Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 39, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1907 — The Child of the Cave [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Child of the Cave

By FRANK BARRETT

CHAPTER V.— (Continued.) And now I was curious to boo more.of the deft I lifted it up. shielding it from her eyes x with my hand. She caught my arm, and shrinking to my side pointed with wild wonder at the flickering shadows caused by the moving light. I placed the candle so that she could see her own shadow on the sands. That delighted her when she recognized... what' it was. She spread her arms out, and swayed her little body from side 'to side, and then Binging her song she kept time so it with a movement of her limbs and body that resembled more the dance of a Japanese girl than any other 1 know. When she ceased to move she stood looking-at her shadow in silent wonder until, comprehension dawning upon her, she drew me across the eave. At ihe further oxlremIty there were some rough steps mdde. in the sand that led to a cavity where the aea at .high tide -filtered up..through the shingle. There was a clear pool at the present time, and going down to the edge ihe bent over and showed me her reflection in the water. I observed that there was a faint glimmer of daylight and ns I peered Tor tlie opening that admitted it she divined my object, and led me away to a point a l.ttle beyond»where an enormous slab of chalk sloping up met another that formed a vertical wall, and: creeping onwards a few steps she polityed ivpvvards.' and l -aw through a cleft high above our heads t narrow strip of blue sky. She clapped her hands with delight as she looked tip, for this tiny strip of blue was - probably the most beautiful thing" in nature she knew.

“Caw,” she said, pointing tip t 6 let me know-it was that way the jackdaw came’ down to hej. /T ~ Observing the curiosity with wh.tcn 1 examined the cave. Psyche— that is the name I instinctively gave the poor girl —drew me away to show me all the cariosities of her home. Going back to the pool in the hollow she gaye me to under stand by gestures and sounds, like the splashing of water, that there site bathed. Then, turning to the litter in the alcove, she threw herself down and closed her eyes. I nodded and snored; but slie did not understand that, though she laughed at the odd sound. She pointed round in grave admiration to the strips of colored rag with which she had adorned the wall. There was nothing vise in that cave th.it she found worthy of remark except a

quantity of old clothing useful in cold weather, as she expressed by drawing her shoulders together and clasping her - • ■■■ ■ i - kit 1* -annmd to mfl tllfljr nxtedil give some clue as to the length of tin'.'' she had been a prisoner, and, turning them over, I found a little frock of gray stuff that had clearly been made by a woman's hand. She clapped her hands and laughed on my taking this out, and holding it against her side showed that it came no higher now than her hip. She could not have been more than six or seven when she wore that. That would give her at the outside eleven or twelve years of 'imprisonment. Well, in that time she might under such conditions easily lose the faculty of speech—reason—anything. The only wonder was that she had continued to exist. Taking the frock to the alcove she pointed out some strips of colored ribbon, and some curious buttons that she had taken from the dress; and, little as 1 knew about, such matters, I perceived that no child of the common class would have such trimming on her frock. Psyche threw aside the dress impatiently, and drew me on quickly, having something better than that to show me. We passed through the opening into the timbered cave, which was far more capacious than the adjoining one. She directed my attention in passing to the table on which the dinner was set and also to a receptacle closed with a slab, where she kept her food out of the way of “Caw." and made her wav to that side of the cave where the entrance from the shore was blocked up with the debris from the fallen cliff. XJje sloping mass spread inward to a considerable distance, the lighter rubble lying on that side nearest the inner cave, and the greater blocks on the other side where the fracture seemed to have originated. Amongst these blocks, some of which were of gigautic proportions. Psyche began to thread her way. In some places it was ns much n< 1 could squeeze my body through the openings, in others we passed on bands and knees beneath poised masses that a touch might have brought down upon us. At one point she stopped, and by an expressive gesture let me know that there she had once stood in deadly peril—the expression 4n her upturned face and crouching figure indicating a mortal terror. Even with the light to guide me it, was hard to see where the foot might be set with safety-: it was simply marvelous how she could pass with iibpunity in the dark. Presently she began to scale the blocks, and we mounteu until we almost reached the roof of the cave. Seen from this p.,»tit, the cave, with the. timber Balks, nnj the shadows they cast, looked weird and terrible. Right against the roof there was a gap; through this Psyche slipped sidelong and disappeared. Coming to the gap, I cried to her in terror; she ausv-ee. ed with a laugh that seemed far away. I followed her as I best could through the narrow gap. and the next instant found myself slipping and rolling doe n an incline with no power to stop myself. Psycbe'a laughter assured me that there was do danger, but I was neurtily glad when I found myself at the bottom n a bed of soft sand. ». ■ » * My candle had gone out in th:4 hij M descent, but here there was a faint Pght that filtered its way between the blocks on the seaward side, though no nj»>nii,g was peroepllbM. T 'had matches 7n my pocket; I relit the candle. I sup;>o.te I looked particularly foolish and frightened, for Psyche continued to laugh until s,td- *

denly seized with apprehension that I bad hurt myself,' she came jjuickly to my, side ■ and, earesaed my hand with her cheek, crooning over it gentlytiike a mother over her child. . * —

CHAPTER VI. When I came to look about me I found that we were standing in a third cavern, though it was so encumbered with broken masses of the fallen cliff that its form and dimensions were'at first indistinguishable. One thing was clear; it was in this cave that the explosion had taken place. Many of the fragments W"rc on oho face black with powder. Among them were scattered in every direction staves of tubs, iron hoops, rusted vessels, kciaps of timber, iron bolts, and odds and ends of cloth and woolen garments. My foot struck against a long, seaman’s boot ;..it gave an odd rattle under the shock, and when I lifted it up two or three small _white. hones .Tell .out. They, were . tfee bones of a foot. Every step I took my foot seemed to he crunching the bones of a dead man. Presently 1 came to the spot where Psyche way anxiously waiting to show me the chef d’oeuvre of her curiosities. » She stood before a large square block of chalk, which she had arranged as a kind of altar, grouping upon it all that she had found most curious in the cave. Pistols, knives, hatchets, tobacco boxes, shells, pieces of broken "glass and- the like were massed on eaelF side, but the place of honor bet ween them was occupied by a pyramid of four skulls; in the orbits of the top pne piece of oyster shell had'been placed,. and:Ah? pearly surface reflecting ‘the light from the candle’gave it an appearance that would have been ludicrous if it had not been ghastly.

I glanced in terror at Psyche, to see what effect this grisly show had upon her. She was smiling and swaying her bead gracefully from side , to side to the low murmuring music of her own voice. Then I perceived that the poor creature must indeed have lost her reason, unless her pleasure in the face of such repulsive mementoes of mortality was due to utter ignorance of life and death. It was a kind of pagan hymn she sang. When it Was finished she drew me closer to the altar, and with a sweep of the hand drew my attention to the surface on which her relics were mounted. A fresh /surprise confronted me; the block was covered with pieces of gold laid side by side as close as they would go. I took one up, and found it was a Louis d’Or of 1705. I reckoned there were nearly a hundred of these pieces in a row, jtpd VAm'k 'cn.'-tttf, tsKt-w., represented; a-sum-of about £IO,OOO, if all the pieces "were same value. My astonishment as I held the coin in my hand being observed by Psyche, to her great delight, she led me to that end of the cave which was less affected by the explosion, and pointed to another of the gold pieces let into a hole in the wall. On the chalk below, written in rude characters with a piece of charcoal, were these words: “To Peter Beamish—French Peter and his lads leave you this for a present, as specimen of the lead, in the square chest, which you give us for our sheer out of the French Hoy. Let this be a warning to you to play fair next time you go a wreckin’!”

From this evidence it seemed to me probable that these rascals, after quarreling over the spoil takes from the French Hoy, had separated—French Peter and his party going to the caves, my greatgrandfather with his crew resting in the house above, and that the gunpowder had been accidentally fired, causing the fall of the cliff and their own annihilation in the very moment of their triumph. 1 stood lost in wonder over this last discovery. 1 did not question my right as proprietor of these caves with the land above to appropriate i’.ie fortune found upon it, and my imagination leaped at the use I might make of it to obtain the hand of Miss Dunean. That prospect intoxicated me. and for the moment it seemed as if the unholy spirit of the dead wreckers whose bones were before my eyes had taken possession of me. From this state of abstraction I was aroused by a gentle touch upon my arm. and turning my regard from the gold that had so fascinated me. I found Psyche looking into my face with troubled solicitude, unable to understand my preoccupation, and why I had forgotten her. “Heaven forgive my selfishness,” I said. "You shall be saved before I think of anything else, poor Psyche!” "Poor Psyche!“ she echi>ed, fn the same tone, with a smile that reflected my pity. . . * There was no timejo lose. Old Peter might at any moment return to Bonport and hear of his son’s accident, and the inquiries that had been made for him. 1, at least, must get up to the cottage before he arrived. • The alteration in niy manner, as the necessity for immediate action occurred to me, was perceived at once by my watchful companion, and comprehending that for some reason I wished to get back iuto the other cave quickly, she guided tne with swift steps back to the Inclined plane by which I had descended so precipitately, and showed me some notched stfps which she herself, must have cut in the chalk. With surprising agility she rkn up the slope; I scrambled laboriously after her. and she once more gave way to a light laugh at my expense as she stood at the top waiting for me. We passed through the gap'and began the descent iijto the large cave. But now I found the difficulty and danger gteatbr -than in climbing up. I made Psyche take my hand, fearing that an Inadvertent step might start a boulder from its place and roil-it down upon her; and well it was that I took this precaution, *ot before we were half way down

my weight tilted a block, and the rabbis -slipping beneath it set other boulders in motipn, and these starting others in their course the greater mass moved forward and thundered down in a perfect avalanche to the bottom. Happily the great block on which I drew Psyche back at first movement remained firm. Gradually the tumult cCased. and the cloud of dust that choked us subsided; but still at. intervals a block fell with a sudden thud upon the ground below. Psyche clang close to me, with her frail arm raised fits if to ward off anything, that might fall from above. But in this I am certain that the dear little creature was concerned less for her own protection than for mine; her upturned band was over my head, not her own, and sW kept it raised until the peril, was past. Then she jp’Oked at me, nodding gravely! and turning her arni showed me an old scar on it,, from which I concluded that this was not the first nor - theworst slip of the cliff in which she had been concerned. The track she habitually followed was now obliterated, and we had to find a new one. Rubble and dust lay thick everywhere, and one or two huge fragments had been detached from the side, but the timbers bad preserved the main body of the large cave, and the roof indeed looked safe and sound. In the lesser cave no damage whatever had been done, and there, to her great joy. Psyche found her jackdaw, who had probably hopped off from the other on the first sound of danger. And now I had to make Psyche understand that we must go up the shaft and leave the cave. She quickly comprehended that I could, go as I bad come, but sjie was utterly unable to grasp the idea that she also was to go. It. was more incomprehensible to her, who, knew no other place than that in which she lived, than the suggestion of quitting this planet for another would be to me. Indeed, such incomplete, defective explanation as I could make by signs or gestures she wag not in a condition "to understand'or ao cept, for she no sooner comprehended that I was about to go away than she burst into tears and. throwing her arms about rue, clung to me with the strenuous energy of despair. It seemed to me cruel to leave her there, even for a brief space, after such a terrifying episode at that we had just passed through; but how heartless must it have seemed to this poor creature, who believed that I was leaving her there forever 1 l waited.patiently for the paroxysm of grief to subside, quite at a loss to know how I might reassure herJß She grew gradually calmer as she found I made no farther attempt to enter the passage loading to the shaft, and smoothed my hands with her cheek and lips. Suddenly conceiving a stratagem to retain me, she darted into the inner cave and returned with her hands full of the colored ribbons torn down from the bed-place, and these she put into my hands, looking into my face with an entreating smile.

I took the rubbish and k'ssod her innocent, sweet brow; then I dre w her toward the passage. She yielded with a long fluttering sigh as if .accepting an inevitable loss. When we neared the well I sprang on to the plank and, putting my feet in the bucket and the candle between them, I beckoned her to come to me. Then at last, comprehending that she was to accompany me, she flew to my side. I out my arm around .ban ■ trted to draw t'ne rope; lout it was useless, for, light as she was, our united weight was more than I «’ould lift with one arm encumbered. After one or two trials I gave up the attempt with a shake of my head. She recognized the difficulty, and, sinking on her knees, again burst into tears. I could wait no longer; to save her I must make my own escape without delay. I drew myself up, hand over hand, with Psyche’s fading sobs ringing in my ears, until the flame of the pandle grew pale in the light from above. Suddenly the light was intercepted, and looking up I saw a face bending over me with a horrid nose and chin and two gloaming eyes under a fur cap that came down to the shaggy white eyebrows—all distinct in the light of the candle at my feet. It was my great-grandfather, Peter Beamish. He waved a jackknife over my head. "You’re gone down there, are you, you himp of Satan? Then you’re just a-going down. there for. good and all!” he shouted, and with that he gave a hack at the rope on which I hung. (To be continued.) J