Viking Boys Part 26

"I wish I could meet them. I just wish I could catch a wrecker at his evil work. Wouldn't I pitch into him!" exclaimed the Viking-boy; whereat Harry, laughing, said, "That's all done with now. Wreckers went after the Vikings, didn't they?"

"With the exception of fule-Tammy," retorted Yaspard.

"And yourself," said Tom.

"Maybe they left as bad behind them," Yaspard said quickly. "Men who cheat in trade, who scamp work, evade taxes, rack-rent the poor, are no better than pirates and wreckers."

"Here we are at the Stack," Harry exclaimed. "Look out there with the sail! Captain, mind your helm. There now; you nearly had her aground!

I declare we've skimmed over a bau!--we may thank our stars we didn't capsize on it--all through your jabber about wreckers who left this planet a century ago."

They landed on Swarta Stack, and made themselves comfortable for the night not far from the geo where the _Osprey_ was moored. It was too late to explore the Stack that night, so after supper all rolled themselves up in rugs, as had been their wont for a week, and were soon in the mysterious land of dreamless sleep.

[1] Odds and ends, or plunder.

CHAPTER XXIX.

"GREAT IS THE TROUBLE OF FOOT ILL-TRIPPING."

Our boys woke up early next morning, for a chill wind sweeping over Swarta Stack was as effectual a rouser as the dressing-bell.

When fully awake they looked (as if led by one instinct) to the open sea, for from thence was coming the deep mournful moaning which precedes a storm.

"Mither," said Gloy, "wad say that the sea was sending its warning tae wiz."

"We will certainly pay heed to that warning," answered Yaspard, "as soon as we have had breakfast. Let's look alive, boys, and get our fire up as fast as we can, for there's going to be a gale before night, and we should be at Broch then."

"The _Osprey_ won't take long to run into Burra Wick," said Tom; "and we must make a jolly good breakfast here before returning to civilised life."

"There will be time to inspect the Stack, I hope," Harry remarked. "We must have a full report of this isle that has a bad name, according to Gloy."

They lit their fire, and boiled the last of their potatoes, brewed the last of their tea, and finished the biscuits and ham.

"Not much to carry back," one said, and another added, "I shouldn't like to be left on a skerry now that the ferdimet is all but done."

When breakfast was ended no time was lost in starting for a tour round Swarta Stack, which is a lofty island about a mile long, very picturesque in outline, and surrounded by lesser islands, as well as isolated rocks, which are the terror of all who know them. The lads found a great deal to interest them in the Stack; but their main object was to find the caves which tradition said had been the abode of lawless men in olden times.

There was one large cavern in a cliff easily found and well known; but that was not the Wrecker's Den, for the sea came into it, and in stormy weather filled its vast solitudes with the body and voice of many waters. This cave, however, was supposed to communicate with one inland, as many helyers[1] do, and our boys were determined to discover the hidden abode.

For a long time the search was a vain one; but at last an idea was suggested to Harry, who had halted by a small cairn.

"Boys," he said, "I should not wonder if we are on a wrong tack looking for a natural cave. It is more likely that the wreckers' den was a place dug out of the earth by themselves."

"That was a common dodge long ago," quoth Yaspard; and Tom added, "We got a good ill.u.s.tration of that sort of thing in the old Broch of Burra Isle."

"And you are thinking, Harry," Yaspard exclaimed, "that this cairn may cover some portion of the den--perhaps be the entrance to it?"

Harry nodded, and after a careful inspection of the rougue, remarked, "I think we shall find something here; but we must not come to grief in a ruin, as Garth Halsen did when he dug into the old Broch."

They went to work with a will, and soon removed the cairn and laid bare what was evidently the entrance to a vault of some sort. The mouth of the pit was covered by two enormous stones, and it took a long time to remove these; but so interested were the adventurers in their investigations, that they forgot the warning of the sea and the rising of the wind.

"It is curious," said Harry, peering into the dark pit at their feet, "that there seems no foul air to speak of down there, and yet I don't see any speck of light that would indicate a pa.s.sage to the outer world."

"Might the way not be curved, or sufficiently blocked to exclude light?" Yaspard suggested; and Harry frankly answered, "Of course. You are wiser than I. Has any one got a match in his pocket?"

Matches were produced, and a piece of paper was lighted; but such a meagre illumination revealed nothing beyond the fact that the vault seemed a large one, and roughly built round with a rude kind of masonry.

Bill was despatched to the boat for candles--which you may remember were part of the "prul" that Yaspard hid in the chimney; but the impatience of his companions to learn more would not allow them to wait on his return before descending into the chamber. They could see that there was solid ground some seven or eight feet beneath the opening, and Harry swung down, and soon reported himself as standing on a "decently paved floor;" but he was too cautious to explore farther until some light was thrown on the subject. Not so Tom Holtum. He did not see the fun in waiting for candles, and down he jumped beside Harry.

"There's an awful draught here," he exclaimed. "There must be pa.s.sages and perhaps other rooms knocking around. I vote we explore," and without listening a moment to Harry's warning, Tom made for a part of the vault from whence the current of air proceeded.

"You are extremely foolish, Tom," said Harry.

"You are a timid ca----" Tom began to reply, but was cut short. With an exclamation he suddenly disappeared; and next moment a fall and a groan told, not only Harry but those above ground, that an accident had taken place.

By that time Bill was back with the candles, and Yaspard hastened to join Harry. After him came the others, as fast as they could, and all gathered around Harry, who by that time stood with a lighted candle in his hand over the mouth of a dark hole, peering down and calling, "Tom!

old chap." But "Tom! old chap" made no response, and all attempts to hold the light over the opening proved futile, as a current of air rushing upward put it out.

The lads gazed into each other's white, terror-stricken faces with mute fear. The darkness and silence were enough to appal any one; but the courage of our Viking-boy rose to the occasion.

"He must be awfully hurt, poor chap," he said, "and we must do our best to find and help him. What do you suggest, Harry? _I'll_ do anything."

"Some one must be lowered with a rope," answered the wise head of the party.

"That some one is me," was Yaspard's prompt reply. "Get your rope, boys."

They always carried ropes with them. "We can do nothing without a rope," they would say. But the ropes had been dropped, of course, on the turf above, and the emergency which had made all hurry into the vault had caused them to neglect providing for an easy ascent again.

The only thing to do was for two to hoist a third on their shoulders so that he could get his hands on the aperture and thus clamber out.

Lowrie was chosen as the messenger to the outer world, and Harry said to him when shoving him aloft, "Drop us one rope at once, but fix the other to a boulder and slide down by it. That will give us help in scrambling out of here."

The rope was soon in their hands, and Yaspard, seizing the end, tied it round his waist, while Harry instructed him how to strike a light when lowered, and what signals to make to those above. In breathless excitement they stood around that gruesome hole, and slowly lowered their young leader into its dark and gaping jaws. Lower, lower; and the rope was almost all paid out when a sharp jerk told (as agreed upon) that Yaspard had reached the bottom.

"Not so deep as I feared," Harry whispered with a sigh of relief.

Then there came a sudden flare of light, which showed that Yaspard was trying to illumine the scene; but it was extinguished again directly.

Again and again he tried, but evidently in vain. Then came darkness and silence as before. But after a little time of fearful suspense the rope was jerked twice, and Yaspard was hauled up again.

"What of Tom?" Harry asked as soon as Yaspard's head appeared in sight; but Yaspard did not reply until he was standing beside them. Then he said, "He is lying there senseless, but he is alive."

"Oh, your hands!" Bill screamed, and all eyes turned on Yaspard's hands, which were red with blood.

"Tom is badly hurt. I put my hands on his face and chest," explained too surely that horrible sign. "There is no keeping a match or candle alight down there. The wind is rushing through it as if it were a funnel," Yaspard went on, "and I can't think how he is to be got out."

"Bill," said Harry, with the imperious decision which he always a.s.sumed in any emergency, where one cool head was worth a score of able undirected hands, "Bill, you run for your life to the boat again.