the efforts made, by seizing one man of the human chain, and dimly seeing Gurr and two other men of the group now gathered about them lend their aid. Then there was a scuffling and dragging, a loud panting, and, with a few adjurations to "hold on," and "haul," and "keep tight," Dick and the man he had been lowered down to save were dragged into safety.

"Phew!" panted Dick. "Look here, Bob Harris--never no more, my lad, never no more!"

"Bravely done, Dick," whispered Gurr.

"Thank ye, sir. But, never no more. I want to be a good mate to everybody, but this here's a shade too much."

"And I'd take it kindly, Master Raystoke, sir," said the man the midshipman had gripped, "if nex' time, sir, you wouldn't mind grappling my clothes only. You're tidy strong now, and I can't 'answer for my flesh', if you take hold like that."

"Hush! No talking," said the master. "Dick, take the outside now, and be careful. Form your line again. Bob Harris, take the far left."

"Well, Master Raystoke, sir," grumbled Dick, "I call that giving a fellow a prize. Saves that chap, and here am I."

"Post of honour, Dick. Go slowly, and not too near."

"Not too nigh it is, sir," said Dick, with a sigh; and a minute later the word was given, and they went on once more.

One hundred, two hundred, three hundred yards, but no sign.

Then a discovery was made, and by the midshipman.

They had come to the descent on the far side of the vast hill by whose top they had been searching. There was a stiff slope beyond, and another mass of cliff loomed up, rising dimly against the sky, in a way that made Archy feel certain that, though so far their search had been in vain, they had now before them the huge cliff which held the smugglers' store.

The midshipman felt so assured of this, that he whispered his belief freely to Gurr, as he encountered him from time to time perambulating the line of men, but the old master received the communication rather surlily.

"All guess-work, my lad," he said. "We're working wrong way on. These great places would puzzle a monkey, and we shan't find the hole unless we come by daylight, and leave a boat off-shore to signal to us till we get over the spot."

"What's that?" cried Archy excitedly, as one of the men on his left uttered a sharp, "Look out!"

"Sheep, I think, sir."

"No, it was a dog," said another.

"Hi! Stop him!" cried a third. "Boy!"

There was a rush here and there in the darkness, the line being completely broken, and the men who composed it caught sight from time to time of a shadowy figure to which they gave chase as it dodged in and out of the bushes, doubling round masses of weather-worn stone, plunging into hollows, being lost in one place and found in another, but always proving too active for its pursuers, who stumbled about among the rough ground and dangerous slopes. Here for a moment it was lost in a damp hollow full of a high growth of mares-tail (_equisetum_), that curious whorled relic of ancient days; driven from that by a regular course of beating the ground, it led its pursuers upward among rough tumbled stones where the brambles tripped them, and here they lost it for a time. But, growing hotter in the chase, and delighted with the sport, which came like a relief from their monotonous toil, the Jacks put their quarry up again, to get a dim view of it, and follow it in full cry, like a pack of hounds, over the rounded top of the hill, down the other side into a damp hollow full of tall reeds, through which the men had to beat again, panting and regaining their breath, but too excited by the chase to notice the direction in which they had gone, and beyond hearing of the recall shouted by their officers.

The midshipman joined as eagerly in the chase as any of the men, forgetting at the moment all about discipline, formation, and matters of that kind, for in one glimpse which he had of the figure, he made certain that it was Ram, whom they had surprised just leaving the entrance to the cave; and it was not until he had been joined in the hunt for about a quarter of an hour, that he felt that the men ought instantly to have been stopped, and the place around thoroughly searched.

"How vexatious!" he cried to himself, as he panted on alone, always in dread of coming suddenly upon the edge of the cliff, and trembling lest in their excitement the men might go over.

All regrets were vain now, and he kept on following the cries he heard, first in one direction and then in another, till at last, after a weary struggle through a great patch of brambles and stones, he found himself quite alone and left behind.

But his vanity would not accept this last.

"I've quite out-run them," he said, half aloud, as he peered round through the gloom, listening intently the while, but not a sound could be heard, and in his angry impatience he stamped his foot upon the short dry grass.

"What an idiot I am for an officer!" he cried. "Leading men and letting them bolt off in all directions like this. Suppose the smugglers should turn upon us now!"

"They would not have any one to turn upon," he added, after a pause.

"Well, it's all over with anything like a surprise," he continued, after a time, "and we must get back to the place where we started from, if we can find it."

"I'll swear that was Ram," he said, as he trudged on up a steep hillside; "and if they have caught him, we'll make him show us the way. Stubborn brute! He was too much for me in the quarry, but out here with the men about, I'll make him sing a different tune."

"Where can they be?" he cried, after wandering about for quite half an hour. "Why! Ah!" he ejaculated. "I can see it all now. It was Ram, and he was playing peewit. The cunning rascal! Oh, if I only get hold of him!

"Yes; there's no doubt about it, and he has been too clever for us. He was watching by the entrance, and just as the men got up, and would have found it, he jumped up and dodged about, letting the men nearly catch him, and then running away and leading them farther and farther on."

"Never mind. I'll get the men together, and we'll go back to the place and soon find it. Oh, how vexatious! Which way does the sea lie?"

There was not a star to be seen, and the night was darker than ever.

He listened, but the night was too calm for the waves to be heard at the foot of the cliffs, and, gaze which way he would, there was nothing but dimly seen rugged ground with occasional slopes of smooth, short grass.

"Ahoy!" he cried at last, and "Ahoy!" came back faintly.

"Hurrah!" he said, after answering again, and walking in the direction from which the cry came, downward in one of the combe-like hollows of the district. "No one need be lost for long, if he has a voice. Don't hear any of the others though."

He shouted again and again, getting answers, and gradually diminishing the distance, till he saw dimly the figure of a stoutly built man, and the next minute he was saluted with,--

"Oh, it's you, is it, Mr Raystoke? Pretty run you've led me. Pray what sort of a game do you call this?"

"Game, sir!" said Archy ruefully; "it's horribly hard work!"

"Hard work! To you, sir--a mere boy! Then what do you suppose it is to me? I have hardly a breath left in me."

"But where are the men Mr Gurr?"

"The men, Mr Raystoke, sir? That's what I was going to ask you. Now just have the goodness to tell me what you mean by forgetting all the discipline you have been taught, and leading these poor chaps off on such a wild-goose chase."

"I, Mr Gurr?" said Archy in astonishment.

"Yes, sir, you, sir. What am I to say to Mr Brough when we get back? I am in command of this expedition, and you lead the men away like a pack of mad March hares, and now I find you here without them. Where are they?"

"I don't know, sir."

"You don't know!"

"I thought they were with you."

"And you took them away and left them?"

"I didn't take them away!" cried the midshipman angrily.

"Then where are they, sir?"

"I don't know. You were close by me when they rushed off after that boy."

"Sheep, sir."

"No, no, Mr Gurr; boy--Ram."

"Well, I said sheep, Mr Raystoke."

"No, no, boy; that's his name--Ram."

"Nonsense, sir; it was a sheep, and if it was not, it was a dog."

"I tell you, sir, it was the smuggler's boy, Ram,--the one who came aboard after the cow."

"Hang the cow, sir! I want my men. Do you think I can go back on board without them. Why, it's high treason for a naval officer to let one man slip away, and here you have let two boats' crews go. I say once more, how am I to face Mr Brough?"

"I don't know, Mr Gurr," said Archy, who was growing vexed now at the blame being thrown on his shoulders. "You were in command of the expedition, and the bosun was in charge of the second boat's crew. I don't see how I am to blame."

"But you led the men away, sir."

"Not I, Mr Gurr. I joined in the chase, and I tried to get the boys together, but they scattered everywhere."

"But it really is awkward, Mr Raystoke, isn't it?"

"Horribly, sir. Got anything to eat?"

"To eat? No, my lad. But--tut--tut--tut! I can't hear them anywhere."

"Nor I, sir."

"Well, we must not stand here. But what did you say?--I did not see what it was; they went off after a boy?"

The master spoke so civilly now that Archy forgot his anger, and entered into the trouble warmly.

"Yes," he said; "and it was a plan. That boy is as cunning as can be. We must have been close up to the way into the cave when he started out and led us all away from it."

"Eh?"

"I say he jumped up and dodged about, knowing the place by heart, and kept hiding and running off again, to get us right away from the entrance."

"That's it--that's it, Mr Raystoke. Don't try any more, sir. You've hit it right in the bull's eye."

"You think so?"

"No, sir; I'm sure of it. A young fox. Now as soon as we've taken him prisoner, I'll put the matter before Mr Brough in such a way that the young scamp will be tied up, and get four dozen on the bare back."

"Hadn't we better catch him first, Mr Gurr?"

"Right, Mr Raystoke. Come on then; and the first thing is to get the men together. We shall catch him, never you fear that. These cunning ones generally get caught first. Now then, sir, let's listen."

They listened, but there was not a sound.

"'Pon my word! This is a pretty state of affairs!" cried the master. "What do you propose next?"

"Let's get right up to the top of this place and hail."

"That's good advice, Mr Raystoke, sir: so come on."

They started at once, and at the end of ten minutes they were at the top of a hill, but upon gazing round they could only dimly see other hills similar to the one on which they stood,--regular earth-waves of the great convulsion which had thrown the strata of the Freestone Shore into a state of chaos,--but nothing more.

"I'll hail," said Archy; and he shouted, but there was no reply.

"The scoundrels!" cried the master angrily. "They're all together in some public-house drinking, and glad to get away from us. Eh? What are you laughing at?"

"There are no public-houses out in this wild place, Mr Gurr."

"Eh? Well, no, I suppose not. I'll hail. Ahoy?"

A faint echo in reply. That was all.

"Which way shall we go?"

"I don't know, Mr Gurr."

"Can't make out which is the north, can you?"

"No, sir, nor the south neither."

"Humph! I think I could find the south if you told me which was the north," said the master drily. "Well, we must do the best we can. Let's strike along here. I seem to feel that this is the right direction."

Archy felt that it was the wrong direction, but, at he could not point out the right, he followed his leader for about a quarter of a mile, both pausing to shout and listen from time to time.

All at once Gurr came to a dead stop.

"I feel as if we're going wrong," he said. "You choose this time."

"Let's try this way," said Archy, selecting the route because it was down hill; but a quarter of an hour of this did not satisfy him, and he too stopped dead short.

"I feel just as much lost as I did in the dark in that cave, Mr Gurr," he said.

"Never mind, my lad," said the master good-humouredly. "It's all an accident, and nobody's fault. Wish I had my pipe."

"Ahoy!" shouted Archy, but there was no reply.

"I'd sit down and wait for morning, only conscience won't let me."

"Well, let's try this way," suggested Archy.

"Seems to me, my lad, that it don't matter which way we take, we only go wandering in and out among the stones and brambles and winding all sorts of ways. Never mind; we must keep moving, so come on."

They trudged on for how long they could not tell, but both were getting exceedingly weary, and as ignorant now ever as to their whereabouts; for, whether the direction they followed was east, west, south, or north, there was no indication in the sky; and they kept on, always cautiously, in dread and yet in hope that they might come upon the edge of the cliff, which would solve their difficulty at once, if they could see the cutter's lights.

"Though that aren't likely, Mr Raystoke. Strikes me that he'll lie there, and not show a light, on the chance of a smuggling lugger coming along, though that's hardly our luck."

"I don't know," said Archy bitterly. "Seems just the time for her to come when the skipper's so short-handed that he can't attack."

"Yes, we are an unlucky craft and no mistake, and I 'most wish sometimes I'd never sailed in her. Look here, for instance, here's a chance for us."

"Hist! Listen!" whispered Archy.

"What is it?"

"A hail right in the distance."

"No such luck, my lad. I don't know how I'm going to face Mr Brough. Hark!"

"Yes; there it is again, away to the left. Yes; there it goes. Ahoy!"

They stopped and listened after the midshipman had hailed as loudly as he could; and, to the intense delight of both, the hail was responded to.

Hurriedly changing their direction, they went on as rapidly as the rough ground would allow, getting an answering hail every time they shouted, and each time louder, as if those who called were also coming toward them.

Ten minutes later they heard voices, by degrees these became a murmur, and they knew that there must be several of the men together.

In another ten minutes they came upon a group steadily approaching.

Mutual inquiries took place.

No, the men had not captured the fugitive, but they were sure it was a boy; Dirty Dick was ready to take an oath to that effect, but he was not asked.

Then came the important question--Where were they?

The boatswain gave it as his opinion that they had been going westward, but he could give no reason why; and it was decided to continue in that direction, after Gurr had satisfied himself that the men were all present, though they learned that there had been a good deal of hailing before all were collected.

They trudged on almost in silence, for the whole party were wearied out, till an announcement galvanised them all, for suddenly Dick put an end to the question of their journeying west by suddenly shouting,--

"South ho!"

"Eh? What do you mean?" cried the master.

"I know yon hill," said Dick, pointing to an eminence dimly seen away before him. "That's just close to the cove, and if we keep straight on, we shall be in the road in less than half an hour, and at the boats ten minutes later."

"No, no, my lad," said the master; "I don't think that's right.--Yes, it is, my lad; I'm 'most sure of it now."

Right it was, as was proved a quarter of an hour later, by their striking the rough road at right angles, and there a halt was called.

"Don't seem any good to go searching along again in the dark, Mr Raystoke," said the master; and the boatswain shook his head decisively.

"All 'bout done up," he growled.

"We could do no good now," said Archy, "for of course I am not sure where the entrance is."

"Must be getting toward morning too, and time to be aboard, Mr Raystoke. There, sir, sometimes we win and many more times we lose. We've lost this time, so let's go back aboard, according to orders. Forward right, my lads, and let's make the best of it."

"Never mind, Mr Gurr," said Archy in a low voice. "I was regularly in despair as I was being taken from one prison to be shut up in another, when I ran up against you. Perhaps we may run up against the smugglers after all."

"Wish we might," said the master. "Oh, how I could fight!"

But they ran up against no smugglers on their way to the boats, which they hailed from the strand, where the water was very low; and soon after they were passing in the lowest of low spirits, out of the cove to the open channel, when once more every one was thrilled with excitement, for right away in the offing they heard a gun. _

Read next: Chapter 37

Read previous: Chapter 35

Table of content of Cutlass and Cudgel


GO TO TOP OF SCREEN

Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book