First in the Field Part 69

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX.

IN SANCTUARY.

"You here?" cried Nic excitedly.

"I have been following you for the last hour," was the quiet reply.

"And I've been tramping along here for nothing. Why didn't you speak?"

"Because I wanted you to tramp along there for nothing," replied the convict. "You were not looking for me--I could see that. You were trying to find a way down there below."

"Well, yes, I was," said Nic, who felt startled by his companion's keenness; "but I _wanted_ to see you too."

"Well, have you found anything?"

"You know I've not," cried Nic. "I say, you might trust me. How do you get there?"

"Why should I show you the way to the only place of safety I have got?"

"Because you like me," said Nic, with a smile, as he held out his hand, which the other grasped and held.

"Yes," he said; "you made me like you, Nic, and brought me back a little to a better belief in human kind just when I was growing day by day more and more into a brute--a savage. Well, I will show you; but you are tired now."

"Not too tired for that," said Nic eagerly, for there was a suggestion of adventure which attracted him. "I'm ready. Are you going to bind my eyes again? You can if you like, and then you can lead me down and I shall not know the way."

"Why should I do that when I said that I would trust you? Besides,"

said the convict rather grimly, "you will want your eyes."

"Is it dangerous?" cried Nic.

"In places; but you will not shrink."

"Is it far?"

"A mile from here. This way, then. But wait a few minutes."

Nic stared, for the convict suddenly darted to one side and disappeared, leaving the boy wondering at his singular behaviour. Then there was utter silence, and it seemed as if he had gone for good.

All at once he reappeared from quite a different part, and came quickly up to Nic.

"I am obliged to be watchful," he said. "I did not know but that you might have some one following you; but all seems to be clear. Now then, come along."

He struck off in among the trees, and Nic followed closely, till, wondering at the course his companion was taking, he said suddenly:

"Are you making some short cut? Does the gorge bend round anywhere here?"

"Oh no: I am going quite right."

"But you are leaving the edge of the precipice right behind."

"Yes; that is right. No one would look for the way down where I am leading."

Nic gazed at him wonderingly, for the man's manner seemed moment by moment to grow more strange; but they trudged on for quite a quarter of an hour, through a wonderful chaos of rocks and stunted trees, which formed a dense thicket through which it was hard to pa.s.s, and which was at last barred by the rocks closing in.

Here the convict turned sharply to his left, went in, and out for a couple of score yards, and then came to a halt at a rock face, from beneath which a little stream of water gurgled down a long gully for a short distance, and then disappeared.

"Is the water good?" said Nic eagerly.

"Delicious. Drink."

"Then you have been coming to find that?" cried Nic, after taking a long, deep draught. "It is good. But I thought you were going to show me the way down into the gorge."

"Yes: there it is."

"What? Why, where?" cried Nic, staring.

"Down there, where the water goes. Follow that, and you will reach the great valley."

"But," cried Nic, gazing in wonder at what seemed to be a mere split in the rock, down which the light penetrated but a short distance, "that goes underground."

"Yes, nearly all the way."

"A cavern."

"A series of caverns. You do not care to go now?"

"Well, it looks--It is so--One can't hardly--Yes, one can," cried the boy, ceasing his stammering and drawing himself up. "I am quite ready.

Will you go first?"

The convict smiled, bent down a little, and pa.s.sed out of the boy's sight.

"You can jump down boldly here," came in deep, echoing tones: "there is good foothold. A little slippery, but I'll catch you if your foot glides away."

It requires a little effort of mind to leap down off _terra_ _firma_ into a black-looking hole whose bottom is invisible, and Nic hesitated for a moment or two. Then:

"Trust for trust," he said to himself, and leaped, to feel for a brief instant or two that strange sensation experienced when rushing downward in a swing. Then _splash_! and his feet sent the water flying as he landed upon soft sand, while a hand grasped his shoulder, and he could dimly see the convict's swarthy face.

"All right?"

"Yes. Did I hit you with the gun?"

"Pretty hard, boy; but, never mind--it didn't go off."

Nic looked round, and by the light which gleamed from above through a lovely lacework of overhanging ferns he could see rugged rocks, which looked of a glistening: metallic green, but in places of a soft rippled cream, as if the rich produce of hundreds of cows had trickled down the walls and turned to stone. Water was flowing about his feet, but only an inch or two deep, and beyond where the convict stood there was black darkness.

"I say, is this really the way down to the bottom of that great gorge, Leather--I mean Frank Mayne?" said Nic breathlessly, for his heart, in spite of his having gone through no exertion, still laboured heavily.

"Yes, and a gloriously easy way, as you will soon see."