Part 35 (1/2)
For a fewfisher in their direction, or away; from them; but a movement on the part of the lad set this at rest directly after, and they saw hi at the saw-like row of jagged stones which divided one slope from the other; and, satisfied that they had not been seen, they recommenced their crawl, till they reached the cover of a pile of the loose rocks, which were pretty well covered with growth
Placing this between thee, they made for the cover of the stunted oaks, and there breathed freely
Mike was the first to speak, and he began just as if his companion had the moment beforeworth the trouble
”I don't know,” he said ”This is the first tiive such a jolly place up just because that thick-headed old Lobster ca us”
”Ah! but that isn't all,” said Vince ”We can't go down there any lers”
”But I don't believe you are right Those things looked new, I know; but theyon here we must have seen or heard of it”
”But the sand--the sand! Those footprints must be new”
”I don't see it,” said Mike, rather stubbornly ”Because the wind blows into one cave and drifts the light sand all over, that's no reason why it should do so in another cave, which ue with you,” said Vince sourly, for he eary and put out ”You can have it your oay, only I tell you this,-- slers don't stand any nonsense; they'll shoot at any one who tries to stop theoes, and we should look nice if they suddenly came upon us”
”People don't come suddenly on you when they've been dead a hundred years,” replied Mike ”Now, just look here: we must do it as if we took no interest in it, but you ask your father to-night, and I'll ask lers in the Crag”
”Well, I will,” said Vince; ”but you must do the same”
”Of course I shall; and we shall find that it ood a right to those things as anybody, for they were brought there and then forgotten”
”Well, we shall see,” said Vince; and that night, at their late tea, he started the subject with--
”Have you ever known any slers? No, Vince,” said the Doctor, s ever et it into England free; and on the other hand, it would not be of any use for s here, for there is no one to buy s from Holland or France”
Somewhere about the same time Mike approached the question at the old lers, Mike?” said Sir Francis ”Oh no, erous, and perfectly useless to such people, for they land contraband goods only where they can find a good market for the different”
”Were there ever pirates, then?” cried Mike excitedly Sir Francis laughed
”It's strange,” he said, ”what interest boys always have taken in sand stories Why, you're as bad as the rest, boy! But there, I' away from your question Yes, I believe there were pirates here at one tio, and they were a crew of low, ruffianly scoundrels, who got possession of a vessel and lived for years by plundering the outward and inward boundvessel they always escaped by running for shore, and froe of the rocks and currents they could sail where strangers dared not follow But the whole history has been dressed up treht supernatural aid to bear in navigating their craft, and that they would sail right up to the Crag and then becoone the next”
”Hah!” ejaculated Mike, and his father smiled ”All superstitious nonsense, of course, et hold of these traditions and believe in theot stretched up into rew into historical avalanches,” said the tutor
”Exactly,” said Sir Francis ”I fancy, Mike, that those people may have had a nest here One of the men--Carnach I think it was--told ht”
”Did he knohere it was, father?”
”I reue; but still there are several holes on the west coast which h I have never seen such a cave on the island, nor even one that could have been serviceable as a store”
Mike winced a little, for he fully expected to hear his father say ”Have you?” But then Sir Francis went off to another subject, and the boy nursed up his ideas ready for his nextday
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN