Chapter XVIII: A Mysterious Happening

The barometer rose shortly and climbed up as rapidly as it had earlier fallen. In a brief time the skies had cleared and the wind settled to a steady breeze.

"It seems to me," said the professor, looking about him, "that it was a difficult thing to get in here, but to get out is going to be a more difficult one."

"It will be all right," replied the captain, "if Berwick will fix up that old tea kettle of his and give us some steam." Then addressing the engineer, "Can't you do this while we are in here?"

"Maybe I can," replied the engineer, "if there is no more of the devil's handiwork. There would not be much the matter with the machinery, if there was not somebody undoing things."

"The sailors will have few duties, now, and we will have a double watch set over the engine room," said the captain.

The distance to shore was now so short that getting back and forth was a simple task, and as security was so seemingly assured, permission was given for any outside of those on duty, to land and rove about at will.

"As we have found the island, let's find the cave," suggested Jo, as they were preparing for a trip ashore.

"Then we can go home," added Tom, who, however ready to venture forth, was even more disposed toward the home journey. Whatever desire he may have had toward early home going in this instance was destined by events he could not forecast, to be blotted out.

"There is that column of smoke again," announced Jo, as he grasped the oars. His brothers and Juarez were with him in the boat.

The others once more observed the curious signal, if such it were, but gave no special heed other than to note its distance. On land, however, they bent their footsteps in the direction of the phenomenon although they could no longer see it for a guide.

They found themselves trailing off on a route they had not before taken, and had gone perhaps half the distance which they had estimated as required, when they came upon a curious clearing in the woods. It was about forty yards in diameter, and surrounded by a complete circle of trees, their boughs interlacing about seventy feet above to form a lovely green canopy. So regular were the trees that it seemed as if they had been planted by human hands hundreds of years before.

At first they did not notice, because of the somewhat dim light, that on the far side of the amphitheatre there rose sheer a wall of rock well covered with vines, and then all of one accord and simultaneously exclaimed.

"There's a cave!"

"Hurrah, we've found it," added Tom.

"Don't go so fast," admonished Jim. "There may be more than one cave on the island."

"But the opening is high up," demurred Tom, "and it looks as if it might be hard to get into. How shall we do it?"

All thought of the column of smoke was blotted from their minds as they surveyed the task before them, so suggestive of sought-for achievement. The opening to the cave was fully forty feet above the level on which they stood. No safe foothold could be discovered on close examination of the face of the rock which rose sheer to the top, perhaps a hundred feet.

"I'll warrant there is some other entrance," suggested Jim. "Seems to me this place we are in was one time a sort of temple or auditorium, and that opening up there in the rock may have been the pulpit."

"It's sure no easy job to get up there from this level," admitted Jo. "Suppose we deploy around and hunt for the side door."

This they did, that is, Jim went one way, while Jo and Tom sought for an opening in the opposite direction, but without success.

Juarez had meantime studied the face of the vine clad rock below the mouth of the cave, and when his companions returned he undertook the ascent or climb. Mounting first on Jim's stalwart shoulders he found crevasses into which he dug his toes, and with his great knife scooped out fragments at irregular distances, thus by degrees mounting to the cave's mouth.

Once a secure footing gained, he let down his lariat, and one after the other, the boys climbed up, and all stood looking out upon the auditorium below. Surely a more beautiful green bower of exaggerated proportions could not be imagined.

But it was not scenery that had induced them to seek the cave, and at once their thoughts turned to the business at hand.

The floor of the cave was dry, and the place showed no signs of recent occupancy. It extended into the rock beyond the limit of vision.

Jim had thoughtfully gathered and sent up a bundle of fagots, some dry slow burning sticks, one of which was now lighted. The blaze cast a fitful glare upon walls that shown in places with metallic gleams.

While Jim and Juarez busied themselves near the entrance with the digging into and examination of some mounds of earth which excited their curiosity, Jo and Tom with the burning fagot penetrated deeper into the tunnel, for such it seemed to be. It presented at the start nothing out of the ordinary. It was simply as Jo put it, an enlarged burrow of irregular width and height, varying in width from six to eight feet and in height the same. The sides were of earth with here and there a stone. Whether of natural formation or an artificial construction the boys could not determine.

"Doesn't seem to be anything worth seeing in here," said Tom, who was in the lead and carrying the torch. "We might as well go back."

"Oh, go on a little further," urged Jo. "Perhaps we shall find something."

"I'll bet, if we do, it's something we don't want," objected Tom.

"Well, we needn't take it if we don't want it," retorted Jo. "Let me go ahead."

As Jo spoke, pressing forward they came to a sudden enlargement along the way, the walls receding on either side. Jo raised his torch for a better view when a grinning skull flashed out of the darkness, nodding and bobbing at them, while a rattling and whirring noise resounded through the cavern.

With a cry of astonishment, Jo let fall the torch which was quenched as it fell upon the floor, and at the same time something big and indescribable struck him full in the face.

So confused were they by the suddenness and unexpectedness of the attack, and encompassed as they were by the absolute blackness, the first thought of the boys was to run to the entrance of the cave, and this they set about to do with the greatest possible promptness.

But both boys as they started were grappled by unseen antagonists with whom they were locked in a deadly embrace, struggling and straining as they wrestled in the darkness, until Tom almost at the point of exhaustion was roused to a frenzy by the rattling of bones and the feel of a skeleton hand on his arm. With a sudden, not to be denied effort, he threw off his adversary and rushed wildly through the cave, followed by Jo, who had bested his opponent.

In the meantime, Jim and Juarez were still poking in the little mounds near the cave's mouth and wholly unconscious of the trying experience of the two explorers. The commotion and sound of rapidly moving feet aroused them, and almost immediately Jo and Tom appeared upon the scene. Somewhat breathlessly, both speaking at once, they tried to describe their uncanny experiences.

"Hold on a minute," said Jim. "Let's get the straight of this. We were just about to follow you in, for we found nothing in the little mounds. Let's know what to expect."

"I will have to go back anyway," said Jo. "I dropped my gun."

"Sure. We'll go with you," replied Jim. "Now what was it grabbed you?"

"It?" replied Tom. "I should say there were three or four of them."

"What were they like?" broke in Juarez. "Spirits?"

"Well, I don't know just what a spirit is like," replied Tom. "But it was a pretty solid kind of thing that he had hold of me."

"Me, too," added Jo. "And it snorted and puffed like a grampus."

"Well, I suppose we are lucky to get off as easy as we did," said Tom, "though I should like to know what they were. I thought the whole lot of skeletons were coming after us, but I don't believe they could do any puffing or snorting. It's time we were getting along."

"We will be ready for them this time, whatever they are," determined Jim, who had been lighting torches so that each could be supplied with one.

"Come on then," said Jo. "We must keep together and be on the lookout."

Arming themselves each with a heavy fagot which made a serviceable club, the four bent their footsteps in the direction of the chamber of weird experiences.

The silence in the cave was profound, the occupants, if any, not betraying their presence by the least sound. Cautiously the boys advanced, pausing now and then as they approached the place where the surprise had occurred, to listen and gaze as far as they could into the heavy darkness; but all was silence.

"I think they have gone," said Jo at length, in a voice in which there was a tremor of excitement.

"No, there they are," replied Tom in a whisper.

"Where?" asked Jim.

"There!" responded Tom, indicating several suspended skeletons of full length which were held against the walls, and which the light now revealed.

"Oh," said Jo, "it wasn't them."

"Well, one of them was," returned Tom, "for I felt his hand on me."

"Must have been this one, then," said Jim, kicking a group of bones with his foot. "Here is one of them lying on the floor. You must have knocked him out, Tom."

"Here, Jo, is your gun all right," interposed Juarez.