George Manville Fenn

“ As he spoke Vince seized the sail and swung it across, so as to send the boat upon another tack, and as he did so there was a jerk which nearly threw them overboard, a strange scraping, jarring sensation, and the boat’s head was swung round, and she was borne rapidly along once more by the current which they had experienced before.
For the fierce race suddenly swept about the rock they had grazed, catching the boat and treating it as if it had been a cork, leaving the boys to devote all their energies to steering, to avoid the rocks which studded their course. ”

“ It may be too dark for them to see us if we lie close and don’t make a sound. And look,” he said joyfully: “we really are close to the sea now, for we’re going due south.”
“Due south it is,” assented Vince, as if he were standing at a wheel steering. “Yes, I suppose you’re right, for I can hear the sound of surf. Listen.”
“Yes, I can hear,” replied Mike; “but it sounds smothered-like.”
“Rocks between us, perhaps. Now then: only whispers, mind!—close to the ear. Don’t let’s lose our chance of getting away by telling them where we are. I say!” ”

“ After a while there was a tiny archway; then this began to increase as the water sank and rose, but always rose less and less, leaving the sea anemones and the various shell-fish dotted with drops which gathered together, glittering and trembling in the light, and then fell with a musical drip upon the smooth surface.
The little arch increased rapidly after a time, and still the boat drew nearer to the entrance, neither of the boys having the heart to check its progress after their long imprisonment, for the outer world never looked so bright and glorious before. ”

“ As to the road being kept up solely because old Joe Daygo had a cottage down in a notch in the granite walls overlooking the sea, that seemed to be absurd.
Consequently, Nature went to work regularly every year to do away with that road, and she set all her children to help. The gorse bushes hung from the sides, thrusting out their prickly sprays covered with orange and yellow blossom and encroached all they could; the heather sprouted and slowly crept here and there, in company with a lovely fine grass that would have made a lover of smooth lawns frantic with envy. ”

“ Wheer?” said the man sharply. “No man could swim far there. T’reble currents and deep holes, where the tide runs into and sucks you down if it don’t take you out to sea. Nobody’s safe there.”
“Might go all right in a boat,” said Vince, still gazing down, attracted by the place, where he had often watched before, and noted how the cormorants, shags, and rock-doves flew in and out, disappearing beneath his feet—for the great buttress overhung the sea, and its face could only be seen by those who sailed by. ”

“ The boys gazed eagerly upward as soon as they were clear of the great overhanging archway, and saw the impossibility of escape by any cliff-climbing; for the mighty rocks were at least twenty feet out of the perpendicular, leaning over towards the little bay, whose waters were running, eddying and boiling like a whirlpool as they raced along, seizing the boat’s head and seeming about to drag her right along towards a jagged cluster of rocks, standing just above the surface, and amidst which the current raged and foamed furiously. ”

“ Vince Burnet made a desperate effort to get free, but the combination of his assailant’s knees and the jersey effectively imprisoned him, and, though he heaved and tossed and jerked himself, he could not dislodge the lad, who clung to him like Sinbad’s old man of the sea, till he fell half exhausted in a thick bed of heather, where he was kept down to suffer a kind of roulade of thumps, delivered very heartily upon his back as if it were a drum.
“Murder! murder!” cried Vince, in smothered tones, with the jersey over his head. ”

“ I wish we’d had some more of old Jarks’ dinner, and then gone to sleep quietly in our bunks. We couldn’t have been so badly off as we are now.”
“Then why did you propose for us to escape?”
“Because I thought we ought to try,” said Vince sharply, as he suddenly changed his tone. “There, it’s of no use to talk, Mike. We’re in for it, and I’m not going to give up like a coward. I don’t know where we are, and you don’t; but we’re in one of those whirls that go round and round when the tide’s running up or down, and we can’t be any worse off than we are now, for there are no rocks, seemingly.” ”

“ The Perils of the Scraw.
In the hurry and confusion the boys crouched in the bottom of the boat for some minutes, gazing at the lugger, and seeing lanthorn after lanthorn dancing about. Then one descended like a glowworm apparently on to the surface of the water, and they knew that a boat had been lowered and that there would be pursuit. And all the time they felt that without effort on their part they were being borne rapidly along as fast as any one could chase them; but they were in a boat familiar to them, and furnished with oars and sails if they could only reach the open water. ”

“ Sixty years’ workings of time and tide have made strange alterations there. Huge masses have fallen in, rocks have been washed away, and pleasant slopes have taken the place of precipice and dangerous rift; but the sea gulls wheel round the rugged cliffs and rear their young in safety, and upon sunny days, when the fierce currents are running strong, the dark olive-green birds may be seen swimming and diving to bring up their silvery prey to gorge, and afterwards fly off to dry their plumage on shelves and slopes of their home—dangerous surf-girt Cormorant Crag. ”

“ He had arrived at this point with great difficulty when the strange silence on board the boat, which had so far only been broken by the lapping of the water and the creaking of the yard, was broken by Vince, who cried excitedly, as he stood up in the boat:
“Look, look, Mike! Nearly everybody’s yonder on the cliff. They’ve heard the firing and the explosion, and they’re watching the cutter chase the schooner.” ”

“ The fishing began, but fishing did not mean catching, and the time went on with nothing to take their attention but an unusual clamouring on the part of the sea-birds, which, instead of sitting about preening and drying their plumage, or with their feathers almost on end, till they looked like balls as they sat asleep in the sun, kept on rising in flights, making a loud fluttering whistling as they swept round and round the cove, constantly passing out of sight before swooping down again upon the great rocks which shut out the view of the open sea. ”

“ For all at once it seemed that safety was within touch; and, turning the boat head to wind, she glided slowly up to the opening in the rock, while the sail flapped and the two boys quickly lowered and furled it, unstepped the mast, and then thrust her in with the boat-hook, reaching the little dock as if in a dream. ”

“ There was no real cause for alarm, though; and they grasped the fact that the blow was struck by one of a shoal of large fish, or congers, making a rush to escape the enemies who had invaded their solitude, and in the flurry one of them had struck against the first object in its way. “I’m sure they were congers,” whispered Mike. “I felt one of them seem to twist round me.”
“Never mind: they’re gone,” replied Vince. “Come on. I fancy there must be a rocky shore farther on, as it’s so shallow here, and it’s all sand under foot.”
“Not all: I’ve put my feet on rock several times,” whispered Mike. ”

“ I can see one raven, too—there are two of them sailing about just under me, with their backs shining in the sun. Oh, Mike: look at the cormorants! I never knew there were so many about the island. Big gulls, and puffins, and terns, and—I say, what a cloud of pigeons flying right out from under me: Why, there must be a cavern going right in. Hold tight! I want to lean out more to try and see.”
“No!” shrieked out Mike. “Don’t—don’t! It’s a hundred times worse kneeling here and seeing you than doing it oneself.”
“But I only want to see if there is a cave.” ”

“ This is a smugglers’ cave.”
“But there are no smugglers here. Who ever heard of smugglers at the Crag!”
“I never did; but I’m sure these are smuggled goods.”
“Well, I don’t know,” said Mike. “It seems very queer. The cave can’t be so dangerous to come to, if boats can land cargoes. Old Daygo’s all wrong, then?”
“Of course he is; so are all the people. Every one has told us that the Black Scraw was a terrible place, and looked as if they thought it was haunted by all kinds of sea goblins. Let’s get away.” ”

“ Zat is a vairy bad place, but Joseph is a grand pilot; he know vat to do, and I am nevaire in his way.”
Just then there was a dull thud, as if a mass of water had struck the side, and the vessel heeled over more than ever, righted herself, and then rose and rode over a wave, plunging down and again gliding along upon a level keel. “Eat, eat, mes amis,” said the captain. “You do not mean that you have le mal-de-mer?”
“Oh no,” said Vince quickly, as if ashamed to be suspected of such a weakness. “We don’t mind the sea; besides, it isn’t rough. ”

“ At that moment there was a loud, plashing noise far inward, and this raised such loud reverberations that Mike was fain to confess that the roof must be far higher.
Vince took advantage of this to urge his companion on; and a minute later they could not touch the rock above them with their hands, while a little farther on it could not be reached with an oar.
“Yes, it’s bigger,” granted Mike; “but we shall be suffocated all the same. There can’t be enough air to last us till the tide goes down.” ”

“ Who’s old Jarks? Here, I know: they mean the Frenchman: Jacks—Jacques, don’t you see?”
“Yes, I see,” said Mike dismally.
“He’s the skipper, of course. French skipper with an English crew. They must be a nice set. I say, do you feel cold?”
“Cold? I don’t feel as if I had any feet at all.”
“We must have some exercise,” said Vince grimly; and he uttered a faint chuckling sound. “I say, though, Mike don’t be down about it. He’s only a Frenchman, and we’re English. We’re not going to let him catch us, are we?”
“It’s horrible,” said Mike. “Why, he’ll kill us!” ”

“ Only fancy old Joe Daygo going mushrooming!”
“You’re a nice sarcy one as ever I see,” said the man, with another of his wooden-wheel laughs. “I like masheroons as well as any man.”
“Yes, but you don’t go hunting for them,” said Vince; “and you never grow potatoes; and as for setting a trap for a rabbit—not you.”
“You’re fine and cunning, youngster,” said the man, with a grim look; and his keen, clear eyes gazed searchingly at the lad from under his shaggy brows.
“Sit on the cliff with your old glass,” said Vince, “when you’re not fishing or selling your lobsters and crabs. ”

“ Then the stays were hooked on, hauled taut, and up went the little lug-sail smartly enough, the patch of brown tanned canvas filling at once, and sending the boat gliding gently along over the rocks which showed clearly deep down through the crystal sea.
“Soon know how to manage a boat yourselves,” said the old man grimly, as he thrust an oar over the stern and used it to steer.
“Manage a boat ourselves!” cried Mike. “I should think we could—eh, Vince?” ”

“ The grey gulls were wheeling round and round, dipping down from time to time to pick up some scrap of floating food or tiny fish from out of a shoal; the cormorants and shags were swimming here and there, and diving down swift as the fish themselves, in chase of victim after victim for their ravenous maws, and the fish, crowded together, were playing about the surface, and leaping out at times like bars of silver, to fall back again with a splash, while the sun made the water sparkle as it rippled and played and foamed among the rocks. ”

“ But he was tired by exertion and excitement, the cavern was warm and dry, the sand was become pleasantly soft, and all at once he was back in the great garden of the fine old manor-house amongst the flowers and fruit, unconscious of everything else till he suddenly opened his eyes to gaze wonderingly at the thick darkness which closed him in. ”

“ At the word coward the captain’s face looked black as night, his right-hand was thrust into his breast pocket, and he drew out and cocked a small pistol, while Mike darted to his companion’s side, laid his hands across Vince’s breast, and faced the captain; but he was seized by one of the men, who passed the line about his wrists after it had been dexterously fastened round those of his fellow-prisoner.
“Never mind, Mike; but I like that, old chap!” cried Vince. “Well done! Let’s show him what English boys are like: he daren’t shoot us. Do you hear, Jacques? vous n’oses pas.” ”

“ I shouldn’t like to; but when one got excited with seeing a wreck, perhaps I should try.”
“There wouldn’t be any perhaps about it, Ladle,” said Vince gravely. “Something comes over people then. It’s the sort of thing that makes men go out in lifeboats, or swim off through the waves with ropes, or, as I’ve read, go into burning houses to get people out.”
Mike nodded, and they went on very thoughtful and dreamy over the purple heather and amongst the golden furze till they reached the edge of the scrub oak wood, where they stopped short and looked in each other’s eyes again. ”

“ The old man shook his head, and sat gazing straight before him from under his shaggy brows, steering carefully, as the boat now had to make zigzag tacks among the rocks which dotted the surface away from the cliffs. Then, in answer to a question from his companion, Vince shook off his fit of thoughtfulness, and sat chatting about the various objects they saw, principally about the caves they passed, some of which were low, arched places, excavated by the sea, whose entrances now stood out clear, now were covered by a wave which came back foaming from the compressed air it had shut-in. ”