THE JAMES D. PHELAN 
 CELTIC COLLECTION 
 

 
 
 
 
TAKING MY CLUE "WITH ME, I DIVED" (p. 198). 
 
LOST ON DUHQQBBIO 
 
 OK 
 
 TWIXT EARTH AND OOEAN 
 
 S T A N D I S II O ' G K A D Y 
 
 If 
 
 AUTHOR OF " FINN AND HIS COMPANIONS," " THE BOG OF STARS, 
 
 "THE STORY OF IRELAND," ETC. 
 
 CASSELL AND COMPANY LIMITED 
 
 LONDON PARIS $ MELBOURNE 
 
 1894 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
PHEtAN 
 
 m 
 
PBEFACE. 
 
 I HAD at first intended to tell this story my- 
 self. With that intention I wrote to each of 
 the four brothers who separately or together 
 figured in the singular events hereafter de- 
 scribed, requesting of them more exact informa- 
 tion than I already possessed. They replied 
 not only at such length, but with such un- 
 expectedly vivid realism, that their various 
 narratives, in spite of some literary shortcomings, 
 seemed to me to need only a little editorial re- 
 vision to fit them for publication. I perceived 
 that I would more prudently play the part 
 of editor than of original author. Accordingly, 
 I decided to let the brothers Freeman tell 
 their own story. When their narratives over- 
 lapped I simply used the scissors. When 
 too minute or too wandering I struck- my pen 
 through the redundancies, or what appeared 
 to me to be such, endeavouring to secure a 
 little more brevity and conciseness. Some 
 
 810306 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 slight discrepancies, chiefly in the matter of 
 dates, I was enabled to correct from an old 
 volume of the Saunders Newsletter. It was 
 there that I first became acquainted with the 
 details of the singular disappearance of John 
 Freeman, though long before the story was 
 familiar to me in its more general features. By 
 the kindness of the Authorities of Dublin Castle 
 I was permitted to inspect and take copies 
 of the official reports sent in by the Police 
 Sub-Inspector of the district. Along with these 
 reports I found tied up in the same bundle 
 a number of letters of a more private character 
 written by the same Police Officer and addressed 
 to the same superior to whom were forwarded 
 the official reports. These two persons viz., 
 the local Sub-Inspector of Constabulary, who 
 wrote the reports and letters, and the permanent 
 official in the Castle to whom they were ad- 
 dressed seem to have been intimate friends. 
 On the top of the bundle I found a single 
 sheet with the following endorsement : 
 
 "It has occurred to me that sooner or later 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 some person will undertake to write out and 
 publish in all its details the whole story of 
 the mysterious and unaccountable disappearance 
 of John Freeman, a story which illustrates again 
 for the thousandth time the old adage that 
 truth is stranger than fiction. I have, there- 
 fore, decided to deposit here, along with the 
 official reports forwarded to me by Mr. Samuel 
 Watkins, the private letters which, simultane- 
 ously with the official, or from time to time, 
 he may have written to me dealing with the 
 catastrophe. In these private letters the in- 
 quirer, whoever he may be, and whenever he 
 comes along this way making his searches, will 
 meet with a large variety of local and personal 
 details very suitable for his purpose, but for 
 obvious reasons unfit to form part of Mr. 
 Watkins' official reports. 
 
 " HENRY VIGORS." 
 
 Mr. Watkins, of whose letters I have made 
 a copious use, is dead ; so is Mr. Vigors. These 
 letters are very interesting not only as exhibit- 
 ing the attitude of an intelligent Constabulary 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 officer towards the main incident and its develop- 
 ments, but also on account of the light which 
 they throw upon the Freeman family. Then 
 the letters of a person, written at the time of 
 the occurrence of the tragedy, or whatever it 
 may be called, will, I think, help the reader 
 to picture the events and characters with more 
 vividness. The letters of Mr. Watkins I have 
 treated in the same manner as the narratives 
 of the brothers. In fact, I have done little more 
 than cross the t's and pip the i's of the various 
 persons whom I allow here to relate the history 
 of the singular disappearance and singular 
 adventures of John Freeman. 
 
 I beg publicly to thank the brothers not 
 only for responding so promptly to my appeal, 
 but for their permission to publish, with such 
 alterations as I might see fit to make, what they 
 never intended should come before the public 
 eye in the form in which it left their pens. 
 I may add that the warm mutual affection of 
 the brothers, the primitive character of the 
 neighbourhood, and the simplicity of the home 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 life of the Freeman family, which are pleasantly 
 and naturally suggested rather than elaborately 
 described in their various communications, 
 are such as I . myself, though a seasoned 
 litterateur, felt convinced that I could not re- 
 produce with anything like the freshness and 
 vividness of their unlaboured composition. Of 
 the four brothers who were concerned in the 
 events described, Samuel, the third, hereinafter 
 spoken of invariably as Sam, is the only one 
 whose narrative I have not used, but for no 
 other reason than that it is quite overlapped 
 by those of the rest. John Freeman, the hero 
 of the story, is the lad who was lost ; Edward 
 Freeman is the discoverer of the lost one. The 
 part played by Charles, the youngest, and also 
 some singular experiences of the hero, are very 
 curious, and suggest interesting questions in 
 psychology. I am happy to state that all 
 four, though now scattered far and wide over 
 the earth's surface, are doing well, and all, 
 except the youngest, are married men and 
 fathers of families. EDITOR. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. CHARLES FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE. MY 
 
 BROTHER GOES TO Du-CoRRia . . 1 
 IT. AND DOES NOT RETURN . . . .10 
 
 III. SAMUEL W ATKINS ON THE DISAPPEARANCE. 
 
 OFFICIAL REPORT . W. . .19 
 
 IV. CHARLEY FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (con- 
 
 tinued). His VISION . . . .24 
 
 V. EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE. THE AR- 
 REST OF MELODY . , . . . 3'2 
 VI. EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (con- 
 tinued). JACK'S CARRIER PIGEON. . 43 
 VII. EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (con- 
 tinued). MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE 
 OF EDWARD FREEMAN . . . .54 
 
 VIII. CROHOOR-BEG. SAMUEL WATKINS TO HENRY 
 
 VIGORS ...... 54 
 
 IX. MR. WATKINS' NARRATIVE (continued). 
 
 THE PIAST . ', " 63 
 
 X. MR. WATKINS' NARRATIVE (continued). 
 MR. WATKINS RECEIVES A LETTER FROM 
 THE BROTHERS . . . .76 
 
 XI. MR. WATKINS' NARRATIVE (continued). 
 
 RECEIVES A SECOND AND BETTER LETTER 87 
 XII. SURPRISING EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S 
 
 PARLOUR 98 
 
x CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP 1 ER PAGE 
 
 XIII. MR. W ATKINS' NARRATIVE (concluded). 
 
 FOUND! 116 
 
 XIV. EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued). 
 
 - EDWARD FREEMAN LOSES HIMSELF, 
 BUT FINDS HIS BROTHER . . .119 
 XV. JOHN FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued). 
 How JOHN FREEMAN CAME TO CURRY'S 
 WINDOW' , m . . * . .125 
 
 XVI. TRAPPED . . . . . . .132 
 
 XVII. NOT TO GET OUT 139 
 
 XVIII. FIRE 146 
 
 XIX. NOT A DOG, SPITE ITS BARKING . . .154 
 
 XX. FRIENDS MULTIPLY 159 
 
 XXI. FURTHER EXPLORATIONS . . . .166 
 
 XXII. ANOTHER ATTEMPTED ESCALADE. . .171 
 
 XXIII. A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT . . .177 
 
 XXIV ATTEMPTED ESCAPE vid THE SEAL'S TUNNEL 183 
 
 . XXV. A DESPERATE ATTEMPT UPON THE TUNNEL . 195 
 
 XXVI. AT CURRY'S WINDOW. / . ;. ' . .211 
 
 XXVII. THE GHOST . .< . . ' . .217 
 
 XXVIII. THE GHOST TAKES AN UNEXPECTED SHAPE . 226 
 
 XXIX. ALL ABOUT MUTTON . . . . . . .241 
 
 XXX. MY LAST ATTEMPT UPON THE SEALS' TUNNEL 248 
 XXXI. EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (con- 
 tinued). LIFE OF THE Two BROTHERS 
 IN THE CAVERN ..... 257 
 
 XXXII. EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued). 
 
 HOME AGAIN 267 
 
 XXXIII. JOHN FREEMAN CONCLUDES THE STORY. A 
 
 GOOD TREASURE-TROVE AND A MORAL . 277 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 "TAKING MY CLUE WITH ME, I ... DIVED . . /' Frontispiece. 
 
 PLAN OF THE CAVERX p. xii. 
 
 " SOON I WAS IN DENSE DARKNESS " . . To face p. 46 
 
 " IT SENT OUT A GREAT BLAZE" ,, 106 
 
 " IT GAVE WAY BEFORE MY DESCENDING WEIGHT" 132 
 
 " I SAW FOUR ROUND EYES APPARENTLY WATCHING ME " 
 
 To face p. 160 
 
 "I WAS OFTEN SURROUNDED BY THE WHOLE NINE" 
 
 To face p. 182 
 
 " I FOUND A FAT SHEEP LYING MOTIONLESS ON THE 
 
 GROUND" . . . . 4 . To face p. 241 
 
 " WE STOOD IN CURRY'S WINDOW " 274 
 
PitofBoiling Water. 
 
 Ancient 
 Tomb? 
 
 GREAT 
 CENTRAL CAVERN & 
 
 ^Seals' 'Pool. 
 
 XSccond Fire. 
 
 First Blow flo 
 
 * Pocket of 
 
 ft K^ Woo 
 
 t Fire. 
 
 A *+ 
 
 Curry's 
 
 PL AX OF THE CAYEEN. 
 
LOST ON 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 CHARLES FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE. MY BROTHER 
 GOES TO DU-CORRIG. 
 
 IN the month of July, 1854, my eldest brother, 
 John Freeman, suddenly and most unaccount- 
 ably was taken from us. One fine afternoon, 
 being in good health and spirits, he went 
 fishing and never returned. At lunch he 
 was very pleasant and even jocose, making us 
 youngsters laugh so immoderately that my 
 father was at last obliged to interfere, and one 
 of my brothers was sent out of the room in 
 disgrace. 
 
 All the events of that terrible day are im- 
 printed on my mind with the clearness of 
 visuality. I can still see the funny faces with 
 which, when my father was not looking, he 
 threw us into uncontrollable laughing fits. He 
 
2 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 had but just returned from Trinity College for 
 the summer, vacation, and was full of all sorts 
 of joyous plans : arvd projects for spending a good 
 me;^tr,li(Mm^- Tp^r fellow ! he little knew 
 what this vacation had in store for him. 
 
 For a boy like my brother, and, indeed, for 
 all of us, few rural neighbourhoods could have 
 been more delightful than ours. There were 
 mountain streams abounding with trout, streams 
 which needed only a night's rain, sometimes 
 merely a heavy shower, to supply good fishing. 
 When the streams were not flooded he often 
 brought home a good basket of brown trout 
 and white, taken in the pools and holes with a 
 mere shrimping-net which he made himself. It 
 was something like a large and long-handled 
 landing-net. 
 
 There were good trout lakes, too, in the 
 mountains. Of sea-fishing, both from boats 
 and from the rock, he was very fond ; he was 
 at the latter sport, viz., fishing for conor* from 
 
 * A dull-yellow fish, very scaly, not welcome to epicures, 
 and affording poor sport. ED. 
 
MY BROTHER GOES TO DU-CORRIG. 3 
 
 a rock, when he so mysteriously disappeared. 
 The Atlantic, beating against a very wild and 
 almost iron-bound coast, lay less than a mile 
 from our home. My father, a clergyman of the 
 Church of Ireland, before the world suspected it 
 to be a " upas tree," was incumbent of a very 
 large parish, in fact three parishes rolled into 
 one, which extended many miles along the sea- 
 coast and far into the interior. There were no 
 resident gentry, and there was no preservation 
 of game. 
 
 No one but my brother had a gun in all the 
 country -side, so that the shooting was all ours, 
 and there was shooting in summer as well as in 
 winter, for in summer we shot curlews, cave- 
 pigeons, rabbits, and hares. Puss abounded in 
 this region, and as there were no harriers and 
 no greyhounds, Jack was, in fact, not only a 
 great sportsman, but the only sportsman in the 
 county. Enemies he had none, so that his mys- 
 terious disappearance could not be ascribed to 
 any personal malignity. All the country people 
 were fond of him, and, I think, proud of 
 B 2 
 
4 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 him. They were always bringing him 
 news of the " whereabouts " of otters, badgers, 
 coveys of partridge, and so forth, and would 
 run across the fields, leaving their work, 
 to learn the contents of his bag, or would 
 shout from afar, when they saw him returning 
 with rod or gun, "Well, Master John, what 
 luck ? " 
 
 No, we never suspected for a moment, not 
 until months after his disappearance, that he had 
 been made away with by an enemy or had met 
 with any foul play. And yet, in broad daylight, 
 less than a mile from the Eectory, my brother 
 suddenly disappeared, vanished as utterly as if 
 he had been sucked down into the bowels of the 
 earth, or drawn up into the sky. 
 
 The day was the 10th of July, a singularly 
 fine day even for that time of the year. It was 
 the day after his return from college, and he 
 was quite running over with spirits. When I 
 awoke early that morning I heard him whistling 
 outside the windows on the lawn. The air was 
 " Vilikins and his Dinah," a song much in vogue 
 
MY BROTHER GOES TO DU-CORRIG. 5 
 
 at the time. He always came home with a new 
 tune, and never seemed to tire of it till he got 
 another. When I looked out he was walking to 
 and fro on the lawn, taking the twist oat of a 
 new fishing-line. He had fastened one end of 
 it to a little holly-tree on the lawn, and was 
 diligently engaged in taking out the twist, 
 which, indeed, is a tedious process. 
 
 During the forenoon and on till dinner-time 
 he seemed keenly and happily absorbed in similar 
 avocations, viz., getting his fishing-gear into 
 order. We youngsters were confined to the 
 schoolroom all that time, which we considered 
 unfair, inasmuch as it was Jack's first day at 
 home, but we could hear him bustling about 
 the place and everlastingly whistling " Yilikins 
 and his Dinah." Once we heard an awful 
 screaming of geese in the rear regions. We 
 knew perfectly well the cause of it. Jack was 
 pursuing them and plucking out their wing 
 feathers in order to tie pollock-flies. 
 
 A little after noon he came into the school- 
 room and asked the tutor, Mr. Humphreys, to 
 
6 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 let me go to the village to buy him some wire. 
 He gave me a penny for the wire and a penny 
 for myself. In those days I considered a penny 
 a handsome tip. He wanted the wire to make 
 line-eyes for his big rod, that which he used for 
 sea-fishing. He also bade me call at the shoe- 
 maker's to get a piece of wax. I mention all 
 this because on his disappearance some foolish 
 people said that he had " run away," a suppos- 
 ition which no member of the family harboured 
 for a single instant. He was, in fact, brimful of 
 sporting intentions. 
 
 At three we dined, when, as I have described, 
 he made those funny faces and set us all on the 
 roar. When dinner was over and we ran out 
 of the room, there was a boy at the hall door 
 with a box of bait in his hand, consisting partly 
 of cockles and partly of what we used to call 
 lug- worms. They are dug up in the mud of the 
 sea-shore when the tide is out. This boy had 
 been digging bait for Jack all the morning. He 
 asked Jack to let him go with him to Du-Corrig, 
 and Jack refused. 
 
MY BROTHER GOES TO DU-OORRIG. 7 
 
 " Where are you going, Jack ? " said my 
 second brother, Ned. 
 
 " To Du-Corrig for conor," he said ; " and 
 let none of you follow me as you value your 
 lives." 
 
 Young as I was, by a certain sympathy, or I 
 know not what, I saw why he wished to be 
 alone. It was to indulge in his transports and 
 talk and sing, and do what he pleased, and so 
 let off his animal spirits and delight at being 
 home agaiii, without witnesses. I generally 
 knew and felt what was passing in his mind. 
 Indeed, I was very much attached to him, 
 though he took hardly any notice of me. I 
 was greatly pleased this day because he had 
 selected me to go for the wire and wax. 
 
 " I shall slay the wily conor, Ned," he went 
 on, " till the sun is just that high above the 
 western main. 
 
 Sing tooral-al-ooral-al-ooral-al-lee, 
 
 and then, up with the white feather ! and in 
 with pollock and crohogues ! till Apollo is half- 
 
8 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 way to the North in his silver boat, and black 
 night invests the sea. 
 
 For a cup of cold pison it lay by her side, 
 And the billet-doux said 'twas by pison she died. 
 Sing tooral-al-ooral-al-ooral-al-lee." 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 Off he marched down the avenue with his 
 little box of bait in his left hand, and his rod on 
 his right shoulder, crunching the gravel noisily, 
 for he was a large and stout lad. The two dogs 
 followed close at his heels with their tails down, 
 for they feared that they would be turned back. 
 So they were, at the gate, and when they still 
 showed signs of following he stooped down and 
 flung stones towards them. Shortly afterwards 
 I heard him shout " Ter." 
 
 " Sir ? " answered a voice from a neighbour- 
 ing field. 
 
 " Come to Du-Corrig an hour after sunset to 
 bring home the fish." 
 
 "I will, sir," answered the voice. 
 
 Then I heard more faintly in the distance 
 the plaintive notes of " Vilikins and his Dinah " 
 
MY BROTHER GOES TO DU-GORRIG. 9 
 
 an odious song, by the way. So my brother 
 Jack left home that 10th of July, 1854, and 
 was not seen again. As will be quite evident, 
 he could have no intention whatever of " running 
 awa}V and yet that was the explanation of 
 his disappearance which was favoured by all 
 the Solomons. 
 
10 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 AND DOES NOT RETURN. 
 
 I KNOW not why, but I had an uneasy feeling 
 about Jack all that day, and it increased after 
 he had left the Eectory for Du-Corrig. For 
 some time this uneasy feeling took no precise 
 shape, but later on I began to picture to myself 
 a " tidal wave " sweeping him off the rock, and, 
 having a lively imagination, saw the imaginary 
 scene clearly, and Jack struggling for his life in 
 the water. In the previous summer three 
 tenants of ours in a different part of the coun- 
 try, all fathers of families, had been so swept 
 off the rocks while fishing conor and drowned. 
 
 Though I reminded myself that Jack was a 
 splendid swimmer and diver, and could do any- 
 thing in the water, I failed to get rid of the 
 vague sense of coming calamity of which I was 
 conscious all day, and which became greater and 
 greater as the sun set and darkness came on. 
 
AND DOES NOT RETURN. 11 
 
 " Might not Jack be attacked by cramp," I 
 thought, " when in the water ? " 
 
 True he never had had a cramp, nor did I 
 know of anyone who was ever assailed in that 
 way, but I had heard a great deal about the 
 cramp. 
 
 I was sent to bed early, for I was only eight 
 years old, but I could not sleep. I kept listen- 
 ing for the barking of the dogs. In the pre- 
 vious summer that was to me the usual sign 
 that Jack had returned safe from fishing. It 
 was now long after dark. My two elder 
 brothers, Ned and Sam, came into the room 
 with a lamp. We three slept in the same 
 room, Ned and Sam in one large bed, I in a 
 little timber bedstead with high sides, over 
 which I had to climb when getting in and out. 
 
 Ned put the lamp on the table opposite the 
 looking-glass and leaned over it. He took a 
 pin from his coat and began to push up the 
 wick. It was a primitive little lamp : I have 
 not seen such since I was a boy. There was 
 usually a fat red head on the top of the wick, 
 
12 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 which, had to be snuffed just as we used to snuff 
 the candles. 
 
 " Jack is out late to-night," he said ; " I 
 hope nothing has happened him." 
 
 " What could happen him ? " said Sam, who 
 was of a more stolid character. While saying 
 this he undid the serpent-fastened belt which 
 confined his waggoner. In those days boys 
 wore loose white blouses gathered round the 
 waist by a belt ; we used to call them " wag- 
 goners." 
 
 "I don't know," replied Ned, "but 'tis 
 very late. There's papa opening the hall door 
 and listening. How still the night is ! " 
 
 " He's drowned," I cried from my truckle 
 bed. " The tidal wave has caught him as 
 it caught Cody, Phillips, and Moroney last 
 year." 
 
 " Hold your tongue, you little ass, and go to 
 sleep," answered Ned angrily, but he threw 
 down the window, leaned out, and listened. 
 
 There was a corn-crake craking somewhere 
 outside. The moon was shining ; I could hear 
 
AND DOES NOT RETURN. 13 
 
 the distant roar of the sea, where it rolled up 
 the white strand which we called Tramore. 
 
 "This is getting bad, Sam," he said. " He's 
 long after his time." 
 
 Sam was now in bed, but sitting up and 
 listening with bright eyes. I heard my father 
 moving about below stairs ceaselessly from the 
 hall door to the parlour and back again, and 
 talking with my mother. 
 
 " There's someone coming," said Ned. The 
 dogs were indeed barking, but not for Jack ; that 
 I knew well. " Pooh 1 'tis only old Ter." 
 
 "Well, Ter," he cried cheerfully from the 
 window, " where are the fish ? Why isn't 
 Master John with you ? " 
 
 To these questions there was no audible 
 reply. 
 
 Ter was one of my father's labourers who 
 worked, or rather elaborately idled, upon the 
 extensive glebe farm which was attached to the 
 Eectory. It will be remembered that it was Ter 
 whom my brother told to come to Du-Corrig 
 after sunset. Ter made no reply to Ned's 
 
14 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 questions. I heard him crunching the gravel 
 as he walked slowly to the hall door. 
 
 " What is he saying ? " I cried. 
 
 "Sh " said Ned, with his head on one side, 
 listening. The man was Baying something to 
 my father at the hall door. 
 
 " He says he found the bait-box on the rock, 
 but no rod, and that Jack is not there, and that 
 he shouted for him everywhere and got no 
 answer. Get up, Sam ; we must go search/' 
 
 Sam sprang at once with a bound upon the 
 floor and dressed in haste. 
 
 " Perhaps he left Du-Corrig," he said, " in 
 one of the boats going out for night-fishing." 
 
 *' Then why did he leave the box of bait 
 behind him ? " retorted Ned. 
 
 " Forgot it," answered Sam, dressing 
 furiously. 
 
 The house was by this time in confusion, 
 with servants rushing to and fro, exclamations, 
 interrogations, and my father's voice raised. 
 
 Then I heard somewhere the sound of a 
 horn. The country-side was being called out to 
 
AND DOES NOT RETURN. 15 
 
 search. I was alone now ; Ned and Sam were 
 far away in the night. From the window I 
 could see many torches moving swiftly south- 
 westwards in the direction of Du-Corrig. I 
 heard the faintest and most distant noises, 
 owing to the extreme stillness of the night. 
 Fear, I suppose, too, made my hearing preter- 
 naturally acute. 
 
 I remained at the open window a long time, 
 till I was discovered there by my mother, shiver- 
 ing and coughing, and was by her put back into 
 my bed. She was in tears, though perhaps to 
 comfort me she said, "Go to sleep, darling. 
 Jack will be here when you wake in the morn- 
 ing. Of course he has gone out in one of the 
 deep-sea fishing-boats." 
 
 It was discovered, however, ere long that 
 none of the boats which used to go out far from 
 land, fishing haak and ling, had gone out that 
 night, owing to stress of haymaking. At last I 
 fell asleep. When I woke in the morning and 
 sat up, I found my two brothers lying on their 
 bed, outside the bed-clothes, fast asleep, but not 
 
16 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 undressed. I knew from this that Jack had 
 not been found. I dressed and went into Jack's 
 room. It was empty ! I then went downstairs. 
 There were voices in my father's study. The 
 door was open ; I saw my father standing and 
 my mother sitting down, both very pale, and my 
 mother weeping. It was still the grey dawn of 
 the day. 
 
 My parents not having noticed me, I set out 
 for Du-Corrig and ran all the way. The place 
 was crowded with fishermen and country people, 
 amongst whom were several policemen and coast- 
 guards, in their bluejackets and white trousers. 
 There were boats off the rock, which were being 
 rowed slowly along. The men in them were 
 dragging the sea-bottom here with grappling- 
 irons. Just then a police orderly rode up on a 
 foaming horse. He received some fresh directions 
 from Mr. Watkins, the constabulary officer of 
 the district, and galloped off again. Everyone, 
 indeed, was at his wits' ends, for it was quite 
 impossible to frame any theory of the disappear- 
 ance which would square with known facts. One 
 
AND DOES NOT RETURN. 17 
 
 boat had gone bream -fishing the previous after- 
 noon. The people in it said that they had seen 
 my brother on the rock, and that he had hailed 
 them as they rowed past in a cheerful and 
 friendly manner. 
 
 That was the last seen or heard of him. 
 That he had been drowned no one in the neigh- 
 bourhood could believe, though the coastguards, 
 for want of anything else to do/ were dragging 
 the sea-bottom. There were other boats out too 
 fishermen who went miles to the east and 
 miles to the west, searching and at intervals 
 crying out, hoping against hope that there 
 might be some response. Presently my elder 
 brothers Ned and Sam came down to the rock, 
 and roughly bade me go home. They joined 
 Mr. Watkins, who questioned them for a long 
 time. The last hope was that in obedience to a 
 sudden impulse he had walked off to visit some of 
 our distant friends, for' a twenty or thirty mile 
 walk was nothing to him. 
 
 But no tidings of any kind reached us as 
 day followed day. No one had heard of him 
 
18 LOST ON DU-CORRIQ. 
 
 or seen him anywhere since the bream -fishers 
 passed him on the rock, when he hailed them as 
 I have already described. 
 
 The series of extraordinary and marvellous 
 experiences which had really befallen my brother 
 will be found to re -illustrate for the thousandth 
 time the old saying that " truth is stranger 
 than fiction/' 
 
19 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SAMUEL WATKINS ON THE DISAPPEARANCE. 
 
 OFFICIAL REPORT. 
 
 " I HAVE to report a very mysterious disappear- 
 ance which took place in this neighbourhood 
 last Wednesday, the 10th instant. The eldest 
 son of our rector, the Rev. Mr. Freeman, left 
 home in the afternoon to go fishing, and never 
 returned. He was seen by a boat's crew shortly 
 afterwards, fishing from the rock to which he 
 had announced that he would go for that 
 purpose. Its local name is Du-Corrig. For 
 reasons which I need not set down, I am abso- 
 lutely certain that he did not run away. That 
 he slipped from the rock and was drowned is 
 also well-nigh incredible, for he was a splendid 
 swimmer and a remarkably athletic and spirited 
 young man ; nor is it credible that he met with 
 foul play in such a spot and at such a time, for 
 he had nothing with him to excite cupidity. 
 c 2 
 
20 LOST OjV DU-CORRIG. 
 
 " He was very popular, too, in the neigh- 
 bourhood, and after making many secret in- 
 quiries, I do not believe that he had an enemy 
 in the whole country-side. It is possible, no 
 doubt, that from some other part of the country 
 an enemy may have followed him hither, killed 
 him unawares on the rock, and flung his body 
 into the sea. The ground, however, has been 
 carefully dragged, under my directions, by the 
 coastguards of the adjoining station. They 
 found nothing not even his rod, which dis- 
 appeared along with him. 
 
 " Subsequently I secured the services of the 
 diver who is at work on the construction of the 
 Coosdarig pier for the Board of Works. He 
 came next day, with his diving apparatus and 
 assistants, and made a careful submarine exam- 
 ination without discovering anything. If young 
 Freeman was drowned here, his rod, weighted as 
 it was by a heavy brass reel, should have been 
 found. Altogether the case is mysterious, nor 
 can I frame any theory which would rationally 
 account for it. I have caused advertisements to 
 
SAMUEL WATKINS ON THE DISAPPEARANCE. 21 
 
 be inserted in all the Connaught papers, giving 
 a description of young Freeman." 
 
 SAMUEL WATKINS. [Private Letter.] July 18th. 
 
 MY DEAR HARRY, You cannot imagine how much I 
 have been upset about this affair. John Freeman, the lost 
 boy I find it hard to picture him as anything but a boy 
 has been known to me intimately since he was thirteen 
 years of age. I can honestly say that I have never known 
 a finer, braver, more honourable, and more affectionate lad. 
 He is not exactly handsome, though he has the fiercest and 
 brightest eyes of glowing hazel that I ever saw, and a very 
 beautiful mouth ; nor clever, yet, at the same time, not 
 deficient in intelligence. He is absolutely without vice, 
 though I hear that during the last college term he has 
 begun to smoke a little. He is the strongest and almost 
 the most athletic youth whom it has ever been my good 
 fortune to meet, large-limbed, muscular, and brimful of 
 health and of spirits. As a swimmer and diver I never 
 saw his equal. I have often seen him strip on a wild day 
 in December or January, and swim long distances to 
 recover some curlew or pigeon which he had shot. But 
 enough of this. Suffice it to say that not only as the 
 constabulary officer of this district, but as his own personal 
 friend, the astonishing and mysterious disappearance of 
 poor Freeman, under the circumstances detailed in the 
 official report, has been to me a most severe blow. I 
 have done, and am doing, my best. But every night finds 
 me here in my den cogitating aimlessly over this tragedy 
 
22 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 for the worst of it is that I am unable even to imagine 
 a theory which will in the least square with the facts. 
 
 It is unfortunate that the Rev. Mr. Freeman and 
 myself are not on the best of terms. I once flung out 
 the suggestion that the days mentioned in the first chapter 
 of Genesis were ages or long intervals of time. Some 
 meddler told him of this, since when he has regarded me 
 coldly and askance as a dangerous Freethinker. Moreover, 
 I am not a very regular attendant at church. In short, 
 our relations are cold and strained, though I like and 
 respect him very much. John, the lost boy, is the eldest 
 son. 
 
 The next brother is Edward a tall, loose-jointed, black- 
 eyed and merry stripling, far more popular than John, 
 owing to his pleasant ways and ready speech, greatly 
 devoted to flute-playing and performances on the cornet- 
 a-piston, 3, magnificent leaper and swimmer, though by no 
 means as powerful and athletic as his brother John, who 
 but I think I have sufficiently described him already. 
 There is no girl. Next comes Sam, who is somewhat of 
 a nondescript a staid, self-contained, stubborn sort of boy. 
 The fourth son is a little boy called Charley, a weird- 
 looking child, all eyes, like a young crow, and who never 
 laughs. Mrs. Freeman is as quiet and unassuming as her 
 husband at least, where his pastoral authority and sense 
 of theological duty are concerned is not. She is kind, 
 gentle, most hospitable, a truly Christian lady. 
 
 Write at length, and fully, weighing and considering 
 all the facts. Was John Freeman drowned, or murdered, 
 
SAMUEL W ATKINS ON THE DISAPPEARANCE. 23 
 
 or spirited away and hidden ; or did he run away, or 
 was he swept off by the tide and picked up by a passing 
 ship 1 Consider all the possibilities, and write. When we 
 were at the depot together I remember you used to guess 
 out the mystery of a novel from the first few chapters. 
 This disappearance is curiously like the first chapter of 
 a novel. Bring your guessing and solving powers to bear 
 upon it, and oblige yours truly, SAMUEL W ATKINS. 
 
24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 CHARLEY FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued}. HIS 
 
 VISION. 
 
 EVERYONE had given up all hope of ever seeing 
 my brother again, when one person, if a child 
 of eight may be called a person, strongly and 
 continually began to assert that he was alive. 
 How I became possessed of this conviction I 
 now proceed to relate. It happened in this 
 manner. On the night of the 31st of July, 
 exactly three weeks and a day after the dis- 
 appearance, I had a very singular experience, 
 which, in spite of all absurd theories of brain- 
 waves, telepathy, and I know not what, I still 
 firmly believe to have been an instance of Divine 
 interposition. 
 
 It was upon a Wednesday night, as I par- 
 ticularly remember, because my father always 
 had service on Wednesday nights, and I had 
 been to church and returned with the rest of 
 
CHARLEY FREEMAN'S VISION. 25 
 
 the family. I went to bed as usual at half-past 
 seven in good health, if not in good spirits. 
 Truly, during those weeks we were all terribly 
 afflicted and cast down. Between eight and 
 nine o'clock, as I lay wide awake, I saw, not a 
 dream, but a clear waking vision ! 
 
 At the time I was not thinking of Jack at 
 all. I had just got into bed, and was lying on 
 my back and looking upwards into the dark. 
 I became aware of a light not far from me on 
 the left, and thought at first that someone had 
 come into the room with a lamp. Turning a 
 little to one side, I saw a fire burning red and 
 smoky, from which went up a good many 
 sparks. This was all I saw at first, but presently 
 I became aware that someone was sitting near 
 it with his back towards me, bare-headed, and 
 perfectly still. 
 
 It was Jack ! I sat up and called him by 
 his name, but he made no answer and did not 
 move. Then I asked him a succession of short, 
 quick questions as to what he was doing, why 
 he did not answer me, etc. There was darkness 
 
26 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 all round the place, darkness which was faintly 
 illuminated by the fire, but afterwards I re- 
 membered having seen rough, shiny points of 
 ragged rock on which the firelight faintly 
 played and flickered. I did see clearly a large 
 fish which lay beside him on a flagstone close 
 to the fire. To judge by his attitude he ap- 
 peared to be gazing intently into the heart of 
 the blaze. Once he stooped forward a little 
 as if to feed the fire. 
 
 Still shouting questions I sprang from my 
 bed and rushed towards him, intending to lay my 
 hand on his shoulder. Then I came violently 
 into collision with something solid ; it was a 
 wardrobe which stood against the wall on the 
 other side of the room in front of my bed. 
 Eecovering myself, I could see the vision still 
 before me as clear and distinct as if I saw it 
 with my eyes ; indeed, I have not the least 
 doubt that I did see it with my eyes. Then 
 soft arms were laid round me and I was raised 
 up. It was my mother, who had run upstairs 
 hearing my cries. 
 
CHARLEY FREEMAN'S VISION. 27 
 
 She put me back in my bed. The whole 
 family had rushed to the room, greatly fright- 
 ened by my screamings and loud excited talk. 
 Though there were candles in the room I still 
 saw the apparition, vision, or whatever it might 
 be called, and, still urging my mother and 
 brothers to see it too, was deposited in bed, 
 and even forcibly held down there. When I 
 was again able to look in the same direction 
 the vision was gone ! 
 
 Of course, my mother concluded at once 
 that I was ill, labouring perhaps under an acute 
 gastric attack, the commencement of a gastric 
 fever, and I was treated on the assumption 
 that I was suffering from that common child's 
 malady, and dosed with the usual medicines. 
 My mother was surprised in the morning to 
 find no sign of illness upon me, and still more 
 so when the doctor declared that I was perfectly 
 well. 
 
 Though I was kept in bed my brothers were 
 permitted to see. me. Of course I told and told 
 over and over again the whole story of the vision. 
 
28 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 " Jack is alive somewhere," I kept saying, 
 " and must be searched for." 
 
 "Why do you go on like that, Charley?" 
 they said. " Don't you know he's dead ? It 
 was a dream." 
 
 " It was no dream," I answered ; " I was 
 as broad awake as you are. I saw him, and 
 how could I see him if he wasn't alive ? " 
 
 " But how could he be in the room ? 
 There's no trace of fire here. How can you 
 be so foolish ? " 
 
 " No," I replied, " he wasn't in the room, 
 of course. When I struck the press which 
 stands against the wall here, I could see him 
 still beyond me. So, of course, he wasn't in 
 the room. But he was somewhere else, and I 
 saw him, and he's alive." 
 
 On the following night, shortly after the 
 big mahogany clock in the lobby had struck 
 eight, I continued to watch intently for the 
 reappearance of the vision. Nothing came, 
 however, though I heard the clock strike nine. 
 But on the following night I had an experience 
 
CHARLEY FREEMAN'S VISION. 29 
 
 quite as surprising to myself, though not to 
 others, as that vision of the fire and of my 
 brother sitting between me and it. 
 
 A few minutes after the clock struck, I 
 seemed to grow suddenly and curiously cold, 
 and while still staring out into the darkness, I 
 was aware of the words " The Devil's Parlour" 
 coming into my mind. I did not hear the 
 words at all with my ears. It was as if my 
 mind had ears, and that I heard the words in 
 that way, very clear and distinct, but not at 
 all as if spoken by any audible voice. I did 
 not cry out or make any noise on this occasion, 
 but resolved to stay awake and tell my brothers 
 when they came to bed. 
 
 I fell asleep, however, before they came up. 
 In the morning I awoke them and told what 
 had happened. They treated me as little Joseph 
 was treated by his brothers ; nevertheless I saw 
 them look significantly at one another. 
 
 After breakfast and before school hours they 
 went off together, Ned taking his cornopean 
 with him. The Devil's Parlour was an awe- 
 
30 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 inspiring cleft, the opening to some deep and 
 mysterious subterranean hollow, in the side of 
 a long hill which lay about a mile westward 
 from the Rectory. As I afterwards learned, 
 my two brothers went to the cleft, shouted 
 down into it both together, and Ned blew his 
 cornet-a-piston, mouth downwards, awaking huge 
 echoes and reverberations there. Then they 
 listened but heard no reply. 
 
 They hardly spoke to me at all after this, 
 and never about my mysterious visions and 
 experiences. The same day I took from the 
 sideboard in the dining-room a great home-made 
 brown cake, and going off by myself rolled it 
 down the Devil's Parlour. Two days afterwards 
 I took and rolled down another, and continued 
 to tell everyone that Jack was alive and in the 
 Devil's Parlour. 
 
 I had rolled down some half a dozen cakes 
 in this manner when my mother, who was aware 
 of the rapid disappearance of her cakes, dis- 
 covered me in the act of making off with one. 
 That night she and my father had a con- 
 
CHARLEY FREEMAN'S VISION. 31 
 
 sultation on my case, and the following day 
 I was sent off to an uncle and aunt who lived 
 in an adjoining county. Of course my parents 
 thought that my mind was affected, and my 
 mother attributed it to excessively long school 
 hours and too much brain-work. 
 
 At my uncle's, I had nothing to do but 
 amuse myself, and gradually I began to think 
 that perhaps what my uncle and aunt said was 
 true, and that these experiences were only 
 dreams and " lively imaginations," which was 
 the expression used. I was to come home at 
 Christmas, but early in November a messenger 
 arrived with a letter from Ned addressed to 
 my uncle, telling him to send me home at 
 once. Something very strange had occurred in 
 the meantime, something that caused my visions 
 and voice to be regarded at home in quite a 
 new light. 
 
32 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE. THE ARREST OV 
 
 MELODY. 
 
 IN the month of October, long after the public 
 excitement caused by the disappearance of my 
 brother John had subsided, and even after the 
 local interest caused by Charley's curious be- 
 haviour and conversation had died away, the 
 suspicion, indeed the conviction, that John had 
 met with foul play, while it renewed the general 
 excitement, made our own grief only the deeper 
 and more bitter. Everyone believed now that 
 my brother had been murdered. 
 
 Du-Corrig, where Jack was last seen, was 
 not within sight of any house in the neighbour- 
 hood, but there was a house and farm close by, 
 occupied by a returned Irish-American called 
 Melody, a very big, noisy, and quarrelsome man, 
 given to drink. He was poor now, though when 
 he came home he had money. His wife was 
 
THE ARREST OF MELODY. 33 
 
 dead. He lived here with his mother, who was 
 bed-ridden, and three children, the eldest of 
 them called Dannie, who was a pupil in my 
 father's parochial school. 
 
 No one liked Melody ; nor am I surprised 
 his ways were so different from those of the 
 rest of the people. One day I overheard a 
 labourer on the Glebe say to another, " Melody 
 is drinking again, wherever he got the money." 
 I noticed the remark, for on the previous even- 
 ing I had seen him staggering home from the 
 adjoining village. He endeavoured to get into 
 conversation with me, but I stepped out, and 
 could hear him bawling some impertinence after 
 me. Melody had money and was drinking. 
 The fact caused a good deal of interest and 
 curiosity in the neighbourhood. 
 
 A few evenings later the schoolmaster called 
 at the Glebe and inquired for me. I went into 
 the kitchen and noticed that his face was fixed 
 and pale ; I brought him into the dining-room 
 and asked him whether he was ill. He said 
 " No," and was silent. I too was silent and 
 
 D 
 
34 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 only looked at him. He had a piece of paper 
 in his hand which he kept twirling between 
 his fingers in a nervous manner. At last he 
 said suddenly 
 
 " I came about Master John. I fear, sir, 
 there has been foul play. You know I taught 
 him mathematics for his Michaelmas examin- 
 ation last year, and was a good deal with him 
 in the evenings. He then showed me his ring. 
 It had a Latin inscription on the inside. Not 
 knowing Latin, I do not rightly recollect the 
 words, though I read them at the time and he 
 translated them for me. Master Edward ! Master 
 Edward ! " he cried in great agitation, and laying 
 the paper on the table, " are those they ? " 
 
 " They are ! " said I. We stood trembling 
 and looked at each other. Written on the 
 paper in a large schoolboy hand were the words 
 "Nee sperne duritiam" Those were the words 
 engraved on the inside of my brother's ring. 
 
 "This is terrible, Mr. Grloster," I said at 
 last; "tell me all." He did so, and to the 
 following effect : 
 
THE ARREST OF MELODY. 35 
 
 Dannie Melody, it seems, came to school 
 one day looking very big and important, and 
 behaved so badly that he had to be punished. 
 The boy's singular behaviour arose from the 
 fact that he was the possessor of a sixpenny- 
 bit, which he said his father had given to him. 
 As Dannie was never known to have even a 
 halfpenny, his bright sixpence excited a great 
 deal of curiosity, and all the boys were very 
 eager to find out the cause of his father's un- 
 expected munificence. Dannie, however, refused 
 to tell ; but, it seems, after having pledged him 
 to fidelity, communicated the secret to a little 
 friend of his. 
 
 One day Mr. Gloster surprised these two 
 friends idling at their desk, or, rather, examin- 
 ing together a piece of strange paper. Before 
 Dannie could conceal it Mr. Gloster had snatched 
 it up and demanded of Dannie where he had 
 got the characters with which it was inscribed. 
 They recalled to him the legend in the ring. 
 The boy began to cry, and said that he could 
 not tell, that his father would beat him if he 
 D 2 
 
36 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 did. When school was dismissed Mr. Gloster 
 kept Dannie back, and at length got the secret 
 from him. 
 
 Dannie, it seems, coming home one day 
 found his father sitting by the fire and ex- 
 amining a gold ring. The moment the boy 
 appeared he put it hastily into his pocket. He 
 came back drunk from the village that night, 
 and slept long the next morning. 
 
 Dannie, with a child's inquisitiveness, 
 searched his father's pockets till he found the 
 ring, and after examining it curiously for a long 
 time, finally the whim seized him of copying 
 out the strange words which he found on the 
 inside. He kept the copy and put the ring back 
 in the pocket from which he had taken it. 
 
 When his father awoke and got up, he called 
 him outside of the house and said to him, 
 " Dannie, you saw a ring with me last night. 
 Well, you're to tell no one about it. If you 
 do, I'll break every bone in your body." Then 
 he gave Dannie the sixpence as a bribe and 
 made him give a solemn promise of secrecy. 
 
THE ARREST OF MELODY. 37 
 
 That was all Dannie had to tell, except that 
 his father the same day went to our nearest 
 market town, Ballymohur, and sold the ring 
 there, as Dannie believed, for he came back 
 with money, but without the ring. 
 
 Mr. Gloster wished to know from me whether 
 he should tell all this to my parents. Terrible 
 as was the news, and great as would be the 
 shock to them, especially to my poor mother, 
 I thought so. Of the effect upon them I shall 
 say nothing. Later on in the evening, Mr. 
 Gloster and I set out for the house of Mr. 
 Watkins, the sub -inspector of police. When 
 Mr. Watkins heard this strange story he re- 
 solved to arrest at once Melody and his son. A 
 warrant was procured from the nearest magistrate, 
 and about nightfall we came to Melody's cabin. 
 
 The cabin was absurdly small to be the abode 
 of such a big man. The thatch was secured by 
 hay ropes, held in their place by stones attached 
 to their ends, a row of which hung all round 
 the cabin under the eaves like a necklace. 
 
 The tenant's huge conor rod reposed against 
 
38 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 the roof and stretched away into the sky. 
 Everything about the place was as untidy and 
 unkempt as possible. Melody had learned 
 nothing good, but much bad, during his sojourn 
 in the great Eepublic. 
 
 The cabin stood a little distance in from the 
 boreen which led from the high road down the 
 steep valley and ended near Du-Corrig. 
 
 As we approached, the big Irish-American 
 issued in a stooping attitude from the little dark 
 doorway, and came along the causeway which 
 crossed the bawn, that is to say the small yard 
 lying in front of the cabin. When he saw us a 
 visible change of expression passed over his face. 
 
 One of the constables, showing him the 
 warrant, laid his hand on his shoulder, saying at 
 the same time, " I arrest you in the name of the 
 Queen ! " 
 
 "What for? " said he, looking very angry. 
 
 " For the murder of John Freeman," was the 
 reply. 
 
 Melody turned pale and staggered. " Gentle- 
 men," he said, " I am not guilty ; I never did it." 
 
THE ARREST OF MELODY. 39 
 
 "Melody," said the sub-inspector, "Mr. 
 Freeman's ring was seen in your possession. 
 You may make any statement or explanation 
 that you please, but I warn you that what you 
 say will be used against you hereafter at your 
 trial." 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Melody, " I'll tell you all 
 I know about that ring. One morning I sees a 
 flock of pigeons in the black field beyant there 
 that has the heap of white stones in the middle 
 of it. I crept under the fence, and when I got 
 near threw a stone or two at them. They fled 
 away, but wan of them flew so bad and sat 
 down again so soon that I followed after and 
 killed her. The ring was fastened to her leg 
 with a bit of cord, and I was afeard that some- 
 one would claim it on me, so I tould Dannie not 
 to tell." 
 
 " And the ring, where is it ? " said Mr. 
 Watkins sternly. 
 
 Melody hesitated for a moment or two ; 
 then he said boldly 
 
 " Sir, I losht it." 
 
40 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 I perceived at once, and everyone there 
 perceived too, that he lied. The pigeon story, 
 too, though told so circumstantially, we of 
 course disbelieved. Dannie was arrested too, 
 and led away crying bitterly. Melody was 
 lodged in the county gaol, and the boy taken in 
 charge by the police lest his evidence should be 
 in any way tampered with pending the trial. 
 
 Melody's cabin was searched by the police, 
 but without discovering there any further 
 evidence of his guilt. It was, however, now 
 recalled that something like a fracas had 
 occurred between my brother and the Irish- 
 American on the evening before the dis- 
 appearance. That was the evening of my 
 brother's return from Dublin. He arrived 
 unexpectedly by the post-car from Ballymohur 
 and walked home from the village, i.e., Dun- 
 beacon, which was only some three-quarters of a 
 mile from the Rectory. 
 
 As he was leaving the village, Melody was 
 seen to join him, he being then in a tipsy 
 condition. What occurred between them in the 
 
THE ARREST OF MELODY. 41 
 
 way of conversation was not heard, but after a 
 while my brother was seen to give him a strong 
 push, not a blow, which sent him staggering 
 across the road so that he fell into the gripe. 
 Jack walked on then, taking no further notice 
 of him. Jack said nothing of this affair to any 
 of us. I suppose he considered it a trifle. 
 
 Of the subsequent investigations and in- 
 quiries of the police I shall say little. Their 
 theory of course was that Melody on the 
 evening of the disappearance had joined my 
 brother in the dusk of the evening, had struck 
 and stunned him there on Du-Corrig, rifled the 
 body and flung it into the water. Melody's 
 arrest took place on the 15th of October, and 
 of course created a great deal of excitement over 
 the whole country. 
 
 A detective came down from Dublin, but no 
 further evidence was discovered against Melody 
 save indeed the ring itself. This was found with 
 a jeweller in Ballymohur, and at once surrendered 
 to the police. The jeweller, Mr. Campion, 
 admitted that he had bought it from Melody, 
 
42 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 who had previously sold him a watch and other 
 trinkets which he said he had brought home 
 with him from America. I drove into town 
 with Mr. Watkins and at once identified the 
 ring. 
 
 The constabulary were still searching for 
 further evidences of Melody's guilt when 
 something happened which in all probability 
 was the means of saving an innocent man's life, 
 namely, complete corroboration of Melody's 
 incredible story about the pigeon and the ring. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued}. 
 
 JACK'S CARRIER PIGEON. 
 
 ONE morning in the middle of October, as I 
 looked from my bedroom window while dressing, 
 I saw a flock of pigeons, of the slate-coloured 
 variety common on this coast, fly over the lawn, 
 and swooping a little, as if they would alight in 
 an adjoining field, which had been tilled that 
 summer. I felt a strong desire to have a shot 
 at them, though I had not once taken out a gun 
 since Jack's disappearance. Our only gun, by 
 the way, was Jack's, a long single- barrelled 
 muzzle-loader. I charged it quickly, passed 
 through the wood, and surveying the field 
 from a distance, saw the flock moving about 
 and feeding in the dark-coloured tillage. I 
 crept round the fence of the field till I came 
 within shot of them as I judged. Waiting 
 
44 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 till I had three in a line, I fired and killed all 
 three. 
 
 As I was bringing them home in triumph, I 
 noticed a piece of linen wrapped round the leg 
 of one of the birds, and fastened by a cord. I 
 cut the cord, and unwinding the linen rag found 
 it was the corner of a handkerchief, and bore 
 certain initials. They were Jack's, viz., J.F. 
 For a moment I stood rooted to the spot, 
 then in a frenzy of joy ran to the house and 
 rushed into the breakfast-room, where the 
 whole family was already assembled at prayers, 
 crying, or I dare say screaming, " Jack is 
 alive." 
 
 Again I pass over the agitation of our family 
 circle, for such things are not easy to write 
 about. We now saw that Melody's story of the 
 ring was true. It was evident that Jack, 
 imprisoned somewhere, and without other means 
 of communicating with us, had hit upon this 
 plan. That Jack was alive when he sent out 
 these carriers was plain, but was he alive now? 
 Perhaps the messengers had been despatched by 
 
JACK'S CARRIER PIGEON. 45 
 
 him shortly after his disappearance, and before 
 hunger had made an end of him. 
 
 My little brother Charley's vision then was 
 true. My parents bitterly reproached them- 
 selves for not having given heed to that strange 
 vision which they now regarded as a special and 
 miraculous interposition of Providence. 
 
 I advised that Charley should be sent for at 
 once, in order that we might examine him more 
 carefully about what he had seen. The 
 coachman saddling one of the horses galloped off 
 straight, taking with him a note to my uncle 
 hastily scribbled, and just caught the mail car 
 which was on the point of starting from the 
 village of Dunbeacon. He returned the next 
 day, bringing Charley with him. 
 
 Meantime the police and coastguards were 
 communicated with, and the whole country-side 
 was in motion. I and my next brother Sam, 
 attended by some workmen, went off at once to 
 the hill in which was the Devil's Parlour. We 
 had with us a candle and matches and a very 
 long rope. When we arrived there I knotted 
 
46 LOST ON DU-COREIG. 
 
 the end of the rope round my chest, first 
 padding it with a blanket lest it should hurt 
 me, and bade them lower me into the cleft. 
 
 Soon I was in dense darkness. The flue, if 
 I may call it so, was at first crooked and ragged, 
 then descended sheer, so that I was in mid-air 
 and could touch nothing with my hands. At 
 another time I might have been afraid, but the 
 hope of rescuing Jack drove out fear. 
 
 At length I felt my feet touch ground, 
 gravel as I knew by the feel and the noise. I 
 shouted, but there was no response. I struck a 
 match and lit my candle. Almost the first 
 thing I saw was Charley's cakes lying about. I 
 did not count them ; had I done so the 
 discovery and rescue of Jack might have come 
 sooner and by a different way. 
 
 The place in which I now found myself was 
 not what I expected. It was like a great round 
 room, walled with rock, and paved with stones 
 and gravel. There were bones of animals here, 
 and the cakes which poor Charley fancied had 
 been eaten by Jack. I gave the pre-arranged 
 
"SOON I WAS IN DENSE DARKNESS " (p. 46). 
 
s 
 
JACK'S CARRIER PIGEON. 47 
 
 signal, viz., a strong jerk at the rope, and was 
 slowly drawn up out of this dark den. Till 
 now we all believed that the Devil's Parlour was 
 a huge subterranean cavern. 
 
 Five miles further on towards the west there 
 was a similar cleft leading into another cavern 
 of unknown depth. 
 
 We went thither, and I descended that too. 
 Here I went near to being drowned. It com- 
 municated with the sea, and was filled at the 
 bottom with salt water. Without seeing it, I 
 was lowered into it, and in fact fell in with a 
 souse. By the slackness of the rope those above 
 concluded that I had reached the bottom. 
 Though I tugged vigorously at the rope they 
 Avere not aware of it. I could not tug strongly 
 while I was swimming, and then the great 
 length of rope rendered it, I suppose, less sens- 
 itive. Here, too, all the way down and up 
 again I shouted at intervals and heard no re- 
 sponse. It was night when we returned home. 
 
 No sign of Jack had been discovered by any- 
 one that day. The coastguards had been out 
 
48 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 since morning visiting the rocks and islands, of 
 which there were several in the neighbourhood, 
 but had been as unsuccessful as myself. 
 
 When I awoke next day, it seemed to me 
 that I had caught a very bad cold. I got up 
 nevertheless, but the moment my mother saw me 
 she ordered me to my room. I refused to go, 
 and my father had to exert his parental authority 
 in a very stern manner before I could be got to 
 obey. In the afternoon Charley arrived. I was 
 aware of the fact, but of little more, for by this 
 time the fever had so grown upon me that I was 
 beginning to be unconscious. 
 
 After this I remember no more till I began 
 to be convalescent after an attack of brain- fever. 
 The searching for Jack had gone on without me 
 during the remainder of October and the begin- 
 ning of November while I lay at death's door. 
 But the searchers had found no sign or trace of 
 my brother. The police were utterly nonplussed. 
 I heard that a very clever detective had been 
 sent down from Dublin, but after wasting a fort- 
 night had returned, saying that we were all mad. 
 
JACK'S CARRIER PIGEON. 49 
 
 I heard, too, that during all these weeks little 
 Charley regularly every second day, wet or fine, 
 used to go to the Devil's Parlour, and roll 
 down his brown cake. My mother made no 
 objection. 
 
 He still continued to do it even after I began 
 to move about, and after I had declared to him 
 that there was nothing at the bottom of the 
 cavern but gravel, bones, and the bread which he 
 was wasting. I began to think of forcibly re- 
 straining him from this practice, for it was 
 killing my mother, who used to weep for a long 
 time after she had given him his cake and seen 
 him off. The neighbours watched him with the 
 utmost compassion, and indeed I have never seen 
 anything so pathetic. 
 
 "Was it said in your dream that Jack was 
 in the Devil's Parlour ? " I asked him. 
 
 "No," he said, "but I believe that he is 
 there without being told ; I told myself." 
 
 When I was sufficiently convalescent to be 
 able to move about again, I organised a search- 
 party of my own. I believe we visited every 
 E 
 
50 LOST ON DU-GORRIO. 
 
 cave and nook along the coast for fifteen miles 
 on either side of Du-Corrig. We searched also 
 the islands and isolated rocks out in the sea, 
 though they had been already searched by the 
 coastguards. 
 
51 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued). 
 
 MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF EDWARD FREEMAN. 
 
 THAT Jack was or had been in some cavern I 
 knew. These slate-coloured pigeons blue rocks, 
 as they are called roost in caves. Indeed, we 
 never called them anything but cave-pigeons. 
 But where was the cave ? It now occurred to 
 me that Jack, having hooked some unusually 
 large fish (the sun-fish, for example, could 
 do it), had been drawn into and under the 
 sea. I knew that under such circumstances 
 he would not let go his rod, and thought it 
 possible that while under the water he had 
 been sucked through a submarine tunnel into 
 some unknown and otherwise unapproachable 
 interior cavern, and had been unable to re- 
 discover or retrace the passage by which he 
 had entered. 
 E 2 
 
52 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 This cavern, I thought, might communicate 
 with the open air, or with one of the many 
 ordinary caves or fissures along the coast by 
 some narrow outlet, through which his carrier 
 pigeons might have escaped. Improbable as 
 was this theory, it was the most probable 
 that I could frame, and was, in fact, rather 
 near truth. All the theories and surmises of 
 the police contained one or more incredible 
 assumptions. 
 
 I procured the services of the same diver who 
 had been formerly employed by Mr. Watkins. 
 For more than three weeks under my superin- 
 tendence he made submarine searchings, of the 
 kind indicated, on either side of Du-Corrig, and 
 to a considerable distance each way. All was, 
 however, in vain. The diver gave up first. He 
 said it was a sin to waste any more of my father's 
 money in such an attempt. With my father's 
 sanction I now wrote to the Board of Works in 
 Dublin, asking them to send me another. 
 Harris, the man whom I employed, obstinately 
 refused to go on with the search. This diver 
 
DISAPPEARANCE OF EDWARD FREEMAN. 53 
 
 was actually on his way down from Dublin, 
 
 when " 
 
 [When, in fact, Edward Freeman himself dis- 
 appeared just as suddenly and unaccountably as 
 his brother. EDITOR.] 
 
54 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CROHOOR-BEG. SAMUEL W ATKINS TO HENRY VIGORS. 
 
 You will no doubt have already read the official 
 report in which I have informed the authorities 
 of the disappearance of the Eev. Mr. Freeman's 
 second son under circumstances somewhat similar 
 to those which attended the disappearance of the 
 eldest, Mr. John Freeman. This extraordinary 
 event has caused a degree of consternation and 
 alarm over the whole countryside which it would 
 be impossible to describe. 
 
 On the morning of Friday last, about ten 
 o'clock, Edward Freeman whose exertions for 
 the discovery of his brother's place of conceal- 
 ment, voluntary or enforced, have been so inde- 
 fatigable was seen walking in the direction of 
 Du-Corrig, and no doubt on his way to that 
 fatal and ill-omened rock. Two children coming 
 along the main road saw him turn aside and step 
 briskly down the little lane or boreen leading to 
 
CROHOOR-BEG. 55 
 
 Du-Corrig He had a fishing-rod on his shoulder 
 and a box of bait in his hand. He has not been 
 seen since. , 
 
 The mystery is infinitely more than doubled 
 by this second disappearance, for with it our 
 hypothesis regarding the first, viz., that Melody 
 murdered John Freeman, vanishes too. I declare 
 I begin to think there is something supernatural 
 and uncanny in the whole of this Freeman affair. 
 All other theories having failed, I can assure you, 
 though I may earn nothing but your contempt 
 by the avowal, that I find my thoughts straying 
 perpetually in the direction of supernaturalism 
 as that which may supply us with the key to this 
 astounding mystery. 
 
 A singular superstition of old standing, but 
 which was believed to have died out, has been 
 revived amongst the people to account for this 
 disappearance of the brothers. It is said that 
 the coast is haunted by what the English-speaking 
 fishermen call a worm, and the Irish-speaking a 
 piast. Even before the disappearance of Edward 
 Freeman, I overheard talk of this piast in 
 
56 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 connection with John Freeman's disappearance, 
 but when I laughingly desired more definite in- 
 formation on the subject I was refused. 
 
 As you are aware, when I was first stationed 
 in this district I determined, for professional 
 reasons, to learn the language in which the 
 people express their most intimate thoughts, that 
 is to say, the old Gaelic tongue. It has been very 
 useful to me. I have always found that the 
 people are much more communicative and con- 
 fiding with a person who can speak to them in 
 this ancient language. Concerning the piast, 
 however, on this occasion referred to I found the 
 men, whom I had overheard speaking, sullenly 
 and obstinately uncommunicative. I am certain, 
 however, that the notion of a supernatural and 
 man-devouring monster now haunting these 
 shores is universal amongst the island and coast 
 population. 
 
 Since John Freeman was lost, not a man has 
 been seen fishing upon any of the rocks along 
 the coast, and since Edward disappeared in the 
 same equally amazing manner, no fishing boat 
 
CROHOOR-BEG. 57 
 
 from our little basin has ever remained out after 
 dark. For myself I must say that, although of 
 course I do not believe in any such nonsense, yet 
 for some days I have found my imagination most 
 disagreeably haunted by the thought of this 
 reptile prowling round the shore and seeking 
 whom he may devour. I have dreamed of the 
 brute, and that he had plucked me too not 
 from off a rock, but out of my flower-garden, as 
 I was watering my flowers. 
 
 The beast seemed to be a monstrous serpent 
 with wings and a hairy mane. He raised him- 
 self out of the sea, and, looking all around with 
 his basilisk eyes, suddenly swooped down upon 
 me and seized me. I screamed so loud that the 
 whole household came running to my room. 
 You can imagine what a fool I seemed to myself 
 and others. On Friday, in the forenoon, I say, 
 the second young Freeman was lost. 
 
 Of what we have done and attempted in the 
 meantime you will find enough in the official 
 report. The following is for your private eye, 
 for I know you take an interest in these queer 
 
58 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 superstitions which still linger amongst the 
 peasantry and fisher people, and which are, I 
 suppose, a remnant of paganism. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon I saw a four-oared hoat 
 endeavouring to gain the long island where you 
 and I made such a bag of rabbits last summer, 
 and which the people call Lan-wohr. Curious 
 to see whether the rowers could accomplish 
 their purpose against the head-wind which blew 
 strongly from the west, I kept watching them. 
 The boat had started early that morning from 
 the little fishing village of Coos-beg, which lies 
 to the east of our own village, Dunbeacon, and 
 some ten miles distant from my place. 
 
 Suddenly the boat's head was turned towards 
 land, a sail hoisted, and the boat came driving 
 straight towards my own private little harbour, 
 Coos-an-Dorcha, which of course you remember. 
 
 The boat seemed to me as if fleeing from 
 the pursuit of an enemy, so furiously she came 
 plunging along with the water leaping and 
 boiling at her bows. I went down to the strand 
 to meet the crew. When they were landed 
 
CROHOOR-BEG. 59 
 
 and had drawn up their boat, I bade the men 
 step up to my house and have refreshment 
 before going to the village. They intended 
 to sleep there that night and go on next morning 
 to Lan-wohr should the wind come down or 
 change its direction. 
 
 They were in all six Lan-wohr men, very 
 wild and rough in appearance, but, like all the 
 remote islanders along this coast, by no means 
 so wild as they looked. Indeed, these islanders 
 are almost invariably a simple -minded, peaceable, 
 hospitable, and kindly people. 
 
 I gave them a comforting draught of undiluted 
 whisky as they sat and dried themselves around 
 a big fire in my kitchen, and afterwards regaled 
 them with plenty of home-made cake and butter 
 and big bowls of steaming hot tea. They were 
 much exhausted from rowing, and the poor 
 fellows looked so happy and pleased as they 
 ate and drank, that it was a delight only to 
 see the look of satisfaction in their simple 
 countenances. Then at my suggestion they 
 took out their pipes and smoked, I, too, smoking 
 
60 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 with them and asking many questions in 
 Gaelic. 
 
 They were at first very friendly and com- 
 municative ; then I spoke of the disappearance 
 of Mr. Freeman's sons, of the fruitlessness of all 
 our searchings, and observed, with as serious arid 
 awe-struck a face and manner as I could assume, 
 that they might have been snatched from Du- 
 Corrig by a worm. 
 
 A sudden silence thereupon fell on the Lan- 
 wohr men. One of them made some answer 
 which I forget, but the subject was not pursued. 
 I felt at once that the Lan-wohr men knew a 
 great deal more about the piast than they 
 thought good to communicate to me, who, 
 though I could speak their tongue, was yet a 
 gentleman, a Sassenagh, and, in short, not one 
 of themselves. As you are aware, these people 
 consider it " unlucky " to talk more than is 
 necessary about the supernatural things and 
 personages in whom they believe, and will never 
 speak about them with those who are not quite 
 in accord and sympathy with themselves upon 
 
CROHOOR-BEG. 61 
 
 sucli subjects. The peasantry who are communi- 
 cative on such subjects will be found, almost 
 invariably, to be persons who have to some 
 extent become emancipated from these forms of 
 superstition. 
 
 When the men rose to leave for the village, 
 which they offered to do, not too soon and also 
 not too long after they had partaken of my 
 hospitality, I bade the oldest of them, a gigantic 
 old fisherman called Crohoor-beg, to stay with 
 me for the night, for I could spare him a bed. 
 He consented, and remained when the rest took 
 their leave. 
 
 He was called Crohoor-beg, or Crohoor the 
 Little, no doubt ironically on account of his 
 great size. I had noticed that when I alluded 
 to the plant Crohoor 's face became unusually 
 rigid and impassive, and that he closed his mouth 
 as if resolved not to speak again that evening. 
 I now led Crohoor into my office, stirred up the 
 fire, made a good blaze, and after some allusion 
 to the hardship which he had endured that day, 
 brewed for him a stiff tumbler of punch. 
 
62 LOST ON DU-GOEEIG. 
 
 Though he was now in my own private room, 
 and surrounded by pictures and many strange 
 things savouring of "quality life," Crohoor's 
 behaviour was almost gentlemanlike ; at least, it 
 was characterised by ease, simplicity, and dignity. 
 Later on I spoke again of the disappearance of 
 Mr. Freeman's sons, of the great affliction of the 
 family, and of the exertions of myself and my 
 man to solve the mystery. Eventually Crohoor- 
 beg broke through his reserve, and before he lay 
 down that night told me all he knew or believed 
 about ihe piast. 
 
63 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 MR. WATKINS' NARRATIVE (continued}. THE PIAST. 
 
 CROHOOR-BEG commenced by iDforming me, 
 somewhat in the manner of a professional story- 
 teller or historian about to deliver a lecture, that 
 Ireland was at one time filled with monstrous 
 reptiles, ugly and horrible, which preyed upon 
 the people. So much I knew, and also that St. 
 Patrick had banished them, all but a few which 
 lingered on after his time in remote mountain 
 lakes ; but Crohoor said that though this might 
 be true of other parts of the country, it was not 
 St. Patrick who had banished the great piast of 
 this region, but a man called Cuhoolin. The 
 name of the piast, he said, was Cooree, and that 
 after a terrible battle Cuhoolin had conquered 
 her, driven her into the sea, and put her under 
 spells to remain there till the Day of Judgment, 
 when, according to Crohoor, she will be cast for 
 ever into Hell, and the door shut. Also 
 
64 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 Cuhoolin put spells upon her that she should 
 not have power to eat men, only once and again 
 and between times. 
 
 Crohoor went on to inform me that when his 
 father was a little boy some men had been lost 
 while fishing off this coast, and it was believed 
 they had been eaten by ihepiast. A panic took 
 possession of the whole country, so that fishing 
 ceased. There was at the time in this country a 
 very good and holy priest, who had unusual 
 influence over the minds of the people. He 
 held a sea- service and celebrated mass upon the 
 water, in the midst of a great flotilla of boats, 
 for the banishment of the monster. After that 
 he forbade the people even to speak of the piast, 
 not even to mention her as a thing of the past, 
 an old-time plague upon the coast ; and such 
 was his influence, according to Crohoor, that, for 
 two generations, only the vaguest ideas circulated 
 amongst the people concerning the reptile. 
 Since the taking away of Mr. John Freeman 
 from Du-Corrig, " the old people had been 
 talking " ; " and why shouldn't they," he added, 
 
THE PIAST. 65 
 
 " when 'tis plain that the pia&t is alive and strong 
 and at her old bloody work again ? " 
 
 "What is the appearance of \hspiast? }< I 
 asked ; " and where does she live ? " 
 
 " I'll tell you about that, sir/' he said; and 
 proceeded to relate the following story, with 
 regard to which I may add that I am very 
 conscious that my English does not adequately 
 express the power and picturesqueness of Cro- 
 hoor's Gaelic. 
 
 " These things happened before my father's 
 time and before my grandfather's, but they are 
 as true as that you are sitting in that chair. 
 Two men and a gossoon went in a boat from 
 Lan-beg, which lies a little westward from Lan- 
 wohr (but your honour knows the island), to 
 buy flour in Dunbeacon, for little is the grain 
 grown there on Lan-beg by reason of the stony 
 floor of the island. The wind was from the 
 south' ard, so they hoisted sail, and it wasn't 
 long before they made the Basin and grounded 
 their boat there. When they bought the flour 
 and put the bags in the boat, it was the 
 F 
 
66 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 judgment of one of the men that they should 
 run down the boat, hoist sail, and return to 
 Lan-beg immediately, so that the daylight might 
 be with them in their returning. 
 
 " c None of your nonsense,' says the other. 
 ' It isn't once in six months I come to the city, 
 and I won't leave it till I warm myself well with 
 water of life.' 
 
 "' Water of death,' says the other. ' 'Tis 
 unlucky to be passing the square hole after 
 dark at any time, and in especial on this 
 night.' 
 
 " The night, your honour, was All Hallows' 
 Eve, and 'tis a night when all the infernal 
 things in the world, from the Devil down, have 
 great power, be the reason what it may. 
 
 " ' Tbepiast be hauged,' says the other. ' I 
 hold by no such foolishness.' 
 
 "The man who said this word was called 
 Teigue Eue. He had red hair, and was the 
 biggest and strongest man on the little island, 
 and a terror to the peaceably inclined. By the 
 same token, too, he had gone away to be a sailor 
 
THE PIAST. 67 
 
 when he was a slip, and he went to many out- 
 landish parts before he came home and settled 
 himself down with his kin, for good and all, in 
 Lan-beg. And though he used to pretend to 
 laugh at the old stories of the people, he himself 
 had a custom of talking of some sea-devil orpiast 
 that he called Ould Davy, and sometimes Davy 
 with another name that the old people did not 
 remember. 
 
 " And so now all that his comrade could say 
 was no use, but back he would go to the public- 
 house, taking his comrade with him, who was a 
 weak man, and there they were diverting 
 themselves till the going-down of the sun. 
 The comrade's name was Shaun. He was an 
 O'Flaherty by nation. Well, Teigue Eue, 
 though he laughed at the notion of ibejriafit, had 
 too much sense to get drunk and he about to go 
 out on the salt water in a sail-boat, or to allow 
 Shaun O'Flaherty to get drunk either, though 
 the people said afterwards that Shaun, in spite 
 of his desire for an early return, was then all for 
 more drink and another song. 
 F 2 
 
68 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 " They pushed the boat down after that, and 
 stepped the mast and hoisted the sail, with the 
 night upon them, and the moon rising three- 
 quarter over the Ballyhourahan hills there in the 
 east. Teigue Eue took the bailing-can and dipped 
 it in the tide and poured the salt water on his 
 head to cool himself after the liquor, and make 
 his intellect more steady and considerate, and 
 he made Shaun do the same. The gossoon also 
 was warm and pleasant in himself, for he was 
 with them in the public-house and all through. 
 The stars came out, but though the night was 
 bright and fine the wind blew strong still from 
 the southward. 
 
 " Well, sir, the boat was just opposite your 
 own coos, called Coos-an-Dorcha by reason of 
 the high black rocks around it and the shadow 
 that is there always, when the wind scanted of a 
 sudden, in an unreasonable manner, and the sail 
 began to flap. 
 
 " ' It would be better to go back/ says 
 Shaun. 
 
 "'It would be better to do no such thing,' 
 
THE PIAST. 69 
 
 says Teigue Eue, ' Handle your oar, man, 
 and Jet the gossoon take the helm, and we 
 won't be long in making Lan-beg, for the sea 
 is like a goose-pond. The tide is against us 
 here, but it won't be against us a mile farther 
 on, and we can get home from that without 
 inconvenience.' 
 
 " Well, they rowed on in that manner till 
 they came opposite the square hole in the big 
 straight cliff." 
 
 " What hole is that ? " said I. 
 
 " I'm surprised your honour has not noticed 
 it," replied Crohoor ; " but, indeed, unless it 
 was pointed out to him a person might not 
 see it." 
 
 " I never saw or heard of it," I said. 
 
 " Your honour knows the big straight cliff 
 between your coos and Du-Corrig ? " 
 
 "Certainly," I said; "but I am a little 
 short-sighted, and never noticed that hole." 
 
 " Well, sir, up high in that cliff there is a 
 square hole, and big enough too, though it looks 
 small from the water. They were nearing this 
 
70 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 place when Shaun O'Flaherty stopped rowing 
 and crossed himself and said 
 
 " 'Teigue Eue, I'm greatly afraid.' 
 
 " ' Afraid of what ? ' says Teigue Eue. 
 
 " ' Of the pia&ta-wokr? he says ; ' sure, this 
 is her favourite locality, between Du-Corrig and 
 the Coos-an-Dorcha (that is to say, the Black 
 Hock and the Coos of Darkness), and sure, they 
 say that it is through Cooree's Window she 
 comes out, and goes in again through the same, 
 and has her nest there/ 
 
 " Then Teigue Eue spoke words about the 
 piast, and, though I well remember them, I 
 won't say them in your honour's presence ; and 
 he fell to beating Shaun O'Flaherty to make him 
 quit his nonsense and be rowing the same as 
 formerly. Then the gossoon screamed, with an 
 awful and terrible cry that was heard by all the 
 people of the valley that runs up back from Du- 
 Corrig, and the men stopped their fighting 
 and looked where the boy was looking, and that 
 was up at the big white cliff. 
 
 " Then they saw something that was enough 
 
THE PIAST. 71 
 
 to kill them all at once with the fright. From 
 Cooree's Window the piast was coming out. 
 And first she raised her head up along the cliff- 
 side, stretching herself like a serpent or a huge 
 black eel, and the head continued going up till 
 it passed beyond the cliff-top, so that they could 
 see the head of the piast against the sky and the 
 stars, and her body all the time working slowly 
 out of the hole. She was maned like a horse 
 and had ears like a horse, and her eyes were like 
 two red fires in her head. 
 
 '" In that manner she raised her head up 
 among the stars, and then, making an arch with 
 her neck, turned her eyes downward, and at first 
 she did not see them, but stretched her head 
 along the cliff shore to Du-Corrig, and then 
 backwards along the coast as far as Coos-an- 
 Dorcha, and into the coos, winding her head and 
 neck round the rock at the mouth of the coos. 
 After that she raises her head again, but not so 
 high as before, and in the bright water she sees the 
 black boat, and without hurry, comes down upon 
 it, the two men sitting there without a word, as 
 
72 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 silent and as steady as stones, with faces like 
 white paper. Then with her long tongue she 
 reaps them into her mouth they still without 
 a word or noise and chews them very deliber- 
 ately. 
 
 " The cracking of their bones in the mouth 
 of the piast, that boy used to say afterwards, 
 was like the crackling of ' brusna ' in a fire, and 
 that the shower of blood that fell from her jaws 
 along the hairs of her mouth every hair as 
 long as an oar was like the sound of hail upon 
 water. And after that she raised up her head to 
 swallow them more conveniently, after the 
 manner of birds when they drink." 
 
 " Then the boy escaped ? " I said. 
 
 " Yes, sir, the boy escaped. When the piast 
 raised her head to swallow the two men, God 
 gave him courage so that he slipped over the 
 gunwale of the boat upon the seaward side, and 
 sheltered himself so. It was not long before 
 the piast came down again. The boy did not 
 see her on account of the place where he was, 
 but he heard her breathing and smelt the breath 
 
THE PIAST. 73 
 
 of her, like sea-weed, only very strong, and it is 
 astonishing how he contrived to keep himself 
 afloat considering the great fear that was upon 
 him. She returned to the boat twice after that, 
 for no doubt she smelt him, and he knew her 
 coming on each occasion by reason of the breath- 
 ing and of the very strong smell. In the end 
 he heard a loud noise, and he said to himself 
 that it was the noise of the hinder parts of the 
 piast falling into the water, and that he would 
 be safer in the boat now than in the sea. 
 Accordingly, though with very great difficulty, 
 owing to the fear that was upon him, he 
 climbed over the gunwale and gathered the 
 sail around him and lay down in the bottom of 
 the boat. 
 
 " The boat was picked up next morning by 
 the Coos-beg men, for she was carried eastward 
 by the tide, and when they unrolled the sail the 
 boy was an idiot, and he continued in that state, 
 and languishing besides, till the eve of St. 
 John's Day in the next year, when he died, 
 saving only that for nine days before his death 
 
74 LOST ON DU-GORUIG. 
 
 his understanding returned to him, and he told 
 the siory many times to different people." 
 
 " Is it your opinion then," I said, " that the 
 piast has taken the two young gentlemen, my 
 neighbours ? " 
 
 " God alone," said Crohoor, " knows that, 
 with Whom is the knowledge of all things. But 
 if it be so, and the piast has them, Heaven be 
 our defence, for the power of man and the mind 
 of man furnish no protection against the like of 
 her." 
 
 " Crohoor, you said a short time ago that a 
 man beat that reptile in battle, and banished her 
 into the rocks and the sea ? " 
 
 " So I said, sir, but it is thought that the 
 man who did it was more than a man, and that 
 though he lived before the coming of St. Patrick, 
 yet the power of the Almighty was in him." 
 
 Such, my friend, is the explanation of the 
 disappearance of the two brothers offered by 
 Crohoor-beg, O'Brien "by nation," who stands 
 six feet three and a half in his stockings, and 
 is of a size and bulk corresponding, a poor 
 
THE PIAST. 75 
 
 fisherman and cottier of the island called Lan- 
 wohr, who can't speak English and never read a 
 line in any printed book, but who, I verily be- 
 lieve, is not only a nobler and better, but a wiser 
 man, too, than most of the professional men with 
 whom I am acquainted. And though his theory, 
 being grounded on an incredible superstition, is 
 to be rejected, it is not at all more irrational than 
 several which I have heard soberly advanced by 
 educated persons. SAMUEL WATKINS. 
 
76 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MR. WATKINS* NARRATIVE (continued). MR. 
 
 WATKINS RECEIVES A LETTER FROM THE BROTHERS 
 
 MY DEAR HENRY, This astounding and mys- 
 terious tragedy of the disappearance of the 
 brothers Freeman has entered on a phase 
 literally calculated to strike one dumb. In 
 short, we have had a letter from the brothers, 
 and yet we cannot find them. What I now 
 proceed to relate is incredible, yet it is true. 
 After the disappearance of Edward, and after all 
 our renewed searchings and explorations had 
 come to nothing, I argued with myself in the 
 following manner : Wherever the brothers are, 
 they are doubtless together, and have been 
 spirited away and concealed by the same person 
 and in the same way. From his place of con- 
 cealment John Freeman was able to send out 
 messenger pigeons with tokens attached. These 
 tokens, though they proved that he was alive, 
 
A LETTER FROM THE BROTHERS. 77 
 
 gave us no inkling as to his place of concealment 
 or abode. He may have sent out others to 
 which are attached definite written information. 
 He could have written, in blood, characters on a 
 strip torn from his handkerchief, and by some 
 device protected the characters from the weather. 
 Now that the two brothers are together, the 
 chances are that they have sent out some pigeon 
 so equipped. 
 
 At once I wrote off to my two nephews, 
 Harry and Joseph Battersby, whom you must 
 have met last summer, to come without delay to 
 me, bringing their guns with them. I had now 
 determined to shoot every cave-pigeon in this 
 neighbourhood, and I knew that my nephews, 
 being boys, and accustomed to stealing upon 
 and shooting from behind hedges at curlews, 
 starlings, cave -pigeons, and such like, would do 
 far more execution than I could. Having 
 posted the letter, I went forth instanter, and 
 also distributed small shot to my four men at 
 this barrack, bidding them be off and shoot as 
 many cave-pigeons as they could that day. I 
 
78 LOST ON DU-COREIG. 
 
 recalled their privileges the same evening, for 
 they only succeeded in frightening the birds and 
 making them very shy. They did not bring 
 home a single pigeon, though they were firing 
 about the country all day. I myself, though I 
 kept stealing and dodging behind fences and 
 furze-brakes from ten o'clock to dusk, only shot 
 two. They bore no token of any kind. I knew 
 that with the arrival of Harry and Joseph there 
 would be a different tale to tell. So there 
 was. 
 
 Every day for a week they brought in from 
 five to twelve pigeons, till a pigeon began to be 
 a rara avis in our country, for those that were 
 not killed were frightened away. The boys 
 knew my purpose. 
 
 One day, about nine days after their arrival, 
 Harry came rushing into my office, shouting and 
 exclaiming and holding a pigeon in his hand, 
 round whose leg something was tightly wrapped. 
 I saw that it was linen laced with cord very 
 tightly along the shank between the bird's claw 
 and its knee. My hands so trembled with 
 
A LETTER FROM THE BROTHERS. 79 
 
 excitement that I cut myself, and badly, before 
 I cut that cord. 
 
 When I unwound the linen and laid it out 
 upon the table I found upon it various stains of 
 red. The linen had certainly been written upon 
 originally, but the rain had penetrated, and 
 melting the red ink blood no doubt con- 
 verted the characters into mere blotches and 
 stains. 
 
 I remained alone a long time studying the 
 red daubs and splashes you can imagine in 
 what a state of mind. This rag of linen held 
 the secret which I verily believe I would have 
 given all my worldly goods to master. I turned 
 it this way and that, for there was nothing to 
 indicate which side should be held uppermost. 
 Then, at last, it seemed to me that in one place I 
 saw a W, after which a mere blotch of red colour 
 representing, apparently, the rest of a word, and 
 at the end of it another W. I called my wife 
 to my assistance. She was sure of the first W 
 but not of the second. Curiously enough, both 
 the bovs were sure of the second but not of the 
 
80 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 first. I was sure of both myself. As you know, 
 I am always sure of everything that jumps with 
 my expectations and hopes. You are a phleg- 
 matic fellow yourself, Harry, a man of sheer 
 intellect ; but I think that even you, if you had 
 been through these Freeman experiences, lasting 
 now for more than five months, with the eyes of 
 the whole country upon you, might have been, 
 perhaps, as much excited as I was this evening. 
 I ran to the shelf for my Webster's dictionary. 
 Do you remember how when we were sitting 
 here together last summer after dinner, smoking 
 and thinking of nothing, a little girl appeared at 
 the door and said 
 
 "Mrs. Horan's compliments, sir, and would 
 you lend her the loan of your dictionary, for 
 she's writing a letter," and how you replied 
 
 " Mr. Watkins' compliments to Mrs. Horan, 
 and tell her that he has not read it himself 
 yet"? 
 
 Well, it was the same dictionary, and a great 
 deal of trouble I had to get it out of Mrs. 
 Horan's clutches. 
 
A LETTER FROM THE BROTHERS. 81 
 
 I turned to the letter W and ran my eye 
 down all the words beginning with that letter in 
 quest of those which ended with the same. 
 Willow would suit, so would window. There 
 were others, such as wallow, etc., but I neglected 
 them. I rang for my orderly and bade him 
 make inquiries amongst the people and learn 
 whether there was any place in this neighbour- 
 hood called by a name in which willow or window 
 occurred. 
 
 Now, I had not the least reason for suppos- 
 ing that, even if my assumption was correct, the 
 word which began and ended with W was 
 the name of a place. It might be a verb, 
 it might be anything ; but nevertheless, I at 
 once jumped to the conclusion that it was the 
 name of the place where I was to find the 
 brothers. 
 
 I had hardly uttered my directions when 
 both my nephews cried out at once 
 
 "Why, Uncle Sam, there's Curry's Window." 
 And Harry, who takes more liberties with me 
 than the other, gave me to understand that we 
 G 
 
82 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 were all " duffers " not to have searched Curry's 
 Window before. 
 
 As I had not the least notion of what Curry's 
 Window was, they proceed to enlighten me. 
 Curry's Window, they said, was a little black 
 square hole high up in the face of the smooth 
 sheer cliff which extended from Du-Corrig to 
 my coos. 
 
 In short, Curry's Window was the hole out 
 of which the piast in Crohoor-beg's story had 
 appeared when she had devoured the two fisher- 
 men. This was a curious coincidence, and 
 indeed, as Harry suggested, it was a singular 
 thing that we should have explored the caves in 
 distant islands, yet not have explored this hole 
 which was near Du-Corrig. But then, how 
 could the boys have got thither ? for there 
 is no climbing on that cliff, which starts sheer 
 out of the sea, and is accessible neither by land 
 nor sea. 
 
 I brooded over this all night, and the more I 
 thought about it the more absurd did it seem 
 that the brothers should be immured there. It 
 
A LETTER FROM THE BROTHERS. 83 
 
 was just possible, of course, that the brothers 
 having fallen into the sea, might have been 
 sucked under by a current and whirled into some 
 cavern of which Curry's Window was another 
 aperture. The theory was just imaginable, but 
 no more. However, as we had tried to work 
 out so many absurd theories, I thought I might 
 as well work out this absurd theory too as do 
 nothing. 
 
 Accordingly I laid my plans that night, and 
 next day had one of my men lowered from the 
 top of the cliff by a rope. In order to signal 
 to those who held the rope I went out in 
 a boat, rowed by the coastguards, who have been 
 extremely helpful to me in all this business. 
 Lieutenant Crumps indeed, that steadiest of 
 church-goers, who never once to my knowledge 
 missed even the Wednesday evening service, has 
 taken the matter very coolly. Whenever I refer 
 to the disappearance of the boys or of the 
 affliction of the Freeman family, he says in a 
 formal manner, as if he were answering the 
 responses, " It is indeed a thousand pities." I 
 o 2 
 
84 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 blazed out on him on the last occasion, which 
 had the effect of waking him up a little. How- 
 ever, I need not complain, for though not 
 actively helpful, he lets me direct the movements 
 of his people, who are extremely sympathetic arid 
 active in the matter. 
 
 From the water then I signalled to the men, 
 who on the edge of the cliff lowered the explorer 
 to Curry's Window, motioning them to the right 
 or to the left so as to drop their man exactly to 
 the correct point. He was the most active and 
 intelligent of the sub-constables, and went down 
 provided with the means of striking a light and 
 exploring the cavity. We saw him stand in the 
 aperture and signal to us that he should be again 
 lowered. 
 
 This we did, and he descended into the 
 interior, where he remained for more than an 
 hour. However, to make a long story short, my 
 sub-constable reported to me in the evening that 
 Curry's Window was the small opening of an 
 enormous underground hollow, with three huge 
 galleries branching off from a vast central space, 
 
A LETTER FROM THE BROTHERS. 5 
 
 and that he had traversed the whole of it, shout- 
 ing as he went and brandishing his torch. His 
 description of the vast cavern was so interesting 
 that my nephews were very anxious to make the 
 descent themselves, and I promised that next 
 summer, when you are with me, we should make 
 up a party and go down with torches, but said 
 that I was in no mood at present for agreeable 
 explorations. 
 
 I am now again alone in my office writing 
 this while all the world is wrapped in slumber. 
 Here nightly I sit cogitating and reflecting like 
 some stupid old owl on his barn-perch, thinking 
 and thinking till my mind becomes a perfect 
 blank. I would consider myself a sheer fool but 
 for the fact that we had a very sharp "Dublin 
 detective down here for a fortnight, who, after 
 having sent us on several wild-goose chases, 
 went away at last declaring that we were all 
 mad. 
 
 What reporfc he sent in to the office I don't 
 know, but he and my men had words before 
 parting, and they gave him plainly to understand 
 
86 LOST ON DU-COPRIG. 
 
 that they regarded him as no better than a pre- 
 tentious ass or " bosthoon." I fancy that his 
 report is that John Freeman certainly "ran 
 away " ; and that, let me observe, is what no one 
 who lives here believes. 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 MR. W ATKINS' NARRATIVE (continued). HE 
 
 RECEIVES A SECOND AND BETTER LETTER. 
 
 I WAS much cast down by these events my 
 hopes had been raised so high. At one moment 
 we seemed to be on the verge of the solution of 
 this mystery, and now we were as far away from 
 it as ever. The last pigeon shot, I may observe, 
 was the sixty-fourth. For some days the boys 
 had shot none. The pigeons were virtually extir- 
 minated or banished, and I had deprived the 
 brothers Freeman of what was apparently their 
 sole means of communicating with the world 
 out of their mysterious prison and that was 
 not a pleasant reflection. One evening I and 
 my nephews (they had just come in empty- 
 handed, as usual of late) sat here in my office 
 dumb and stupid for a long time. At last 
 Harry said 
 
88 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 " It's no use, uncle, going after these pigeons 
 for a good while now. We must give them time 
 to come back. Lend us your rifle : I'd like to 
 have a shot at a seal. There are three or four 
 of them always moving about between your cove 
 and Du-Corrig. I used to see an odd one there 
 last summer, but there seems to be quite a 
 colony of them there now." 
 
 "All right, lads/' I said; "take the rifle. 
 You will find the boat in the cove. She's small, 
 remember, and easily capsized, so take care of 
 yourselves." 
 
 I was anxious to be by myself. The high 
 spirits of the boys, who naturally could not be 
 expected to feel about these matters as I did, 
 were beginning to oppress me. The fact was 
 that my mind now for so many months 
 absorbed by, and concentrated upon, this extra- 
 ordinary and increasing and expanding mystery 
 was beginning to be somewhat unhinged. I 
 thought of the lost lads all day, and dreamed of 
 them, perhaps, all night ; for certainly I never 
 awoke without being conscious that I had been 
 
A SECOND AND BETTER LETTER. 89 
 
 dreaming about them. I am haunted, too, by 
 poor Mrs. Freeman's wan, sorrow-stricken face. 
 Mr. Freeman, when last I saw him, was bowed 
 in the shoulders he who used to be as straight 
 as a drilled soldier and his look was that of an 
 aged man. I, as head of the police in this 
 district, have, of course, been blamed for not 
 doing more ; though I confess no word of 
 censure has reached my ears. 
 
 But, to resume, I now come to something 
 that will startle and amaze even your philosophic 
 soul. 
 
 The boys returned that evening in the dusk. 
 They had seen several seals, and had got a shot 
 at one without doing any execution. I was 
 rather surprised at the number of seals seen by 
 the boys, for, though seals were not uncommon 
 on this coast, such a number as my nephews had 
 seen in the same place was something quite 
 unusual. As we sat at the tea-table, while the 
 boys were talking in an animated manner about 
 the events of the afternoon, and while I could 
 hardly for a single instant keep my thoughts 
 
SO LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 off the lost brothers, I heard Harry say to my 
 wife 
 
 "And there was one seal, Aunt Mary, and 
 every time he came up there was a ball bobbing 
 in the water behind him, and when he went 
 down it disappeared." 
 
 Instantaneously the thought sprang into my 
 mind, " Could it be that John Freeman, or John 
 and Edward, were signalling to us by means of 
 that seal ? " 
 
 The supposition was, of course, absurd and 
 far-fetched. How could they catch a seal, in 
 the first instance? Nevertheless, the appear- 
 ance of a seal swimming about with some- 
 thing attached to it was in itself startling 
 enough. 
 
 " I will go out with you in the morning," I 
 said. " That seal we must shoot." 
 
 Early next day, though the wind had risen 
 and the sea was rough, my nephews and I took 
 boat together at the Shady Coos and rowed out. 
 Between the coos and Du-Corrig we saw some 
 half-dozen seals. Several times I had a good 
 
A SECOND AND BETTER LETTER. 91 
 
 opportunity of shooting one of them, but did 
 not shoot. The seal I wanted was not visible. 
 We came home for early dinner and went out 
 again immediately after. The boys, who now 
 knew what I wanted, and who were not short- 
 sighted like myself, kept a sharp look-out for 
 the seal of which I was in quest. As we moved 
 slowly along, Joseph said 
 
 " There is a seal lying on the Corrig-a- 
 skame rock ; that may be it, for I remember it 
 was a small one. Do you see anything behind 
 him, Harry ? " 
 
 "No," said Harry, "but it is hard to see 
 anything in the place where he is lying. When 
 he begins to move we can see the ball better, 
 for it will hop and jump somewhere behind 
 him." 
 
 " Eow on very slowly, lads," said I. 
 
 We were coming from the east, and the seal 
 was lying on the rock with its head to the west. 
 The wind, too, was blowing from that direc- 
 tion. 
 
 Corrig-a-skame was a long black rock covered 
 
92 LOST ON DU-CORBIG. 
 
 literally all over with little mussels growing as 
 thick as grass. It was invisible at high water, 
 but at low tide stood out pretty well, and resem- 
 bled the back of a small whale. The name 
 means " The Eock of the Leap." Some active 
 wight in old times had sprung from the corrig 
 to the cliff, or from the cliff to the corrig. It is 
 a common name for such rocks on the west 
 coast. Almost every league of the coast 
 exhibits somewhere a Corrig-a-skame, or a 
 rock called after somebody's leap Lem-Con, or 
 Lem-Cathal, i.e., Con's Leap, Cathal's Leap, 
 etc. 
 
 I bade the boys wrap their handkerchiefs 
 round the leather of the oars to deaden the 
 sound of the rowing, and went to the bow with 
 my rifle. The boys sitting stern ward of their 
 oars so as to keep their eyes on the seal, rowed 
 gently forward. 
 
 " I am sure it's the same," whispered Harry, 
 who was just behind me ; " and I think I see 
 the ball too. Yes, it is ! " he added, " and I see 
 the ball. Fire at him now, uncle ! " 
 
A SECOND AND BETTER LETTER. 93 
 
 While I was trying to get a steady aim, 
 which was difficult owing to the rocking of the 
 boat, the creature suddenly turned its head, saw 
 us, and commenced bounding and flapping for- 
 wards along the length of the rock, while behind 
 it, as it moved swiftly along, a round ball 
 jumped too. I fired and missed. The creature 
 sent forth a loud mewing sort of cry and splashed 
 into the water on the further side. 
 
 " It has left the ball behind ! " cried the two 
 boys together in great excitement. 
 
 The truth was that the ball had been caught 
 in some cleft so that the string which connected 
 it with the animal had been broken. None of 
 us saw exactly how it happened, but the creature 
 was gone and the ball remained behind. I could 
 not see it now myself, as it was no longer in 
 motion, but the boys did. We rowed up to the 
 rock, but the surf all around it was so great 
 that we could not land. The wind was steadily 
 rising and the sea beginning to run unpleasantly 
 high. My boat, too, was small and light, not 
 intended to stand rough weather. The tide, 
 
94 L08T ON DU-COERIG. 
 
 however, was flowing, and in a short time I 
 knew that some wave would sweep the ball off 
 the rock. 
 
 We kept the boat's head to the wind for 
 about three-quarters of an hour, and at last had 
 the pleasure of seeing one large wave cany the 
 ball clear back off the rock, and a little later the 
 ball had disengaged itself from the surf. You 
 can imagine with what delight I took this waif 
 into my hands. Though there was little rational 
 ground for such a belief, I felt an assurance 
 amounting to conviction that I had in my hands 
 the explanation of the mysterious tragedy. The 
 ball was a small bladder apparently a sheep's 
 bladder and was very tightly fastened at the 
 mouth with whip-cord, or strong fishing-line. 
 When the boys looked to see me open it I did 
 nothing of the kind. I bade the boys row, went 
 myself to the tiller, and turned the boat's head 
 home. 
 
 I had stayed in the vicinity of Corrig-a- 
 skame too long, and I knew it. I knew thai- 
 good steering and good luck too were now 
 
A SECOND AND BETTER LETTER. 95 
 
 required in order to enable us to make my coos. 
 I did not open the bladder, partly because I did 
 not desire to remain in this jeopardy a moment 
 longer than was necessary ; and partly because I 
 wished in the event of an accident befalling us, 
 that the unopened bladder and its contents 
 should still be left swimming. The situation, 
 indeed, was momentarily becoming more serious. 
 The wind increased to a gale, and the huge 
 waves lifted the little boat and propelled her 
 forward like a chip. I feared to bring her 
 broadside to the wind and waves, yet that was 
 necessary in order to get into the Shady Coos. 
 So I steered past it and let her drive forward to 
 the Basin, a mile further on, the entrance to 
 which was wide, and did nofc offer such a sharp 
 angle to be turned as did my own little 
 cove. 
 
 However, not to be tedious, when I have so 
 many infinitely more important things to relate, 
 we made the Basin in safety and drew up our 
 boat on the coastguard's slip. Bidding the boys 
 say nothing to anyone about our waif, we three 
 
96 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 started for home. The bladder was in my top- 
 coat pocket, and I kept my hand upon it during 
 the walk. I was in a fever of excitement and 
 expectation. 
 
 When I got home I went straight into my 
 office by myself, locked the door, cut open the 
 cord which bound the mouth of the bladder, 
 ripped the skin up carefully, or as carefully as I 
 could, with my penknife, and from the interior 
 took out half a sheet of note-paper. On one 
 side was writing in ink. It was the conclusion 
 of a letter of no importance ; indeed, it was a 
 tradesman's letter, and signed " John Costello," 
 a musical-instrument merchant in our county 
 town. On the other side were characters in red, 
 written with some blunt instrument, like the 
 pointed end of a match or bit of timber, and at 
 foot of the writing in larger letters were two 
 
 names : 
 
 JOHN FREEMAN. 
 EDWARD FREEMAN. 
 
 each name in different hand- writing and repre- 
 senting the signatures of the lads, which I knew. 
 
A SECOND AND BETTER LETTER. 97 
 
 The body of the red writing was Edward Free- 
 man's. It was to the following effect : 
 
 " We are here at the bottom of the Devil's Parlour. 
 There is a way right down to us. Most of Charley's 
 loaves have come down. We came in by the square 
 hole high up in the sea-cliff. Both well. 
 
 JOHN FREEMAN. 
 
 EDWARD FREEMAN." 
 
 By the " square hole ! " the piast's hole ! 
 who could have thought it? The little black 
 spot far away up in the face of the cliff. And 
 yet it was through this aperture when he had 
 been lowered by ropes from the cliff's top that I 
 despatched my sub- cons table, Mulvaney. Mul- 
 vaney had then explored with torchlights and 
 shouting the whole interior of the big cavern, of 
 which this was the entrance. Were the boys 
 asleep in some unexplored cavity ? Well, as a 
 fact, they were not ; but I must not anticipate. 
 
 H 
 
93 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 SURPRISING EMPTINESS OF THE DKVII/S PARLOUR. 
 
 THE murder was out. All was known. Thrust- 
 ing the letter into my pocket, I rushed at the 
 door like a madman, and, forgetting that I had 
 locked it myself, thundered upon it with my 
 fists, roaring, " Saddle Grey Franey ! " It was 
 the name of my fastest horse. " Saddle Grey 
 Franey ! " I continued to roar. The boys, who 
 were all the time in the passage outside my 
 door, clamoured in reply. One of them seemed 
 to run off into the yard shrieking out my mes- 
 sage. My wife and the servants came to the 
 door of the office. In short, it seemed as if the 
 whole household had gone suddenly mad. Of 
 course, what I describe here only took a few 
 seconds to pass. 
 
 I opened the door and rushed along the pas- 
 sage, not caring whom I threw down, through 
 the kitchen, out into the yard, and straight to 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PARLOUR. 99 
 
 the stable I ran. There already my orderly and 
 Joseph, working as for life and death, were 
 saddling and bridling Grey Franey. In another 
 moment I was on his back, without my hat, 
 tearing down the avenue, and then along the 
 road which led to the Rectory. I was aware of 
 people standing here and there with scared faces, 
 but little I cared for that. 
 
 Since I was born, I was never so mad as that 
 day, nor if I live for a thousand years could I 
 be so again. I took Franey at a leap over the 
 avenue gate of the Eectory, and galloped up to 
 the house, shouting as I did so, " They are 
 found ! " The avenue is a short one. My 
 voice could have been heard from the gate in 
 every room of the house, and was. No com- 
 mander in the hottest moment of battle ever 
 roared to his men as I did that day, as I galloped 
 up to Mr. Freeman's hall door. Everyone there 
 knew the significance of my wild shoutings. 
 " They are found ! " could refer only to the 
 two lost ones. Mrs. Freeman rushed from the 
 hall door before I reached it. She raised her 
 H 2 
 
100 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 hands to the sky, as if in prayer, then sank on 
 her knees and fell forward. The boy Charley 
 came after and then the servants. After all 
 came Mr. Freeman, his face as white as paper, 
 but his manner calm and collected. Through 
 the wood and shrubbery several men came rush- 
 ing and tumbling, and behind me up the avenue 
 others who had followed me along the road. 
 
 In a few words I told Mr. Freeman all. 
 " Have you the letter ? " he said. When I 
 showed it to him he looked down first at the 
 signatures, then read the letter, and handed it 
 back to me without a word ; but the look that 
 was in his face what pen could interpret ? Cer- 
 tainly not mine. 1 did not wait an instant 
 longer, but galloped back straight to my own 
 house. I had recovered my self-possession. On 
 the way I met the boys and the orderly, and 
 after that three of my men wearing their usual 
 cast iron expression, and striding quietly in the 
 direction taken by their insane officer. Indeed 
 I am much too excitable to command a force 
 whose gravity would put the Spaniard to shame. 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PARLOUR. 101 
 
 As it was now drawing towards dusk, and 
 various preparations and arrangements had to 
 be made, I postponed the descent 4}li', next 
 morning. I procured ropes that, night, ( f Torn 
 the village. I sent for a man/-no%v' 'a'fariai-' 
 labourer in the neighbourhood, but who I knew 
 had formerly worked in mines in Cornwall, and 
 consulted him about the best means of descent. 
 He went from me to the forge of the village 
 blacksmith, who under his directions made that 
 night a sort of iron stirrup to be attached to the 
 rope's end. I set the boys to make torches of 
 splintered bog-wood. Harry, however, who was 
 ingenious, provided besides sods of turf soaked 
 in paraffin oil. These stuck on the ends of 
 spits, he assured me, would make a grand blaze. 
 We tried one and found it excellent. 
 
 The news flew like wild-fire over the country, 
 and those who held by ihepiast theory were put 
 to shame. Crowds of people came about the 
 house, till the nuisance reached such dimensions 
 that I ordered my men to clear them away, 
 which they did with difficulty. 
 
102 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 The public-houses in Dunbeacon were full 
 that night, and the publicans did a roaring trade. 
 *% I nominated .the men who were to proceed with 
 me in the morning to the Devil's Parlour, ordered 
 item ito :be ic. readiness an hour before dawn, 
 and strictly commanded them to tell no one. 
 
 I did not go to bed at all that night, 
 though I may have dozed a little by the office 
 fire. At five I woke up the boys. At six my 
 party and none but my party being assembled, 
 we started, well provided with strong ropes, 
 candles, torches, paraffin-steeped turves, lucifer 
 matches, etc. I had with me, too, a flask of 
 brandy and sandwiches. I did not know in what 
 exhausted condition I might find the lost ones. 
 
 It was quite plain now that from the cleft 
 called the Devil's Parlour there were two ways 
 leading down -one a blind alley ending in the 
 small chamber, the same that had been explored 
 by Edward Freeman, the other, which was the 
 true entrance, conducting into some great sub- 
 terranean cavern, to which there were two 
 openings one here on the hillside, the other the 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PARLOUR. 103 
 
 square opening in the sea-cliff, viz., the hole out 
 of which Crohoor-beg's imaginary piast had pro- 
 jected itself in that very remarkable and terrible 
 manner, when she devoured the Lan-beg men. 
 
 Arrived at the spot we finished our prepara- 
 tions and waited for the light, for it was still 
 dark. It was not raining, but the weather was 
 wild, and a strong gale blew from the west. I 
 bade a man who had been with Edward Free- 
 man show me the place where he had made the 
 descent. Avoiding this, I put my foot in the 
 stirrup and bade them lower away. I had 
 round my neck, fastened by a strap, a bag con- 
 taining half a dozen of Harry's peculiar torches, 
 and in my hands, which clasped both it and the 
 rope, a long spit to serve as a handle for those 
 torches. or a short time I had to keep myself 
 away from the rock with my second foot, that 
 which was not in the stirrup. Presently I felt 
 myself swinging in mid-air and in black dark- 
 ness, and certainly in some vast hollow. In a 
 few minutes more I should be clasping the 
 hands of the poor lost lads. 
 
104 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 Then I shouted. Vast hollow echoes and 
 reverberations, travelling through what seemed 
 interminable spaces of endless galleries, re- 
 sponded to my shout echoes and reverberations, 
 and nothing else. That surprised me, but did 
 not much surprise me. The cavern was plainly 
 enormous, and there were far-away winding 
 corridors into which my voice might not travel. 
 Moreover, the boys might be, and probably 
 were, asleep. 
 
 "We will soon find them and wake them 
 up," I said. 
 
 I continued at intervals to shout " Jack ! '' 
 " Ned ! " and as loudly as I could roar. Still 
 there came no response but the huge echoes, 
 which now sounded in my ears like the laughter 
 and mockery of subterranean giants. Whether 
 I was descending or not I could not tell. Above 
 me it was as dark as below, and of course I had 
 long since ceased to hear the voices of those at 
 the cave's mouth, and the running of the rope 
 over, the block of timber which my miner had 
 laid on the edge of the precipice. No doubt I 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVWS PARLOUR. 105 
 
 was descending, but for all I could feel or per- 
 ceive I might be fixed and stationary in the 
 darkness or even ascending. 
 
 The minutes now began to seem like hours. 
 Should I ever reach the bottom of this awful 
 abyss ? And to think that those pleasant young 
 friends of mine, so gay, bright, and good- 
 natured, so full of life, vigour, and activity, 
 should be immured here one of them for many 
 months ! Again and again I shouted : " Jack ! 
 Ned ! Ned ! Jack ! Are you there ? Hullo ! 
 hullo ! " and still no sound reached my ears but 
 the mocking laughter of the huge, gaunt, and 
 supernatural echoes, which seemed to grow 
 greater as I descended, and rolled like thunder 
 round the cavern. 
 
 At last I heard a sharp click under my feet 
 and experienced a soft shock. I was on the 
 bottom. The click was the noise of my iron 
 stirrup striking on rock or stone. Still keeping 
 my foot in the stirrup, I threw off my bag of 
 turves, opened it, stuck one on the point of 
 my spit, struck a match, and ignited the 
 
106 LOST ON DTJ-G011RIG. 
 
 torch. It sent out a great blaze, but revealed, 
 where I stood, nothing but great boulders, and 
 on one side the walls of the cavern, rising sheer 
 and black. 
 
 I gave the preconcerted signal two strong 
 jerks at the rope which was at once drawn 
 up. The rope and stirrup looked very curious 
 dangling there above my head as they disap- 
 peared into the thick and black darkness. I 
 continued to shout at intervals, but eventually 
 desisted until the coming of my assistants. 
 Either the Freemans were sound asleep, or were 
 in some far gallery of the cavern beyond the 
 reach of my voice ; or they were now terrible 
 thought ! beyond the reach of human help, 
 and we were too late perhaps only a few hours 
 too late. 
 
 The next to descend was my head constable ; 
 then, in succession, the two boys, Harry and 
 Joseph, then my orderly, and last, a sub-con- 
 stable named Mulvaney, the same who formerly 
 went down into Curry's Window. These and 
 no more I had permitted to descend. I bade 
 
"IT SENT OUT A GREAT BLAZE" (p. 106). 
 
*' 5 '' - ' 
 
 . . . 
 
 'i-::rl!JA.' 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PARLOUR. 107 
 
 the orderly remain with the rope and keep his 
 torch burning there. All together now we raised 
 our voices and shouted as loud as we could bawl, 
 and did so again and again. 
 
 Save the echoes, now grown more vast and 
 appalling, there was no response. I was be- 
 coming more and more alarmed. If the boys 
 were alive they must have heard that shout. 
 The part of the cavern in which we found our- 
 selves seemed to be a long and not very wide 
 galley. We explored this to the end, and, as 
 we had plenty of torches, the whole floor of the 
 gallery was brilliantly illuminated. Not a thing 
 out of the common could escape our notice here. 
 
 Strewn on the floor were several of poor 
 Charley's cakes. We came to the end of this 
 gallery, turned back, passed the orderly where 
 he stood beside the rope with his torch burning 
 in his hand, and after a. while found ourselves in 
 a much vaster space, the roof of which even the 
 combined light of our torches did not reveal at 
 all. 
 
 On one side of this space there was a pool of 
 
108 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 agitated water, to which the floor of the cavern 
 sloped rapidly. In its vicinity, and running 
 somewhat in the same direction as that which 
 we had already explored, ran another great 
 gallery, the roof of which we could see. This 
 also we now explored yard by yard, scrutinising 
 the floor carefully as we went. Unlike the 
 other, which ended in a mere wall of rock, this 
 gallery ended in a great pool or pit of madly- 
 hoiling water. 
 
 We returned to that great central space from 
 which these galleries branched, and explored it 
 foot by foot. Here we made the first discovery. 
 It was my nephew, Harry, who made it viz., 
 traces of a fire. On a level rock, not only were 
 there all the signs of a hearth, but in its vicinity 
 an enormous heap of ashes. 
 
 It was plain that this fire had been burning 
 many months. After the excitement which 
 attended this discovery, and the consultation 
 which succeeded it, we moved forward. In 
 short, we explored step by step and foot by foot 
 every portion of the cave up to the entrance in 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PAELOUR. 109 
 
 the sea-cliff, by which they had come in, without 
 finding the lost ones. We discovered many 
 traces of them bones of the sheep from which 
 the bladder had been extracted, crumbs of bread 
 near that hearth-place, and other signs and 
 tokens, but alive or dead the Freemans were not 
 there. 
 
 We learned, too, how they had been trapped 
 how, having got in, they were unable to get 
 out again ; and also indications of their pathetic 
 efforts to climb out of their trap. Many signs 
 and tokens of the recent presence of the brothers, 
 and especially of the long-continued residence 
 there of poor John Freeman, we found there, but 
 not what we wanted to find themselves. Again 
 and again we searched the vast cavern through 
 and through, expecting now only to find their 
 bodies sunk in some cleft of the great boulders 
 with which the cavern seemed filled, but our 
 search was vain. 
 
 As our investigations became closer and 
 more minute, we discovered various other relics 
 and signs of the presence of the brothers, but 
 
110 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 neither their bodies nor any opening into which 
 they might have fallen. 
 
 True, they might have died on the edge of 
 that pool, which evidently communicated with 
 the sea by some passage, for the water there 
 ebbed and flowed ; they might have died on its 
 verge, and their bodies might afterwards have 
 been floated away on the rising tide and borne 
 through that passage. 
 
 Again, they might have committed suicide 
 by throwing themselves into that boiling chasm 
 in which the second of those galleries I have 
 referred to terminated a chasm like a huge 
 cauldron of madly -seething waters. Yet there 
 was something incredible and quite absurd in 
 both theories. When they wrote that letter 
 and signed it, they were in good health and had 
 plenty of food. That they had plenty of food 
 we knew as well from their letter as from its 
 presence in the cavern, for, besides Charley's 
 cakes, we discovered their storehouse a cranny 
 between two boulders in which were bread and 
 pieces of salted mutton. It was easy to see, too, 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PAULOUR. Ill 
 
 how that mutton had been procured. Hard by 
 were the bones of a sheep, from which the flesh 
 had been stripped. 
 
 The sheep had evidently been " clifted,'' to 
 use a local expression that is to say, had fallen 
 from above through the opening into the cavern. 
 We did not disturb that little magazine. In- 
 deed, we added to it, leaving there the whole 
 supply of sandwiches which I had brought with 
 me for the use of my party. The flask of brandy 
 I laid there too. The whole affair of the dis- 
 appearance of the brothers was so extraordinary 
 and surprising, I believed it might eventuate in 
 new and still more extraordinary developments. 
 In presence of this mystery I could now believe 
 in anything. I will not trouble you with an 
 account of our consultations, theories, and 
 guesses. Enough to say that after having spent 
 six or seven hours in that cavern we came up 
 again into daylight, not wiser but sadder men. 
 
 By this time a huge crowd of people was 
 assembled on the hill-side Mr. and Mrs. Free- 
 man, Sam, and the little boy Charley amongst 
 
112 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 them. I was the last to ascend. I hoped that 
 they might have taken their departure before 
 my arrival, but they had not, and I had the 
 misery and intense misery it was to explain 
 to them the nature and extent of our explor- 
 ations and our vain discoveries. I shall never 
 forget the faces of the bereaved parents as I 
 communicated the melancholy tidings. 
 
 Mr. Freeman, myself, and the orderly now 
 made the descent. Little Charley, whose 
 narrative stands at the head of this story, and 
 his elder brother Sam, were not permitted to go 
 down. I took Mr. Freeman through the vast 
 cavern and showed him everything. His self- 
 command was extraordinary. His face was pale 
 and rigid, but not another sign of grief was 
 apparent. When he spoke the tones of his voice 
 were low and quiet. There was nothing new to 
 be seen or inferred. At length we all returned 
 to the upper air. 
 
 As I was parting from the Freeman party 
 the little boy Charley tugged me by the coat. 
 " What is it, Charley ? " I said. 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PARLOUR. 113 
 
 "I am glad you left those things in their 
 storehouse," he answered. " Something told 
 you they are there still, and alive. Something 
 tells me the same/' 
 
 I started and looked at him, but turned 
 again at once and walked away. Something 
 had not told me they were there ; yet, in- 
 deed, if I had not deposited the basket of 
 sandwiches in that cranny to be eaten by the 
 lost brothers, and that flask of brandy to be 
 drunk by them, why did I leave those things ? 
 The little boy was right before. He knew that 
 his brother John was at the bottom of the 
 Devil's Parlour. Might he not be right now ? 
 I turned round once more. He was standing 
 . in the same place looking after me. His parents 
 were now at some distance Mrs. Freeman 
 leaning heavily on the arm of her husband, 
 and apparently weeping. 
 
 " I shall try again, Charley," I called out. 
 
 He nodded approvingly, and darted away after 
 
 his parents with an animation and cheerfulness 
 
 which surprised me. " Out of the mouth of 
 
 i 
 
114 LOST ON DU-COnniG. 
 
 babes and sucklings," I murmured to myself as 
 I walked home. 
 
 Later on the same evening I had a singular 
 interview with the singular boy called Sam. I 
 was strolling along a boreen near the Eectory in 
 the dusk, smoking and meditating, when I saw 
 Sam coming towards me. He had a bundle of 
 rabbits slung over one shoulder, and in his hand 
 carried a string of blackbirds, redwings, field- 
 fares, and such-like small deer, for he is a most 
 industrious and successful trapper and maker 
 and setter of the engines which we call "cribs." 
 He was going past me, when I stopped him. 
 
 " Why don't you speak to me, Sam ? " I said. 
 
 " You brought a lot of fellows down this 
 morning, and you never asked me," he answered. 
 
 " Well, I am sorry for that, Sam ; but you 
 shall go down the next time." 
 
 This seemed to mollify him, but he answered, 
 to my surprise, " I don't think I shall go." 
 
 " Why ? " said I. 
 
 " Because I think we're all making a great 
 deal too much fuss about those fellows. When 
 
EMPTINESS OF THE DEVIL'S PARLOUR. 115 
 
 they're tired of being away they'll come home. 
 You don't know them as well as I do. They're 
 both a little cracked." This was a long speech 
 for Sam. 
 
 "And Charley?" said I. 
 
 He stopped and looked at me, but said 
 nothing. I guessed what his thoughts were. 
 He plainly regarded Charley as a prophet, seer, 
 or something of that sort. 
 
 " Send me word when you are going down," 
 he said, after a short delay, and so stepped 
 through the hedge and took a short way home. 
 
 I sat up all that night strictly by myself, 
 pondering the extraordinary events of the day. 
 It is now daylight. I have spent the last four 
 hours in writing the official account and this 
 private one. Farewell. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 MR. W ATKINS* NARRATIVE (cO)ldudcd). FOUND ! 
 
 " December 23. 
 
 " I HAVE just returned from a second explora- 
 tion of this mysterious cavern, as close and as 
 minute as the first. The loaves which Charley 
 Freeman threw down recently have not been 
 touched, nor the articles which I placed in the 
 cranny. Saw a seal in one of the pools. Per- 
 ceive now how they contrived to send out their 
 letter. I am almost mad with excitement. 
 
 "SAMUEL WATKINS." 
 (Same to same written in pencil.) 
 
 "December 24. 
 
 " Have explored the cave for the third time. 
 The flask is gone ; the sandwich basket opened ; 
 some of the contents eaten or taken away. No 
 sign of the brothers. I am confounded. I 
 have left men in the cavern, and shall keep 
 them there in permanence. The suspense is 
 
FOUND! 117 
 
 terrible. I am returning to the cave myself. 
 Send this after post-car by orderly. 
 
 " SAMUEL WATKINS." 
 (Same to same, also in pencil marks.) 
 
 "December 24. 
 " FOUND ! ! ! 
 
 " Harry has just run in to say so, and I hear 
 the people shouting. S. W." 
 
118 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued). 
 
 EDWARD FREEMAN LOSES HIMSELF, BUT FINDS HIS 
 BROTHER. 
 
 THE preservation of my brother's life, in the first 
 instance, and his final escape from his place of 
 imprisonment, were both due as I often heard 
 my father assert, and as both Jack and myself 
 also believe to the grace of God, and not the 
 wisdom of man. The police and the coast- 
 guards were quite at a loss all through, and could 
 do nothing. Even the clever detective who 
 came from Dublin and spent a fortnight here 
 observing and considering, went away again in a 
 sort of passion. It was the extraordinary vision 
 seen by my little brother Charley that led him 
 to roll loaves into the place where Jack was really 
 imprisoned, and so perhaps saved his life. 
 Finally I myself found out the secret of his 
 
EDWARD FREEMAN LOSES HIMSELF. 119 
 
 imprisonment not by any wise calculation, but 
 from a sort of inspiration which came to me 
 quite unsolicited. 
 
 One day shall I ever forget it ? a 
 whimsical thought, but really a prompting 
 of Providence, came into my mind. It was 
 just before breakfast, and as I sat balancing 
 a spoon on the edge of a tea- cup and thinking 
 about Jack. Might not something happen, or 
 some idea strike me, if I were to go to Du- 
 Corrig fishing, just as my brother did ? When 
 I lost an arrow I used to come back to the 
 spot whence I shot it and shoot another in 
 the same direction and with equal force in 
 order to find the first. It was this that put 
 me in mind of the plan I was now about 
 to execute. 
 
 I said nothing about it to anyone, but tak- 
 ing my rod set off for Du-Corrig. I fished care- 
 lessly, or pretended to fish, for some time. Then 
 I got tired. " This," I said, " is perhaps how 
 Jack felt six months ago. Fish not taking, 
 nothing to do ; I will try another rock ; but 
 
120 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 there are none here on the right, only the sheer 
 wall of cliff try leftwards then." I clambered 
 along here till I came to a deep fissure in the 
 cliff-side. It ran sheer down to the sea really 
 a rather horrible chasm, or long and profound 
 cleft, at the bottom of which, the sullen waters 
 seemed talking to themselves. 
 
 I had already explored this cavern by sea in 
 my far- extended searches for Jack, having sculled 
 a boat through it from end to end, for it was too 
 narrow for rowing. I was on the point of turn- 
 ing back, for it never occurred to me that any 
 one would be so mad as to try and cross it. 
 Where I now stood it was too wide to leap 
 across, but as I looked up and down, I saw a 
 place where an active leaper, gifted with a good 
 deal of nerve, or rather afflicted with a sudden 
 attack of lunacy, might leap over it. The cleft 
 was not indeed so very wide at this point, but 
 the narrowness of the foot-hold at the other 
 side, and the darkness and depth of the abyss 
 below, brought the consequences of failure 
 before the imagination in a somewhat appalling 
 
EDWARD FREEMAN LOSES HIMSELF. 121 
 
 manner. Moreover, beyond that little foot-hold 
 there seemed nothing but the sheer cliff. 
 
 Still keeping my rod in my hand I leaped 
 it, right glad to find that my foot did not slip 
 on the narrow, sloping ledge at the other side. 
 Just then the conviction started suddenly into 
 my mind that I was on Jack's traces. My heart 
 beat so that I could hear it, and I had to stand 
 still for a considerable time before its beatings 
 and my general agitation would allow me to go 
 on. I was now on the side of an almost sheer 
 cliff, one which when seen from the water seemed 
 quite sheer and untraversable ; but I found a 
 little ragged ledge leading onward and upward. 
 One part of it was very dangerous, but after 
 passing this I came upon rough craggy ground, 
 quite easy to get over. This rough way led 
 steadily upwards along the face of the cliff; by 
 it alone was the rock traversable, and it was not 
 wide. If Jack came along this cliff at all I 
 should now find him or his body. I went on 
 and on for nearly a mile the little ledge 
 being always traversable and at last, quite 
 
122 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 suddenly, arrived at a black opening in the 
 face of the cliff, which I had never noticed 
 before. 
 
 I may add that, unlike Jack, I did not care 
 for sea- fishing, was seldom on the water, and had 
 never scanned our cliffs with his hawk's eye and 
 inquiring mind. As I stood in the mouth of 
 this cave I was too filled with hope and fear to 
 cry out. I stood there on the flat sill for a 
 long time. Then I heard the sound of feet, as 
 if someone was stepping briskly over rocks, and 
 even springing actively from one to another, 
 though all was dark within. Then a cheery 
 whistle sounded in the interior. The air was 
 " Yilikins and His Dinah." Well I knew who 
 whistled. It was either Jack or his ghost. 
 There was a smooth incline of rock sloping 
 inwards just in front of me. Crying out I know 
 not what, I slid, or even cast myself, down this 
 incline. 
 
 I heard Jack roar at me to stay back, but I 
 could not, for the incline rapidly grew steeper, 
 till at last it was nearly sheer. So I came 
 
EDWARD FREEMAN LOSES HIMSELF. 123 
 
 tumbling down, and fell and rolled over 
 something soft. In a moment I was on my feet 
 again, and found myself in my brother's arms. 
 I think we must have both cried aloud, weeping 
 for joy. Certainly neither of us could speak for 
 a long time. 
 
 As soon as we recovered ourselves Jack 
 brought me round his vast domain, relating all 
 his history as we went, while I told him all that 
 had happened in the outer world. 
 
 Though I too was now trapped and a 
 prisoner, I did not mind it in the least. 
 
 I was surprised and delighted with all 
 I saw : Jack's tame seals ; his fire burning so 
 mysteriously in the huge darkness ; the- re- 
 flections on the rock- walls of the prison and 
 on the Seals' Pool ; the enormous echoing 
 corridors of the cavern ; the great central 
 space where he had taken up his abode ; two 
 galleries 
 
 [Here I must cut short Edward Freeman's 
 narrative and invite the reader's attention to 
 John Freeman's account of all his adventures 
 
124 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 and of what he had endured and dared in this 
 great underground prison. We must, of course, 
 to fully unravel the details, go back to the 
 beginning, that is, to the day of John Freeman's 
 mysterious disappearance. EDITOR.] 
 
125 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 JOHN FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE. now HE CAME TO 
 CURRY'S WINDOW. 
 
 [So far as the reader is concerned there is an end 
 now of the mystery. Henceforth for a good 
 while we shall be concerned only with John 
 Freeman's account of the extraordinary shifts 
 and lucky accidents by which he contrived not 
 only to remain alive in this cave for so many 
 months, but to retain his health and spirits to 
 such a degree that when his brother Edward at 
 last hit upon him, in the manner just described, 
 he was whistling lustily, and was plainly in no 
 way discouraged or cast down. For myself, I 
 can say that I have been far more deeply 
 interested in Mr. John Freeman's account of his 
 life in the cavern than in any other portion of 
 the whole story. EDITOR.] 
 
 It was half-past three when I reached Du- 
 (Jorrig. I fished for a good while without even 
 
126 LOST ON DU-COR11IG. 
 
 a bite. A boat, which was locally known as 
 " the old rake," rowed past me. The men in it 
 were going to a noted " bream-rough " some 
 miles further up the coast. I hailed them as 
 they passed. I continued fishing for about half 
 an hour after this without success. Then I 
 wearied of the task, and began to cast about for 
 something to do till sunset, at which time the 
 pollock would begin to take a fish that gives 
 good sport. I thought of exploring the cliffs 
 which lay eastward from Du-Corrig. When last 
 I had clambered along these cliffs I was stopped 
 by a gap across which I feared to spring lest I 
 should not be able to return. That was two 
 summers since, and I wished to see whether it 
 looked as formidable to me now as it did then. 
 
 The only real object of interest in these cliffs 
 was a small square aperture at a great height 
 from the water. I had often noticed this 
 aperture, which from the sea looked only a little 
 square black spot. No one in the neighbour- 
 hood knew anything about it. But once, while 
 out with an ancient fisherman from an adjoining 
 
JOHN FREEMAN AT CURRY'S WINDOW. 127 
 
 island, I was told by him that it was the mouth 
 of a haunted cave, and that it was unlucky to 
 have anything to do with it. Indeed, it was 
 difficult to see how a person could come at it at 
 all, for it was quite unattainable from the sea or 
 from any other side, so sheer and smooth seemed 
 the cliff in which it was situated. This old 
 fisherman called it " Curry's Window," and 
 spoke of Curry as a great smuggler. Curry, he 
 said, was so active that he would take a barrel 
 of rum under one arm and a barrel of rum under 
 the other, and, though weighted so, spring from 
 the deck of his schooner and fly clean through 
 the aperture into the cave. 
 
 When I made some chaffing remark about 
 the old smuggler's extraordinary activity, he 
 only said that Curry was known to be " a clever 
 man," and no more would he say. I asked 
 about Curry on another occasion, but he not 
 only refused to add anything, but rather angrily 
 denied that he had ever spoken to me about 
 Curry at all. All this naturally excited my 
 curiosity. Knowing that I was much bigger 
 
128 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 and stronger than when I last made the 
 attempt, I resolved to try again. I easily 
 reached the gap to which I refer. Here there 
 was a split in the cliff reaching down to the sea. 
 Far below in the darkness the sullen waters were 
 murmuring. At the other side there was a good 
 foothold, but it was decidedly lower than the 
 point from which one would have to spring in 
 order to reach it ; consequently the return leap 
 would be more difficult, and it was this as well 
 as the horrible depths below and the gulping and 
 gurgling of the dark waters which had daunted 
 me before. I perceived now that it was really 
 no such wonderful leap after all, and surprised at 
 my poltroonery on the former occasion, I sprang 
 over, and then sprang back again with com- 
 parative ease. After this proof of my prowess 
 I resolved to forego the rest of the exploration 
 till next day, intending to bring my brother 
 Ned with me. Though two years younger he 
 was a better leaper than myself, being slight 
 and long-legged, whereas I was made rather 
 for strength than activity. My evil genius, 
 
JOHN FREEMAN AT CURRTS WINDOW. 129 
 
 however led me on, and the thought of the two 
 hours yet wanting till sunset and the time when 
 pollock would begin to rise. 
 
 The exploration did not indeed promise 
 much, for the cliff as seen from Du-Corrig, as 
 well as from the sea, seemed one sheer unbroken 
 wall of rock, apparently offering no foothold to 
 any creature less prehensile than a fly, yet 
 immediately before me there was a very narrow 
 traversable ledge. In traversing this I saw it 
 would be an advantage to have my rod with me 
 in order to steady my footsteps. 
 
 I returned for it to Du-Corrig, and a third 
 time cleared the chasm, and presently en- 
 countered a piece of cliff-walking which could 
 not possibly have been managed without such 
 aid. There was a ledge, indeed, but the cliff 
 above it was so sheer, or rather inclined forward 
 so much, that some slight support for the 
 climber on the seaward side was necessary in 
 order to get along here. The iron spike at the 
 end of the rod supplied a good rest for me as I 
 went. 
 
130 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 Passing this dangerous point I was delighted 
 to find that the cliff was still traversable, though 
 with difficulty, and I had frequently to crawL 
 Yet I continued to get forwards and also up- 
 wards. In this manner I progressed about a 
 mile, not knowing whither that traversable 
 ragged ledge led me, but hoping it might be to 
 Curry's Window. As my progress was slow I 
 should upon ordinary evenings have been per- 
 ceived by some passing boat, but the people 
 were at this time very busy about hay, and " the 
 old rake " was the only one which, on this 
 unlucky evening, had put forth from our little 
 harbour, " the Basin," as we used to call it. 
 Eventually I found myself all of a sudden 
 looking into a considerable cave in the cliff side 
 Curry's Window, as I plainly perceived. I 
 was surprised to find it so large, and also that it 
 was not square, but irregularly arched. I used 
 to think that the famous smuggler would have 
 found a difficulty in rolling even one barrel at a 
 time through the aperture. 
 
 The delusive appearance of perfect squareness 
 
JOHN FREEMAN AT CURRTS WINDOW. 131 
 
 had, of course, been caused by distance, for the 
 aperture was very high up in the cliff. It, 
 however, resembled a window in this respect, 
 that the sill, so to speak, was perfectly smooth, 
 flat, and horizontal, as if the work of man's 
 hands. The rest of the aperture was very jagged 
 and ragged. I also saw that the rock on the 
 inside was smooth, and sloped away from the 
 sill, gently at first, but afterwards at an angle of 
 forty-five degrees, or thereabouts. The sun had 
 now got round the shoulder of the hill, whose 
 base was supplied by these cliffs ; consequently I 
 could see little or nothing of the interior of the 
 cave, but thought that I could perceive the 
 bottom at a short distance. . I pushed the butt 
 end of the fishing rod before me, and found that 
 this was so. There, about six feet below me, 
 was the bottom of the incline, and apparently 
 the floor of the cave. 
 
 j 2 
 
132 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TRAPPED. 
 
 I SAT on the edge of the sill and slid down, 
 expecting to land safely on the spot which I had 
 poled and probed with the butt end of my rod, 
 but it proved to be a false bottom, or not the 
 bottom at all. Whatever was the obstruction at 
 this point, it gave way before my descending 
 weight. It was, in fact, an accumulation of 
 debris gathered around certain rotten branches 
 that had stuck here in the entrance, lying trans- 
 versely along the incline. I broke through all 
 this with a loud crackling of broken timber, and 
 continued to slide or, indeed, rush down a 
 still steeper incline descending into the darkness; 
 and when I believed that I was being precipi- 
 tated into eternity, fell into a soft mass of what 
 seemed dry sea-weed, without sustaining any 
 injury. 
 
 " Facilis descensus" I cried, as I landed on 
 
"IT GAVE WAY BEFORE MY DESCENDING WEIGHT" (p. I<i2). 
 
TRAPPED. 133 
 
 this soft bed, all my alarm yielding suddenly 
 to a sense of the ridiculous. Seeing the window 
 at such a moderate distance above ray head, I 
 had not the least doubt that, even if the slope 
 should prove too sheer, I could easily swarm or 
 clamber up at the point where this slope met the 
 walls of the cave. 
 
 The moment I found my feet I was bent all 
 on exploration. I struck a match, and by its 
 transient and faint light sought to inspect the 
 fabulous smuggler's storehouse. I continued to 
 light one match after another. Eventually 
 gathering all the remainder in a little bundle, I 
 ignited them, in order that by their united blaze 
 I might see as much as was possible under the 
 circumstances. 
 
 When they had burned out, and I had 
 thrown away the stumps and had seen almost 
 nothing, I bethought me of the return journey, 
 and also that it would be better to make haste, 
 for it would be ill work groping my way home in 
 the dark along the face of that sheer cliff. I 
 tried to swarm up the incline, but failed. Now 
 
134 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 a comical thought entered my mind. I thought 
 of a cockroach in a glass trap, and laughed. I 
 had often watched, with some faint glimmerings 
 of pi by and compunction, the futile efforts of 
 these black gentry to climb the smooth sides of 
 their prison. My own futile efforts to climb the 
 slope suggested a ludicrous resemblance to the 
 frustrated energies of those insects. Again and 
 again I addressed myself to different parts of 
 the smooth slope, but nowhere could secure a 
 purchase for hands or knees. I was not yet 
 alarmed yet, as if far down in the depths of 
 my nature, I was conscious of a dim, formless 
 emotion, which I never experienced before. 
 
 Still, certain that I should in some way 
 escape, I sought the point where the incline 
 abutted on the wall of the cave, sure that I 
 could get up in the angle so formed ; and by the 
 support of the craggy sides there. I tried first 
 on the left. Here, however, the incline seemed 
 to break off sharp. I found this out, of course, 
 by my sense of touch, for I could hardly see 
 anything. Then, creeping -over huge smooth 
 
TRAPPED. 135 
 
 boulders and the aforesaid heap of sea- weed, 
 I reached the other wall and found it ragged 
 indeed and abutting on the incline, but at this 
 point the incline was almost sheer. In short, I 
 could not ascend. 
 
 Despair was now fast getting the upper hand 
 in my mind. Nevertheless, I made frantic 
 efforts to ascend, but all in vain. Again I 
 thought of the cockroaches in the glass trap 
 the wretched insects clambering and sliding on 
 the smooth wall of their prison. But I did not 
 laugh this time. I was too like them. Yet I 
 did not in the least despair of getting out if 
 not to-night, which was improbable, then to- 
 morrow. I knew there were many devices to be 
 tried yet. For one thing I thanked Heaven 
 sincerely : the place where I fell was carpeted 
 thick with sea-weed. On each side there was 
 none. Whatever the gales or the crests of great 
 waves in winter had thrown in had been washed 
 down through the interstices of the great 
 boulders, and probably escaped at some lower 
 point in the cliff's sides. Had I not descended 
 
136 LOST ON DU-COREIG. 
 
 exactly in the middle I should certainly have 
 been killed or maimed. I sat down on this 
 providential sea- weed to collect my thoughts ; 1 
 filled my pipe, and then searched all my pockets, 
 hoping somewhere to discover a match, for I 
 used to keep loose matches indifferently in all 
 my pockets, and often had found one hid some- 
 where in the lining. My search was bootless, I 
 had not a match left. 
 
 It was growing dark rapidly ; I had no time 
 to lose, for even if I were to effect my escape 
 from this infernal cave, I would require daylight 
 for the return journey along that dangerous cliff- 
 road. I proceeded at once to gather together 
 all the sea- weed that I could lay my hands on, 
 and piled it up in a heap against the incline. 
 As the heap rose my heart rose with it. There 
 seemed an abundance of sea- weed : I could feel 
 it thick under my feet. Its crackling sounded 
 pleasantly, for it was very dry. Still, I had to 
 go further and further into the cave for each 
 armful, or barth, to use a local word, for it did 
 not lie everywhere, but, as it were, in a line 
 
TRAPPED. 137 
 
 running inward from the middle of the incline. 
 Here lay a road of sea- weed a few feet wide, but 
 on either hand only bare stone. 
 
 It was now getting so dark that I at last 
 determined to give over this labour, for it would 
 be sheer madness to attempt the return journey 
 in the night. A sinister suspicion, too, was 
 growing in my mind that the supply of sea- weed 
 was giving out. My last armfuls represented 
 a good deal of groping. The sea- weed only 
 seemed to be really abundant close under the 
 window. I did not wish to make my suspicion 
 a certainty by putting the facts to too close 
 a test. The thought of the anxiety and alarm 
 of my parents and family, as may be imagined, 
 contributed a good deal to my unhappiness. 
 When I ceased working I began to grow cold, 
 and soon very cold. The sea-weed was quite 
 dry and crisp ; I piled a great deal of this over 
 me by way of bed-clothes, and, thanks to youth 
 and health, ere long fell sound asleep in spite of 
 my troubles. 
 
 When I awoke it was broad daylight, and 
 
138 LOST ON DU-COBKIG. 
 
 the level rays of the sun streamed far into the 
 interior of the cave, which seemed of vast extent. 
 Indeed, I guessed as much on the previous night 
 as I listened to the reverberations of my voice in 
 its abysmal hollows. Starting up, I at once 
 renewed my task of collecting sea-weed with the 
 object of ascending the incline by its aid. 
 
 " Facilis descensus" I had cried merrily 
 enough after my tumble last night, but ere 
 long the rest of the quotation continued to 
 haunt me, viz : 
 
 " Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras, 
 Hoc labor, hoc opus." 
 
139 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 NOT TO GET OUT. 
 
 PRESENTLY I found that I had already collected 
 nearly all the sea-weed that was procurable at 
 this end of the cave. But after my first sense 
 of disappointment I did not so much mind this, 
 for I expected to meet with plenty of stones, 
 such as one often finds in the interior of such 
 caves. All such pebbles, however, as I could 
 see seemed much too large to lift. But I did 
 not doubt that I could somewhere find removable 
 pebbles in sufficient quantity to build up for my- 
 self a sort of scaling ladder against the mouth of 
 my prison. Yet I went to the extreme limit of 
 the daylight without finding such, and afterwards, 
 penetrating the sheer darkness, groped about in 
 all directions without success. Everywhere I 
 scrambled only over large boulders. Still 
 groping forward in the darkness, urged now by 
 the fury of despair, I found myself suddenly cut 
 
140 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 off altogether from even a view of the window. 
 I had gone round some angle of rock, and was 
 immersed in dense darkness. 
 
 I gave myself up for lost, and having 
 searched around in vain without perceiving 
 anywhere a ray of light, sat down and well, 
 not to be too proud wept long and bitterly. 
 Then, praying fervently, and thinking with such 
 feelings as may be imagined of the opening line 
 of that little familiar collect, " Lighten our 
 darkness, we beseech thee, Lord," which I 
 had so often repeated with little or no thought 
 of its meaning, and which was now naturally 
 brought to my remembrance, I searched again 
 for the light, clambering recklessly over the 
 boulders, and at length, to my extreme joy, 
 perceived a faint ray. 
 
 Moving towards it, I suddenly caught sight 
 of Curry's Window, and, however I might have 
 been inclined to curse that sinister aperture, now 
 sincerely blessed it, and the level rays which 
 shot through it into the inner gloom. I 
 thought of Milton's line, "Hail! holy Light, 
 
NOT TO GET OUT. 141 
 
 offspring of Heaven first born." I may 
 mention here that I was very fond of poetry, 
 and had stored away a great deal of it in my 
 memory, so that I could repeat a vast number of 
 the English lyrics, and even long passages from 
 Spenser, Shakespeare, and Milton. This intel- 
 lectual provision or accomplishment, or whatever 
 it may be called, proved a great blessing to 
 me in my miserable imprisonment, and was 
 probably the means, under Providence, of 
 preserving my reason. 
 
 With the rediscovery of Heaven's blessed 
 light, hope revived hope, and also hunger. 
 Now, for the first time, I thought of food, for, 
 though nigh famished, I had not been quite 
 conscious of it hitherto, owing to the feverish 
 excitement into which I had been thrown. I 
 had with me half a slice of bread, which, 
 knowing that I would not be home till late, I 
 had thrust into one of my pockets before 
 starting for Du-Corrig. As for water, I was 
 safe. Searching round the walls of my prison 
 the previous night, I found the rock upon the 
 
142 LOST ON DTT-COREIG. 
 
 right side slippery from wetness, and at one 
 point felt water running against my fingers. 
 Also, in the interior somewhere, I heard, though 
 far away, the plash of descending water. I ate 
 my bread and, going to the spot where I had 
 felt moving water on the previous night, made a 
 cup with my hand, and pressing the inside edge 
 of it against the rock, and doing this again and 
 again, got a good drink of very pure spring 
 water. I now resolved to search the cave more 
 carefully than I had done before for pebbles 
 such as I could remove, and to be particularly 
 cautious about losing sight of the window. 
 
 I searched around now for hours, but in 
 vain. Hardly a stone of the kind could I 
 discover. I returned to my bed of seaweed 
 and lay down to rest. I was now painfully 
 conscious of growing weakness. My excitement 
 was wearing away, and the lack of food 
 beginning to tell. It was now about midday. 
 From time to time I shouted as loudly as I 
 could, but only heard for response the mocking 
 echoes and reverberations of my own voice. 
 
NOT TO GET OUT. 143 
 
 Knowing that boats were not likely to be 
 passing in the middle of the day, I determined 
 to husband ray energies in this direction until 
 the evening. 
 
 It was now certain that I could not climb 
 out of my prison, or within the limits and 
 vicinity of the light procure sea-weed or stones 
 in sufficient quantity to make for myself a 
 scaling ladder. My last hope lay in my rod 
 and line. I piled up all the sea-weed procurable, 
 took off my clothes and laid them on the top of 
 the heap, and thrusting upwards the butt end of 
 the rod, endeavoured, by means of the crook 
 supplied by the reel, to secure a purchase upon 
 the sill of the window and so drag myself up 
 out of this pit. If the rod and reel had only 
 been strong enough, I might have succeeded. I 
 was conscious that it was a forlorn hope, but, 
 nevertheless, made the attempt. I did succeed 
 in getting a grip somewhere at the sill with the 
 reel, but, as soon as I began to climb, the top 
 joint of the rod gave way, I tumbled down, 
 rolled from the sea-weed heap on to the 
 
144 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 boulders, and was much bruised and shaken 
 by the fall. 
 
 With the portion of the rod which remained 
 in my hands I succeeded in disengaging the 
 rest, which fell back into the cave. I next 
 unreeled the line, doubled it, doubled it again, 
 and made a pretty strong rope, which I fastened 
 to the thicker part of the rod, and renewed my 
 attempt, this time flinging up the rod and 
 letting it slide back from the sill, hoping so that 
 the reel, which was a large one, might catch. 
 The rod and twisted line were indeed strong 
 enough to bear my weight, but I had great 
 difficulty on this occasion in securing a purchase 
 with the reel, and, when I did, the moment my 
 weight which was considerable fell upon the 
 reel the shank went with a loud snap. Again I 
 fell, and the reel tumbling after me rang on the 
 boulders. 
 
 All was in vain. I had now tried every 
 imaginable method of escape, and they had all 
 failed. Evening was at hand, and the cave 
 nearly black, even at the entrance, and I had 
 
NOT TO GET OUT. 145 
 
 grown horribly hungry; I had, however, plenty 
 of pure water, and that was some comfort. I 
 had some cut tobacco in my pouch, I had also a 
 very large roll of what we used to call " Limerick 
 Twist " in my fishing bag. I had bought it at 
 a huckster's on my way to Du-Corrig, not for 
 myself, but as a supply for the men who from 
 time to time might be of service to me. It was 
 the only form of reward that they would accept, 
 ours being a primitive and unsophisticated 
 neighbourhood. I had heard of some sort of 
 comfort to be derived from the chewing of 
 tobacco. I cut off a bit of the twist, and, after 
 chewing it, felt my hunger abated, but also a 
 disagreeable sense of vertigo accompanied with 
 nausea. Nevertheless these sensations were a 
 relief from the horrible feeling of utter 
 prostration into which I was sinking. Eventu- 
 ally I fell asleep. 
 
146 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FIRE. 
 
 WHEN I awoke it was still night, but I felt the 
 dawn approaching. I awoke extremely miser- 
 able, with a misery which my reflections on the 
 nature of my dismal situation deepened almost 
 into despair. I had now tried all conceivable 
 devices of getting out of this horrible den, and I 
 had eaten scarcely anything for thirty-six hours. 
 I did not dare to pass beyond the precincts of 
 the light in search of stones my experience of 
 being lost, as I had been yesterday, in the 
 darkness, was too terrible. " If I am to perish," 
 I said, " let me perish here in the light " a 
 sentiment which I know was expressed by 
 someone else before me, I cannot now recall by 
 whom, though I think I knew it then. Every 
 device had failed. Nevertheless, as the light 
 grew around me, I determined to make one 
 more effort to escape by escalade. I successively 
 
FIRE. 147 
 
 attempted the two corners of the incline where 
 it abutted on or approached the rock walls of my 
 prison, but my efforts were still more futile than 
 on the first occasion. 
 
 I was weak now, and strong only in weak- 
 ness and misery. I drank a great deal of water 
 this day. When night approached I was too 
 miserable to sleep. I chewed and even swal- 
 lowed some tobacco, but the succeeding nausea 
 prevented me from doing so again. About 
 midnight, I fancy, I drank water once more, and 
 fell into a disturbed slumber, filled with 
 abominable apparitions. When I awoke it was 
 twilight, and most still, serene and beautiful 
 about the faintly illuminated edges of the cave's 
 mouth. I expected this day to be my last, and 
 composed my thoughts to death as well as I 
 could, and said my last prayers. 
 
 Nevertheless, the strong spirit of life seemed 
 to flicker up within me again, and after I had 
 taken a deep draught of water, I sat up on my 
 sea-weed couch and searched all my pockets 
 carefully for any stray crumb which might yet 
 K 2 
 
148 LOST ON DU-COBEIG. 
 
 linger there. Conveying anything that felt like 
 such to my mouth, I was aware of a certain 
 bitterish taste which I detected at once as that 
 of gunpowder. The old canvas jacket which I 
 wore on this occasion was that in which I used 
 to shoot when I was at home last winter for the 
 Christmas holidays. Some powder had escaped 
 from my powder-horn, I fancy. However the 
 powder got there, there it was, and immediately 
 the thought of procuring for myself light and 
 fire arose in my mind. Of timber I had plenty. 
 While handling the sea-weed I was conscious of 
 perpetually finding my fingers in contact with 
 bits of wood, swept in thither on the same crests 
 of storm billows which had brought the sea- 
 weed. Though it was still dark, I groped 
 around industriously, and ere long had collected 
 a considerable quantity of driftwood, large and 
 small, all exceedingly dry and brittle, and 
 some sheer touchwood, which crumbled in my 
 fingers. 
 
 Choosing a flat stone, I determined to make 
 it my hearth, and crumbled there a little heap of 
 
FIRE. 149 
 
 the touchwood, making it as fine as dust, and 
 gathered to the same spot some of the very dry 
 timber which I had collected. Then I cut from 
 my trousers a scrap of the woollen cloth, and, 
 after wetting it, rubbed the gunpowder well into 
 its texture. As soon as I thought it was 
 sufficiently saturated I let it dry, but so eager 
 was I for the experiment that, to facilitate the 
 drying process, I fastened it to the point of 
 my rod, and held it up towards the opening 
 of the cave, that it might receive the sun's 
 rays. 
 
 When it seemed to be perfectly dry, I took it 
 to my hearth, and, unfolding my strong clasp- 
 knife, held the rag in my left hand, and with the 
 right, using the knife, I struck sparks from the 
 edge of a rock, making them fly on to the 
 powder-steeped rag. Finding it did not catch 
 fire, I put a little dry powder on the surface of 
 the rag, and renewed my efforts. I felt certain 
 of success, because at one time I used to shoot 
 with an old flint pistol which I had accidentally 
 discovered in my father's bureau, and therefore 
 
150 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 knew how instantaneously such a flying spark 
 will ignite powder. At the second or third 
 stroke the powder blazed up with a puff and an 
 ascending cloud of smoke, and the rag began to 
 burn and crackle gaily. I laid it on the stone 
 and sprinkled lightly over it pinches of the 
 crumbled touchwood, and as this caught fire 
 sprinkled more in larger quantities, but still 
 gradually, knowing that too much fuel would 
 quench the fire. Then I poured on touchwood 
 less finely broken, and as soon as the glowing 
 mass seemed large enough, breathed upon it 
 gently, and soon had the satisfaction of seeing it 
 burst into a bright flame. 
 
 My delight can be imagined. I had now the 
 means of exploring the whole cave, and of 
 utilising all its resources, such as they might be, 
 for the purposes of escape or for food, if haply 
 anything in the nature of food might be pro- 
 cured there anywhere. Food, indeed, had now 
 become an absolute necessity if I was not to die. 
 I removed a bundle of my collected driftwood to 
 a distant point in the interior, and made another 
 
FIRE. 151 
 
 fire there, and, taking good care not to lose sight 
 of this, proceeded to search all around for stones 
 such as I could remove, but found none any- 
 where, only large boulders, and in one place the 
 hard, bare bed of the cave, which here began to 
 slope downwards, not sheer, or at a dangerous 
 angle, but very decidedly downwards. I also 
 found a sort of pocket in the side of the cave, 
 a cave within a cave, which was filled with old 
 timber all very dry and brittle. Here the cavern 
 seemed to wind and curve leftwards. I made 
 another fire at the curve and passed onwards. 
 Henceforward there was nothing but the hard 
 rock bed of the cave. Indeed, it was too steep 
 for any boulders to rest here. Lighting one 
 more fire, I discovered a thin rivulet of water 
 falling from the roof or side of the cave, a slender 
 straight pencil of water. 
 
 I returned easily along my line of fires to the 
 entrance, feeding them as I went. The drift- 
 wood burned so rapidly that I now determined 
 to partially wet the fresh timber which I laid on, 
 that it might burn more slowly. 
 
152 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 Again I went back along my line of fires, 
 examining carefully the wall formation of the 
 cavern, so that even if any of the fires went 
 out I should be able to find my way back 
 to the entrance and the daylight. And 
 yet Curry's Window, as I could not ascend 
 to it, was as cheerless as any other part of 
 the cave. 
 
 My last interior fire was at the point where 
 the floor of the cavern sloped so rapidly down- 
 wards. I hastened forward now with no thought 
 but that of food food no matter what. By 
 this downward way I descended so low that T 
 suspected I must be on a level with the sea. 
 Finding that the light of my last fire seemed 
 faint and dim, I lit another in a dry spot, which 
 was not easy to find, for the ground here was 
 very damp and slippery owing to droppings from 
 the roof. I then listened, hoping that I might 
 hear the noise of the sea, for I thought that by 
 some cleft the outer water might penetrate here. 
 If that were so, I might get shell-fish, mussels, 
 or limpets, or edible sea- weed, my vane, or dilisk, 
 
FIRE. 153 
 
 or sloucane,* all edible weeds whose botanical 
 names even now I do not know. My thoughts 
 were so low and humble that they were concen- 
 trated chiefly upon sea- weed ; for, edible or not, 
 any live sea- weed would be edible to me. 
 
 * This weed is known in the London markets as 
 " lever," and is considered a delicacy by some. EDITOR. 
 
154 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 NOT A DOG SPITE ITS BARKING. 
 
 I NOW stood and listened with ears which famine 
 had rendered preternaturally acute, hoping that 
 I might somewhere hear the sullen gurgle of 
 water or the lapping of waves upon stone. 
 I stood so a long time, then, waving a torch. 
 I stepped rapidly forward. I had only advanced 
 a few yards when I heard something which 
 caused me to start so violently that the torch 
 fell from my hands. It was not the noise of 
 regurgitating water or lapping waves, but a cry 
 loud, clear, and distinct, echoing far and wide 
 in the convolutions of the huge cave, a cry 
 repeated in quick succession again and again, a 
 cry, rather a mew, or a bark, resembling indeed 
 both sounds, but the latter more than the 
 former. I was in that condition in which fear 
 can at any moment burst out into frantic terror, 
 but I recovered myself in an instant. 
 
NOT A DOG SPITE ITS BARKING. 155 
 
 The noise which. I had heard was the 
 harking of a seal. I had not spent my "boyhood 
 on this coast without having acquired that much 
 of sea-side knowledge. I knew that it was a 
 seal, and even a young seal. Yes, the tidal 
 water had here somewhere an entrance into the 
 cave. I went on in the direction of the noise, 
 and was about to extinguish the burning timber 
 which I held in my hand when the increased 
 energy and frequency of the barking convinced 
 me that the seal, so far from being terrified by the 
 light, seemed to like it, and, as I believed, was 
 endeavouring to approach it. I stood again listen- 
 ing, and could hear its flappings and shufflings. 
 
 Still going on I came rather suddenly within 
 view of the creature. The water, which I could 
 now see, was a good many yards behind it, and 
 already, mad with hunger, I could see and smell 
 chops and steaks of the little seal frizzling on 
 one of my fires, for of course I had determined 
 to lose no time about killing and eating this 
 animal which Providence had so unexpectedly 
 cast in my way. 
 
156 LOST ON DU-GOEEIG. 
 
 But when I saw the poor creature, my sole 
 fellow-occupant of the gloomy prison, still 
 flapping and flopping towards me, and the 
 pathetic look in its eyes for the seal can look 
 very pathetic an involuntary feeling of com- 
 passion rose within me. It was not in the least 
 afraid of me, even when I came close up to it, 
 probably because it was so much pleased with 
 the light. No doubt ere long famine would 
 have driven out pity ; a man " feeling all the 
 vulture in his jaws " will eat anything. But at 
 this moment the light of my torch fell on 
 something shiny on the edge of the water. 
 It was a good-sized salmon, just a little nibbled 
 at about the neck and shoulders, As in a flash 
 I perceived that this little moaning suppliant, 
 whom a few minutes before I had been on the 
 point of killing, might be the means of my 
 preservation. This large fish was never killed 
 by the small seal ; it was killed by its parents 
 and brought thither as food for their offspring. 
 I would keep the child a close prisoner and 
 compel the parents to feed both it and me. 
 
NOT A DOG SPITE ITS BARKING. 157 
 
 The fishing line of which I had spoken I had 
 with me still fastened to the rod. I unwound 
 its twisted cords and fastened one end round the 
 seal's neck with a knot that would not slip, and 
 made the other end fast round the projecting 
 corner of a boulder. 
 
 Then rejoicing, I bore away the salmon, 
 which, cut into thick steaks, was soon frizzling 
 and spluttering gaily in the fire which was 
 nearest. I knew now so well the lie of this end 
 of the cave that I had no fear about finding my 
 way to Curry's Window whenever I should feel 
 inclined. Having duly said grace, and more 
 earnestly than ever before in my life, I fell to 
 and made a hearty meal. The seal was all this 
 time crying piteously. When I had ended I 
 gave it a piece of the broiled salmon, which it 
 seemed to like. I knew then that the little seal 
 and I would become good friends, and I hoped 
 ere long by similar means to become acquainted 
 with its parents. So pleased was I by the 
 sudden turn which things had taken in my 
 favour that I became quite joyous and 
 
158 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 happy, whistled and sang gaily, and awoke 
 distant echoes, for the cave was far larger than I 
 have indicated, and was even of vast extent. 
 Eesolved for the present to make my home in 
 the vicinity of my new friend, I returned to the 
 entrance for the useful sea-weed which had 
 
 |j 
 
 hitherto been my bed. It was near sunset, so I 
 continued to shout at intervals as loudly as I 
 could, in hope of attracting the notice of some 
 passing boat. This continued to be a practice 
 with me for many days, but the distance was 
 so great that none of the fishermen ever heard 
 me. 
 
159 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 FRIENDS MULTIPLY. 
 
 WHEN I returned with the sea- weed, which was 
 to be my bed, I saw in the faint light cast from 
 my fire two large objects beside the little seal ; 
 they were the parents. There was one on each 
 side of the youngster. They were lowering and 
 raising their heads towards him, while he was 
 flapping vigorously and uttering little cries 
 of joy. It was a pretty scene, and I feared to 
 disturb it. I had often heard, though had not 
 myself noticed it, that these animals are very 
 susceptible to music, and will for miles follow a 
 ship in which a musical instrument is being 
 played. Accordingly I began to whistle in a 
 low tone a plaintive air. The moment I began, 
 however, the elder animals took the alarm, 
 flapped away down the sloping rock, tumbled 
 into the water, and disappeared; not, however, 
 before one of them had attempted to carry off 
 
160 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 the youngster in its jaws, just as a bitch would 
 a puppy. Seals, I may observe, give suck to 
 their young just as animals do. My little 
 friend had got beyond this stage, and was begin- 
 ning to eat on its own account. 
 
 Now that the parents were alarmed for the 
 sake of their offspring, I knew that they would 
 not go far. I brightened my fire so as to 
 illuminate somewhat the whole pool, lay down 
 beside it upon my weedy couch, and continued 
 to whistle. Presently, in a distant part of it, 
 close beside a dark rift or aperture in the rock, I 
 saw four round eyes, apparently watching me, 
 and perfectly motionless. I continued whistling 
 so at intervals for more than two hours, hardly 
 making any perceptible motion, during which 
 time the animals had so far dismissed their fear 
 that I could see them swimming about the pool, 
 and sometimes coming to the edge and resting 
 there. I was particularly anxious to make 
 friends with these animals, for I feared that 
 in their alarm they might desert the youngster. 
 Then, too, I knew that the little seal might 
 
"I SAW FOUR ROUND EYES APPARENTLY WATCHING ME" (p. 160). 
 

 - " Z* 'j c 
 
 I <J W 
 
 5 /., ,' 
 I 61 *J ' 
 
FRIENDS MULTIPLY. 101 
 
 gnaw through his tether at any time, and make 
 away, or that his parents might cut it for him. 
 
 Accordingly I now resolved to make the 
 tether stronger. This, fortunately, I could 
 do. The "nostle" of my line viz., the part 
 between the line proper and the hook was 
 of wire, and in my fly-book, which contained 
 many sundries, I had a good roll of the same 
 article. 
 
 As I feared, however, to approach the pool 
 while the parents were there, I ceased whistling, 
 and waited till the parents should disappear. 
 Though I was in an agony of drowsiness, I con- 
 trived to keep myself awake, and at length had 
 the satisfaction of seeing them one after the 
 other dive through the cleft. Then I wound 
 the wire strongly round the whole length of the 
 tether, and also very close and firm round the 
 loop which encircled the little animal's neck. 
 My life, I felt, depended on the excellence of my 
 workmanship, and I did not spare pains. Then 
 I returned to my fire, and, after having covered 
 up the burning embers deep in ashes, lay down, 
 L 
 
162 LOST ON DU-GOEBIG. 
 
 and in an instant was fast asleep. I slept 
 profoundly without a dream, even at the 
 moment of waking. When I awoke I thought 
 I was in my own bed, but, alas ! the touch of 
 the dry sea-weed quickly banished the thought. 
 Very cautiously and gradually, and whistling 
 low all the time, I revived the fire. When the 
 light was sufficient, I could see the parents lying 
 beside their offspring, and perfectly motionless. 
 There, too, I gladly perceived fish. I contrived 
 gradually to edge my way towards them, 
 whistling all the time. Though they made 
 slight motions of alarm, they did not flap off till 
 I had come within half a dozen yards of them. 
 I found near the little seal a white trout and a 
 young pollock, injured only by the marks of 
 teeth, and after petting and making much of my 
 little friend, who testified his pleasure at seeing 
 me with many cries and awkward little jumps, 
 returned to my fire and cooked my breakfast. 
 Of course, I had determined to make an explora- 
 tion of the whole cavern, but did not dare to do 
 so until I had first established perfectly friendly 
 
FRIENDS MULTIPLY. 163 
 
 relations with, the creatures upon whose presence 
 my life depended. I perceived, that owing to 
 the intelligence, and, I might almost say, 
 humanity, of these amiable and interesting 
 animals, this, though difficult, was only a 
 work of time. Amid such surroundings they 
 did not, I think, quite associate the thought of 
 me with that of their great enemy, man. 
 
 I now began to regulate my life according to 
 the time of day and night, and to keep myself 
 related with the upper world by going to sleep 
 at about ten o'clock. No one who has not 
 known such solitude as mine can be aware how 
 much society there is in a watch, and its friendly, 
 scarce -audible ticking. The whole of that day, 
 with the exception of the time that I spent 
 taking exercise in the vicinity of Curry's Window 
 and in the genial light of day, I devoted myself 
 to making friendly advances to the seals. It 
 was slower work than I expected, but at the end 
 of the fifth day they allowed me to touch them 
 and stroke down their smooth polls as I would a 
 dog. 
 
 L 2 
 
164 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 Next day as I approached them, still very 
 cautiously, they uttered cries of joy and affection, 
 and by the evening our relations were satis- 
 factory in every respect. That day, having for 
 some time perceived that the little seal was 
 pining for the water, I let it flap thither, and 
 holding the tether in my hand, sat for more 
 than an hour watching its delighted gambols as 
 it dived and rose there, romping with its parents 
 in a manner that would have delighted the 
 hardest heart. Every day after this I allowed it 
 to indulge in the same amusement, even for 
 several hours. I knew that this swimming 
 exercise was necessary for its health. 
 
 Yet only half my work with the seals was 
 now accomplished. The little seal might die, or 
 the parents, finding it big and strong, therefore 
 uninteresting, might neglect to bring it food. I 
 resolved, therefore, to teach the parents to bring 
 me food, and this I did. When one of them 
 appeared on the edge of the pool with a fish in 
 his mouth, I used to take it from him myself, 
 make much of him, and stroke him, and whistle 
 
FRIENDS MULTIPLY. 165 
 
 the air lie seemed to like best for his special 
 edification. Then I cut out a piece of the fish 
 and gave it to the youngster, but always insisted 
 upon the fish being first given to myself. 
 Eventually they always did this of their own 
 accord, and would even pass by the youngster 
 and come flopping up the rock towards me with 
 the fish in their mouths. 
 
 All this, as may be imagined, was a work of 
 time, yet the whole business of training the 
 seals took only a little more than three weeks. 
 To begin with, the seals on this coast were 
 by no means wild, for they were never hunted 
 or fired upon. Then, as I have already sug- 
 gested, they did not, in this illuminated cavern, 
 quite identify me with the thought of the arch- 
 enemy. In the third place, there was the little 
 seal puppy as a link of amity between us. 
 
166 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 FURTHER EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 LIKE Robinson Crusoe, of whom I often thought, 
 I kept an almanack. One of the largest and 
 smoothest boulders was used by me for this 
 purpose. Like him I made a stroke for each 
 day, a long stroke for Sunday, and at the 
 beginning of each month wrote its name, all, 
 of course, with the point of my knife; 
 
 After I had accustomed the seals to my 
 presence, though before I had taught them to 
 bring me fish, I began to explore the remainder 
 of the cavern, and in the same way as I had 
 explored it from the window to the Seals' Pool, 
 viz., by lighting a series of fires. A little 
 beyond the pool I found that the cavern forked 
 one gallery, which was the smaller, terminating 
 in another pool of unknown depth (I tried, 
 but could not sound it), in which the tide rose 
 and fell : a terrible and mournful place, which, 
 
FURTHER EXPLORATIONS. 167 
 
 after that sounding or trying to sound, I seldom 
 afterwards visited. The other gallery was of 
 huge extent, and ran far inland. When I first 
 penetrated this gallery, I noticed at one point 
 that the air seemed to be fresher than elsewhere, 
 and could perceive a slight motion in the flame 
 of my torch. This, of course, was evidence that 
 somewhere here there was communication with 
 the outer world. Though I scanned eagerly the 
 roof of the cavern, I could perceive there no 
 welcome slit of sky. Nevertheless, I felt sure 
 that a way to the outer world existed at this 
 point, though probably so winding as not to 
 permit the access of light. Then, as I recalled 
 the physical character of that outer world under 
 which I was entombed, I remembered a cleft 
 opening into a deep and horrible abyss, which 
 had always possessed a fascination for myself 
 and my younger brothers. 
 
 It was called " The Devil's Parlour," and 
 many times we rolled down stones here and 
 listened with awe-struck delight to their clash- 
 ing and rattling as they went down into 
 
168 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 subterranean depths. I used to maintain that it 
 was bottomless, and penetrated into the centre 
 of the earth, because I never could hear the final 
 clash which told that the stone was at rest 
 below. Then I searched around, and here, sure 
 enough, did find a variety of stones, cast down, 
 no doubt, by the hands of many boys at many 
 times. Also I found many bones of animals 
 goats and sheep, which from time to time 
 during past centuries had fallen thither while 
 they grazed carelessly on the edge of the abyss, 
 or had been driven into it by dogs or wolves. 
 " If only one such would fall in here now," 
 I thought to myself ruefully, as my imagination 
 drew pleasing pictures of roast meat. In truth, 
 I was becoming heartily tired of my fish diet, 
 which was beginning to affect my health, and 
 still more noticeably my strength. I blazed 
 my way to the end of this gallery, the extreme 
 limit of my . gloomy kingdom. Here I made 
 a singular discovery. 
 
 Against the black wall of the cave there 
 stood on end a great white boulder, lozenge- 
 
FURTHER EXPLORATIONS. 169 
 
 shaped that is to say, somewhat flat and 
 oblong. Examining this, I discovered upon it 
 not only a variety of circles, but a curious 
 engraving something like a bent bow, with 
 straight strokes upon it on the concave side. I 
 noticed, too, upon the edges a variety of scorings 
 which travelled round the side of the slab that 
 was hidden from view. Feeling all around, I 
 came to one point where I could pass my hand 
 between the slab and the rock. There was a 
 hollow space behind how large I could not tell, 
 but apparently considerable. 
 
 As it was evident that this slab had been 
 set up here by men's hands, and in order to 
 block access to the cavity behind, I at once con- 
 cluded that this well-protected pocket was a 
 treasure -chamber, or perhaps a tomb. 
 
 I threw in some lighted timber, and flinging 
 more upon the top of it and making a blaze, 
 I applied my eye to the cavity. I saw an 
 earthen crock about the size of a large flower- 
 pot, filled with something which I could not 
 distinguish, but did notice both there and 
 
170 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 elsewhere what looked like metal of some kind. 
 Owing to the smoke which gathered rapidly, 
 I saw nothing distinctly, and after a moment or 
 two, owing to the same cause, saw nothing at 
 all. 
 
 "This," I said, "is surely old Curry the 
 smuggler's treasure-chamber. If I ever get 
 alive out of this den I will come hack with my 
 brother Ned ; together we will blast away this 
 boulder, or contrive in some way to rifle the old 
 villain's treasures." 
 
 I never suspected what a terrific part this 
 tomb was about to play in my subsequent 
 history. 
 
 I had not as yet at all yielded to despair. T 
 had only postponed my efforts to escape until I 
 should have established friendly relations with 
 the creatures through whose industry and affec- 
 tion I was to get food. 
 
171 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ANOTHER ATTEMPTED ESCALADE. 
 
 AFTER I had thoroughly explored the whole 
 cavern and perceived that no other outlet of 
 an available character existed, I commenced to 
 draw every movable article which I could dis- 
 cover to Curry's Window stones, gravel, debris 
 of all kinds, bones, etc. I knew that the supply 
 was utterly inadequate to enable me to mount 
 to the aperture, but would make the attempt 
 nevertheless. Of course it failed, but a certain 
 portion of the incline was thus made ascendable, 
 and this was something. The storms of the 
 approaching winter might fling in sufficient 
 drift-wood, boards, and even beams big enough 
 to enable me to construct a ladder. This idea 
 of a ladder was present in my mind almost 
 from the moment that I entered my prison. 
 The extreme brittleness of the timber, amongst 
 
172 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 which there was hardly a sound bit, had pre- 
 vented me from making the attempt before. I 
 now determined to utilise the skeletons of the 
 sheep and goats for the purpose, and to unwind 
 the tether of the young seal to supply fastening 
 material, keeping only the wire for tether. On 
 the day after I discovered those bones I set 
 to work. 
 
 Many of them were too brittle to be of any 
 use. Some were sound ; others, though too 
 brittle or too small to be separately of sufficient 
 strength to bear my weight, I bound together. 
 Some of the fresher drift-wood I treated in the 
 same manner. Though I knew that I neither 
 had material enough nor twine enough I laboured 
 on. With every round made I was coming 
 nearer to my deliverance, yet I believed my 
 fishing-rod could supply more material for the 
 ladder than all the rest put together. Seeing 
 that even by cutting up the rod my ladder 
 would not be nearly long enough, I forbore 
 to destroy the rod, knowing that I could do 
 it at any time. It was well that I refrained. 
 
ANOTHER ATTEMPTED ESCALADE. 173 
 
 Though I have not had occasion to mention 
 the fact, yet, shortly after my imprisonment, I 
 was aware that pigeons of the slate coloured 
 variety common along this coast were in the 
 habit of roosting somewhere in the cave. In 
 the dusk of the evening I had often seen them 
 as they whirred through the window and dis- 
 appeared into the interior darkness. While I 
 was engaged in taming the seals I had made 
 a close exploration of the cavern with the 
 hope of finding their roost, and at last dis- 
 covered it. 
 
 Standing perfectly still in different parts of 
 the cave and listening intently, I could at one 
 point hear them making little sleepy noises, 
 but at such a height above me that, though 
 I kindled a considerable fire here, I could not 
 see them. Now, however, shortly after that 
 exploration of the long gallery, I heard similar 
 noises at a different point, and seemingly pro- 
 ceeding from a spot . much nearer to the floor 
 of the cavern. Here with the aid of a torch 
 I could see some half-dozen of them upon a 
 
174 LOST ON DU-COREIG. 
 
 ledge, all very close together. Next day I 
 fastened a large conor-hook, from which I had 
 first filed away the barb, to the extremity of 
 my fishing-rod, and leaned the rod against the 
 ledge upon which they roosted. I then lit a 
 fire, such as would throw a faint light upon 
 the ledge, and lay down close to the rod. 
 
 Duly the pigeons arrived and took up their 
 night quarters. They looked at first a little 
 surprised, and kept peering about with their 
 little bright round eyes, but presently clustered 
 close together as their custom was, and seemed 
 to fall asleep. Indeed, they were by this time 
 pretty well used to the fires and lights of the 
 cavern. Cautiously grasping the rod with one 
 hand, and bringing the point of the hook over 
 the back of one of the sleepers, I drew the 
 rod down quickly yet gently, and had the satis- 
 faction of knowing that my prey was secured. 
 
 My fear, of course, was that he might be 
 mortally injured, but as .it turned out he was 
 not. I had not the least intention of turning 
 him into food. My intention was to utilise 
 
ANOTHER ATTEMPTED ESCALADE. 175 
 
 him as a messenger. I now cut off the corner 
 of my pocket-handkerchief, the corner which 
 bore my initials, fastened it tightly round his 
 leg and let him go, nor did I ever see him 
 afterwards. I was afraid that the remainder 
 would not again use this roost, but a few nights 
 afterwards two of them settled down here while 
 I, as usual, lay in wait below. I struck down 
 and secured one of them in the manner that 
 I have already described. 
 
 To the leg of this pigeon I tied my ring. 
 It was one which, if the bird were shot or 
 taken, would be at once identified as mine by 
 any member of our family, for on the inside 
 it was engraved with a Latin inscription. It 
 had been given to me by a great aunt a few 
 years before. I afterwards captured a third, 
 and to him fastened a gold shirt-stud of a 
 peculiar pattern which I felt sure my brother 
 Ned at least, who often examined it curiously, 
 would at once identify as mine. After this 
 third capture I could effect no more for a long 
 time. The birds were quite frightened away 
 
176 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 from that perch. Finally, not long before my 
 brother Edward made his way to me, I caught 
 a fourth. Bound the leg of this messenger I 
 wrapped tightly a piece of my handkerchief, on 
 which I had inscribed with blood-characters a 
 statement of my whereabouts. This was the 
 pigeon which Harry Battersby had shot. The 
 characters, as the reader is aware, had been 
 rendered almost indistinguishable by wet. Mr. 
 Watkins, however, made a clever guess at the 
 word " window." How the constable Mulvaney 
 was not able to find me I shall presently explain. 
 
177 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT. 
 
 ONE night, about three weeks after my entomb- 
 ment, as I sat beside the fire thinking mourn- 
 fully of home and what they were all doing 
 there now, I thought after looking at my watch 
 that this was Charley's bed-hour, and the child's 
 singular countenance and large eyes indeed he 
 seemed all eyes, like a young crow rose before 
 my mind. Then I remembered having read 
 I think it was in one of Bulwer Lytton's novels 
 that there were some persons so finely and 
 sensitively organised that a person with whom 
 they were in close sympathy might, though 
 at a distance, by sustained exercise of the will 
 and concentration of thought, impress images 
 or thoughts upon their minds, the patient being 
 at the time in a receptive or passive mental 
 state. Charley, I said, is now in bed and not 
 yet asleep. I will at least try. I did so, and 
 remained for half an hour or so endeavouring 
 M 
 
178 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 with the utmost concentration of thought to con- 
 vey to Charley the knowledge that I was here. 
 
 For about a week I continued to do this and 
 then gave over. I believed all the time that it 
 was absurd, and probably only went through 
 these mental gymnastics for want of something 
 else to do. Once as I awoke I heard a slight 
 thud somewhere in the long gallery, as'of some- 
 thing falling. I did not attach any importance 
 to it. I thought it was a stalactite falling from 
 the roof. However, after I had breakfasted and 
 played with my seals, I thought I would explore 
 that gallery once more something might have 
 fallen or been thrown in from the outer world. 
 
 Coming to the spot where I had discovered 
 the bones of animals, and searching round care- 
 fully in all directions, I found something at 
 which I cried out in a passion of delight and 
 joy. It was one of the great brown soda-cakes 
 which were such a familiar spectacle morning 
 and evening on the family board at home. It 
 was grievously bruised, cracked, and gapped, 
 but nevertheless a real bondfde home-made cake. 
 
A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT. 179 
 
 I felt at once that it was the result of my absurd 
 experiment. Perhaps Charley had thrown in 
 another whose fall I had not heard. I searched 
 again, and was about to leave off when the light 
 of my torch fell upon a large fragment of a 
 second ; the remainder no doubt was lodged 
 above in some cleft of the winding rocky 
 descent. The delight with which I consumed 
 these dainties may be imagined, but infinitely 
 greater was the joy caused by the consciousness 
 that someone on the outside, no doubt Charley, 
 was aware of my presence here. 
 
 In cutting that fragment of a cake to which 
 I have already referred, my knife seemed to be 
 resisted by something unusual. Looking for 
 the cause I found a bit of paper which, having 
 unfolded, I found to be a letter to me from 
 Charley. It ran as follows : 
 
 " My dear Jack, I know that you are alive, and that 
 you are in the Devil's Parlour. I send you a cake, and 
 hope it will do you good. I saw you quite clearly, but 
 they said I was dreaming. I will send you a cake once 
 every second day. Your affectionate brother, 
 
 CHARLES FREEMAN." 
 M 2 
 
180 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 All doubt was now at an end ; Charley knew 
 where I was, and though they called his vision 
 dreaming, I saw at once how I could com- 
 municate with the upper world and convince 
 folk there of my presence here. The cake had 
 been flung down at half-past seven in the 
 morning. On the second morning long before 
 this hour I was at the place and continued 
 to shout at intervals. Half-past seven passed, 
 eight, nine passed, but no sign came from above 
 and no cake. As I afterwards learned, Charley 
 had been sent away for change of air under 
 the supposition that his mind was deranged. 
 I seemed now as badly off as ever, and for 
 some time was in a frame of mind in which, 
 but for the seals, I might have killed myself. 
 The gaiety, pranks, and affection of these poor 
 dumb creatures prevented me from utterly losing 
 heart, and gradually my spirits returned, or 
 rather my fortitude and determination to endure 
 all that it might please Heaven that I should 
 endure rather than do a deed so cowardly and 
 wicked. 
 
A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT. 181 
 
 Like Eobinson Crusoe, I remembered that 
 though I had suffered, and might suffer a great 
 deal, I had also a great deal to be thankful for. 
 I might have starved miserably, whereas I was 
 in an almost miraculous manner supplied with 
 daily food, and instead of utter and maddening 
 solitude I was blest with the society of these 
 innocent, intelligent, and affectionate animals. 
 They would now wriggle and flap themselves 
 up the rock to my fire, and I noticed that 
 whenever my mood was unusually low they 
 then particularly sought to attract my attention 
 and provoke my caresses. I called the big male 
 Mr. Jones ; his mate > of course, Mrs. Jones ; and 
 the infant Scamp. They knew their names quite 
 well. The little one, which was, of course, the 
 most teachable, even learned from me many 
 tricks, which gave me, in spite of my trouble, 
 many a hearty laugh. 
 
 About this time there was an increase in my 
 family. One day I noticed at the entrance of 
 the fissure which communicated with the sea 
 a fourth pair of round, wondering eyes. It 
 
182 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 represented a strange seal which Mr. and Mrs. 
 Jones, by various motions and frolics, seemed 
 to he enticing into our society. Confidence is 
 a plant of slow growth in the hreast of a seal, 
 and this seal was not drawn inwards by parental 
 affection like Mr. and Mrs. Jones. However, 
 not to be too tedious, I succeeded in provoking 
 the confidence and affection of this animal also, 
 and subsequently of others, so that before my 
 liberation I had in all nine friends, while there 
 were three more shy ones to whom I was 
 making advances. I was often surrounded by 
 the whole nine together, and likened myself to 
 Proteus, the old man of the sea, upon whom 
 Ulysses pounced while taking his siesta upon 
 some Egyptian shore in the midst of his seals. 
 When, however, too many of them came about 
 me I used to drive some back into the water. 
 
183 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ATTEMPTED ESCAPE VIA THE SEALS' TUNNEL. 
 
 OF course, from the moment that I became 
 aware of the seals' presence, the thought natur- 
 ally suggested itself to me that I might be 
 able to get out through the same tunnel or 
 boring by which the seals came in. Imme- 
 diately after securing the young seal in the 
 manner which I have described, I took off my 
 clothes and swam to the opening of the tunnel, 
 which was like a small cave at the other side 
 of the pool. Here I could only penetrate a 
 yard or two. Dropping my feet down and 
 feeling for the opening, I discovered it. I re- 
 turned, and waiting till the water of the pool 
 was at its lowest, swam back again, hoping 
 that the ebb of the tide would have bared 
 this tunnel sufficiently to enable a swimmer 
 to get through. 
 
 I was disappointed in this. The water even 
 
184 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 at low tide filled the tunnel and stood above 
 the ragged portal to the distance of between 
 two and three feet. By diving I might get 
 through, but not otherwise. This was a very 
 sore disappointment, for I had at first felt 
 joyously certain that I could swim straight 
 out into the open sea and so to Du-Corrig, 
 or better, to the shady coos where Mr. Watkins 
 kept his boat, and where there was a nice strand 
 and easy landing-place. 
 
 Amongst my many disappointments I think 
 there was none which affected me like that. At 
 one moment I saw a door of escape lying open 
 before me, black indeed, but comely, the 
 entrance, namely, of a tunnel plainly in com- 
 munication with the sea ; the next, in a manner 
 quite unexpected, I found that door barred 
 barred with water. And yet I by no means 
 gave up all hope of eventually making my 
 escape by this avenue, for I was a good 
 swimmer and diver, though I knew well that 
 a man who would make his way under water 
 from the point where I now was to the open 
 
ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. 185 
 
 sea would perhaps require three or four breaths 
 in the course of his submarine journey. The 
 source of this, my second spring of hope in 
 connection with the Seals' Tunnel, will presently 
 appear. The venture, however, upon which I 
 had my resolution fixed I postponed executing 
 till I should have quite tamed my seals. 
 
 First, then, I measured very carefully the 
 distance from Curry's Window to the Seals' 
 Pool. The cavern, it maybe remembered, first 
 trended straight inwards and then described a 
 curve to the left, sloping downwards steadily, 
 and at times even sharply, the whole way- 
 This curve continuing became a recurve in the 
 neighbourhood of the pool, so that this part 
 of the cavern was nearer to the outer sea, by 
 some thirty yards, than that portion of the 
 curve which was furthest inland and away from 
 the sea. The calculation was not easy, but 
 here for the first and last time in my life I 
 found my college trigonometry of some practical 
 value to me. 
 
 My object, of course, was to discover the 
 
186 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 distance from the mouth of the tunnel at the 
 Seals' Pool to the other mouth by which it 
 communicated with the sea. As the face of 
 the sea-cliff was nearly, if not quite, vertical, 
 my problem was not complicated by the intro- 
 duction of an external element. I merely added 
 a few yards at a guess to represent the very 
 slight departure from perpendicularity of the 
 face of the cliff below Curry's Window. Even- 
 tually I concluded that the tunnel, on the 
 assumption that it would run straight, was 
 about 170 yards long, and I still believe that 
 this estimate was tolerably correct. For these 
 calculations a smooth rock was my slate, and 
 a bit of hard stone my pencil. 
 
 At this time I often thought of Sinbad 
 the Sailor and the manner in which he escaped 
 from his tomb, namely, by following the course 
 taken by an animal along a winding passage 
 into the open air, and of a like adventure related 
 in Grecian history of Aristomenes the Messenian, 
 who escaped in a similar manner, save for the 
 fact that Aristomenes held his guiding animal, 
 
ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. 187 
 
 a fox, hard by the tail. But for the water I 
 would have made my escape too as well as 
 they, holding on to one of my seals ; and Sinbad 
 and the brave Messenian would, under my cir- 
 cumstances, have been quite as much at a stand 
 as I was. 
 
 Now I knew from experience that I could 
 dive sixty yards with ease in clear water. Con- 
 sequently, diving at my full rate of speed, I 
 would have to take breath at least thrice before 
 reaching the sea. But then diving through 
 a submarine tunnel, with the expectation of 
 striking against rock with every forward drive, 
 was obviously a very different thing from under- 
 water swimming in the unobstructed sea. More- 
 over, in my transit through this tunnel I could 
 not expect to see anything owing to the absence 
 of light, and therefore should be obliged, as it 
 were, to grope my way painfully along. 
 
 It might be imagined that all these con- 
 siderations would at once and altogether remove 
 from my mind the thought that I might make 
 my escape through the Seals' Tunnel. But they 
 
188 .LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 did not. I argued that the fact that the tunnel 
 was flooded at its entrance did not prove it 
 to be flooded all the way through. Possibly, 
 I said, the tunnel is only submarine at the two 
 ends, and throughout its whole intervening 
 extent I may be able to swim joyfully forward 
 with an arched roof of rock above my head. 
 
 I knew that the outer entrance of the tunnel 
 was submarine. I was very well acquainted 
 with the face of the cliff outside along the sea's 
 edge, and knew that there was no cave or fissure 
 resembling a cave anywhere visible even at low 
 water along this wall of cliff. Even if the 
 tunnel throughout most of its extent were 
 flooded, it might well be that at certain points 
 here and there it was not flooded at all, and 
 that I might be able from time to time to come 
 to the surface and breathe and find myself 
 swimming in a cave. With a few air-holes 
 of this description I might succeed in getting 
 through, provided they occurred at convenient 
 intervals. 
 
 It was the 4th day of August when I first 
 
ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. 189 
 
 attempted the tunnel, and when I was stronger 
 than I had been for some time before, owing to 
 Charley's brown bread. I took my fishing line, 
 and fastening one end of it securely to a pointed 
 projection of rock, wound up the rest upon a 
 piece of timber. In the event of failure I desired 
 to have some surer method than that of mere 
 groping to guide me back to the place which was 
 my home. That I might be able to determine 
 the length of my dives, I put a row of knots 
 upon the line with intervals of a fathom 
 between. 
 
 I may add that before I seriously attempted 
 the tunnel I had gradually accustomed my seals 
 to see me without my clothes. Naturally, I 
 feared io frighten away those creatures upon 
 whose industry I lived. Approaching the en- 
 trance of the tunnel I dived, holding in my 
 left hand the timber upon which the fishing 
 line was wound, and entered the tunnel, letting 
 the cord wind off as I went like thread from a 
 reel. I groped along, it ould hardly be called 
 diving, with my back close to the roof of the 
 
190 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 tunnel, until, as I calculated, half my powei 
 of retaining breath was exhausted. At this 
 point I gave over, and half swimmiDg, half 
 drawing myself forward by the cord which I 
 held now in my right hand, returned as I had 
 come. 
 
 When I rose to the surface of the pool I was 
 aware that I could have gone some distance fur- 
 ther without distress. Coming to land I drew 
 in the line, and found by the knot that I had 
 only made twelve yards. That only represented 
 twenty-four yards to and fro, which was a con- 
 siderable falling-off from the sixty yards which 
 in unobstructed water I knew to be the length 
 of my average submarine performances. The 
 seals splashed about and made joyful cries on 
 my reappearance. They were now quite accus- 
 tomed to me, both on land and in the water. 
 
 I dressed, and thinking I had done enough 
 for the first attempt, desisted from a renewal of 
 the enterprise till next day. The next day, 
 however, was stormy. Indeed, wild weather 
 now supervened for more than a fortnight. 
 
ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. 191 
 
 During this period I made no attempt upon 
 the tunnel. I knew that even if I were lucky 
 enough to get through the whole way into the 
 ocean, I should be banged about in the surf and 
 breakers at the foot of the cliffs, and should 
 never be able to get home. Every day I made 
 an observation of the weather at Curry's Win- 
 dow. Comparing these observations with the 
 motions of the water in the pool, I was soon 
 able to guess accurately the state of the weather 
 from merely looking at the pool. 
 
 After a fortnight and two days the weather 
 grew mild again, and having waited three days 
 more to allow the agitation of the sea to subside, 
 I renewed my efforts to penetrate the tunnel. I 
 had long since eaten the last of poor Charley's 
 cakes ; my daily fare was only fish. This time 
 I determined to proceed three yards beyond the 
 knot. I did so, and still finding the rock above 
 me, was about to return, when, as I was turning 
 round and kicking, I discovered that my foot 
 made a noise. This, of course, was a sign that I 
 had agitated the surface of the water. 
 
192 LOST ON DU- COR RIG. 
 
 Turning again, and making a stroke for- 
 wards and upwards, I suddenly found my head 
 in the air. My delight may be imagined. The 
 first of the blow-holes or air-holes for which I 
 had hoped was discovered. It might be the 
 beginning of that arched gallery, reaching nearly 
 to the sea, for which I had hoped. Eesting for 
 a while, I began to examine this vacant space in 
 order to discover its nature and capabilities as 
 well as I could in -the dark. I feared it might 
 be so small that at full tide the water would fill 
 it, but that was not so. I raised my voice, and 
 the echoes clearly proved that it was of great 
 extent. As for my hope that it might be the 
 beginning of a long reach of tunnel, half air and 
 half water, I was greatly disappointed to find 
 that such was not the case. I could swim all 
 round it. At one point the edges were so in- 
 clined that I could get clear out of the water and 
 stand upright. As far as I could reach with my 
 hand I could feel free space above me. This 
 blow-hole at all events would be at my disposal 
 whether the tide was at flood or at ebb. 
 
ATTEMPTED ESCAPE. 193 
 
 It will be remembered that before starting 
 from the Seals' Pool I had made a series of 
 knots upon my line, each knot representing 
 about a fathom. The distance from the 
 entrance of the tunnel to the furthest point 
 of this cave I found now, by means of these 
 knots, to be twenty-eight yards. In the event 
 of my discovering the tunnel at this point on 
 its way to the sea, and adding . sixteen yards 
 to the distance, viz., the space that I could 
 traverse without being obliged to turn back, I 
 might now consider myself as being within one 
 hundred and thirty-six yards of the open sea, 
 and as having virtually achieved thirty-four 
 yards. No doubt I had a huge extent of water 
 to get through still, but I was not daunted. 
 On the contrary, I was filled with hope. I had 
 found my first blow-hole, and I might find 
 others. 
 
 " Who knows," I said, " but after passing 
 through another submarine tunnel of half a 
 dozen yards I might find myself in an airy 
 gallery running almost to the edge of the 
 
 N 
 
194 LOST ON DU-COERIG. 
 
 cliff?" I again entered the water and swam 
 slowly all round the sides of my cave, holding on 
 by the rock, and feeling with my feet. Even- 
 tually I thought I had found the continuation 
 of the tunnel, and although I could not be sure, 
 yet quite satisfied and more than satisfied with 
 the result of this exploration, I resolved to get 
 home now. 
 
 So I dived again, and following my clue, re- 
 appeared in the Seals' Pool, and that day dined 
 in better spirits than I had been in at any time 
 since my descent into this terrible cavern. 
 
I WAS OFTEN SURROUNDED BY THE WHOLE NINE" ( /). 182). 
 
195 
 
 CHAPTEE XXV. 
 
 A DESPERATE ATTEMPT UPON THE TUNNEL. 
 
 NEXT day for, as I think I have remarked I 
 observed the seasons of day and night I made 
 another and more determined exploration of the 
 Seals' Tunnel. I got into my first blow-hole 
 without difficulty, though at the cost of a bad 
 cut on my right ankle, which pained me a 
 good deal, and which, no doubt, bled profusely. 
 Arrived here, I felt about for the ledge on which 
 I had stood the day before. The tide was higher 
 now, and the ledge covered with water, so I 
 clambered on to it with greater ease. 
 
 I first made fast my clue and the stick on 
 which it was wound to a projection of the rock, 
 and afterwards, moving along the ledge, felt 
 about in the dark with my hands. The tide 
 was not yet at its lowest, nor would be for some 
 time, and of course my efforts to thread the con- 
 tinuation of the tunnel would be best undertaken 
 with the water at its lowest ebb, for the reasons 
 N 2 
 
196 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 that I have already mentioned. In the mean- 
 time I desired to explore the cave as well as I 
 could. It was just possible that the continu- 
 ation of the tunnel might be at this point over 
 land, or rather over rock. At all events, I 
 determined to utilise the time at my disposal 
 by groping about the cave. Presently I found 
 my right hand going round a corner of rock, 
 and stretching it out and away from my body, 
 but still in a forward direction, found nothing 
 there but empty space. 
 
 Scrambling into this empty space, I was 
 soon satisfied that I was either in the continua- 
 tion of the Seals' Tunnel, or that the cave was 
 provided in this place with a pocket of unknown 
 dimensions. Though keenly bent upon explora- 
 tion, I determined not to travel beyond the 
 sound of the water, lest I should lose my way 
 in the darkness. The day after I slid down 
 from Curry's Window I had had in the great 
 cavern a horrible experience of that kind, which 
 was a lesson to me. The sound of the water, 
 however, reached a great way here, owing to the 
 
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT. 197 
 
 reverberation of the hollow roof. To anyone 
 else, no doubt, the huge sucking noises as of 
 some great monster drinking, and the sullen 
 dismal echoes of the flux and reflux of the water, 
 would have been very horrible and impressive. 
 But I was now too steeled to suffering and 
 horrors to take more than a utilitarian view 
 of those noises. I kept to that side of the 
 pocket by which I had first entered it, and 
 penetrated some twenty yards without coming to 
 the end or meeting with anything more note- 
 worthy than dry seaweed, and a good deal of 
 rotten drift timber. 
 
 "I know where to get fuel," I said to 
 myself, " should my storehouse in the big 
 cavern ever give out." All this time I kept 
 listening for the flopping sounds which my seal's 
 would make if this were their avenue to the sea. 
 Hearing nothing of the kind, my hope that this 
 might be the tunnel subsided. Nevertheless, I 
 determined on some future occasion to explore 
 this pocket, or whatever it might be, more 
 thoroughly. Returning to its entrance, I slid 
 
198 . LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 into the water, taking my clue witli me, swam 
 to the point where, on the occasion of my last 
 visit, I seemed to have found the continuation 
 of the tunnel, and dived. 
 
 I went straight down, but in front of me 
 and on my left hand found nothing but rock ; 
 then, turning to the right, I discovered what 
 seemed to be the tunnel, certainly some open- 
 ing of considerable dimensions. At this moment 
 something soft yet solid, and seemingly alive, 
 pushed against my breast and throat. I was so 
 frightened that in my terror I dropped the clue 
 and sucked in a quantity of water. Recovering 
 my self-control I got to the surface as quickly 
 as I could. Fortunately I was only at the 
 mouth of the tunnel. Had I been in the in- 
 terior when this happened I should almost 
 certainly have been drowned, so frightened was 
 I by this mysterious collision. Hardly had I 
 gained the surface when I guessed the cause of 
 my alarm. It was certainly one of my seals. 
 Presently I heard the well-known cry, and the 
 poor beast pressed up agaiust me in the dark. 
 
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT. 199 
 
 it was a female seal who was very much attached 
 to me. I used to call her the Plaintiff. 
 
 Though my terror was allayed, I felt myself 
 unequal to the task of any further exploration 
 of the tunnel just then. Accordingly, feeling 
 my way round the cave till I came to the ledge 
 which was near the entrance of the first portion 
 of the tunnel, I dived and got home without 
 further accident, and succeeded in drawing back 
 my clue, which I feared might have stuck fast 
 somewhere. 
 
 Here I may add that owing, I suppose, to 
 the original heat of my temperament, or perhaps 
 the possession of a fair share of fat, for I might 
 be described as stout rather than thin, I could 
 remain in water longer than any other swimmer 
 of my acquaintance. On the present occasion I 
 was dispirited and out of sorts, but not cold. 
 Yet, having dined, I felt brisk and vigorous 
 again. This day I dined on steaks of turbot 
 I mention it because it was the only flat-fish 
 that iny seals brought me during the whole 
 term of my imprisonment. 
 
200 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 It now occurred to me that if I could make 
 a fire in that cave off the first blow-hole, it would 
 be of great service to me in my next attempt to 
 traverse the continuation of the tunnel there. 
 But how to bring fire thither was certainly 
 a difficulty. I could not bring a burning brand 
 with me, swimming under water a distance of 
 sixteen yards. That was plain. I now re- 
 examined that pocket of my coat in which I had 
 found the loose powder originally, though I 
 knew that there could be little or none left. 
 After making that piece of tinder or touch-cloth 
 by which I kindled my first fire, I had turned 
 the pocket inside out that the loose grains might 
 fall upon it and so help towards the ignition. 
 On examining this pocket now by the light of 
 my fire I noticed that the bottom of it was 
 quite black. I guessed the cause at once. Some 
 time last winter my jacket had got thoroughly 
 soaked with rain, and the bottom of the pocket 
 was steeped in solution of gunpowder. 
 
 I touched the black lining with the. tip of 
 my tongue and recognised the acrid taste. I 
 
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT. 201 
 
 now saw my way clearly towards the making of 
 a second fire. I cut out the black part of the 
 lining and bestowed it in my purse. It was the 
 first leathern purse I ever owned, bought since I 
 went to college, for my school-boy purse was a 
 netted one with steel rings and little bunch of 
 steel pendants at each end. My father, I re- 
 member, never gave in to the leathern clasp 
 purse ; he used a netted one with rings as long 
 as he lived. Then I took a piece of my line, 
 and having doubled the purse, bound it round 
 strongly with the cord and made it perfectly 
 water-tight. 
 
 Next day, some two hours before low water, 
 I stripped, took my knife and the rolled-up 
 purse in my teeth, the clue also as usual in my 
 hand, and dived through the tunnel, came up 
 in the blow-hole, and clambered into the dry 
 part of the cavern. I placed the purse and 
 knife in a spot where I could easily find them 
 again, and having first dried my hands in the 
 crisp sea- weed which was abundant here, pro- 
 ceeded to select the brittlest and most crumbling 
 
202 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 timber. Such was embedded everywhere in the 
 seaweed. Then I kept moving about, striking 
 sparks from the rocks with my knife till I found 
 a projection which seemed to emit them in a 
 more brilliant manner than the rest. Now I 
 soon learned what an assistance to me in my 
 former attempt of this kind was the loose powder 
 which I was then in a position to sprinkle upon 
 the touch- cloth. Though the sparks were some- 
 times so bright as to reveal clearly not only 
 the touch- cloth but my whole hand, and though 
 they seemed to fly right into the cloth, they 
 produced no other result than these fleeting 
 illuminations. 
 
 I believe I was nearly an hour at this exer- 
 cise, and at last gave over, my wrist being 
 thoroughly tired. 
 
 As I now sat reflecting it occurred to me 
 that the cloth would have a better chance of 
 catching fire if I presented its edges to the 
 sparks, and also if I were to fray those edges 
 into fluff. " Better still/' I thought, " fray a 
 good deal of those edges into fluff. It will then 
 
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT. 203 
 
 be sheer tow, which, saturated as it is in solu- 
 tion of gunpowder, must catch fire." 
 
 I did this. Then I struck the rock again 
 with my knife, and at the first spark that went 
 rightly into the tow the latter caught fire, splut- 
 tering and fizzing up gloriously. I had my 
 little heap of crumbled touch- wood ready at 
 hand all this time. In short, after a very few 
 minutes I stood beside a large and brightly 
 burning fire. There was plenty of timber at 
 hand for the feeding of it. The whole cave was 
 brilliantly lighted up roof, sides, and the level 
 floor of dark but gleaming water. So much of 
 the cave as was just above the water was nearly 
 quite round, and presented the appearance of an 
 inverted bowl. After a short observation of the 
 blow-hole I turned my attention to the pocket. 
 The entrance was not wide, but the cave within 
 expanded into great dimensions. As I knew, 
 however, that this pocket, huge pouch, or what- 
 ever it might be termed, was no better for me 
 than a blind alley leading no whither, I post- 
 poned its exploration. I was not here to make 
 
204 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 discoveries, but to make my way out, if by 
 God's grace, and my own swimming and diving, 
 it might in any way be effected. 
 
 It was now low water, as I judged by the 
 appearance of the ledge. Then, unfastening my 
 clue, and commending myself to the protection 
 of the Almighty, I swam across the pool to the 
 place where I knew was the sea -going entrance 
 of the tunnel, and dived. As I had knots all 
 along the line marking the yards, I knew 
 exactly the rate of my progress. T had not gone 
 ten yards when, feeling nothing above me with 
 my right hand, I slowly rose, and presently 
 found my head above water. 
 
 This was an unexpected good fortune. I 
 had found my second blow-hole. I was cer- 
 tainly ten yards nearer to the sea, and how 
 many more besides would depend on the size 
 of this second cavern. I swam round its edges 
 and found that it was of exceeding small dimen- 
 sions, only about three yards in diameter, in 
 fact quite literally a blow-hole and nothing 
 else. 
 
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT. 205 
 
 It bad this advantage, however, viz., that the 
 entrance of the continuation of the tunnel was 
 apparent or, more correctly, palpable. I felt 
 the edges of the tunnel quite distinctly with my 
 feet, and the movement of the water there, for 
 the tide had turned. Again I dived and con- 
 tinued groping forward to a distance of fourteen 
 yards, but still felt the rock above me. Most 
 reluctantly I turned back at this point, for I 
 knew that a good half of my power of retain- 
 ing breath was exhausted. My return journey, 
 however, was the easier, for I assisted myself 
 by drawing in the line, which was excellent 
 strong whip-cord. Yet, even so, I was almost 
 at the furthest limit of my powers when I 
 reached the small blow-hole. There I remained 
 for a few minutes blowing and panting. My 
 return thence to the cup-shaped cave where my 
 fire burned was easy. Moreover I could see 
 before me the reflection of the light in the water, 
 which had upon my mind the effect of a friendly 
 beckoning and welcoming hand. 
 
 Clambering up to my fire, I sat down beside 
 
206 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 it brooding and pondering. It was now quite 
 plain to me that escape by the Seals' Tunnel 
 was only possible on one condition, viz., that I 
 should stake my life on the chance the chances 
 being enormously against success. I knew that 
 in my dive from the second blow-hole towards 
 the sea I had done my very best, gone forward 
 to the last yard, exhausting the full half of all 
 my power of holding my breath. True, there 
 might have been a breathing- pi ace one yard 
 beyond the point at which I had turned back ; 
 but then, again, there might not be any such 
 blow-hole at all between the second of my 
 breathing-places and the sea, and from that 
 point to the sea, on the assumption that the 
 tunnel ran quite straight, there was a distance 
 of more than one hundred yards according to 
 the most favourable computation. Were I to 
 dive again from the second blow-hole with no 
 intention of returning, only with the intention 
 of pushing forward till I should be drowned 
 or find another breathing-spot, I might make 
 twenty-four yards, or even by desperate determin- 
 
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT. 207 
 
 ation and such power as God might graciously 
 give me, make even thirty yards. There, then, 
 if I met with no breathing-place, I should be 
 miserably smothered and drowned. 
 
 I knew that if I were to make this desperate 
 stroke for freedom, the sooner I delivered it the 
 better, for my physical strength, owing to a diet 
 of fish repeated day after day, was failing. In 
 mind I was still vigorous, but physically I was 
 decidedly weaker than when I entered the 
 cavern. A few days before this, I endeavoured 
 to move a pebble which the day after my im- 
 prisonment I had been able to raise a little, 
 though not so far as to turn it right over. On 
 this second occasion I could only just stir it 
 in its place. After a while I got up and 
 explored the cavern, lighting new fires at con- 
 venient intervals. It was indeed a great and 
 august chamber of rock, fit to be the temple of 
 some gloomy superstition, but I discovered there 
 nothing of any importance, not even sound 
 timber. This pocket, like the great cavern, had 
 not been visited by the sea for many years. 
 
208 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 The drift timber there, though abundant enough, 
 crumbled as I handled it. 
 
 I covered up the embers of the fire near the 
 blow-hole with ashes to keep it alive, and returned 
 through the tunnel to my own cave. That 
 evening I brooded long and earnestly over the 
 dreadful problem. The making of steps along 
 the slope up to Curry's Window would be the 
 work of many months, perhaps of years. If I 
 adopted that other desperate alternative, viz., a 
 despairing, headlong and rushing dive through 
 the tunnel, I should either escape at once or at 
 once die, and so be released from all my troubles. 
 Then it seemed to me that to take such a step, 
 with all the chances so greatly against success, 
 was like suicide a crime which I had been 
 brought up to regard as perhaps the most heinous 
 and awful of all crimes. 
 
 When I awoke in the morning it seemed to 
 me as if I had somehow made up my mind and 
 come to a determination while I slept. At the 
 time I regarded this as a divine illumination 
 vouchsafed to my prayers for guidance and light. 
 
A DESPERATE ATTEMPT. 209 
 
 Possibly enough, for the human mind is 
 very deceitful, I finally decided against the 
 bolder and more daring course sheerly from 
 want of courage to put it into execution ; and, 
 truly, the thought of being smothered with salt 
 water in the submarine darkness of the tunnel 
 would have been enough to appal and unman a 
 bolder spirit than mine. 
 
 Yet, indeed, I do not believe that I was 
 turned aside by fear from the adoption of the 
 more daring and perilous course. I have to 
 observe, however, that from this day forward 
 a certain lassitude, inertness, and lack of spirit 
 grew upon me, mainly caused by my low diet, 
 but noticeably beginning to appear on this 
 particular day, owing to the complete and final 
 frustration of all the high and joyful hopes 
 which I had so long entertained in connection 
 with the Seals' Tunnel. There, within a few 
 yards of me, lay the gate and entrance of a 
 road leading to light, liberty, home, and happi- 
 ness ; yet I could not traverse it, so charged was 
 it all with salt water. My poor seals went 
 
210 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 there freely out and in half a dozen times in a 
 day, but I could not, though indeed I tried and 
 did my best. 
 
 While Charley's brown bread came down to 
 me I was stroDg. When that failed, and I had 
 nothing but fish to eat, I slowly day by day 
 grew weak. I did not feel despondency so 
 much as a certain lassitude and a tendency to 
 do nothing but ruminate and half sleep, so that 
 sometimes even the task of feeding my fire 
 seemed to require a great effort of will before it 
 could be effected. 
 
211 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 AT CURRY'S WINDOW. 
 
 THIS lassitude, however, came over me slowly, 
 and at first imperceptibly. When I made up 
 my mind not to attempt to rusli the tunnel, I 
 was vigorous enough. Accordingly I at once 
 commenced a labour which I had always in- 
 tended, but had put off till it became certain 
 that I had no other way of escape. As the 
 reader may remember, I made no very serious 
 effort in any direction until I had first estab- 
 lished such relations with my dumb companions 
 as would ensure me a supply of food, for I per- 
 ceived that no mode of possible escape offered 
 itself which did not involve time and labour, 
 and that the food problem was the first to which 
 I should devote myself. 
 
 At half-past nine o'clock, on the morning of 
 the 9th of September, I began to cut steps in 
 the incline leading up to Curry's Window. Not 
 o 2 
 
212 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 long after my imprisonment, I had scored the 
 rock here with my knife. It was limestone, of 
 the hardest and closest grain imaginable. For 
 cutting steps I used the brass reel of my fishing- 
 rod, which, fortunately, had been caught in the 
 interstice between two great boulders. I broke 
 it into pieces, and used piece after piece till the 
 bit used as chisel was worn too small. The 
 little worn-out fragments I put carefully by, 
 intending to melt them, if I could, and fuse 
 them into one piece afterwards when the 
 usable pieces should be exhausted. My precious 
 knife I resolved not to use up till the last ex- 
 tremity, for I could not tell in what way it 
 might yet be necessary to me. 
 
 I worked steadily at these steps, using first 
 the right hand and then the left. With plenty 
 of time and plenty of brass I could certainly 
 make my way out of the den, but I perceived 
 after I had finished the first step, which was in 
 fact only a little crevice into which I could 
 insert my bare toes, that my supply of metal 
 would be worn out long before the necessary 
 
AT CURRY 8 WINDOW. 213 
 
 niches or footholds could be made. I worked 
 standing on the top of the rude bone and timber 
 ladder, whose construction I have already de- 
 scribed, and this ladder rested upon the heap of 
 stones, gravel, bones, and sea-weed. The sea- 
 weed was, in fact, my bed and bed-clothes. 
 Every morning I brought it hither, and at night 
 carried it back to the Seal Pond, which was my 
 head -quarters. 
 
 It will be seen that by utilising the sea-weed 
 in this manner I saved the making of a step or 
 two, which, of course, meant a great deal to me. 
 Though my supply of brass wore out fast, my 
 strength seemed to wear out faster. I became 
 very weak so much so, that the cutting of the 
 second step took five days longer than that 
 of the first; and that of the third took three 
 whole weeks, and I was conscious that my 
 strength was still fading away. That this arose 
 from an exclusively fish diet, helped a little, I 
 confess, with edible sea-weeds gathered in the 
 Seals' Pool, I had a rather curious proof. My 
 marine retainers brought me so much food that 
 
214 LOST ON DU-QORRIG. 
 
 it was an embarrassment to me. What I did 
 not want I used to fling towards the mouth of 
 the tunnel at the ebb of the tide. The tunnel 
 was thus a sort of refuse pipe. One day I took 
 a large haddock, to which I fastened a stone, 
 and flung it into the pool, where, of course, it 
 sank to the bottom. I went to my graving 
 work as usual, and when I returned and held 
 my torch over the spot where I had thrown the 
 fish, saw a fine lobster, half -covering the white 
 haddock evidently feasting upon it. 
 
 I thrust the butt end of my rod to him, 
 which he at once seized upon viciously with one 
 of his claws, so that I drew him safely to land. 
 I made my supper upon him, relishing well the 
 change of diet, and did not leave a small claw 
 unbroken or its contents not eaten. Next day 
 I worked or thought I worked better. I did 
 afterwards occasionally catch a lobster or crab in 
 this manner, and noticed the same result. Still 
 I was very weak, and more than once spent a 
 whole day in perfect idleness beside my fire 
 such was my lassitude and extreme exhaustion. 
 
AT GURRY'S WINDOW. 215 
 
 Also I grew very drowsy. I was never more 
 than half asleep, and not often wide awake. My 
 seals, sporting in the pool or gathering ronnd 
 me barking and whimpering as I lay, the vast 
 surrounding darkness, the noises and echoes, the 
 craggy and illuminated corners of rock above, 
 began to look very dreamlike. I was often 
 asleep, or more asleep than awake, while I kept 
 feebly scoring the incline at the window. 
 Finally, this apathy or weakness, or both, grew 
 so upon me, that I almost ceased to have even 
 the desire of escaping, and longed inexpressibly 
 to fall fast asleep and forget everything ; which, 
 nevertheless, I was unable to do. 
 
 I was at this time never rightly awake, and 
 never rightly asleep. When I first became 
 seriously conscious of my failing strength, and 
 knew or guessed the cause, I thought of killing 
 a seal, not one of my pets and friends, but the 
 next strange seal which might show itself. But 
 when the next appeared I was too inert to set 
 about the undertaking, nor indeed did I know 
 how to set about it, for the creature was very shy. 
 
216 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 Curiously enough, though I now ate very 
 little, I did not feel hunger. In fact, I was 
 dying by inches ; all my vital powers, bodily 
 and mental, seemed to be slowly and painlessly 
 fading away. This lethargic habit began to 
 oppress me seriously in the beginning of 
 October, and continued into November. 
 
217 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE GHOST. 
 
 ONCE while I was in this lax and spiritless con- 
 dition, highly nervous, too, as I have no doubt, 
 I became suddenly aware that something was 
 passing me by, not in front, but behind me, and 
 very close. Of course I saw nothing. The 
 sensation was something like that of a person 
 who, in a dark room, becomes aware, he does 
 not know how, of the presence and proximity 
 of another person. My fire was on the top of 
 a smooth inclined rock, or rather on the smooth 
 inclined floor of the cavern, which, from where 
 I lay, sloped rather sharply down to the Seals' 
 Pool. 
 
 My hearth, so to speak, and the floor imme- 
 diately around it, was level. I pitched upon 
 this spot as my resting-place because from it the 
 light of the fire not only illuminated the pool 
 and allowed me to see my seals at their gambols 
 
218 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 there, but threw certain pleasant reflections on 
 the rugged projections of the opposite wall of 
 the cave, viz., that on the same side with the pool. 
 Between the fire and the other wall of the cavern 
 at this point there was only the distance of four 
 or five feet. 
 
 I usually lay or sat facing the pool, therefore, 
 with my back to this wall. It was between me 
 and it, and close behind me, that the thing, 
 whatever it was, seemed to pass. I was not at 
 all afraid of ghosts, though, indeed, once before, 
 when a school-boy, I had a very singular experi- 
 ence not so unlike that which I am now about to 
 relate. Nevertheless, as I have mentioned, I was 
 not at all afraid of ghosts. More than once, 
 when I wanted timber for any work I might 
 have had on hand, I had sallied forth at night to 
 get what I required in an adjoining graveyard. 
 I had never even taken an imaginative delight in 
 ghost stories, which seemed to give other boys 
 such singular and unaccountable pleasure. I 
 fancy I was of too active a habit of mind 
 and body for that form of pleasure. At 
 
THE GHOST. 219 
 
 the moment I was thinking of home, and even 
 of a home scene more calculated than others to 
 dispel evil imaginations. I was thinking, in 
 fact, of our household the family, the domestics, 
 and two outdoor servants assembled in the 
 breakfast room at family prayers, and of my 
 father's appearance and manner when as was 
 his custom he prayed extempore, including in 
 his petitions many things of local and family 
 interest. Like nearly all the rural Irish clergy 
 of that time, his principles and practices were of 
 the Low Church or Evangelical school. 
 
 While so brooding, reflecting, and imagining, 
 as I sat over my fire sleepy, too, as I usually 
 was in those days suddenly I felt a curious 
 sensation of cold, and then became aware of this 
 thing, person, or whatever it was, passing me 
 by. I dare say my hair stood on end. I cer- 
 tainly felt the most extraordinary sensation, as 
 of a thousand needles driven into my head, and 
 such a sense of horror and fear as I never 
 experienced before, and hope I never shall 
 again. I am ashamed to say, too, that I 
 
220 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 screamed and with what a noise that scream 
 rang through the long and lofty cavern, with its 
 various galleries, can be imagined. I heard a 
 great plashing in the Seals' Pool. It was my 
 seals plunging into the water when they heard 
 the scream. I ran down to the water, quaking 
 in every limb or, rather, I tumbled forward in 
 that direction, for I remember falling more than 
 once, and afterwards found my knees badly cut, 
 as well as the lower part of the palms of my 
 hands near the wrists. In fact, I fled to my 
 seals for protection against this thing. They 
 were alive, and real, and natural, and I hastened 
 to them quite instinctively, as one might to any 
 human companionship from the dread of that 
 which was uncanny, horrible, and supernatural. 
 But I had effectually frightened the seals. They 
 had plunged through the water into their tunnel, 
 and disappeared. 
 
 Presently, however, I saw them again in the 
 opening of the tunnel four or five black heads 
 close together, with their round eyes, filled with 
 wonder, glittering in the light shed upon them 
 
THE GHOST. 221 
 
 from my fire, which was blazing brightly at the 
 same time. A little before I was alarmed in 
 that manner I had heaped up some fresh timber, 
 which was now sending out a good blaze. I 
 spoke to my seals, called them to me, and in a 
 short time they came. The moment I laid my 
 hands on their heads I felt calmed, and although 
 I still quaked, I was aware that my courage and 
 self-control were returning. I knew I had need 
 of them, for I was certain that this thing 
 would come again. 
 
 The apparition, as I was aware, had passed 
 me from the right hand to the left as I sat; that 
 is to say, coming from the interior of the cave 
 and going towards the entrance, or, in other 
 words, from the gallery in which was the tomb 
 and going towards Curry's Window. " It will 
 pass this way again returning/' I said to myself. 
 I am not sure that I am speaking correctly when 
 I say that I determined to watch for its reappear- 
 ance. It would be perhaps more true to say 
 that my gaze was drawn in the direction of the 
 fire by a horrible fascination. After a time 
 
222 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 which seemed an age, but which was exactly five 
 minutes and twenty- seven seconds (how I am so 
 exact as to the length of the interval I shall 
 afterwards explain), the thing reappeared, 
 passing, as before, between the fire and the 
 wall of the cavern. 
 
 As on the former occasion, I felt first a 
 curious and uncanny sensation of cold ; then a 
 quite formless dark shape (if a thing formless 
 may be described as a shape), surrounded by a 
 mist-like pale smoke, passed between the fire 
 and the rock, moving now from the right to the 
 left that is, from my right hand to my left as 
 I sat amongst the seals, and disappearing in the 
 obscurity that filled the interior parts of the 
 cavern. Its movement was perfectly even and 
 regular a steady, gliding progression. This 
 time I did not scream, though I shook and 
 trembled violently. Now, at least, I was 
 thoroughly awake and alert, with all my 
 faculties quite preternaturally active. 
 
 The listless, semi-comatose condition in 
 which I had been sunk for so many days 
 
THE GHOST. 223 
 
 disappeared. It came on again later on, however, 
 as I shall presently describe. Between six and 
 seven minutes afterwards the thing passed again, 
 and so continued to pass for some hours, always 
 seeming to take a longer time to do the distance 
 from the fire into the interior and back again 
 than that which lay between the fire and the 
 entrance of the cavern. The apparition con- 
 tinued to present generally the same appearance, 
 save that the darkness which was in the midst 
 of the luminous haze seemed to be more distinct. 
 Sometimes I thought it presented the outlines 
 of a man, and once I imagined that I made out 
 clearly the head and shoulders. I noticed, also, 
 after the lapse of about two hours, that the 
 central darkness was not quite dark ; and I dis- 
 tinguished there some faint indications of colour. 
 I was now so far recovered from the state of 
 abject terror into which I had been thrown by the 
 apparition, that I determined to snatch a burning 
 faggot from the fire and kindle for myself a new 
 fire in the neighbourhood of my seals. I saw 
 that if I did not do so my fire would presently 
 
224 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 burn out, and that I would not be able to kindle 
 another. 
 
 Inspired with a desperate courage by this 
 horrible thought (the thought, namely, that I 
 might henceforward be compelled to live not 
 only in cold, but in darkness, and also with 
 this thing in the darkness), I determined, 
 come what might of it, to save my fire. Ac- 
 cordingly, waiting till the apparition had passed 
 on its way into the interior of the cavern, I 
 hastened forward, and returned with a burning 
 ember. I had previously brought some timber 
 from that pocket filled with drift-wood. I en- 
 deavoured to kindle a fire with the aid of the 
 ember. This attempt failed, and seeing the fire 
 now very low, regardless of all consequences, I 
 rushed forward again and returned with three or 
 four small embers, holding the still unignited 
 ends of these in my hands, and keeping their 
 red points together. This time I succeeded, 
 and in spite of the presence of the apparition, 
 felt a singular sense of joy and satisfaction as my 
 driftwood caught fire and sent up a bright blaze. 
 
THE GHOST. 225 
 
 I was still desperately frightened. While 
 manipulating my firewood, the sticks frequently 
 fell from my hands, which shook as if I 
 were suffering from ague. Yet, frightened as I 
 was, I determined to do battle even with it for 
 my fire. To be alone in the darkness, alone but 
 with the apparition, seemed more frightful than 
 anything that might befall me in keeping my 
 fire alive. Truly I was at death's door, but I 
 was determined to die at least " in the light," 
 and see this thing, rather than in the darkness 
 and altogether at its mercy. I now looked 
 steadily at the place where it had been moving 
 to and fro, but though I looked a long time I 
 saw nothing. Then I began to think, not that 
 the manifestation had been an evil dream, but 
 that it was an ocular delusion, an affection of 
 the optic nerve, an imagination resulting from 
 the low fever that preyed upon me, accompanied 
 by that unusual lethargy and sense of physical 
 and mental depression. 
 
226 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE GHOST TAKES AN UNEXPECTED SHAPE. 
 
 I DID not see the apparition for some days after 
 that, and began to entertain the hope that it 
 would not again come to plague me ; but at 
 midnight of the fourth day it appeared again, 
 and this time not as an unshaped blot of 
 darkness surrounded by mist, but exhibiting a 
 very distinct shape the shape of a man. As on 
 the first occasion, a sudden premonitory chill, 
 like the passing of an ice-cold wind, struck cold 
 and terror alike into the very marrow of my 
 bones. I knew now what was coming. Will it 
 this time, I thought, pass by me, or interfere 
 with me in my new place, or keep to its old 
 beat? 
 
 I kept my eyes fixed upon the wall of rock 
 where my old fireplace had been, and which was 
 faintly lit by the illumination of my new fire. 
 Then, presently, I saw the figure of a tall man 
 
THE GHOST TAKES A SHAPE. 227 
 
 striding noiselessly along, proceeding just as that 
 shapeless blot had done from the interior of the 
 cavern, and moving towards the entrance. The 
 outline of his form was perfectly distinct, the 
 colours and the lines within the form were 
 blurred and dim. So far as I could judge, in 
 the nervous condition into which I was thrown 
 by the reappearance of the phantom, the figure 
 wore a mantle and a kilt reaching to the knees, 
 the legs being otherwise bare. In a horrible 
 condition of alarm, but still exercising over 
 myself a certain self-control, I awaited its return. 
 After what seemed to be the usual lapse of time, 
 it re-passed along the illuminated wall of rock, 
 and as silently as before. 
 
 On this occasion either the outlines and 
 colours were more clear and visual, or the fact 
 that I was not now taken by surprise enabled 
 me to observe the phenomenon with less agi- 
 tation and alarm. This man if man it was 
 wore his hair long, wore also a beard. His 
 mantle was red, and on his breast I saw some- 
 thing glittering. It was plainly a man a man, 
 p 2 
 
228 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 dead or alive but the figure was still very dim 
 and blurred. 
 
 In this manner it continued to pass and 
 re- pass, while I remained as if glued to the spot 
 on which I sat. Though the fire was burning 
 now very low, I either forgot to feed it, or did 
 not dare to do so owing to my agitation or the 
 fear of attracting the phantom in my direction 
 I forget now which. So low did the fire fall 
 that at length I with difficulty could distinguish 
 the moving shape as it passed and re-passed. 
 Then one of my seals came up to me and uttered 
 its cheerfullest and friendliest cries. 
 
 The noise made by this poor animal, utterly 
 unconscious, apparently, of any dread presence in 
 the cavern, recalled me to myself. I laid a little 
 fresh drift-wood on the fire, and when the blaze 
 shot up saw clearly once more the apparition 
 moving from the entrance towards the interior 
 viz., from my right hand to my left. I waited 
 for its return, but it did not return. I looked at 
 my watch ; it was a little after a quarter to three 
 a.m. When the ghost had commenced to walk 
 
THE GHOST TAKES A SHAPE. 229 
 
 I did not know, save that it was somewhere 
 about midnight. I remained awake for hours 
 after this, and at last fell into a broken slumber 
 haunted by disagreeable images, so that I was 
 pleased to be again awake. Next night, when 
 the hands of my watch approached the midnight 
 hour, I sat up, observant, though alarmed and 
 trembling. 
 
 Of course, I apprehended that this dread 
 elder tenant of the cavern, in spite of his past 
 harmless behaviour, would at some time challenge 
 my right to be there, or in one way or another 
 attack me. Now, though I don't wish to boast 
 of my courage and, indeed, I believe it is no 
 proof of a chicken-heart to be afraid of a ghost 
 yet having had many hours to reflect over this 
 singular phenomenon, I was determined, come 
 what might, to resist it in that event; at least 
 not to permit this man, for, indeed, a man he 
 seemed, to frighten me out of my senses, and 
 then destroy me at his leisure. I knew that 
 ghosts, if any such existed, were unsubstantial, 
 not to be injured by weapons, and presenting no 
 
230 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 purchase even to the bravest hands, yet it never 
 occurred to me that this ghost could have been 
 of that unsubstantial nature. Though he made 
 no sound whatsoever, beyond what I presently 
 recognised to be the mere figment of my imagi- 
 nation, creating for the phantom a footfall 
 whenever its foot seemed to touch the hard 
 ground, yet otherwise it seemed perfectly sub- 
 stantial, a solid mass of apparently human flesh. 
 It quite concealed the face of the rock as it 
 passed by, obliterating in its passage the illu- 
 minated points and projections there, which 
 instantly shone out again after it had gone by. 
 More than that, I remembered having distinctly 
 seen its shadow. I don't say that these 
 reasonings passed through my mind then, and I 
 only refer to them now to justify the conviction 
 which I entertained, that this being was not a 
 ghost in the ordinary sense of the word, but a 
 substantial thing that might lay hold on me, and 
 drag me by the hair through the cavern, perhaps 
 to its den. I never doubted that it was a thing 
 which could lay hold on me, and also upon which 
 
TEE GHOST TAKES A SHAPE. 231 
 
 I might lay hold, and with which I might 
 struggle, and which possibly, God helping me, I 
 might overcome. Indeed, 1 did not forget my 
 prayers, while firmly resolving in my own mind 
 not to be destroyed without a struggle. 
 
 I prayed incessantly, and though I felt 
 greater calm, self-control, and even strength, as 
 the result of my prayers, did not observe that 
 the use of the sacred names exercised the least 
 influence on the apparition. It is true, indeed, 
 that my murmuring of those holy names was 
 quite inaudible. I felt that to stand up and, in 
 the name of Jesus Christ, bid the spectre go, 
 would be an act of war, so to speak, and that as 
 long as it should leave me alone and not come 
 nearer, it would be more prudent not to proceed 
 to such extremities. This was, no doubt, weak, 
 but allowances must be made for my very 
 helpless condition, immured here, far from men, 
 in this tomb, with a fellow-tenant of that 
 horrible character. So far the ghost had not 
 interfered with me. On this the third appear- 
 ance of the spectre, its shape, outline, and the 
 
232 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 interior lines and colours were completely and 
 distinctly visible. I saw now pass before me, 
 with a long, steady, and even stride, not indeed 
 the tallest man I have ever seen, but amongst 
 the tallest. I have never seen, nor ever cared 
 to see, one of those unfortunate human beings 
 who are hawked about the world as a spectacle 
 and a show on account of their prodigious size. 
 
 The man who now, almost exactly at twelve 
 o'clock, began to pass and re-pass a few yards 
 away from me, was as tall as one of the 
 taller of the Dublin policemen, of a bulk, 
 too, and length of limb corresponding with 
 his height, and, indeed, very finely formed. 
 The something which I had formerly noticed 
 as glittering upon his breast, I now saw to 
 be a round wheel, seemingly of gold ; but 
 why the man wore a wheel on his breast I 
 could not at first understand. After he had 
 passed and re-passed a few times I discovered 
 that this was the ring of an enormous brooch. 
 
 I could see the two ends of the pin of this 
 brooch, one knobbed on the man's right 
 
THE GHOST TAKES A SHAPE. 233 
 
 shoulder, and the other pointed, on his left. 
 The figure was that of an antique warrior, but 
 not at all of the conventional type with which 
 one is familiar. He wore a tall brazen helmet. 
 His hair, yellowish, or rather sandy, neither 
 lustrous nor curling, fell on his shoulders. His 
 beard and moustache were not exactly red, but 
 more inclined to red than the hair of his head. 
 His mantle was a dark crimson, with loose 
 thrums apparently of gold thread, or thread 
 stained to that resemblance, glittering along the 
 borders. What I had at first imagined to be a 
 kilt, I now saw was only the lower part of a 
 shirt or loose tunic, gathered at the waist by a 
 dark-red belt, and falling thence in loose folds to 
 tne knees. It was striped vertically white and 
 red. He wore shoes of a brown or dun colour, 
 but furnished with clasps or latchets of some 
 description of metal unknown, which I could 
 perceive shining. He wore tight-fitting hose 
 of a dun colour, which were not laced or 
 gartered anywhere. 
 
 When he went towards the interior from the 
 
234 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 entrance of the cave I could see distinctly a short 
 sword, which hung down quite vertically on his 
 left thigh. The scabbard seemed to be made of 
 some reddish kind of wood. It was fastened 
 with bright-headed rivets, and was shod at either 
 end with a substance which looked like gold 
 but was brighter. The handle of the sword 
 looked like ivory, but was rather duller in hue 
 than ivory should be. Otherwise he was unarmed. 
 In fact, generally, he presented the appearance 
 of a warrior of ancient times. His right arm 
 always hung down by his side, the left hand was 
 passed under the mantle and lay on his breast, 
 taking hold upon something there I fancy 
 upon the strap of his sword what antiquarians, I 
 think, call a baldrick. His head was bent a little 
 forwards, and his shoulders were slightly rounded 
 at all events, his gait was not quite erect. 
 His attitude was that of a man pondering pro- 
 foundly upon some intricate problem, and pacing 
 to and fro quite immersed in calculations and 
 ruminations concerning its solution. Though I 
 watched him pass and re-pass at least a hundred 
 
THE GHOST TAKES A SHAPE. 235 
 
 times, his carriage and mode of holding his hands 
 never varied in the least from what I have de- 
 scribed. His bearing, I say, was that of a man 
 deeply reflecting, but there was no sign or token 
 of reflection whatsoever in his face. There was 
 truly no speculation in those eyes. Otherwise 
 his face suggested life rather than death, for it 
 was of a good colour, somewhat ruddy in the 
 cheeks, and well bronzed otherwise. The eyes 
 alone, so wide open, staring, and lustreless, 
 suggested death. 
 
 As to his age, he seemed to be about forty. 
 I may add, at the risk of being too minute, that 
 on his brooch were five good-sized eyes of glass 
 or some substance duller than glass and that 
 on his left temple there was a scar running from 
 the roots of his hair to the outer extremity of 
 the corresponding eyebrow. I had plenty of 
 time and opportunity to make these observations, 
 for after his second appearance the ghost con- 
 tinued to walk every night exactly at twelve 
 o'clock, and ceased to walk at about three. 
 Invariably, also, his walking terminated in the 
 
236 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 interior portion of the cave, and in that gallery 
 at the end of which was the strange tomb which 
 I have described. After passing me on the way 
 to Curry's Window he did not re-pass for five 
 minutes and twenty-seven seconds. The passage 
 into the interior and back occupied almost exactly 
 six minutes. 
 
 Although the reader will, of course, attribute 
 this apparition wholly to the diseased state of 
 my nerves and imagination, and although such 
 is my own belief too, in a sense, yet it is sin- 
 gular that the apparition, supposing it to be 
 such, should have assumed exactly this form 
 and garb. I never saw a man dressed in that 
 style. I had never even seen a picture of a man 
 so dressed ; for, although the flowing mantle, long 
 hair, straight-hanging sword, and kilt, form the 
 usual get-up of antique warriors on the stage and 
 in pictures, the big brooch was quite strange and 
 novel, even to my imagination. 
 
 Such antique warriors, too, in pictures or on 
 the stage, appear gartered to the knee, and 
 always carry a shield on their arm or strapped to 
 
THE GHOST TAKES A SHAPE. 237 
 
 their backs. This figure had no shield, wore 
 hose, not stockings, and was not gartered. 
 Consequently, if the apparition sprang from my 
 imagination, and from the imagination projected 
 itself into visuality in this remarkable manner, 
 my imagination was able to produce something 
 that my eyes had never seen, either in the world 
 of reality or in the world of art, and something 
 that the imagination had never at any time con- 
 sciously conceived at all. Another singular 
 circumstance is this : I knew that this cave was 
 the cave of Curry the smuggler. I had already 
 associated the idea of the tomb which I had 
 discovered with him. Now, my notion of a 
 smuggler was that which is commonly enter- 
 tained by all boys and young men, viz., a stout, 
 strong, burly man of a sea-faring type, wearing 
 top-boots, and pistols stuck in his belt. Having 
 had plenty of time for reflection, the thought of 
 Curry the smuggler, in this highly conventional 
 form, i.e., the melodramatic smuggler, had been 
 frequent in my mind ; and since I discovered the 
 tomb, the notion that Curry's ghost might haunt 
 
238 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 the cavern had very frequently arisen in my 
 numerous breedings and cogitations. I did not, 
 indeed, seriously entertain the thought of Curry's 
 ghost inhabiting the cave, but the fancy or idea, 
 as ideas will, had oftentimes passed idly through 
 my mind. Yet the apparition, when it did 
 come, was as unlike a smuggler as it was unlike 
 a nineteenth -century man of fashion. I, too, 
 am now convinced indeed, I did not leave that 
 cave without the conviction that this spectre was 
 the creature of my imagination, wrought up by 
 low diet and solitude to a preternatural degree 
 of potency and activity. 
 
 But of this, too, I am convinced that the 
 imagination in some persons, and under abnor- 
 mal circumstances, has a power which few people 
 suspect, and unconsciously to ourselves, is fed 
 and sustained by a kind of knowledge and by 
 forms of experience which never came within the 
 range of the imagining person. Before con- 
 cluding, I shall relate something which seems to 
 provide some faint clue to my very remarkable 
 preternatural experiences in Curry's Cave. 
 
THE GHOST TAKES A SHAPE. 239 
 
 After the spectre's second appearance it 
 continued to walk for five nights, beginning and 
 ending its mysterious beat or promenade at 
 exactly the same time each night, and taking 
 exactly the same course on each occasion. By 
 degrees I began to be so accustomed to its 
 presence that I sometimes even broiled and ate 
 my fish while the ghost went to and fro, and 
 once I lessened, by nearly half, the distance 
 which separated us, in order to observe him and 
 his habiliments more closely and accurately. On 
 this occasion its eyes seemed, on a nearer view, 
 to present so terrible an expression, that the 
 moment it passed I withdrew swiftly to the 
 proximity of my fire and seals, and did not again 
 venture one yard away from the opposite wall 
 of the cave. 
 
 The excitement caused by the apparition had 
 roused me, to a considerable degree, from the 
 lethargy into which I had been before fast 
 sinking, and, indeed, had sunk almost past recall. 
 Indeed, but for the ghost I think I should 
 have died in that cave, so stupid, sleepy, and 
 
240 LOST ON DU-CORRIQ. 
 
 indifferent to all things was I fast growing. 
 The ghost, at least, had the merit of keeping me 
 rather broad awake for some days, and all my 
 faculties on the alert. Otherwise I might have 
 succumbed before the arrival of the relief which 
 was now about to make such a difference, both 
 in my condition of mind and body and in my 
 prospects. The excitement had this almost 
 immediate good effect, that when the first in- 
 tensity of it had passed away I ate rather more 
 broiled fish than I had done for many days before 
 the coming of the apparition. So, when the 
 relief did arrive, I was in a condition to utilise it. 
 
I FOUND A FAT SHEEP LYING MOTIONLESS ON THE GROUND" (p. 241). 
 
ft r "J 'J tl v "j rj *j ^ \t fj *' 
 
241 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 ALL ABOUT MUTTON. 
 
 ON the 12th day of that month my lethargy 
 was dissipated, and at the same time the ghost 
 laid in a singular manner. As I sat beside my 
 fire nodding, as my custom was, I was startled 
 into sudden animation by a loud yet dull thud, 
 as of some heavy body falling in the long 
 gallery. Snatching a brand from the fire, I 
 hastened thither, and at the spot where the 
 bones formerly lay, and where I had discovered 
 the brown cakes, found a fat sheep lying motion- 
 less on the ground. 
 
 I was now wide awake and* active, and even 
 excited. When I heard the noise I guessed at 
 once what caused it. The ghost was no impedi- 
 ment to me, for it was only about two o'clock in 
 the afternoon, and his solemn marchings to and 
 fro would not commence till midnight. The 
 Q 
 
242 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 sheep was quite dead. I bled her as she lay, 
 and though practically ignorant of the butcher's 
 art, skinned her partially, cut out certain layers 
 from the breast, and returning to my fire, roasted 
 them. I was not consciously hungry, and had 
 no longing for flesh-food, but being now wide 
 awake and actively intelligent, I knew that 
 meat would do me good, and that if I was not 
 to die I should eat it. 
 
 The odour and smell of the frizzling chops, 
 however, at once awakened a furious appetite. 
 I ate with a relish, and returning to the carcase 
 of the unfortunate sheep, hacked off two more 
 chops, broiled, and ate them. I would have 
 eaten more, but I knew how dangerous such 
 indulgence would be after long abstinence. 
 Then I drank copiously from that little glitter- 
 ing pencil of descending water to which I have 
 referred. I used to drink of it sometimes by 
 the simple process of opening my mouth to 
 receive it at least, when I was in good health 
 and spirits. Finally, I filled myself a pipe 
 of tobacco, and enjoyed a good smoke, a luxury 
 
ALL ABOUT MUTTON. 243 
 
 in which I had not indulged for a long time. 
 In fact, I had quite lost my taste for it. 
 
 Finding myself unusually gay and vigorous, 
 I might almost say defiant and pugnacious, I 
 determined this night to accost the apparition, 
 and that, too, not in the gentlest manner. I did 
 not then suspect that my weak and nervous con- 
 dition had anything to do with the presence of 
 the apparition. Twelve o'clock passed, and one 
 yet I saw absolutely nothing that night, nor did 
 I ever afterwards once perceive either that 
 antique martial figure or anything at all sugges- 
 tive of the uncanny and supernatural as long as 
 I remained in the cave. I have heard and read 
 of various methods of laying ghosts and exorcis- 
 ing evil spirits. Mutton chops, nicely broiled, 
 and eaten by an extremely hungry lad, laid my 
 ghost, and laid him effectually. . Divine Provid- 
 ence saved me my life and my reason on this 
 occasion. 
 
 I don't think I am a boaster, but from what 
 I recollect I am convinced that if the gfiost had 
 appeared that night, as he had been in the habit 
 
244 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 of appearing for so many nights previously, I 
 should not only have challenged him, but, if 
 unanswered, would have barred his path. Fami- 
 liarity breeds contempt. Every night, for more 
 than three hours on each occasion, I had been 
 now for weeks watching the sturdy passage of 
 this sinister figure, as it paced to and fro along 
 the north wall of the cavern. 
 
 I slept soundly that night, and awoke in the 
 morning alert, energetic, and ravenous. Of 
 course I attacked the sheep again, but what was 
 my surprise to find on this occasion another 
 great brown cake close beside the sheep, quite 
 fresh, and seemingly baked on the previous day. 
 Moving around with my torch, I discovered 
 some half-dozen others, some of them quite 
 stale. It was evident that Charley had again 
 been at work, and seemingly was now enabled, 
 without let or hindrance, to roll me down a 
 cake every second day, as he had promised. 
 
 Having now both mutton and bread to eat 
 with it, I rapidly recovered my health and 
 strength, and the knowledge that one at least 
 
ALL ABOUT MUTTON. 245 
 
 of my brothers was firmly convinced that I was 
 at the bottom of the Devil's Parlour filled me 
 again with hope. I skinned and jointed my 
 sheep, and collecting from various little hollows 
 near the pool all the salt procurable, proceeded 
 to corn as much of it as it was not likely that I 
 should eat fresh, rubbing the salt well in with 
 my hands. As my supply of salt was limited, I 
 eked it out by soaking each piece of mutton in 
 the tidal water. After each steeping I dried the 
 piece at the fire and again plunged it in the salt 
 water, and between times I rubbed the salt 
 vigorously into it. Indeed, I succeeded in pre- 
 serving the whole sheep very well. With 
 renewed energy and zeal I now returned to my 
 suspended labours at the window, and worked 
 there with a will, and from early morning till 
 late at night with little intermission. My 
 bread came to me as regularly as it did to 
 the prophet at the brook Cherith. I had bread, 
 meat and fish, and even vegetables if one can 
 count edible sea-weed as such. All was going 
 well with me. 
 
246 LOST ON DU-GORRIO. 
 
 Early in December my last piece of brass 
 had worn too small to be of service. I melted 
 all the little pieces which I had saved, made for 
 myself thereby a very bright brand-new chisel, 
 and scored away industriously. Though I knew 
 that this tool would not bring me to the sill- 
 that it would be worn out before I could effect 
 my deliverance yet not once did my heart and 
 hope flag. I had brass buttons on my clothes ; 
 I had my watch, watch-guard, and chain I 
 would melt them too into a chisel. Even with 
 flint stones, when all the metal gave out, I could 
 do something. I now began to feel confident 
 that if only my life were spared long enough 
 I would carve my way out of my den. This 
 energy and vigour seemed to be all my own, 
 generated in my unconquerable will, and yet it 
 all came from that poor " clifted " sheep and my 
 brother Charley's brown bread. I have to 
 record with shame that after the fall of that 
 sheep I became much less pious than I had been 
 before ; and yet, on the whole, my sufferings in 
 this subterranean prison, and the marvellous and 
 
ALL ABOUT MUTTON. 247 
 
 including Charley's vision miraculous ways 
 in which my life had been preserved, and by 
 which I was restored safe to the upper world, 
 gave such a serious turn to my thoughts and 
 manner of life that, though frequently assailed 
 from without and from within by infidel reason- 
 ings and suggestions, I have never since then 
 doubted the existence and omnipresence of an 
 over- ruling Providence. 
 
248 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 MY LAST ATTEMPT UPON THE SEALS* TUNNEL. 
 
 BECOMING now heartily tired of that niche- 
 cutting labour I determined to make a fresh 
 attempt on the Seals' Tunnel On the last 
 occasion I had failed, but at that time I was 
 living upon a fish diet. My food now was fish, 
 roast mutton, and wholesome brown bread. I 
 was far stronger, and should certainly be able to 
 penetrate several yards farther into the tunnel 
 which led from that second blow-hole into the 
 sea. 
 
 I had very carefully preserved as much of 
 that touch cloth as was not necessary for the 
 lighting of my second fire. Now, again, taking 
 it as before in my purse, and securely fastening 
 the latter with whip-cord till it was quite water- 
 tight, I dived through the first reach of the 
 tunnel. Not to be tedious here, especially as 
 my attempt was frustrated, let me say that I 
 
LAST ATTEMPT UPON THE TUNNEL. 249 
 
 lit my fire as before, and made several most 
 determined attempts to penetrate the tunnel 
 beyond the second blow-hole the little one 
 three yards in diameter. I learned now exactly 
 at what point of time my power of retaining 
 breath was half exhausted. I kept on diving 
 and groping along the tunnel till I had reached 
 that point of endurance, and then returned. As 
 I became acquainted with the nature of the 
 tunnel, I found myself at each fresh attempt 
 able to travel further. 
 
 All my efforts, however, were fruitless. Save 
 that second small blow-hole I could not find 
 another. Finally I determined to give up for 
 good all thoughts of making my escape by the 
 tunnel, and to devote my energies to the slow, 
 but in the end sure, method of cutting footsteps 
 in the incline at Curry's Window. Before, 
 however, finally betaking myself to the great 
 cavern, and renewing my labours at the window, 
 I made a complete exploration of this minor one 
 which opened off the first blow-hole. 
 
 Here, now, I lit a great many fires, and 
 
250 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 explored it in every part, hoping that I might 
 there meet with something that might be of 
 service to me. At last, in a remote corner 
 which I had not quite illuminated formerly, I 
 discovered a beam of timber of considerable size. 
 I notched it with my knife. All the outer part 
 was quite soft and crumbling, but as I went on 
 cutting I discovered, to my joy, that the inside 
 was quite hard and sound. I saw at once that 
 a more rapid means of escape lay before me. I 
 could cut this beam into small blocks, convey 
 the blocks through the tunnel, and pile them up 
 at Curry's Window. Had I made a proper 
 exploration of this minor cavern when I was 
 here before, I might have been at home now. I 
 returned home, dined joyously, and smoked my 
 tobacco down to within two inches of the end of 
 my coil of Limerick twist. 
 
 I have mentioned before that I knew a good 
 deal of poetry by heart, and that the repetition 
 of what I knew was a great comfort to me 
 during the whole time of my imprisonment, and 
 prevented my mind from preying on itself. 
 
LAST ATTEMPT UPON THE TUNNEL. 251 
 
 This night I repeated the whole of the first 
 three books of "Paradise Lost," which I had 
 committed to memory when a school-boy. I 
 had, indeed, a good deal of difficulty with those 
 passages in which the chief persons in Satan's 
 host are identified \dth the gods of the Gentile 
 natives in and around Palestine, but eventually 
 got all correct. 
 
 I believe I did not go to sleep till near 
 morning, and when I did at last fall asleep, 
 slept an unconscionably long time. When I 
 awoke it was late in the afternoon of the next 
 day. Without waiting for breakfast I dived 
 through the tunnel, and coming up in the minor 
 cavern found that my fire, though carefully 
 covered up with ashes, had gone out. This was 
 a great blow to me, for the mahogany from 
 which I hoped to cut pieces was in a remote 
 part of the cavern, and I feared to venture 
 towards it in the dark. I might lose my way 
 there, and although in the long run I might find 
 my way back to the water, yet it was quite 
 possible that while groping round there in the 
 
252 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 dense darkness my fire in the great cavern might 
 go out. Indeed, I was somewhat divided in my 
 mind already as to whether it was my best plan 
 to stick to the mahogany or to my work of 
 stair-cutting. Now, at all events, I determined, 
 as I had no light by which to work at the great 
 beam of mahogany, to betake myself to the big 
 cavern and the neighbourhood of my own fire, 
 and work steadily at the stairs in Curry's 
 Window. Accordingly I did so, and found 
 the work progressing far faster than I had 
 expected. 
 
 The going out of my fire in the second 
 cavern seriously alarmed me. The thought was 
 continually present in my mind that my fire 
 here by the Seals' Pool might go out too. This 
 haunting fear prevented me from sleeping 
 soundly. I was perpetually starting up at night 
 and examining the heap of ashes in which my 
 precious brands were embedded to see if they 
 were alive. Impelled by this fear I now became 
 a chandler, and succeeded in making some extra- 
 ordinary candles. When I afterwards showed 
 
LAST ATTEMPT UPON THE TUNNEL. 253 
 
 one of them to my mother, I thought she would 
 never cease laughing. 
 
 A bowl- shaped depression in the floor of the 
 cavern near the pool served me for a pot. In 
 this I rendered the fat of the sheep, having first 
 heated the rock with fire. In the meantime I 
 made wicks of twisted sheep's-wool. Very thick 
 and clumsy wicks they were, but quite good 
 enough for me. When I had a dozen of these 
 ready I commenced to make my candles. I 
 drew each wick through the little pool of liquid 
 tallow, and then hung it to dry between two 
 boulders, suspended from a piece of timber laid 
 cross- wise. 
 
 This labour gave me more amusement and 
 satisfaction than anyone can realise. At home 
 we used to make our own supply of candles. 
 Once every year there was a great candle- 
 making day. Then the big coach-house was 
 cleared out, huge quantities of tallow rendered 
 in great cauldrons there, and hundreds of 
 " dips " made and stored up for the year's 
 consumption. This was always a great day for 
 
254 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 us while we were children, and looked forward 
 to as a most joyful event. My mother always 
 presided over this operation. Indeed, in all 
 respects she was a good housekeeper, and as like 
 the lady described by King Solomon as anyone 
 I have ever met anywhere. 
 
 In short, I made a good store of candles, 
 each almost as thick as my wrist in the middle, 
 but at the lower end bulging out to the size of a 
 turnip. After this when I went to sleep I used 
 to light one of my candles, and thenceforth was 
 able to pay proper attention to my slumbers, 
 which I could not before, owing to the manner 
 in which my dreaming thoughts continually 
 revolved round the idea of the extinction of my 
 precious fire. 
 
 One day -I considered it the 2nd but 
 it was really the 3rd of December, for I had 
 missed one day during that season of exhaustion 
 and apathy I was returning to my work after 
 dinner, a meal of which I regularly partook at 
 three o'clock, which, however unfashionable, was 
 our dinner-hour at home. I was whistling 
 
LAST ATTEMPT UPON THE TUNNEL. 255 
 
 lustily, and had just turned the angle of rock 
 where the cavern after going parallel with the 
 coast curved towards the entrance, when I 
 saw in Curry's Window, between me and the 
 sky, a slight, boyish, long-legged figure. At 
 the very moment that I perceived it, this figure 
 shouted or screamed, " Jack." I as quickly 
 shouted "Ned," and also as loud as I could 
 roar, " Stop, stop, stay back " ; but I might 
 as well have shouted to a madman. 
 
 In exactly the same manner as I had done, 
 he first pushed himself eagerly along the incline, 
 then he slid with no power to check himself, 
 then came rushing down the steeper portion of 
 the slope, and at last tumbled into the heap of 
 sea- weed which I had piled there. 
 
 Had he seen me at any distance beneath 
 him, he would at once have suspected the nature 
 and depth of the incline, and remembered that I 
 was a prisoner there against my will. But my 
 voice came to his ears as from one standing 
 almost on the same level with himself. In 
 starting from the foot of the incline, boulders 
 
256 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 stood up higher and higher as one passed into 
 the interior. So he did not suspect the 
 existence of the great depth which separated 
 him from the ground helow the incline. 
 
 In this manner Ned too was trapped, and 
 the cavern held two prisoners instead of one. 
 
257 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued] 
 
 LIFE OF THE TWO BROTHERS IN THE CAVERN. 
 
 NEXT morning, in fine spirits, we both rose early, 
 and after breakfast commenced rolling such 
 boulders as we could set in motion in the 
 direction of Curry's Window. We worked hard 
 till dinner, and went at the work again shortly 
 afterwards, not deserting it till we were hardly 
 able to stir from fatigue. At supper Jack said, 
 " I fear, Ned, that our task is a bigger one than 
 I anticipated. We have now got to Curry's 
 Window nearly all the boulders that you and I 
 together can remove." I pooh-poohed Jack's 
 low-spirited view of the situation. I was so 
 delighted with the novelty of everything, I 
 could not even for a moment harbour such 
 thoughts. That we two could not, almost as 
 soon as we chose, climb out at Curry's Window, 
 or in some other way escape triumphant out of 
 R 
 
258 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 our prison, I utterly refused to believe. If it 
 were not for the sorrow of our people at home, 
 which I knew must be great and heart-breaking, 
 I would have been as happy as anyone could be. 
 It was all so like what might be read in a 
 famous boys' story-book, and yet it was all true. 
 Here we were both immured in our vast cavern, 
 amid strange echoes, reverberations in a huge 
 darkness, faintly lit by the light of our fire, 
 with our seals, like Elijah's ravens, bringing us 
 food. It was all so strange and interesting. 
 At first I was obliged to keep well out of view 
 of the seals, who, after the first alarm, gradually 
 became accustomed to my presence, though it 
 was several days before I ventured to show 
 myself, and it was then only by slow degrees 
 that I could get them to tolerate me. They 
 were very susceptible to music. I saw from 
 their motions that they liked my whistling best. 
 Jack was displeased at this or I thought he 
 was so forebore, and took every opportunity 
 of alluding to the extraordinary affection- which 
 subsisted between them. At the end of the 
 
LIFE IN THE GAVE UN. 259 
 
 second day we had shifted a good many pebbles 
 to Curry's Window; yet the top of the heap was 
 still a great distance from the window. We 
 could not pile one stone on the top of another, 
 owing to their smoothness and roundness. The 
 base of this pile had to be made broad, so we 
 were obliged to use for the pediment many of 
 our precious stones. Of our two fishing-rods, of 
 the bones of the sheep, and the scanty bits of 
 sound timber found in the cave, we proposed 
 now to make a ladder, but soon dismissed that 
 notion. The ladder would have been much too 
 short for our purpose, as we found after a very 
 careful calculation. 
 
 " I fear you are right, Jack," I said at last, 
 one evening as we sat ruminating by the fire. 
 " To-morrow we must begin cutting steps in the 
 rock. It is too bad to think that all your 
 labour was thrown away." 
 
 (Those first steps that Jack cut were now 
 useless, being covered by the boulder stones.)] 
 
 " There is a better plan than that," said he. 
 " In the lesser cavern there is one fine beam of 
 R 2 
 
260 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 timber, which is quite sound when you get to 
 the depth of two or three inches. It is a great 
 deal too heavy for us to roll into the water. 
 But we might cut it into movable lengths and 
 get the pieces through the tunnel. I think 
 that is our plan ; but it will be long and hard 
 work, for the beam is mahogany." 
 
 We agreed to adopt that plan, and to set to 
 work in the morning. I, for my own part, 
 made a proposition of a different kind. It was 
 to send out a message attached to one of the 
 seals. After a little consultation we hit upon a 
 good way of doing this. To write a letter was 
 easy enough. I had paper. A bit of pointed 
 stick, a hard fibre of seaweed, anything at all, 
 in fact, would do for a pen, and our own veins 
 would supply the ink. But how send the letter 
 out, attached to a seal, and at the same time 
 preserve it from the water and render it con- 
 spicuous and noticeable to anyone observing the 
 letter-carrier? We were not long in discovering 
 the right plan. Jack had carefully preserved 
 every portion of that unfortunate sheep which 
 
LIFE IN THE CAVERN. 261 
 
 might be put to any conceivable use. The 
 bones, such of them as were not still enveloped 
 in mutton, were in a place by themselves. The 
 entrails, dried and twisted, were now strong 
 cords. Amongst the other relics of the sheep 
 he had preserved the bladder. It was just the 
 thing for our purpose. We would put our letter 
 into the bladder, blow the bladder out, bind the 
 mouth of it firmly with twine, and attach the 
 bladder to our seal. So the letter would be 
 preserved from the action of the water, and any- 
 one seeing our seal would see also the bladder 
 floating behind him when he rose to the surface. 
 The seal would in that case be certainly pursued 
 till shot. Jack, who was very sentimental 
 indeed, naturally so about his herd of seals, 
 did not quite like the plan, but finally consented 
 to the immolation of one. We selected a seal 
 called " No-good." He was tame enough, but 
 so far as Jack and myself were concerned, a bad 
 fisherman. In fact, he could never be taught to 
 bring in a fish at all, though, being young, 
 he was one of the liveliest of our herd. This 
 
262 LOST ON DU-COERIG. 
 
 unproductive member of the family was selected 
 to be the bearer of our letter. We fastened the 
 bladder to one of No-good's legs, leaving a 
 length of about two feet of sheep-gut between 
 the bladder and his fin. We now dismissed 
 No-good, and proceeded to carry our other 
 purpose into execution. There was now no 
 necessity for repeating that toilsome operation 
 by which Jack had formerly kindled a fire in 
 his parlour, even if it were possible for indeed 
 he had exhausted his materials. I had in my 
 pockets some lucifer matches. Two or three of 
 these we took and bound them up tightly in 
 Jack's purse. We stripped and took to the water, 
 Jack going first. Waiting for a few minutes 
 till he should be quite clear of the tunnel, 
 I followed not, indeed, without unpleasant 
 qualms, for it was an ugly business, and though 
 I could swim and dive as well as my brother, I 
 was not at all so brave, stout-hearted, and 
 determined as he was. Indeed, I have never 
 met anyone so fearless as he. On this occa- 
 sion my heart failed me, and after groping in 
 
LIFE IN THE CAVERN. 263 
 
 the tunnel for a few seconds. I came out again 
 as I had gone in. Then I said to myself, " If 
 I do not get through soon, Jack, suspecting 
 some accident, will return, and we may meet in 
 the tunnel with disastrous consequences." 
 Making up my mind fully to get through this 
 time, I dived again, and was quite surprised to 
 find how easy the feat really was. I came up, 
 of course, in dense darkness, and shouted : " All 
 right." I heard someone cry, " Swim this way 
 I shall lend you a hand." Soon I was helped 
 on to the rocky shore by Jack's muscular arms, 
 and when we had collected some timber and had 
 dried our hands, we struck the matches and lit 
 a fire. When I for my own part had sated my 
 curiosity by exploring all the recesses of this 
 cavern, we both set to work upon the great 
 beam, and began to cut from it such lengths as 
 we thought we could roll into the water. We 
 found it, as Jack had predicted, very slow work. 
 In spite of the fire, at which we repeatedly 
 warmed ourselves, we soon grew cold. " This 
 won't do at all," Jack said. " If we are to do 
 
264 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 a good day's work here we must swim in with 
 our clothes on, dry them at. the fire, then dress 
 ourselves, and work comfortably." We returned 
 as we came, dressed ourselves, dived again 
 through the tunnel, and after drying our clothes 
 and putting them on, worked with our knives 
 at the beam for the rest of that day. We then 
 covered up the embers of the fire in ashes, and 
 diving into the water, clothes and all, returned 
 to the big cave. That night we determined to 
 quite shift our quarters, at least for the present, 
 and to remove some of our food into the parlour. 
 This we did next day, taking with us a good 
 deal of mutton and bread. We brought through 
 the bread easy enough by making a bag out of 
 the sheep skin, and tying the skin up so tightly 
 as to be quite waterproof. On the previous day 
 we had been rather surprised to find that the 
 seals seemed quite as fond of our society in our 
 new quarters as in the old. There were two or 
 three of them playing in the dark water beside 
 us all day as we worked. Though Jack, using 
 all his most effective gestures and phrases, con- 
 
LIFE IN THE CAVERN. 265 
 
 tinued to impress upon them that they should 
 get us fish, they did not do so. The new and 
 strange conditions and the absence, I suppose, of 
 Scamp from the scene, had interrupted the 
 association of ideas, which my brother had, with 
 so much trouble, succeeded in establishing in 
 their minds. We therefore determined to bring 
 Scamp in too. Jack unloosed the little fellow 
 for the first time. His delight was unmeasured, 
 and so much did he relish his freedom that 
 daring the greater part of that day we were 
 unable to capture him again. Eventually we 
 succeeded, and had the satisfaction later on of 
 finding his parents bring him a fine codling, 
 only a small portion of which was he permitted 
 to devour. Of course the moment we seized 
 Scamp, we proceeded at once to secure him, and 
 compel him to make his "lodging on the cold 
 ground." Here, then, we continued for a long 
 time industriously cutting our way into the 
 heart of the big mahogany beam, each of us 
 working at his own notch. We now saw our 
 way clearly. This great beam of timber was 
 
266 LOST ON DU-COREIG. 
 
 amply sufficient for our needs, but we also saw 
 that the cutting and preparation of it would take 
 a long time. We foresaw, too, some difficulty 
 in getting the pieces through the flooded tunnel, 
 but imagined we had a promising method of 
 working out the problem. 
 
 No-good still continued to appear in the pool, 
 with his bladder floating behind him a comical 
 sight, at which we often laughed. We attached, 
 however, little importance to No-good and his 
 mission ; we knew now that we would get out 
 by Curry's Window, and that it was all a question 
 of time, provided, of course, that we did not fall 
 sick, or meet with any unforeseen accident. 
 
 It was on one of those days that that goose 
 of a man, Mulvaney, the sub- constable, entered 
 the cave by Curry's Window. Mulvaney, of 
 course, thought that when he had traversed the 
 whole cavern and shouted in every corner of it, 
 there was no necessity for using his eyes as well 
 as his ears. Even with his candles, had he 
 scanned the ground attentively he should have 
 discovered traces of us. 
 
267 
 
 OHAPTEE XXXII. 
 
 EDWARD FREEMAN'S NARRATIVE (continued) 
 
 HOME AGAIN. 
 
 ONE morning I was awakened by a loud noise of 
 thumping and the swish-swash of rushing water. 
 I knew the significance of this. There was wild 
 weather abroad, and we here, though far from 
 the outer turmoil, were experiencing the effects. 
 Jack was still asleep. I got up, fed the fire with 
 fresh timber, and sat on the edge of the pool 
 contemplating the agitation .of the dark water, 
 and listening to the strange and horrible noises 
 which it made echoing in the long, high, and 
 winding cave behind me, the mouth of which 
 opened upon this pool. All our seals were here 
 in a row. No-good was amongst them, with his 
 caudal or crural ornament hanging down grace- 
 fully behind him, and occasionally whirled about 
 by the water. " We are prisoners here now, 
 indeed," I said to myself, for it would be 
 
268 LOST ON DU-CORRTG. 
 
 decidedly dangerous to attempt the tunnel with 
 the water rushing through it at this rate. 
 
 After a while Jack awoke, and when we had 
 breakfasted and played with our friends, we went 
 again at our work. We had now thirteen good 
 movable pieces of timber, which only needed to 
 be cut smooth at each end, so that they might 
 stand firmly one on the top of the other, to be 
 ready for the escalading of Curry's Window. 
 All that day the agitation of the water continued 
 and grew momentarily more violent. Had we 
 wished to do so, it would have been utterly 
 impossible for us to traverse the tunnel. In the 
 afternoon the monptony was interrupted some- 
 what by the reappearance of No-good, minus his 
 appendage. The bladder was gone. That being 
 so, we perceived how desirable it was that we 
 should return to the big cavern as soon as 
 possible. Our bladder might be picked up at 
 any moment, and consequently at any moment a 
 search party might descend into the big cavern. 
 What would they think if they did not find us 
 there ? They would never suspect the existence 
 
HOME AGAIN. 269 
 
 of the second cave, the avenue to which was at 
 all times flooded. It was on that very evening 
 that Mr. Watkins and his nephews picked up our 
 letter. As it was certain death, however, in the 
 present condition of the water to attempt the 
 tunnel, we quietly worked at the big beam and 
 spent the day smoothing the ends of those pieces 
 which we had separated. Next day we could per- 
 ceive that the outer storm had evidently abated, 
 but the agitation of our water was still too great 
 to permit us to get through the tunnel. At last 
 one morning when we awoke we found that the 
 agitation had almost quite subsided. This day 
 we resolved to bring our logs through. We 
 rolled one of them to the water's edge, and 
 having made it fast with the cord, gently pushed 
 it into the water. We feared that, being water- 
 logged, or owing to the close grain of the 
 timber, it might sink ; in which case we in- 
 tended to buoy it up by turning our sheepskin 
 into a bladder and fastening it to the log. The 
 log, however, swam, and our next task was to 
 cause it io sink just sufficiently to come on a 
 
270 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 level with the mouth of that submarine tunnel, 
 so that we might draw it through into the great 
 cavern. This task we accomplished by tying to 
 it small stones as sinkers. We had only suc- 
 ceeded in getting a few of our pieces through 
 when we suddenly made an important discovery. 
 A search party had been in the cave during 
 the time that we Avere weather-bound, and in 
 our provision cranny I found the hamper of 
 sandwiches and the flask of brandy. I recog- 
 nised at once Mr. Watkins' flask. The sand- 
 wiches, some of ham and some of beef, were very 
 welcome, though the bread was rather stale. 
 The brandy, too though neither of us cared in 
 the least for strong drink was, in our present 
 exhausted condition, very welcome. In short, we 
 ate, drank, and were merry that night. We sang 
 songs, too, making the echoes ring. We 
 certainly did not drink too much brandy and 
 water, at least I hope not. It was the near 
 approach of liberty which made us so festive, 
 though, no doubt, the strong drink to which 
 we were almost quite unaccustomed somewhat 
 
HOME AGAIN. 271 
 
 contributed. Jack had not smoked since I 
 joined him. He had about an inch of Limerick 
 twist still left, which he often brought out and 
 gazed at affectionately, but did not use. He 
 said he was reserving it till some time when he 
 might really need the stimulus of tobacco. I 
 was a non-smoker myself then. Would that I 
 could say the same now ! Indeed, I have a 
 wretched pipe in my mouth as I write these 
 lines. 
 
 We spent most of the next day in the 
 second cave cutting three additional lengths 
 from the beam, for we found that we had not 
 enough. This is the explanation of the curious 
 game of hide and seek which we seemed to be 
 playing with Mr. Watkins and his men. Mr. 
 Watkins was a dear good fellow, but by no 
 means a Sherlock Holmes. 
 
 We rose early next morning and breakfasted 
 in high spirits. This day we said that we 
 would be free. We got the rest of our pieces 
 through the tunnel, and rolled or carried all 
 of them to Curry's Window. There, on the 
 
272 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 highest of the boulder stones which we had 
 already heaped, we set up one of our big 
 logs, making it quite firm about the base by 
 the insertion, and even the ramming home, 
 of sea-weed between the timber and the under- 
 lying boulders, in order to make the pedi- 
 ment perfectly level, hard, and secure. We had 
 to be cautious, for if afterwards our ladder 
 might happen to topple over, the fall would be 
 fatal. Upon the top of this first log we put a 
 second in such a manner that a man might step 
 from the first to the second. This was effected 
 by inserting sea-weed behind the first log, 
 causing it to stand out from the rocky incline to 
 the distance of three-quarters of a foot or so. 
 The base of the second log touched the rock, 
 but its top we caused to stand out by means of 
 seaweed rammed in behind it. In this way we 
 proposed to make our ladder, or rather our 
 stairs. When completed we hoped to be able to 
 step up to Curry's Window almost as easily as 
 one might go upstairs in a house. The necessity, 
 to which I have already referred, of making the 
 
HOME AGAIN. 273 
 
 ends of these blocks quite smooth and level, can 
 be now perceived. Each log had to rest evenly 
 on the head of the one below it. When our 
 stairs had reached a certain height Jack went 
 up, and I handed him the smaller blocks, which 
 he proceeded to manipulate and adjust with 
 sea- weed in the manner which I have described. 
 It was a little after two when our stairs' were 
 completed. Then, with a cheer which awoke a 
 thousand rumbling echoes through the vast 
 cavern, we hastened back to the Seal's Pool, and 
 joyfully broiled our last dinner. Then we 
 unloosed Scamp and bade a final farewell to all 
 the seals. Indeed, I myself felt a sort of regret 
 at parting with them, though my acquaintance 
 with the gentle and affectionate creatures was so 
 
 recent, but Jack fairly ; well it is no matter. 
 
 In fine ; we bade farewell to the seals, and 
 putting up the few things we had to bring with 
 us, and the butt ends of our fishing rods in 
 order to steady us in our return along the face 
 of the cliff, ascended the stairs congratulating 
 each other on the excellence of our handiwork 
 
274 LOST ON DU-GORRIG. 
 
 and together stood in Curry's Window, contem- 
 plating the great sea which, at the moment, was 
 flashing in the bright December sunlight. 
 Jack's face, though it had blenched a good deal, 
 was now literally as bright as the sunlit sea. 
 We made our way carefully along the little ledge. 
 Indeed, I may as well say that / went care- 
 fully, for Jack, who had now been for half a year 
 stepping about amongst the boulders of the cave, 
 was as sure-footed as a goat. In due time we 
 came to that yawning cleft which, ever since the 
 days of old Curry the smuggler, had repelled 
 men from even attempting to traverse this cliff. 
 Jack sprang across without a moment's hesitation. 
 It was a big leap, indeed ; but the leap back was 
 not so appalling as the leap forward, for there 
 was plenty of foothold upon the Du-Corrig side 
 of the chasm. As we drew nigh to Melody's 
 cabin, that worthy, who had been released from 
 gaol, issued huge in the little doorway, and 
 behind him his young hopeful, that illustrious 
 young scholar Dannie. Big Melody, who, I 
 thought, was devoid of all amiable human 
 
WE STOOD IN CUBBY'S WINDOW" (p. 274). 
 
2*2 
 
HOME AGAIN. 275 
 
 instincts, actually lifted up his voice and wept 
 like a scriptural character, and the illustrious 
 Dannie ran off to the village roaring like a little 
 bull : " Masther Jack is found ! the two of them 
 is found ! " All the village people and a great 
 many of the country people, who had heen 
 celebrating the eve of the great festival in 
 the public-house, Johnnie Melville's, if that 
 is any matter, ran to meet us, so that it was at 
 the head of a great procession that we reached 
 the Rectory. Needless to say that my father, 
 though strongly averse to such practices, made 
 no objection when Jack proposed to send to 
 Johnnie Melville's for a barrel of porter. It 
 was broached on the lawn under torch-light, and 
 there emptied. As everyone was teasing us 
 about our place of concealment, Jack announced 
 that he would make a speech and tell them all 
 together about our adventures. Accordingly, as 
 soon as he had changed his clothes those in 
 which he had returned were mere rags he 
 mounted a chair on the lawn and told them the 
 whole story as shortly as he could. When he 
 s 2 
 
276 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 had finished, my father addressed the people, and 
 ended with a prayer, at which all the people 
 though, perhaps, in anything but a prayerful 
 humour reverently bared their heads. Most of 
 them were Eoman Catholics, but this was in the 
 pre-Disestablishment days, when the relations 
 between Protestant clergymen and their Eoman 
 Catholic parishioners were less strained and 
 strange than I have been informed they are 
 now. 
 
277 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 JOHN FREEMAN CONCLUDES THE STORY. A GOOD 
 
 TREASURE-TROVE AND A MORAL. 
 
 MY story is nearly ended. Next day Ned and 
 Mr. Watkins and myself descended into the 
 Devil's Parlour. We took with us a rock-drill, 
 blasting-powder, a fuse, and a portmanteau.. 
 The reader will probably guess our purpose. It 
 was to break open the tomb of old Curry and 
 appropriate his treasures. I may have had 
 some fear of the ghost, but not enough 
 to prevent me from rifling his tomb. We 
 bored, charged, and blasted into fragments 
 the big stone which debarred entrance to the 
 little nook where his ashes lay, thereby 
 destroying as I have been since told what 
 was perhaps an important archaeological relic. 
 The fragments, however, are no doubt there 
 
278 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 still, waiting for the Eoyal Irish Academy 
 or some other learned body to appropriate 
 them. 
 
 Bushing back as soon as the explosion was 
 over, we discovered by the light of our candles, 
 behind the place where the slab stood, a broken 
 earthen pot and a great quantity of ashes and 
 charred bones. Mingled with these we only 
 found some pieces of metal a few of gold, but 
 the greater part of silver and bronze, all much 
 defaced and injured, seemingly by the action of 
 fire. But on each side of the heap of bones, 
 ashes, and metal-work, we found also two 
 smaller vases unbroken and filled, each of them 
 to the brim, with many rings of gold. There was 
 a fourth, broken too, but which evidently had 
 been charged in the same manner, for the rings 
 lay about in a heap mingled with sherds. This 
 crock was placed opposite the pot containing the 
 ashes. The rock behind these four pots had been 
 planed or chiselled to a flat surface, and upon 
 this were certain marks, but nothing in the 
 nature of writing only circles, spiral lines, and 
 
TREASURE-TROVE AND A MORAL. 279 
 
 little cup-shaped hollows. All the gold and 
 metal work we tumbled into the portmanteau, 
 locked it, and brought up our treasures. We 
 had come down, of course, by the cleft called 
 the Devil's Parlour. My seals were not 
 visible this day. Before leaving the cave 
 on Christmas Eve I had released Scamp and 
 given him a final kiss. How long my seals 
 continued to haunt the cave I cannot tell. 
 They forgot me, I daresay, sooner than I could 
 forget them. Though it is now many years 
 since the occurrences which I have described, 
 I believe I would rather shoot a man than a 
 seal. 
 
 I sold most of my treasure-trove in Dublin 
 in the ensuing February. After giving Ned a 
 present out of the proceeds, I had exactly 
 1,155 15s. over, which I straightway banked. 
 I never finished my college course. In the 
 following summer, yielding to the solicitations 
 of a maternal uncle, I sailed for Australia. I 
 ain now a sheep-farmer in the county of I^ew 
 Hampshire, Victoria, and though I cannot say 
 
280 LOST ON DU-OORRIG. 
 
 that I have " cattle on a thousand hills/ 3 I 
 have many thousands of sheep on plains. My 
 dear brother Ned joined me in the succeeding 
 summer. He was doing well as a sheep-master, 
 but tired of the life. He is now a journalist 
 in Western Australia, and so far as I can judge 
 for the paper which he both owns and edits 
 comes to me regularly writes very well indeed. 
 From certain signs and tokens I believe that the 
 poetry which adorns it is his own. Little 
 Charley, though he threatened at one time to 
 join the Church of Kome, is now, I am glad 
 to say, a Low Church clergyman and rector of 
 the parish of Hugminton, in the shire of Essex, 
 and maintains manfully in those parts the sound 
 doctrine of salvation by faith only. With regard 
 to the apparition, I have to add the following. 
 Some of the more interesting metal-work I 
 showed to a college chum. He told me that 
 he had a friend who was well up in antiquities, 
 and who would be able to tell us all about 
 it. This friend's name was Hennessey I for- 
 
TREASURE-TROVE AND A MORAL. 281 
 
 get bis Christian name a gentleman who, I 
 understand, has since distinguished himself 
 in that department of scholarship, and 
 now occupies a position of trust under the 
 Government.* 
 
 Mr. Hennessey referred the metal-work to 
 some century which I forget. He said, I re- 
 member, that its characteristics were more 
 Scandinavian than Irish, and that their partial 
 defacement was due to the fact that they had 
 been cast upon the funeral pyre of the person 
 in whose tomb they were found. As I had 
 told Mr. Hennessey nothing about how and 
 where I found them, I was greatly struck by 
 his penetration. Afterwards I told him the 
 whole story of my immurement in the cavern, 
 with the leading parts of which he was gener- 
 ally acquainted, for it was a common theme of 
 conversation at the time. A pretty full account 
 
 * William Hennessey, a distinguished Gaelic scholar. 
 Translator of " The Annals of Loch Ce " and of the 
 " Annals of Ulster." Died a few years since. ED. 
 
282 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 had appeared not long before in the fiaunclers 
 Newsletter. When I came to describe the 
 personal appearance and dress of the ghost he 
 was greatly surprised and interested, and told 
 me that the dress was that of an antique Irish 
 warrior. He took from a drawer a certain Irish 
 manuscript and read out for me, translating as 
 he went along, three or four passages in which 
 the appearance and the costume of ancient Irish 
 warriors was described descriptions which quite 
 supported his view. He said that the metal 
 which I have described as being like gold, but 
 brighter, was amalgam of tin, brass, and copper, 
 a species of bronze, the secret of whose manu- 
 facture has since been lost, and that the eyes 
 in the ghost's brooch which looked like glass, 
 but were not so bright as glass, were probably 
 of that substance which in Ireland is called 
 " Kerry Diamond." 
 
 He was very much impressed by the whole 
 of my story about the ghost, and so far from 
 treating it lightly, was very serious indeed, and 
 
TREASURE-TROVE AND A MORAL. 283 
 
 said many times that it was " marvellous." 
 And marvellous indeed it was, be the explan- 
 ation what it may. 
 
 When I spoke of Curry's Window he 
 stopped me and asked whether I was sure 
 that the fisherman had pronounced the 
 word as I had pronounced it. "A great 
 deal," he said, "in investigating antiquities 
 and the significance of names depends on 
 the exact pronunciation." I said that he 
 had not, and that it was for convenience 
 sake I had pronounced it so, that the fisher- 
 man had pronounced it something like 
 " Cooree." He seemed greatly pleased and 
 interested in this. 
 
 He told me then that this was the name of 
 the sea-god of the southern and western Irish 
 in the pre-Christian ages, and that in the 
 still extant Gaelic literature there was a large 
 variety of stories relating to this being. After 
 the introduction and spread of Christianity in 
 the country, the Pagan deities, he said, began 
 
284 LOST ON DU-CORRIG. 
 
 to be regarded as evil beings, usually as Blasts 
 or great water serpents. 
 
 This seems probable, and will help to explain 
 the singular story told to Mr. Watkins by one of 
 the islanders, which story, as my editor informs 
 me, he has taken from the correspondence of 
 that gentleman and intends to publish along 
 with my narrative. 
 
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 Notable Shipwrecks. Rev 'sed and Enlarged Editio i. is. Illustrated 
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 Two Old Ladies, Two Foolish Fairies, and a Tom Cat. The Surpris- 
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 Lost Among White Africans. L'w 
 
 David Ker. 
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 No. XIII.; or, The Story of 
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 By Fire and Sword: A Story of 
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 Adam Hepburn's Vow: A Tale of 
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 Through Trial to Triumph. By 
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 Dumb Friends. 
 
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 Cassell's Shilling Story Books. All Illustrated, and containing Interest- 
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 H Maxwell. 
 
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 S. A. Swaine. 
 Sir Henry Havelock and Colin 
 
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 ?andel. By Eliza Clarke. [Swaine. 
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 Edward S. Effis. 
 
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 Jack Marston's Anchor. 
 
 By Popular Authors. With Fout 
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 Frank's Life -Battle; or. The 
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 Uncle William's Charges; or, The 
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 Tim Thomson's Trial. 
 Weatherly 
 
 Ruth's Life-Work. 
 Joseph Johqson. 
 
 By George 
 By the Rey 
 
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 Mr. Burke's Nieces. 
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 The Children of" the Court 
 Peggy, ana other Tales. 
 
 The Four Cats of the Tippertona. 
 Little Folks' Sunday Book. 
 Poor Nelly 
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 Books by Edward S. Ellis. Illustrated. Cloth, 2s. 6d. each. 
 
 In Red Indian Trails. 
 
 Uncrowning a King. 
 
 Two Boys in Wyomirg 
 
 Klondike Nuggets 
 
 Scouts and Comrades: or 
 
 Tecumseh, Chief of the 
 
 Shawar;oes. 
 Cowmen ana .Hustlers. 
 A Strange Crafc and its 
 
 Wonderful Voyagas. 
 Poniiac, Cuiet of the ottawas. 
 In the Days of the P.oneers. 
 Shod with Silence. 
 The Phantom of the River. 
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 Ned in the Woods. A Tale of 
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 Down the Mississippi. 
 
 ISed on the River. A Tale o! 
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 The Last War Trail. 
 
 Footprints in tlie Forest. 
 
 The Rubber Huntei s (formerly 
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 Ned in the BJOCK House. A 
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 The Lost Trail. 
 
 Camp-Fire and Wigwam. 
 
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 Tad; or, "Getting Even" with 
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 Illustrated throughout. Cheap Edition. 
 
 AH the Russias. 
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 Heroes of the Indian Empire. 
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 At the South Pole. 
 
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 edges, 5s. 
 The Sunday Scrap Book. With 
 
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 Albums for Children. 35. 6d. each. 
 
 The Album for Home, School, 
 and Play. Containing Stories 
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 My Own Album of Animals. 
 
 Picture Album ol All So. ts. \Vith 
 
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 The (Jhit-Chat Album. Illustrated 
 
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 Casseil & Company's Complete Catalogue -will be sent post 
 
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810306 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY