Real Gold Part 42

"I don't think they would dare to attack us if they found where we are,"

said the colonel; "but we must be prepared."

"Is it worth all this trouble and risk, father?" said Perry, who was, in addition to being weary and low-spirited, stiff, and a good deal bruised.

"What! to get the seed, boy?"

Perry nodded.

"Lie down and rest, and wait till the knowledge comes to you, boy.

There, I'll speak out and ask you a question. Do you think it is good for humanity at large for one of the greatest blessings discovered by them, for the prevention and cure of a terrible ill, to be solely under the control of one petty, narrow-minded government, who dole it out to the world just as they please, and at what price they like? Why, such a blessing as quinine ought to be easily accessible all the world round, and if I can succeed in getting our precious little store safely to England, it will be the beginning of a very great work. Worth the trouble? Why, the tenth part of what I have obtained of full ripe seed, of what is undoubtedly the finest white-flowered kind, would be worth a hundred times the labour and risk we have gone through--worth even giving up life, my lad, so that others might benefit by what I have done."

"But suppose, when we get it to England, it won't grow," said Perry.

"Why, you doleful young croaker!" cried the colonel merrily, "I don't expect it to grow in England. Tropic plants do not flourish in our little, cool, damp isle. There are plenty of places, though, where it would grow, if we get it safely home."

"Getting it wet isn't good for it, is it?" said Perry sleepily.

"You are thinking of what you have in your pockets," said the colonel.

"That will not have hurt, for it would dry again pretty soon.--You have yours safe, Cyril?"

"Yes, sir, there's about three pounds in my pockets."

"I have as much, and John Manning a little more, while I have a small packet in each of the mules' loads."

"So as to make sure of saving some of it?" said Cyril eagerly.

"Yes, that is the idea, my lad," said the colonel. "Now, boys, Manning and I will take it in turns to watch. There, get a good rest, and don't think that I should have gone through all this labour, risk, and excitement unless I had felt that I was doing something well worthy of the trouble; so make up your minds to get it safely to San Geronimo."

He left them, as usual, to see where the mules were grazing, and Cyril sat gazing down before him.

"What's the matter?" said Perry.

"I was thinking that it's all very well for you people to get back home, only it isn't so pleasant for me."

"Father will speak to Captain Norton for you," said Perry.

"No: I don't want him to. I shall speak myself. I wouldn't have my father see me sneak in behind yours in that cowardly way. Oh dear, I wish it was over!"

"Mules feeding well and all quiet, boys," said the colonel; "and to all appearance there isn't a soul near us for miles.--By the way, Manning, did you go into the cave?"

"No, sir. Did you tell me? Seemed too damp to use for sleeping."

"No, I did not tell you; but get the lantern and let's look inside. We don't want to be disturbed by some animal coming out in the night."

Manning took the battered lantern, and led the way to where the spring came gushing out of what at a distance looked like a long, narrow, sloping crack, but which proved to be, on closer acquaintance, large enough for a man to walk in upright by stepping from stone to stone, round about which the water came gurgling and bubbling out.

It was about a dozen yards from where their fire had been lit, amongst the stones fallen at different times from the heights above; and as they approached, a low musical rippling greeted their ear in a pleasant murmur, suggesting that the spring must come for some distance through a low, natural pa.s.sage, whose stony walls caused the echoings of silvery splashings, which now grew louder and more strange.

"Yes, too damp-looking for a resting-place," said the colonel; "and it does not look like the lair of any dangerous beast, but we may as well examine it, and we ought to have done so before. Why, boys, it would make quite a fortress if we had to defend ourselves. Plenty of water-supply, and ample room to drive in the mules."

John Manning had gone inside at once, and as soon as he was a short distance from the narrow entrance, he struck a light and applied it to the candle within the lantern, holding it above his head, and then cautiously picking his steps along from stone to stone in the bed of the stream.

Whish, whirr, came a peculiar sound, and, as if moved by one impulse, the two boys rushed out, startled, to stand looking back, wondering why the colonel had not followed.

"What was that?" cried Cyril.

"I don't know. Something rushed by my head," said Perry excitedly, as he looked vainly round in the dim light, and then back at the faintly lit-up entrance to the cave, where the lantern, now invisible behind a curve, shone upon the moist stone wall.

"Come along back," cried Cyril; "what cowards they will think us. It must have been birds. Ah! yes; look, dozens of them," he cried, pointing to where what seemed to be faint shadows kept gliding out and shooting upward over the face of the rock, to disappear at once in the evening gloom.

"Think they are birds?" said Perry, in an awe-stricken voice.

"Birds or bats," said Cyril. "How stupid to be startled like that!

Come along."

He st.u.r.dily led the way back, ashamed of the sudden access of fear which had come upon him; though entering so strangely weird-looking a place by the feeble light of a lantern, and when unnerved by long toil and the dangers they had lately pa.s.sed through, it was not surprising, and stronger folk might easily have been scared.

He had hardly got well inside again before his face was brushed by a soft wing, and he felt ready to run back once more, but this time he mastered the dread, and felt that Perry's hand was laid upon his arm just as the colonel's voice, which sounded hollow, echoing, and strange, said softly: "Goes in, perhaps, for miles.--Look, boys."

The voice sounded close to his ear; but to his surprise he found that the lantern was quite a hundred yards in, and the light glimmering from the surface of the tiny stream, while there was plenty of room on either side for them to walk.

"Where are you, boys?" said the colonel, more loudly.

"Here, sir; coming," cried Cyril, who grasped the fact, now, that their sudden rush out had not been noticed.

"It's all safe so far; no crevices or chasms," said the colonel; and as the two lads approached, "Did you see the birds? They are flying about overhead in flocks. Hark at the rush of their wings!"

As he ceased speaking, and his voice was no longer reverberating and whispering about overhead, a peculiar fluttering, whirring sound, as of many wheels in rapid motion, struck upon the boys' ears, a sound which added strangely to the mysterious air of the place. It was evident, too, that the roof was now far above their heads, giving room for the strange dwellers in darkness to wheel and swoop about, often so close that the wind raised by their pinions beat upon the explorers' cheeks.

"Lucky I'd got the lantern door shut," said John Manning, in a strange whisper, "or they'd have blown it out a dozen times over.--Shall I go any farther, sir?"

"No; it is of no use. But what a hiding-place! There's room, Manning, for quite a brigade.--What's that?"

A sharp crash fell upon their ears, as of a stone dislodged somewhere high up in the distance; and this was evidently the case, for they heard it rattle down, loosening others, and sending a reverberating echo along the cavern, which told of its vastness being greater than they had before imagined.

"One of the birds loosened a stone, sir," said John Manning. "Look out: here they come."

For, evidently alarmed by the falling stones, there was now the rush as of a mighty wind, and the little party could feel that a great flock of birds was pa.s.sing overhead toward the entrance, hurriedly making their escape out into the open air.

"Let's follow their example," said the colonel; "we are only wasting time. But this would make a capital retreat if we were attacked; and we could defend it against hundreds."

"Till we were starved, or burned out," grumbled John Manning.

"It would take a forest on fire to burn us out of this, sir," said the colonel. "What! make difficulties? We have plenty to encounter without. Now then, forward with the light."

John Manning faced round, and led on at once, while, as he held up the lantern, the dark ma.s.s of birds in a regular train could be seen pa.s.sing on toward the entrance, which was reached directly after, both boys uttering a sigh of relief on finding themselves once more in the outer darkness, where they could breathe freely, and feel as if a great danger had been escaped.