CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12546, 13 April 1904, Page 3 (Supplement)

CHILDREN'S COLUMN.

IN THE " WILD MAN'S" LAIR. «' 4 SAVE YOURSELVES ! HE IS GOING TO SPRING!'" "Hpxo!" suddenly exclaimed Jack Smart, the coastguardsman. " There's that smell again!" " What smeW?" Inquired Hal Vernier. Fried fish." "Fried fish?" echoed Tom Frendergast; then he, too. began to sniff, and sure enough he could scent the pleasing perfume of fish merrily spluttering in the pan. That's strange said Hal. " There isn't 6 house other than the coastguard's shanty within two miles, yet I can smell cooking fish and — « It's that wild man o' the cliffs, interrupted Smart. " Ye've heard tell of him, young sirs?" With the rest of the neighbouring country, the boys had heard the strange rumours of a wild" man who frequented those steep, rough-hewn cliffs, rumours that were mostly regarded as silly inventions, since no person could be found who would admit actually to have met tiro man face to face. "Have you seen him, Jack?" queried Hal. "Not me," admitted Smart. " Still He walked to and fro by the edge of the cliff that dropped sheer a hundred feet to where, at high tide, the sea beat itself to foam on the "rocks, and all the time lie sniffed as though he would draw every breath of ozone Into his ample lungs. "I've got him now!" he suddenly exclaimed. ""He's under here!—-dead under! Tho smell of his fish creeps up the cliff out of the front door of his cave! Wild man he may be. but he knows how to cook iish. And 'it ain't a new dodge, this wild man business. There was one on the Cornish coast, I remember. Only he called himself a 'ermit. But he was a smuggler, too! And so may this fellow he. Look here, voung sirs: you stop here an' watch. I'll be back in less than no time with a rope. We'll go down the cliff an' see what number our friend the wild man lives at," He turned as he spoke and made off in the direction of the coastguard station; and when the boys had watched him out of sight they swung about and gazed thoughtfully over the cliff. Prendergast especially stared long and intently down to where the sea dashed gaily over the jagged rocks and beat itself still against the face of the cliff. If there were a cave in the cliff beneath which he stood, reached from below, access to its entrance must be from above. Presently he lay down flat and peered over the cliff, the top edge of which projected a trifle. "There's somebody down yonder he exclaimed in a cautious whisper. "Just as I hung over, something that was on the ledge down there disappeared into the cliff!" "What was it like?" excitedly inquired Hal. " A man's foot!" "On a ledge did you say?" " Yes; a rough projection about five yards by one. Looks as if it were a bit. of cliff left after the rest had fallen away. By George! but there aro other bits of rock sticking out between here and there—just like steps! If only I could reach the first one I could climb down backwards to the ledtM and•" Lager to lay claim to the discovery of the wild man's lair, Prendergast shifted round until his legs dangled over the precipice aad. lying on his chest, held out both hands to his chum. "Cling to me, Hal," he begged. " The first few feet of the cliff hang over, but I shall bo all right if I reach the first step. Have you got me? Prop your chest against that stone so that you don't slip. That's the way. Are you ready?' " What are you going to do when you get. down there?" queried Hal, as he made his body fast against an upstanding lump of stone and took a solid grip of rendergast's two wrists. " Call on the wild man," laughed Premier; gast. . But if he is really wild —^ "Jack Smart and his rope will be along in a few minutes. Are you ready?—l'm go—Easy!—A bit lower!Whoa! —Now again—Stop! The stuff's moving or—! Pull back, Hal! The cliff's slipping! Pull bard! Don't let go of me? I'm going! I'm falling! I'm—r! The overhanging cliff gave way to the unusual strain of the boy's weight, and broke off level with the sheer face beneath it. "Hal!"One of Prendergast's hands had slipped from Hal Tenner's desperate grip, but the plucky chum was clinging to the other as to life , itself. Round from the falling mass of rock swung Prendergast, as he hung from one straining, breaking arm. An awful moment of agony followed, then the mass crashed, with a thunderous roar, upon the jagged rocks below. "Cling on," gasped Hal. "I've still got this.hand! Hang on to that boulder with the other." 11. Tom Prendergast flung up his left hand and took a grimly determined grip of a half-buried lump of rock, wedged his right foot against the hard, smooth cliff, and pressed his left knee into the unyielding stone as to the top of the cliff as he could reach. The strain was intense. His right arm felt dead, and each time that he essayed to raise his body towards the surface, and safety, his knee slipped and was torn to bleeding. But Hal clung to the deadened arm, and all might have gone well had not Jack Smart, racing to the scene with his coil of rope, come suddenly within view. Taking in the gravity of the situation at a glance, he gave voice to a cheery hail. "Ahoy, there! I'm coming, mates! I'm coming!" Prendergast had just nerved himself for the final effort when the coastguardman's cry sturtled him. Glaring up to see the source of the hail, he lost his precious grip, and in a moment his hunehed-up 'body sapped straight and held taut. It was the work of a- flash of time, then the half-buried boulder gave to the strain, leaped out of the earth, bounced Prendergast s legs and fell plumb to the rocks. But that was not the worst of the business. " I'm slipping! You're dragging me over! I can't keep myself!" cried Hal, as, drawn irresistibly forward by the dead weight of his dangling chum, his own body suddenly » leaped the stone that had held him in f check, and half a minute later he was hanging head foremost over the cliff, his startled eves drinking in the terror of a hundred feet drop tc the ugly rocks that seemed to beckon him down to destruction. Even at that moment he might have saved himself had he unclasped his hands from . Prendergast's upstretched wrist ; but the thought of deserting his chum never crossed his consciousness, and, thus ilosped together, the pair began to fall headlong down down—whack!jerk!—bang! By? miracle of good luck Prendergast lauded upon the ledge of projecting roc* that formed a doorstep tc the entrance of the cave, and at the same moment Hals jacket caught on a sharp corner of stone and stayed his flight. It also put the brake upon Prendergast's next movement which, but for his chum's stoppage, would have been a clean bounce to the rocks. But I rendergast was ready of wit and strong in limb. Making his position on the * e^ e .secure, he jerked Hal's body free of the peg from which it hung suspended and with a swift movement, not unmixed with terror, the pair stumbled into the lo.ty opening in the cliff's face that gave entrance, thev did not doubt, to the wild man s lair. The fumes of burning wood, redolent with the scent of cooking fish, rolled lazily out to the open from a still glowing wood faie. Quickly the chums passed to the further side of the fire, then they felt the draught of air that drove the smoke into the op®ll- - few yards still further forward and the entrance resolved itself into a passage that turned suddenly at right angles. " Hark !" whispered Hal. " There s somebody speaking." ' , It was a small voice, a boy s voice, a voice filled with tears and pleading. . , "Not down there, uncle, Not again. Not again! Let mo go free. Let me go into the world and stretch my aching '' m . 3The fresh air of the fields, the songs of the birds, the glory of the seasons. I want to feel and hear 'and see them. Not down there. No! No! No!"

The bovs crept round into -the winding passage that was carpeted with the dust of crumbled :;ock and lit, at the further end, by a glov? of many-coloured light, and soon, their nerves taut with expectation, they crept tree of the gkotn into a high, vaulted cavern.

" Not down there, uncle," the boy was still pleading. "Let me go froe." And while the chums, dazed and overwelmed by th« dazling light, took a grip of their senses, a man's voice, petulant and huskv, broke upon the boy's entreaty. The ladder is ready and the pump Is waiting. Go down in search of the treasure! Go down, you snivelling coward,, or, as I live, 1 will fling you down!"

Some gigantic effort of future had split the rocky floor of the cave, dividing it into two sections, and up the yawning chasm thus formed, a flood of phosphorescent light was Hung until, striking at the wet and dripping roof, it was dellected in lines of blue and green and yellow. Standing side by side, still overwhelmed by the strangeness of their discovery, the two chums saw, crouched by the "chasm beside an air pump and a diving dress, a small, wizened boy, held in grip by a longhaired, unkempt man of almost puny stature.

The man was insisting that the boy should don the diver's dress and descend, by a rope ladder, the water-logged chasm up which the light sprang in a dazzling, awe-inspiring flood.

Hal and Prendergast were not slow to gather the man's motive. It was local tradition that a ship laden with gold ingots had once been driven ashore at that spot, ami that the crew, having saved the precious cargo, straightaway fought each other for the prize, until only one was left, and he, losing his sanity, had flung himself into the sea.

Here, then, was a man who obviously believed in the myth, and who had contrived to imprison a boy in that lonely cave and force the terrified youngster to descend into the water at the bottom of the chasm in search of the fabled ingots. " Not again, uncle !" lie pleaded. " I daren't I can't ! Oil, don't make me go down that awful place again!"' The little man's face glowed with an ugly light. ( « "Go down!" he hissed. "Go down in the diving dress and come up alive and rich and happy and free to go where you will — —go down without the diving dress! Go down to the burning light that, far beneath the water, leads to everlasting darkness Go down, never to come up again! Which is it to be? Speak!" "1 can't! I daren't!" cried the shrieking bov.

"You won't!" yelled the little man; and his voice shrieked back a' dozen times from the irregular walls. " You won't? Then go down as you are! Go! Go!— say, go!" He did not intend to carry out his terrible threat. To scare the "boy into submission was his object. But as be raised the struggling youngster by the collar, the man's foot slipped upon the wet and slippery rock by the chasm s brink, and before ha could recover he was swaying forward, plunging irretrievably towards the flood of upward striking light. Another second of earth's time and man and boy would have reeled headlong to destruction; but Hal and Prendergast had ceased to be spectators. Springing forward with the thought of snatching the boy from his threatened fate, they reached the terrified, backward-hanging youngster and clung to him with all their strength n-quiver. The man's grip of his nephew had tightened at the realisation of his own peril, and as the boy was pulled back from the yawning pit the man's forward impetus was overcome, and he, too, was dragged from danger. Then he swung round and, for the first | time, realised that the scene of his labours had been invaded by strangers whoawful thought to a gold-hungry mind! —had gleaned the supposed secret that he had hugged for oyer a year. He did not utter 'a word, but into his wizened face there crept an evil passion of jealousy from which the chums recoiled as from a viper. Then, of a sudden, he sprang but not at the boys. With a series of afumal-like leaps he made a half-circuit of the cave, snatched up a two-edged knife from a fiat-topped rock and landed at the entrance to the cavern, cutting off the chums' escape. Then he laughed a low, cunning, maniacal laugh. " i will, drive you into the pit !" he gurgled. "Down iiito the bottomless pit!" He advanced a pace, weapon upraised, eyes reflecting every brilliant hue deflected from the sharp and "many tinted projections from the dripping cavern. Doubtful as how to meet the attack, the chums stood their ground, and the man took another forward step. Still the boys stod side by side, fascinated by the changing light in the man's eyes, the stealthy creep of his wriggling advance. " Save yourselves !" suddenly screamed the man's nephew. " He's going to spring! I know it! I know it!" The warning was scarcely needed. Pascinated though they were, the boys were keenly alive to their peril. The man crouched. The chums retreated a step. Three more would take them to the chasm brink! The man laughed and advanced a second step. "He is going to spring!" shrieked the uephaw again. The man crouched. "Fling yourself at him!" cried Hal to his chum. "Both together! Now!' But they were too late. The man had sprung—yet not far; for a burly figure had crept into the cavern, and before the maddened miser had cleared his feet from the dust, a heavy fist had descended upon his back and felled him to the floor, "Hullo!" cried Jack Smart. "What's this all about? Seems to me, young sirs, I didn't fix my rope and slide down here for nothing!" And lie was right. Nor did the usefulness of the rope end there. Very soon it dragged up the cliffs the two venturesome chums, and the joyful and liberated nephew of the " wild man." But the " wild man" himself refused to leave the cave. " He'll go seat-chin' for that shadow he calls a treasure till he drowns himself!" declared Jack Smart; and, his prophecy was soon fulfilled. Three days later, when the coastguardsman descended to the cave, tho old man was misssiug. Nor was he ever seen again.—Chums.