Part 38 (1/2)
”Might, sir. Might not. No telling that.”
The captain ruminated. Then he beat his fist on his knee.
”The other cave!”
”What other cave?” asked the surgeon.
”The cave where they killed the seals.”
”Surely!” exclaimed Trendon. ”Wait, though. Didn't Slade say it was between here and the point?”
”Yes. Beyond the small beach.”
”No cave there,” declared the surgeon positively.
”There must be. Congdon, did you see an opening anywhere in the cliff as we came along?”
”No, sir. This is the only one, sir.”
”We'll see about that,” said the captain, grimly. ”Head her about. Skirt the sh.o.r.e as near the breakers as you safely can.”
The gig retraced its journey.
”There's the beach, as Slade described it,” said Captain Parkinson, as they came abreast of the little reach of sand.
”And what are those two bird-roosts on it?” asked Trendon. ”See 'em? Dead against that patch of sh.o.r.e-weed.”
”Bits of wreckage fixed in the sand.”
”Don't think so, sir. Too well matched.”
”We have no time to settle the matter now,” said the captain impatiently.
”We must find that cave, if it is to be found.”
Hovering just outside the final drag of the surf, under the skilful guidance of Congdon, the boat moved slowly along the line of beach to the line of cliff. All was open as the day. The blazing sun picked out each detail of jut and hollow. Evidently the poisonous vapours from the volcano had not spread their blight here, for the face of the precipice was bright with many flowers. So close in moved the boat that its occupants could even see b.u.t.terflies fluttering above the bloom. But that which their eager eyes sought was still denied them. No opening offered in that smiling cliff-side. Not by so much as would admit a terrier did the ma.s.s of rock and rubble gape.
”And Slade described the cave as big enough to ram the _Wolverine_ into,”
muttered Trendon.
Up to the point of the headland, and back, pa.s.sed the boat. Blank disappointment was the result.
”What is your opinion now, Dr. Trendon?” asked the captain of the older man.
”Don't know, sir,” answered the surgeon hopelessly. ”Looks as if the cave might have been a hallucination.”
”I shall have something to say to Mr. Slade on our return,” said the captain crisply. ”If the cave was an hallucination, as you suggest, the seal-murder was fiction.”
”Looks so,” agreed the other.