The Lost Middy Part 50

The account took some time, for the prisoner's interest seemed to increase with what he learned, and his questions succeeded one another pretty quickly, with the result that in his explanations Aleck had to include a good deal of his own personal life, after which he did not scruple to ask his companion a little about his own on board s.h.i.+p.

"I say," said Aleck, at last, "isn't it droll?"

"Droll!" groaned the mids.h.i.+pman. "What, being shut up here?"

"No, no; our meeting as we did in Rockabie harbour, and what took place with the boys. I never expected to see you again, and now here have I found you out, a prisoner, chained by the leg, and in ever so short a time you and I have grown to be quite friends."

"Yes," said the mids.h.i.+pman, drawing a deep breath. "I didn't like you the first time we met."

"And I didn't like you," said Aleck, laughing. "I thought you were stuck-up and consequential. I say, I wish Tom Bodger were here!"

"What, that wooden-legged rase sailor?"

"Yes."

"What good could he do--a cripple like that?"

"Cripple! Oh, I never thought of him as a cripple. He's as clever as clever. There isn't anything he won't try to do. I was thinking that if he were here he'd be scheming some plan or another to get rid of the chain about your leg."

"Hah!" sighed the mids.h.i.+pman, "but he isn't here. I say!"

"Well?"

"Hadn't you better have another candle to light--that one's nearly burned down?"

"I've got one quite ready, lying out here on the stone."

"Hah! That's right," said the prisoner. "It's so horrible to be in the dark."

"Oh, no; not when you've got company."

"But be quite ready. It might go out quickly."

"Well, if it did, I know where the flint and steel are."

"You couldn't find them in the dark."

"Oh, couldn't I? I kept an eye on everything Master Eben did."

"I say, do you think he will come back?"

"Yes; he's sure to, unless some of the cutter's men catch him and carry him off."

"Ah! and you think, then, that he wouldn't speak, out of spite, and leave us here to starve?" cried the middy, excitedly.

"No, I don't," said Aleck; "I don't think anything of the sort. Don't you be ready to take fright."

"I've been shut up in this place so long," said the middy, apologetically, "and it has made me as weak and nervous as a girl."

"Well, try not to be," said Aleck. "Look here; there's nothing like seeing the worst of things and treating them in a common-sense way.

Now, suppose such a thing did happen as that Eben Megg did not come back--what then?"

"We should be starved to death."

"No, we shouldn't, for I daresay there's a good store here of biscuits and corned beef out of some s.h.i.+p, as well as smuggled goods, that we could eat."

"Till all was finished," said the middy, sadly.

"What of that? We could get out, couldn't we? I know the way."

"Oh, yes. I had forgotten that. But was there any door to the way down--trap-door?"

"Door? No," said Aleck, laughing. "It's all the natural stone, just chipped a little here and there to make it easier."

"That's right," said the mids.h.i.+pman, sadly. "But it is a terrible place to be shut up in. Hasn't he been very long?"

"Oh, no. I daresay he'll be a long time yet. Come, cheer up. Let's watch the water there. I wish I knew what the time was. Can't we tell?

When the water looks blackest it ought to be high water. I wonder whether we shall see the arch quite cleared and the light s.h.i.+ning through. Have you noticed it?"

"Don't!" said the young sailor, rather piteously. "I know what it means--you are talking like this to keep up my spirits."

"Well, suppose I am?"

"Don't try; it only makes me more weak and miserable. You can't think of the horrors I've suffered."

"But--"

"Yes, I know what you're going to say--that I ought to have been firmer, and fought against the dread and horror, and mastered the feelings."

"Something of the sort," said Aleck.

"Well, I did at first, but I gradually got weaker and weaker, till in the darkness and silence something happened which scared me ten times more than the being here alone."

"Something happened? What?" said Aleck, wonderingly.

"I suddenly felt frightened of myself."

"I don't understand you."

"I was afraid that I was losing my senses."

"Well, then, don't be afraid like that any more, for you're not going to lose them."

"Men have lost their wits by being shut up alone," said the middy, piteously.

"Perhaps. But you're not going to, for you're not alone, and all you've got to do is to lie there patiently and wait. I say, aren't you tired?"

"Oh, horribly. I couldn't sleep for the horror I felt."