Fire Island Part 69

"I couldn't for the moment recall where I was," said Oliver, "Thank goodness you have all come. We could do nothing, and sleep overcame us at last."

"Then you have heard nothing of poor Wriggs?" said Panton, who was one of the group that surrounded them.

"Nothing," replied Oliver.

"And never will, I'm afraid," said Mr Rimmer.

"Don't say that," cried Oliver, who was full of excitement now. "Have you just come?"

"Yes, and found you both lying here asleep, as if nothing were wrong,"

said Drew, who, like the others, carried a lantern. "We had a terribly long struggle to get out of the cavern, for our last piece of candle soon came to an end, and then it was very hard work to get back to the ship in the dark."

"Dark? Was it evening?"

"Black night," said Panton.

"Then what is it now?"

"The sun was just upon rising as we left the crater lake and came in,"

said the mate, "and that's two hours ago, full."

Smith gave his leg a slap to express his astonishment, and the mate offered them both food and water, which had been thoughtfully provided.

"By-and-by," said Oliver. "I'm not hungry now. Come on, and try and find that poor fellow."

He held out his hand for one of the lanterns, and leading the way, which was comparatively light now, as the sailors who had been brought held their lanterns well up, he soon reached the corner, pa.s.sed it, and saw that they were in a very s.p.a.cious cavern. Then the second stream was reached, and they all stood together gazing out toward where the cascade formed by the union of the two rivers plunged down.

But nothing was visible save blackness and wreathing vapour, which gleamed in a grey ghostly way some distance in front, and to try and see better some magnesium wire was burned.

This vivid white light showed that there was a black dripping roof some fifty feet overhead, and the water of the two streams gliding rapidly away from below the angle on which they stood, covering one whole side of the visible cavern with water, and increasing in speed till it disappeared beneath the rising mist caused, of course, by the falls.

There the lanterns were swung about over the water, and shout after shout was sent forth to be lost in the torrent's roar, till at last the mate turned away and signed to the party to follow him.

He led them back to where the noise grew hushed, and they could speak once more.

"There is nothing more to be done, gentlemen," said the mate, sadly.

"The poor fellow must have gone over somewhere along that rocky edge. I saw several places where it was as slippery as ice, and he has been swept into the depths. Ugh, the whole thing makes me shudder."

He was right: they all knew nothing more could be done, and they tramped back over the smooth lava stream.

"And I feel to blame for it all," said Panton, as he walked between his friends. "Who could have foretold that such a terrible calamity would happen to us? It is too horrible to bear."

At last there was a faint gleam of light upon the water, followed by a flash, and then the lanterns were extinguished, for the blaze of sunshine could be seen playing upon the lake and the Gothic archway of the cavern's mouth fringed with creepers and ferns, while like some curious silhouette, there for a few moments upon one of the rocks just level with the water, those which had served for stepping-stones, was the figure of a large graceful leopard as it stood gazing into the cavern, but turned and bounded away directly.

The light was hardly bearable for a few minutes, as the party issued out to climb the walls of the ancient crater, and then descend on the other side, but eyes soon grew accustomed to the change, and Smith uttered a deep sigh full of mournfulness.

"I never see nothing look so beautiful before," he said to Oliver, "but oh, if poor old Billy Wriggs was here to see it. He wouldn't say to me, 'Speak the truth, Tommy, speak the truth,' for them's the truest words, sir, as I ever said."

They reached the side of the brig, hot and weary, to find all well, and as they parted on the deck Smith turned to Oliver.

"I'm a-goin' down to have a good heavy wash, sir, 'fore I has any breakfast, and then I don't think as I shall eat any, for it's hard lines to ha' lost one's mate."

"Hard indeed, Smith," said Oliver, sympathetically. "Poor fellow! but I think we did all we could."

"Heverythink, sir, I say," replied the man, who then went slowly below into the forecastle and rushed out again, looking horrified, scared, and yelling loudly.

"Hallo!" cried Mr Rimmer, running forward. "What's the matter now?"

Smith could not speak, but stood with his lips quivering and his eyes round and staring.

"Do you hear?" cried the mate, angrily. "Why don't you speak?"

The reason was patent to all. The poor fellow could not utter a word, but stood pointing wildly down through the forecastle hatch.

CHAPTER FORTY FOUR.

A TONGUE IN A KNOT.

Oliver and the mate immediately made a sharp rush for the opening, and the first uttered a cry of astonishment as he got down into the men's place, for there, dimly seen by the faint light shed by a great disc of gla.s.s let into the fore part of the deck and well cemented with pitch, was a man in one of the bunks sleeping heavily, while in a tone indicative of his astonishment, the mate exclaimed,--

"What, Wriggs! You here?"

"Ay, ay, sir," shouted the man, rising so suddenly that he struck his head a violent blow against the floor of the bunk above him. "I say, don't wake a man quite so hard!" he grumbled, and then, as he recognised the speaker, "Beg pardon, sir, didn't know it was you."

"Why, how did you get here?" cried Oliver.

"Get here, sir? Oh, I walked it, and was that bet out that I tumbled in at once. Tommy Smith got back?"

"Yes, and all of them," cried the mate. "Here, pa.s.s the word for Smith, and tell him it isn't a ghost."

"I'm here, sir," said a gruff voice as the hatchway was filled up by a body which darkened the light. "Is it alive?"

"Tommy ahoy!" cried Wriggs hoa.r.s.ely. "I got back fust."

"But how?" cried Oliver. "You did not pa.s.s us and come out the way we went in."

"No, sir; I went out t'other way by the back door."

"Is he all right--alive?" cried Panton, in a voice full of hysterical excitement as he scrambled down, followed by Drew.

"He seems to be," said the mate. "Are you sure you're alive, Wriggs?"

"Yes, sir, I think so."

"But how was it?" cried Oliver.

"Ah, that's a queshtun, sir," said the man, rubbing one ear. "I don't quite know, on'y as I was walking along arter you one moment, and the next my legs seemed to run down a slide and I was in the water."