Upsidonia

Upsidonia.

by Archibald Marshall.

CHAPTER I

I had been walking for many days, carrying my pack, enjoying myself hugely and spending next to nothing. I had got into a wild hilly country, where habitation was very spa.r.s.e, and had walked for hours that morning along a rough road without meeting a single human being.

In the middle of the day I came to a moor-side hamlet, where I got something of a meal, and set out again almost immediately, meaning to find some place where I could enjoy an hour"s sleep. For it was very hot, and I had already walked over twenty miles.

But as I left the village, I was joined by a gentleman of obliging manners but somewhat unkempt appearance, who invited me to turn aside and visit the old jet caves, which had once been famous in this locality, though long since disused.

For anything but a cave, I should have done my best to shake him off, but I have a great love of caves, especially of those which go mysteriously back into the bowels of the earth, and no one knows their ending. They are full of romance, and call up all sorts of delightful visions. From Eastern tales of magic and treasure to brisk tales of smugglers, the entrance to a cave has always been the entrance to regions of mystery, in which anything may happen. So I immediately accepted the invitation to visit these caves, which were only a few hundred yards away from the main road.

At first sight they were a trifle disappointing. There were three of them, at the foot of a high bank of shale, almost hidden by trees and shrubs. The shale had nearly closed the entrances, and one looked over a bank of it, which left a hole hardly more than big enough to creep through. Still, they were undoubtedly caves, and not mere holes in the hillside. The largest one was full of water, and little ferns grew luxuriantly on the sides and roof, which dripped continuously. One of the others was choked by a fall of earth a little way from the entrance, and my guide told me that this had happened quite recently, after a very wet spell. The third was comparatively dry, and he said that he had himself penetrated more than a mile into it, with no signs of its ending.

Whether this was true or not, I could not resist trying it. I had an electric torch, fully charged, in my pack, and it was a great chance to have a cave to explore with it. My friend demurred a little at accompanying me. He said that if the other cave had fallen in, after so many years, this one was not unlikely to fall in now at any time, and we should find ourselves in an awkward fix if it should fall in while we were exploring, and cut off our retreat. I had no wish for his company, and did not press him; but when I got out the torch, and flashed it, he thought he would come after all. I think he had at heart the same sort of feeling about caves and electric torches that I had.

We got over the mound on to the muddy floor of the cave. The roof was high enough to enable us to walk upright, and we went forward singly, straight ahead into the darkness.

We had got in perhaps thirty or forty yards, and I had just switched on the torch, when a stone or something fell in front of us with a noisy plump. My companion clutched me by the arm. "I believe there"s going to be a fall," he said.

I shook him off and continued, and again something fell, that made still more noise. "Come back!" he shouted. "Come back!"

I turned round to see him running towards the patch of sunlight, and then there was a load roar in my ears, which, however, instantly became dead silence.

For a moment I was confused, but went on, forgetting all about my late companion. When I turned round again he had disappeared, and the patch of sunlight also. So I continued on my way, and seemed to be always mounting upwards, with the ground quite dry, and the roof of the cave still some way above my head.

I had certainly now walked a mile when, to my surprise, I saw a point of light in front of me, which increased as I approached it, and presently showed itself as a wide opening.

I came out into a place much like that at which I had entered, except that it was still more masked by shrubs, and found myself in the clearing of a wood. It seemed to me that I had come quite straight along the underground pa.s.sage, so that I must be on the way in which I intended to go. The cave, as a cave, had been disappointing, and there was nothing to be gained by going back. I would take my nap, and then find the road again.

I looked about for a place to lie down in, and as I did so saw a very ragged dirty man coming towards me.

I was rather annoyed at this. Having shaken off one uninvited companion, I did not want to be troubled with another.

There was something rather striking about his face, in spite of his unkempt hair and beard--a look of self-possession, even of pride, and, as he kept his eyes on me approaching him, almost of arrogance.

However, he was poor enough, to all appearances, and I thought that if I gave him some money he would probably want to go away at once and spend it. So I accosted him cheerfully and offered him a sixpence.

I had made no mistake about his arrogance. He drew himself up, and his eyes flashed at me.

"How dare you?" he began. "I will----"; and he looked round as if to summon someone to aid him in resenting an insult.

"Oh, all right," I said, pocketing the coin; "if you are as proud as all that----! But I meant no harm, and I"m almost as poor as you are."

"The more shame to you for behaving like that," he said hotly. "I could forgive it, perhaps, in one who was richer. I will not take your money; and if you use your superior strength to force it on me, I warn you that you will not hear the last of it."

I felt sorry for the poor creature. I took the sixpence out of my pocket again, and held it out to him.

"Come now, take it," I said. "Go and get yourself a good meal, or a drink if you like. You look as if it wouldn"t do you any harm."

He was still more enraged. "You impudent scoundrel!" he cried. "I"ll have you arrested for this." And he stalked off with his head in the air, wrapping his rags around him.

He looked such an absurd figure that I sent an involuntary laugh after him, which caused him to turn round and shake his fist at me. I had not meant him to hear, for I was sorry for him; but I reflected before I had chosen my mossy resting-place under a spreading oak, that with so great a contempt for money and what money represented in the way of bodily comfort, he was not so much in want of pity as he seemed to be. Then I took off my knapsack, and pillowing my head upon it was soon in a deep sleep.

As, after a long time, I began to regain consciousness, I became aware of a touch on my body about the region of my waist. It could only have been a second or two before the actuality disengaged itself from the stuff of my dreams, and I suddenly awoke, and sprang up into a sitting posture, to see a figure disappearing among the trees. Feeling in my waistcoat pocket, I found that my watch had disappeared.

I jumped up, and seizing my knapsack in one hand and my stout walking-stick in the other, gave chase.

I had not very far to go. When I got round the tree behind which the thief had disappeared, I saw to my surprise that he was an elderly, if not an old man, dressed in a frock coat and a tall hat. He was stout, and appeared to be grossly fed, for as I came up to him he turned and put up his hands to warn me off--my watch was in one of them; but he was so winded by his few yards" run that he was not able to speak. In his mouth was a large and expensive-smelling cigar, and he formed the oddest figure of a watch-s.n.a.t.c.her that could well be imagined.

I seized my watch out of his hand, and he found breath enough to bleat out: "What are you doing? They"re after you. Give me all your money quickly, before they come."

"You old rascal!" I cried, and was going on to give him a piece of my mind, when my attention was distracted by a hullabaloo from the road, which was only a few yards off, and from which we could be plainly seen.

"There"s the rascal! That"s him!" I heard shouted, and saw a considerable concourse of people advancing towards me, headed by a policeman, and the ragged man to whom I had tendered the coin.

The presence of a policeman in that, as I had thought, lonely spot, was a better piece of fortune than I could have hoped for. "Yes, here he is," I said. "He stole my watch while I was asleep, and ran off with it.

Constable, I give him in charge."

The policeman had leapt the ditch which divided the wood from the road, and now came straight towards me with a look of determination on his face.

"Take him!" shouted the ragged man; and, to my utter astonishment, he seized me by the collar, and said: "Now you come along with me quietly, or it will be the worse for you."

I shook him off roughly. I was young and strong, and he was neither.

"What are you doing?" I asked angrily. "Here"s the thief! Take hold of him."

The fat man turned away with a shrug of the shoulders. "I wash my hands of it," he said. "You can do what you like with him."

I was so infuriated with his impudence that I made a dash for him. But the policeman was on me again, and with him several others from the crowd. In spite of my struggles I was soon overpowered.

"Are you all mad?" I cried. "There"s the thief! Why don"t you take him?

I"ve done nothing."

They paid not the slightest attention to my protestations. The ragged man had taken no part in my capture, but stood aside, and directed the others with an air of authority. This was the more remarkable, because the greater part of them were not like the ordinary crowd that follows the police on an errand of duty, but were well-dressed, and had all the air of being well-to-do or even rich.

I appealed to them. "Do give a fellow a chance," I said. "I"m on a walking-tour, and I dare say I look like a tramp. But I"m quite respectable."

They cut me short by dragging me towards the road, where a smart Victoria was standing, at a point towards which other carriages were now driving.

The policeman said: "You"re charged with trying to force money on this gentleman; and I warn you that anything you now say will be used in evidence against you."

I saw it was no use protesting further. I was either asleep and dreaming, in which case I should presently awake; or I was in the hands of a set of lunatics, and must wait until I got again into the company of sensible men.

But it annoyed me to see the smug old thief retiring with all the honours of war, while I was being led off in ignominious captivity. He was actually now stepping into the Victoria, and the c.o.c.kaded coachman on the box was touching his hat to him.