Cormorant Crag Part 12

you be off, or next time we come we'll bring a gun."

_Croak_! said the raven, and it took flight--not, however, at the words, but from the cap sent skimming up at it where it perched watching them.

"Come on," cried Vince; and his companion sprang up as if ashamed of his weakness.

Then together they climbed back to the scene of their adventure, and had a good look down at the shut-in cove, calmly reconnoitring the danger through which one of them had pa.s.sed; and, after gazing long at the entrance and place of exit of the tides, they climbed along the ridge for some distance to the right, and then back and away to the left, but they could see nothing more--nothing but the rock-bound bay shut-in from the sea, and whose sh.o.r.e, if there was any, remained hidden from their sight by the projecting edge of cliff at the bottom of the slope below them.

"There," said Vince at last,--"I know how I feel."

"So do I," said Mike: "that we've had all our trouble for nothing."

"No, I don't; I feel as if I shan't be satisfied till I've been right down there and seen what it's like."

"But we can't get there. n.o.body could go in a boat."

"Perhaps not. We must climb down."

Mike suppressed a shudder. "Can't be done," he said.

"How do we know till we've looked right down over the edge?"

"Must bring a rope, then?"

"Of course, and one hold it while the other creeps to the edge and looks over."

Mike nodded, and they began to retrace their steps, talking thoughtfully as they went.

"Shall you say anything about our--accident?" asked Mike at last.

"No: only frighten my mother."

"Nor yet about the Scraw, and what we're going to try and do?"

"No: what's the good? Let's find what there is to see first. I say, Cinder, it will be as good as going to a foreign country seeking adventures. Who knows what we may find?"

"Raven's nest, for one thing."

"Yes, I expect that chap has got his wife and young ones somewhere about here. How about a rope? Have you got one at home?"

"Yes; but so have you."

"I'm not very fond of ours," said Vince thoughtfully. "It's a long time since it was new, and we don't want to have any accidents. You bring a coil of new rope from your boat-shed: we'll take care of it. And, I tell you what, I'll bring that little crowbar of ours next time, and a big hammer, so as to drive the bar into some crack. It will be better than holding the rope."

The talk of their future plans lasted till it was nearly time to part, and they were just arranging for their hour of meeting on the next day when they came suddenly upon old Daygo, at the corner of the lane leading down to his comfortable cottage.

"Art'noon," he said, with a nod, and fixing his eyes upon each of them searchingly. "Having a walk?"

"Yes," said Vince carelessly. "When are you going to take us fishing again?"

"Oh! one o' these fine days, my lads; but you're getting to be quite men now, and must think more about your books. Been on the cliffs?"

"Yes," said Vince. "Come on, Mike: it's tea-time."

The boys walked on in silence for some moments, and then Vince spoke.

"I say, Mike, do you think he's watching us?"

"No," said Mike shortly. "You fancy he is, because you've got some c.o.c.k-and-bull notion that he don't want us to go to the Scraw."

"Perhaps so," said Vince thoughtfully; "but I can't help it. I do think so."

"Well, suppose he does; he said what was right: it is a horribly dangerous place, and all the people keep away from it because they've got ideas like his."

"Maybe," said Vince, with his brow all in puckers. "But never mind; we'll go and see."

CHAPTER SIX.

HAUNTED BY THE SCRAW.

The weather interfered with the prosecution of the boys' adventure for a week, and during that time, what with wind and rain, they had nothing to tempt them to the cliff but the sight of a large French three-masted lugger or _cha.s.se-maree_, which was driven by the gale and currents dangerously near the Crag: so near, in fact, that old Daygo and nearly every fisherman in the place hung about the cliffs in full expectation of seeing the unfortunate vessel strike upon one or other of the rocks and go to pieces, when all on board must have inevitably been drowned, the height of the sea making it madness to attempt to launch a boat.

But, to the relief of all, the swift vessel was so cleverly managed that she finally crept through an extremely dangerous pa.s.sage, and then, catching a cross current, was borne right out to where she could weather the northern point of the island, and disappeared into the haze.

"There, young gentlemen," said old Daygo in a stentorian voice, "that's seamanship! But she'd no business to come so near the Crag in weather like this. Wouldn't ha' like to be aboard o' she just now, would you?"

"No," said Vince; "nor you neither?"

"Hey? Why, that's just what I've been a-wishing these two hours past, my lad. I could ha' took her out o' danger long enough before; but them Frenchies don't know our island like I do. Why, I feel sometimes as if I could smell where the rocks are, and I could steer a boat by touch, like, even if it was black as the inside of a tar-barrel in the middle of the night."

It sounded like empty boasting, but the words were seriously received by the rough men around.

"Ay, ay," said one fat, heavy-looking fellow; "Joe Daygo knows. I wouldn't ha' been aboard her fer no money."

"Been thinking you'd eat no more byled lobster--eh, Jemmy Carnach?" said Daygo, with a hoa.r.s.e laugh; and the man gave him a surly look and sauntered away.

"I say," said Mike, as soon as the lads were alone; "old Joe is really a good sort of fellow after all. He seemed a deal more troubled about that French boat than any one else."

"Yes; and I suppose he is a clever pilot, and knows all about the currents and the rocks; but I don't quite understand about his being so well off."

Mike began to whistle, and said nothing for a few moments.

"I don't see why he shouldn't be well off," he said; "he's getting old, and he's very mean, and never spends money upon himself."

Vince nodded, and remained silent.

Then came a lovely morning after the week's bad weather, and Vincent was just starting for Sir Francis Ladelle's rather unwillingly, to join Mike for the day's studies, when there was a cheery whistle outside and his fellow-pupil appeared.