CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
AN UNWELCOME RECOGNITION.
"It arn't bad," said Jem; "but it's puzzling."
"What is?" said Don, who was partaking of broiled fish with no littleappetite.
"Why, how savages like these here should know all about cooking."
The breakfast was eaten with an admiring circle of spectators at hand,while Ngati kept on going from Don to his tribesmen and back again,patting the lad's shoulder, and seeming to play the part of showman withno little satisfaction to himself, but with the effect of making Jemwroth.
"It's all very well, Mas' Don," he said, with his mouth full; "but if hecomes and says `my pakeha' to me, I shall throw something at him."
"Oh, it's all kindly meant, Jem."
"Oh, is it? I don't know so much about that. If it is, why don't theygive us back our clothes? Suppose any of our fellows was to see us likethis?"
"I hope none of our fellows will see us, Jem."
"Tomati Paroni! Tomati Paroni!" shouted several of the men in chorus.
"Hark at 'em!" cried Jem scornfully. "What does that mean?"
The explanation was given directly, for the tattooed Englishmen camerunning up to the _whare_.
"Boats coming from the ship to search for you," he said quickly, andthen turned to Ngati and spoke a few words with the result that thechief rushed at the escaped pair, and signed to them to rise.
"Yes," said the Englishman, "you had better go with him and hide for abit. We'll let you know when they are gone."
"Tell them to give us our clothes," said Jem sourly.
"Yes, of course. They would tell tales," said the Englishman; and heturned again to Ngati, who sent two men out of the _whare_ to returndirectly with the dried garments.
Ngati signed to them to follow, and he led them, by a faintly markedtrack, in and out among the trees and the cleared patches which formedthe natives' gardens, and all the while carefully avoiding any openingsthrough which the harbour could be seen.
Every now and then he turned to speak volubly, but though heinterpolated a few English words, his meaning would have beenincomprehensible but for his gestures and the warnings nature keptgiving of danger.
For every here and there, as they wound in and out among the trees, theycame upon soft, boggy places, where the ground was hot; and as thepressure of the foot sent hissing forth a jet of steam, it was evidentthat a step to right or left of the narrow track meant being plungedinto a pool of heated mud of unknown depth.
In other places the hot mud bubbled up in rounded pools, spitting,hissing, and bursting with faint cracks that were terribly suggestive ofdanger.
Over these heated spots the fertility and growth of the plants wasastounding. They seemed to be shooting up out of a natural hothouse,but where to attempt to pass them meant a terrible and instant death.
"Look out, Mas' Don! This here's what I once heard a clown say, `It'sdangerous to be safe.' I say, figgerhead, arn't there no other way?"
"Ship! Men! Catchee, catchee," said Ngati, in a whisper.
"Hear that, Mas' Don? Any one'd think we was babbies. Ketchy, ketchy,indeed! You ask him if there arn't no other way. I don't like walkingin a place that's like so much hot soup."
"Be quiet, and follow. Hist! Hark!"
Don stopped short, for, from a distance, came a faint hail, followed byanother nearer, which seemed to be in answer.
"They're arter us, sir, and if we're to be ketched I don't mean to beketched like this."
"What are you going to do, Jem?"
"Do?" said Jem, unrolling his bundled-up clothes, and preparing to sitdown, "make myself look like an ornery Chrishtun."
"Don't sit down there, Jem!" cried Don, as Ngati gave a warning cry atthe same moment, and started back.
But they were too late, for Jem had chosen a delicately green mossy andferny patch, and plumped himself down, to utter a cry of horror, andsnatch at the extended hands. For the green ferny patch was a thincovering over a noisome hole full of black boiling mud, into which thepoor fellow was settling as he was dragged out.
"Fah!" ejaculated Jem, pinching his nose. "Here, I've had 'most enougho' this place. Nice sort o' spot this would be to turn a donkey out tograze. Why, you wouldn't find nothing but the tips of his earsto-morrow morning."
Another hail rang out, and was answered in two places.
"I say, Mas' Don, they're hunting for us, and we shall have to run."
He made signs to the chief indicative of a desire to run, but Ngatishook his head, and pointed onward.
They followed on, listening to the shouts, which came nearer, till Ngatisuddenly took a sharp turn round a great buttress of lava, and entered awild, narrow, forbidding-looking chasm, where on either side the black,jagged masses of rock were piled up several hundred feet, and madeglorious by streams which coursed among the delicately green ferns.
"Look's damp," said Jem, as Ngati led them on for about fifty yards, andthen began to climb, his companions following him, till he reached ashelf about a hundred feet up, and beckoned to them to come.
"Does he think this here's the rigging of a ship, and want us to setsail?" grumbled Jem. "Here, I say, what's the good of our comingthere?"
The chief stamped his foot, and made an imperious gesture, which broughtthem to his side.
He pointed to a hole in the face of the precipice, and signed to them togo in.
"Men--boat," he said, pointing, and then clapping his hand to his ear asa distant hail came like a whisper up the gully, which was almost atright angles to the beach.
"He wants us to hide here, Jem," said Don; and he went up to theentrance and looked in. A hot, steamy breath of air came like a puffinto his face, and a strange low moaning noise fell upon his ear,followed by a faint whistle, that was strongly suggestive of some onebeing already in hiding.
"I suppose that's where they keeps their coals, Mas' Don," said Jem."So we've got to hide in the coal-cellar. Why not start off and run?"
"We should be seen," said Don anxiously. "Don't let us do anythingrash."
"But p'r'aps it's rash to go in there, my lad. How do we know it isn'ta trap, or that it's safe to go in?"
"We must trust our hosts, Jem," replied Don. "They have behaved verywell to us so far."
There was another hail from the party ashore, and still Jem hesitated.
"I don't know but what we might walk straight away, Mas' Don," he said,glancing down at the garb he wore. "If any of our fellows saw us at adistance they'd say we was savages, and take no notice."
"Not of our white faces, Jem? Come, don't be obstinate; I'm going on."
"Oh, well, sir, if you go on, o' course I must follow, and look arteryou; but I don't like it. The place looks treacherous. Ugh! Wurra!Wurra! Wurra!"
That repeated word represents most nearly the shudder given by JemWimble as he followed Don into the cave, the chief pointing for them togo farther in, and then dropping rapidly down from point to point tillhe was at the bottom, Jem peering over the edge of the shelf, andwatching him till he had disappeared.
"Arn't gone to tell them where we are, have he, Mas' Don?"
"No, Jem. How suspicious you are!"
"Ah, so'll you be when you get as old as I am," said Jem, creeping backto where Don was standing, looking inward. "Well, what sort of a placeis it, Mas' Don?"
"I can't see in far, but the cavern seems to go right in, like a longcrooked passage."
"Crooked enough, and long enough," grumbled Jem. "Hark!"
Don listened, and heard a faint hail.
"They're coming along searching for us, I suppose."
"I didn't mean that sound; I meant this. There, listen again."
Don took a step into the cave, but went no farther, for Jem gripped hisarm.
"Take care, my lad. 'Tarn't safe. Hear that noise?"
"Yes; it is like some animal breathing hard."
"And we've got no pistols nor cutlashes. It's a lion, I know."
> "There are no lions here, Jem."
"Arn't there? Then it's a tiger. I know un. I've seen 'em. Hark!"
"But there are no tigers, nor any other fierce beasts here, Jem."
"Now, how can you be so obstinate, Mas' Don, when you can hear 'emwhistling, and sighing and breathing hard right in yonder. No, no, nota step farther do you go."
"Don't be so foolish, Jem."
"'Tarn't foolish, Mas' Don; and look here: I'm going to take advantageof them being asleep to put on my proper costoom, and if you'll take myadvice, you'll do just the same."
Don hesitated, but Jem took advantage of a handy seat-like piece ofrock, and altered his dress rapidly, an example that, after a moment ortwo of hesitation, Don followed.
"Dry as a bone," said Jem. "Come, that's better. I feels like a humanbeing now. Just before I felt like a chap outside one of the shows atour fair."
He doubled up the blanket he had been wearing, and threw it over hisarm; while Don folded his, and laid it down, so that he could peer overthe edge of the shelf, and command the entrance to the ravine.
But all was perfectly silent and deserted, and, after waiting some time,he rose, and went a little way inside the cavern.
"Don't! Don't be so precious rash, Mas' Don," cried Jem pettishly, as,urged on by his curiosity, Don went slowly, step by step, toward whatseemed to be a dark blue veil of mist, which shut off farther view intothe cave.
"I don't think there's anything to mind, or they wouldn't have told usto hide here."
"But you don't know, my lad. There may be dangerous wild critters inthere as you never heard tell on. Graffems, and dragons, and beastswith stings in their tails--cockatoos."
"Nonsense! Cockatrices," said Don laughing.
"Well, it's all the same. Now, do be advised, Mas' Don, and stop here."
"But I want to know what it's like farther in."
Don went slowly forward into the dim mist, and Jem followed, murmuringbitterly at his being so rash.
"Mind!" he cried suddenly, as a louder whistle than ordinary came fromthe depths of the cave, and the sound was so weird and strange that Donstopped short.
The noise was not repeated, but the peculiar hissing went on, and, as iffrom a great distance, there came gurglings and rushing sounds, as iffrom water.
"I know we shall get in somewhere, and not get out again, Mas' Don.There now, hark at that!"
"It's only hot water, the same as we heard gurgling in our bath," saidDon, still progressing.
"Well, suppose it is. The more reason for your not going. P'r'aps thisis where it comes from first, and nice place it must be where all thatwater's made hot. Let's go back, and wait close at the front."
"No; let's go a little farther, Jem."
"Why, I'm so hot now, my lad, I feel as if I was being steamed like atater. Here, let's get back, and--"
"Hist!"
Don caught his arm, for there was another whistle, and not from thedepths of the dark steamy cave, but from outside, evidently below themouth of the cave, as if some one was climbing up.
The whistle was answered, and the two fugitives crept back a little moreinto the darkness.
"Ahoy! Come up here, sir!" shouted a familiar voice, and a hail cameback.
"Here's a hole in the rocks up here," came plainly now.
"Ramsden," whispered Don in Jem's ear.
They stole back a little more into the gloom, Jem offering no oppositionnow, for it seemed to them, so plainly could they see the brightgreenish-hued daylight, and the configuration of the cavern's mouth,that so sure as any one climbed up to the shelf and looked in they wouldbe seen.
Impressed by this, Don whispered to Jem to come farther in, and theywere about to back farther, when there was a rustling sound, and thefigure of a man appeared standing up perfectly black against the light;but though his features were not visible, they knew him by hisconfiguration, and that their guess at the voice was right.
"He sees us," thought Don, and he stood as if turned to stone, one handtouching the warm rocky side of the cave, and the other resting uponJem's shoulder.
The man was motionless as they, and his appearance exercised an effectupon them like fascination, as he stood peering forward, and seeming tofix them with his eyes, which had the stronger fancied effect upon themfor not being seen.
"Wonder whether it would kill a man to hit him straight in the chest,and drive him off that rock down into the gully below," said Jem tohimself. "I should like to do it."
Then he shrank back as if he had been struck, for the sinister scoundrelshouted loudly,--
"Ahoy there! Now, then out you come. I can see you hiding."