Cutlass and Cudgel Part 59

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 ma.s.s 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 a.s.sured 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-sh.o.r.e 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 ma.s.ses 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 gra.s.s.

"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 e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "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 gra.s.s.

"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."