Beneath the sea

Chapter I. Bass For Breakfast

“ Have some more bass, Gwyn ? ”

“Please, father,” said the boy.

“You should not speak with your mouth full, my dear,” said Mrs. Pendarve quietly.

“No, mother; but I didn’t like to keep father waiting.”

“ And between the two stools you came to the ground, eh?” said Colonel Pendarve, smiling. “Never mind — hold your plate. Lucky for us, my dear, that we have only one boy. This fellow eats enough for three.”

“Well — but — father, we were down, by the boat at daybreak, and the sea air makes one so hungry.”

“ Say ravenous or wolfish, my boy. But go on. It certainly is a delicious fish, and Dolly has cooked it to a turn. They were rising fairly then?”

“Yes, father; we rowed right out to the race of the point, and for ever so long we did n't see a fish, and sat there with our rods ready.”

BENEATH THE SEA.

Gwyn talked away, but with his mouth rather full of fried bass and freshly baked bread, all the same.

“ And of course it was of no use to try till a shoal began to feed?”

“Not a bit, father ; and Joe said we might as well come back; but when the sun rose they were rising all round us, and for half an hour we kept hooking them at nearly every throw. Come and see the rest of my catch ; they ’re such beauties — as bright as salmon.”

“ That ’s right, but don’t let any of them be wasted. Keep what you want, mamma dear, and give the others away. — What did you use, a big fly ? ”

“No, father, those tiny spoon-baits. They came at them with a rush. Then they left off biting all at once, and — some more coffee, please, mother — and we rowed back home, and met Captain Hardock on the pier.”

“ Ah, did you ? ”

“ Yes, father, and we gave him two pairs of fine ones, and he said they looked as bright as newly run tin.”

“ Humph! Yes, that man thinks of nothing else but tin.”

“ And he began about it again this morning, father,” said Gwyn eagerly.

“ Indeed ! ” said Colonel Pendarve ; and Gwyn’s mother looked up inquiringly from behind the silver coffee-urn.

“ Yes, father,” said Gwyn, helping himself to more fresh yellow Cornish butter and honey. “ He said what a pity it was that you did not adventure over the old Ydoll Mine and make yourself a rich man, instead of letting it lie wasting on your estate.”

BASS FOR BREAKFAST.

“ My estate ! ” said the colonel, smiling at his wife. “ A few score acres of moorland and rack on the Cornish coast.”

“ But he says, father, he is sure that the old mine is very rich.”

“ And that I am very poor, Gwyn, and that it would be nice for me to make a place for a mining captain out of work.”

“ But you will not attempt anything of the kind ? ” said Mrs. Pendarve anxiously.

“I don’t think so, my dear. We have no money to spare for speculating, and I don’t think an old Indian cavalry officer on half pay is quite the man to attempt such a thing.”

“ But old Hardock said you were, father, and that you and Major Jollivet ought to form a little company of your own, and that he knows he could make the mine pay wonderfully.”

“Yes,” said the colonel dryly, “ that ’s exactly what he would say ; but I don’t think much of his judgment. I should be bad enough, but the major, with his old wound breaking out when he is not down with touches of his old jungle-fever, would be ten times worse. All the same, though, I have no doubt that the old mine is rich.”

“But, Arthur,” protested Mrs. Pendarve, “think of how much money has been ” —

“Thrown down mines, my dear?” said the colonel, smiling. “Yes, I do; and I don’t think our peaceful, retired life is going to be disturbed by anything a mining adventurer may say.”

“ But it would be interesting, father,” said Gwyn.

BENEATH THE SEA.

“Very, my boy,” said his father, smiling. “It would give you and Joe Jollivet ” —

“Old Joe Jolly wet,” said Gwyn to himself.

“ — a fine opportunity for trying to break your necks.”

“ Oh, dear ! ” cried Mrs. Pendarve.

“ Getting drowned in some unfathomable hole full of water.”

“ Arthur ! ” protested Mrs. Pendarve.

“ Losing yourselves in some of the mazy recesses of the ancient workings ” —

“Really,” began Mrs. Pendarve; but the colonel went on:

“ — Or getting crushed to death by some fall of the mine-roofing that has been tottering ready to fall perhaps for hundreds of years ” —

“ Pray don’t talk like that,” said Mrs. Pendarve piteously.

“ He does n’t mean it, mother,” said Gwyn, laughing. “ Father’s only saying it to frighten me. I say, father, though, do you think the mine is so very old ? ”

“ 1 have no doubt of it, my boy. It is certainly as old as the Roman occupation, and I should not be surprised if it proved to be as early as the time when the Phoenicians traded here for tin.”

“ But I thought it was only stream tin that they got, father. I read it somewhere.”

“No doubt, my boy, they searched the surface tin; but suppose you had been a sturdy fellow from Tyre or Sidon instead of a tiresome, idle, mischievous young nuisance of an English boy.”

“Not quite so bad as that, am I, mother?” said Gwyn, laughing.

BASS FOR BREAKFAST.

“That you are not,” said Mrs. Pendarve, “though I must own that you do worry me a great deal sometimes by being so daring with your boating, climbing, and swimming.”

“ Oh, but I do take care, mother, I do really,” said Gwyn, reaching out to lay his hand upon his mother’s arm.

“ Yes, just as much as any other thoughtless, reckless young dog would,” grumbled the colonel. “ I ’m always expecting to have one of the fishermen or miners come here with a head or an arm or a leg, and say he picked it up somewhere, and does it belong to my son.”

“ Really, Arthur, you are too bad,” began Mrs. Pendarve.

“ He ’s only teasing you, ma,” cried Gwyn, laughing. “ But I say, father, what were you going to say about my being a Tyre and Sidonian ? ”

“ Eh ? Oh ! — that if you found tin in some gully on the surface, would n’t you dig down to find it where it was richer?”

“ Can’t dig through granite,” said Gwyn.

“ Well, chip out the stone and by degrees form a deep mine ? ”

“Yes, I suppose I should, father.”

“ Of course it ’s impossible to prove how old the mine is, but it is in all probability very ancient.”

“ But it’s only a deep hole, is it, father?”

“ I cannot say. I never heard of its being explored, but there it is.”

“ 1 ’ve explored it sometimes by sending a big stone down, so as to hear it rumble and echo.”

“Yes, and I daresay hundreds of mischievous boys before you have done the same.”

BENEATH THE SEA .

“ Why was it called the Ydoll Mine, father ? ”

“ I cannot say, Gwyn. Some old Celtic name, or a corruption. It has always been called so, as far as I could trace when I bought the place ; and there it is, and there let it remain in peace.”

“If you please,” said Mrs. Pendarve. “ Will you have some more coffee and bread and butter, Gwyn?”

The boy shook his head, for there are limits even to a seaside appetite.

“Wonderful ! ” said the colonel.

“What is?” said Mrs. Pendarve.

“ Gwyn has had enough for once: Oh, and by the way, I have had quite enough of that dog. If ever 1 find him scratching and tearing my garden about again I ’ll pepper him with small shot.”

The boy smiled and looked at his mother.

“ Oh, you may laugh, sir, at your foolish, indulgent father. I don’t know what I could have been about to let you keep him. What do you want with a great collie?”

“ He ’s such a companion, father ; and see how clever he is after rabbits.”

“ Matter of opinion,” said the colonel. “ I don’t suppose the rabbits think so. Well, mind this: I will not have him tearing about among my young fruittrees.”

A DEEP INVESTIGATION.

Chapter II. A Deep Investigation

Breakfast ended, Gwyn went straight off to the yard with half a fish and some bread, but before he came in sight there was the rattle of a chain, a burst of barking, and a handsome collie dog, with long silky ears and a magnificent frill of thick hair about his neck, stood up on his hind legs at the full extent of the chain, and tried hard to strangle himself with his collar.

Then there was a burst of frantic yelps and whines, a kind of dance was performed as the boy approached with the dog’s breakfast, and then there was peace over the devouring of the bread, which was eaten in bits thrown at him from a couple of yards away, and caught without fail.

After this performance the fish was placed in a pan, and as the dog bent down to eat, Gwyn pulled his ears, thumped his back, sat astride it, and talked to the animal.

“You’re going to be shot at if you go in the garden again, Grip ; so look out, old chap. Do you hear ? ”

The dog was too busy over the fish, but wagged his tail.

“ I ’m to keep you chained up more, but we ’ll have some games over the moor yet. Rabbits ! ”

The fish was forgotten, and the dog threw up his head and barked.

BENEATH THE SEA.

“ There, go on with your breakfast, stupid. I ’m off.”

“ How-ow ! ” whined the dog dismally ; and he kept it up, straining at his chain till the boy was out of sight, when the animal stood with an ear cocked up and his head on one side, listening intently till the steps died out, before resuming his breakfast of fish.

Gwyn was off back to the house, where he fetched his basket from the larder and carried it into the hall.

“ Here — father — mother — come and have a look,” he cried; and upon their joining him, he began to spread out his catch so as to have an exhibition of the silvery bass — the brilliant salmon-shaped fish, whose sharp back fins proved to a certainty that they were a kind of sea perch.

They were duly examined and praised, and when they had been divided into presents for their neighbors in the little Cornish fishing-port, the colonel, who had, after long and arduous service in the East, hung up his sword to take to spade and trowel, went off to see to his nectarines, peaches, pears, grapes, and figs in his well-walled garden, which faced the south and ran down to the rocky shores of the safe inlet of Ydoll Brae. His son Gwyn followed to help — so it was called !

The boy, a sturdy, frank-looking lad, helped his father a great deal in the garden, but not after the ordinary working-fashion. That fell to the lot of Ebenezer Gelch, a one-eyed Cornishman who was strangely imbued with the belief that he was the finest gardener in the west of England, and held up his head very high in consequence. Gwyn helped his father as he did that morning, by following him out into the sunny slope and keeping close behind.

A DEEP INVESTIGATION.

The colonel stopped before a carefully trained tree, where the great pears hung down' from a trellis erected against the hot granite rock, and stood admiring them.

“Nearly ripe, father?” asked Gwyn.

“No, my boy, not nearly,” said the colonel, softly raising one in his hand. “ They may hang nearly a month yet. We shall beat the Jersey folk this year.”

“Yes, father,” said Gwyn; and he followed to where the colonel stopped before a peach tree and stooped to pick up a downy, red-cheeked fellow which had fallen during the night.

“Not ripe, Gwyn, but it’s a very fine one,” said the colonel.

“Yes, father, a beauty. Shall I take it in?”

“No, not good enough. Eat it, my boy.”

Gwyn did not need any farther telling, and the peach disappeared, the stone being sent flying into the sea.

A little farther on a golden, tawny Jefferson plum was taken from a tree, for the wasps had carved a little hole in the side, and this was handed to the boy and eaten. A nectarine which had begun to shrink came next, and from the hottest corner of the garden a goodtempered-looking fig, which seemed to have opened a laughing mouth as if full and rejoicing in its ripeness. After this a rosy apple or two and several Bon Chretien pears, richly yellow, were picked up and transferred to the boy’s pocket, and the garden was made tidy once more, evidently to the owner’s satisfaction, and certainly to that of his son, who was most diligent in disposing of the fruit in this way.

Then the colonel sauntered into the little sloping vinery, where the purple and amber grapes were hang-

BENEATH THE SEA.

ing, and Gwyn thrust in his head ; but as there were no berries to be eaten and it was very hot, he drew back and went up the slope toward the wall at the top, carefully peeling one of the pears with a fishy pocket-knife.

He was in the act of throwing a long curl of peel over the wall when a sun-browned face appeared as if on purpose to receive it, and started back. Then there was a scrambling noise from the other side as the face disappeared very suddenly, and Gwyn burst out laughing.

“ Hurt yourself ? ” he cried.

There was the sound of scrambling and the face reappeared.

“ What did you do that for ? ” cried the owner of the face.

“ To get rid of the peel, stupid.”

44 Well, you might have chucked a pear instead.”

44 All right — catch.”

A pear was thrown and dexterously caught, and the new-comer quickly took a magnificent bite out of it.

44 Oh ! beauty ! ” he cried ; and then, as he began to munch, he glanced down at the pit he had excavated with his keen teeth right to the core. 44 Er! Yah!” he cried, spitting out the piece. 44 Why, it ’s all maggoty ! ” and he threw the pear back with excellent aim, but it was deftly caught and returned in a way that would have won praise at cricket. Joe’s aim was excellent, too; but when a boy is supporting himself by resting his elbows on the coping of a high stone-wall, he is in no position for fielding either a pear or a ball. So the pear struck him full on the front of the straw hat he wore, and down he went with a rush, while Gwyn

A DEEP INVESTIGATION.

ran to the front of the wall, climbed np quickly, and looked over into the lane, laughing boisterously.

“ Got it that time, J oey,” he cried.

“ All right, I ’ll serve you out for it. Give us another pear.”

The request was attended to, the fruit being hurled down, but it was cleverly caught.

“ Why, this is maggoty too.”

“Well, I did n’t put the maggots there; cut the bad out. The dropped ones are all like that.”

“ Go and pick me a fresh one, then.”

“Not ripe, and father does not like me to pick them. That ’s a beauty.”

“ Humph ! ’T ain’t bad. But, I say, come on.”

“ What are you going'to do ? ”

“ Do ? Why, did n’t you say we ’d go and have a good look at the old mine ? ”

“ Oh — ah — so I did ! I forgot.”

“ Come on, then. Old Hardock made my mouth water talking about it as he did this morning.”

“ But we should want a rope, should n’t we ? ”

“Yes. Let’s get Jem Trevor to lend us one out of his boat.”

“ All right. I ’ll come round.”

“ Why not jump down ? ”

Gwyn gave a sharp look up and down the lane, but no one was in sight, and he lightly threw his legs over and dropped down beside his companion.

“ Don’t want any of the boys to see that there ’s a way over here,” he said, “ or we shall be having thieves. I say, Joe, father ’s been talking about the old mine at breakfast.”

BENEATH THE SEA.

“ Then you told him what Captain Hardock said. I told my father, too.”

44 What did he say ? ”

Joe Jollivet laughed.

44 Well, what are you grinning at? Why don’t you speak ? ”

44 Because you ’re such a peppery chap, and I don’t want a row.”

44 Who ’s going to make a row ? What did the major * say?”

44 Shan’t tell you.”

44 Who wants you to? It was something disrespectful of my father, and he has no business to. My father ’s his superior officer.”

44 That he is n’t. I thought your father was cavalry, and my father foot.”

44 And that makes it worse,” said Gwyn hotly. 44 Cavalry ’s higher than infantry, and a major is n’t so high as a colonel. What did he say ? ”

44 Oh, never mind. Come on.”

44 1 know what he said ; and it ’s just like the major. Just because his wounds come out bad sometimes, he thinks he has a right to say what he likes. I believe he said my father was a fool.”

“That he didn’t,” cried Joe sharply ; 44 he said he’d be a fool if he put any money in a mine.”

44 There, I knew it, and it ’s regularly insulting ! ” cried Gwyn, with his face flushing and eyes sparkling. 44 1 shall just go and tell Major Jollivet that my father ” —

44 Oh, I say, what a chap you are ! ” cried Joe, wrinkling up his rather plump face. 44 You ’re never happy

A DEEP INVESTIGATION.

without you ’re making a row about something. Why don’t you punch my head ? ”

“ I would for two pins.”

“ There, that ’s more like you. What have I done ? I did n’t say it.”

“ No, but your father did, and it ’s all the same.”

“ Oh ! is it ? I don’t see that. I could n’t help it.”

“ Yes, you could. It all came of your chattering. See if I go fishing with you again.”

“Go it!”

“ I mean to, and I shall walk straight up to Carn Maen and tell the major what I think of him. I won’t have my father called a fool by a jolly old foobsoldier, and so I ’ll tell him.”

“Yes, do,” said Joe. “He’s got a touch of fever this morning and can’t help himself, so now ’s your chance. But if you do go and worry him, you ’ve got to have it out with me afterwards, and so I tell you.”

“Oh! have I? You want me to give you another good licking?”

“ I don’t care if you do. I won’t stand still and have my father bullied by old Ydoll Gwyn.”

Gwyn turned upon him fiercely, but the sight of his companion’s face calmed his anger on the instant.

“It’s all right, Joe,” he said. “I like to hear any one sticking up for his father — or his mother.”

“ I have n’t got a mother to stick up for, but my father’s ill and weak, and if you” —

“ Don’t I keep on telling you I ’m not going, you stupid old jolly wet un. Come on. Did n’t we two say after the last fight, when we shook hands, that we would never fight again ? ”

BENEATH THE SEA.

“Yes. Then why do you begin it?”

“ Who ’s beginning it ? Get out and let ’s go and have a look at the mine. Let ’s stick to what we said — fight any of the fisher lads and help each other. Now, then, let ’s go on to the old mine and see if we can get down. Pst ! here ’s Hardock.”

For at a corner of the stone-walled lane, the left side of which skirted the colonel’s property, extending for half a mile along by the sea, — the estate haying been bought at a bargain for the simple reason that its many acres grew scarcely anything but furze, heather, and ragwort, the rest being bare, storm-weathered granite, — they came suddenly upon a dry-looking, brown-faced man, with a coil of rope worn across his chest like an Alpine guide.

He was seated on the low wall dotted with pink stonecrop and golden and gray lichens, chewing something, the brown stain at the corner of his lips suggesting that the something was tobacco ; and he turned his head slowly toward them, and spoke in a harsh, grating voice as they came up :

“ Going to the old mine ? ” he said. “ I thought you would, after what I told you this morning. I ’ll go with you.”

“Did you bring that rope on purpose?” said Gwyn quickly.

“ O’ course, my son. You could n’t look at the gashly place without.”

Gwyn glanced at Joe, and the latter laughed, while the mining captain displayed his brown teeth.

“Right, arn’t it?” he said. “Didn’t tell the colonel what I said, I s’pose.”

A DEEP INVESTIGATION.

u Yes, I did,” cried Gwyn, “and he as good as said it was all nonsense.”

“Maybe it be and maybe it bain’t,” said the man quietly. “You two come along with me and have a look. I ’ve brought a hammer with me too, and I say let ’s chip off a bit or two of the stuff and see what it ’s like. If it ’s good, your father may like to work it. If it ’s poor, we shan’t be no worse off than we was before, shall we ? ”

“No, of course not,” said Gwyn; “what do you say, Joe, shall we go?”

“ Of course,” was the reply ; and they trudged on together for a few hundred yards, and then climbed over the loose stone-wall, and then up a rugged slope dotted with gigantic fragments of granite. A stone’s throw or so on their left was the edge of the uneven cliff, which went down sheer to the sea, and all about them the great masses towered up, and their path lay in and out among tall rocks wreathed with bramble and made difficult with gorse.

But they were used to such scrambles, and, the mining captain leading, they struggled on, with the gulls floating overhead, starting a cormorant from his perch, and sending a couple of red-legged choughs dashing over the rough edge to seek refuge among the rocks on the face of the cliff.

It was a glorious morning, the sea of a rich, bright blue, and here and there silvery patches told where some shoal of fish was playing at the surface or demolishing fry.

There was not a house to be seen, and the place was wild and chaotic in the extreme ; but no one alluded to

BENEATH THE SEA.

its ruggedness, all being intent upon the object of their quest, which they soon after came upon in the upper part of a deep gully, on one side of which there was a rough quadrangular wall of piled-up stones, looking like the foundations of a hut fallen to ruin, and here they paused.

“Now, look here,” said the man; “that place don’t look anything, but your father, young P endary e, has got a fortune in it, and I want to see what it’s like. So what do you say to going down with my hammer and bringing up a few chips?”

“ Why don’t you go ? ” said Gwyn.

“ ’Cause you two could n’t pull me up again. It ’s a job for a boy.”

“ Then let ’s send down Joe Jollivet. He is n’t worth much if we lose him.”

“ Oh, I say,” began the boy in dismay ; but he read the twinkle in his companion’s eye and laughed.

“ I would n’t mind going down. Is the rope strong ? ”

“Strong?” said the mining captain. “Think I should have brought it if it warn’t. Hold a schooner.”

“ Shall I go down, Gwyn ? ”

The lad addressed did not answer for a few moments, but stood leaning over the rocky wall, gazing down into a square pit cut through the stone, the wall having been placed there for protection in case four or two legged creatures passed that .way.

“But look here,” said Joe anxiously ; “would it be safe?”

“ Safe, lad ? Do you think I ’d let you go if it warn’t? How could I face all your fathers and mothers after ? ”

A DEEP INVESTIGATION.

“But are you sure you could hold me if I went?” said Joe, who began to look anxious.

“Feel here,” said the man, rolling up his sleeves. “ There ’s muscle ! There ’s bone ! That ’s something like a man’s arm, arn’t it ? Hold you ? Half a dozen on you. Man, either.”

Joe drew a deep sigh.

“ I ’ll go,” he said.

“No, you won’t,” cried Gwyn fiercely; “it’s my father’s place, and I ought to go.”

“ But I would n’t mind, Ydoll,” said Joe excitedly.

“I know that, but I ’ll go first and you help Sam Hardock.”

“ Ay, you help me, my lad. I knew he ’d have the pluck to go down.”

“ You ’re sure of the. rope, Sam ? ”

“ Sure ? There, don’t you go down if you ’re afraid.”

“ Who feels afraid ? ” cried Gwyn hotly. “ There, how ’s it to be ? Throw the rope down and slide ? ”

“No, no,” growled the man.

“ Loop and sit in it ? ”

“ Nay ; I’m too keerful over you, my lad. But do you mean it ? ”

“Mean it? Yes, of course,” said the boy, flushing.

“ Then, here you have it. I just make a knot like this about your chesty, so as it don’t grow tight and can’t slip. That ’s your sort. How ’s that ? ”

As he spoke he quickly fastened the end of the rope about the boy’s breast, tested the knot, and then lifted Gwyn by it.

“Now, if you stick the hammer in your waistband, and have hold of the rope above your head with one

BENEATH THE SEA.

hand to ease the strain, you ’ll go down like a cork, and easily keep yourself clear of the side.”

“Mind and don’t turn and roast, Ydoll,” cried Joe; “but you ’d better let me go.”

“Next time. Ready,” said Gwyn.

“ Then over I go.”

As if fearing to hesitate, the boy got over the low wall and stood on the narrow edge of the old, crumbling, fern-hung shaft, and the next moment he was being lowered down, Joe turning a little faint from excitement as the upturned face disappeared and he watched the rope glide through the man’s bony hands.

“ How far are you going to let him down ? ” he said anxiously.

“Far as he likes, my lad. Till he comes to paying ore. You see that the rings o’ rope run clear, and keep it right for me to run out. He ’s tidy heavy for such a little un, though.”

Joe seized the coil and made the rope run free, keeping spasmodically a tight hold of it the while, in case the man should let it slip.

And so some sixty feet were allowed to run out, with Gwyn keeping on cheerily shouting “ All right ” from time to time.

It was instantaneous.

Suddenly the mining captain started back and blundered against Joe, completely knocking him over, a wild shriek arose from the old shaft, sounding hollow, awful, and strange, and the rope, which had either parted or come undone from the boy’s chest, was swinging slackly to and fro in the great black pit.

AT AGONY POINT .

Chapter III. At Agony Point

Plosh !

There is no combination of letters that will more clearly express the horrible, echoing, hollow sound which, after what seemed to be a long interval, but was almost instantaneous, rose out of the ancient shaft, followed by strange and sickening splashings and a faint panting noise.

Then all was still, and Joe and the mining captain, who had been absolutely paralyzed for the time being, stood gazing wildly in each other’s faces.