LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1681, 10 July 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A CAVE ON SALiMIS. ( Continued.) * He hss scrambled up the rooks, and he’s there still,’ shouted a voice that I recognised as that of my quondam boatman. This was repeated twice, and then an explanation was demanded by my neighbors. The answer was, ‘Another Englishman!’ How my heart beat at that I cannot describe. It seemed as if it would burst my breast, and my veins swelled till they choked and arrested the circulation. I did cot dare to look up, expecting to meet the long barrel of a musket held within two Inches of my forehead, and hear my surrender demanded, enforced by an ugly play with the trigger, To use my revolver I had not the presence of mind, even if aga'nst such weapons and such odds it could have availed me ; and my best feat was that I kept muscle and sinew strained, and prevented myself from slipping thirty or forty feet down. A fow words words were spoken in a tone too low for mo to catch, and then the motion of feet was renewed.

My fear came anew ; I could "not have borne it longer, when, to my unspeakable joy, the sound appeared retreating. The reaction was so great that, endowed with incredible vigor and activity, I dashed off my hat, and swinging myself up to the brim of the Assure, I laid my ears on a level with it, and listened a second before I ventnred to lock. I was right; the sound was almost inaudible. Grasping the side toward the land and resting my feet against the opposite one, I boldly thrust out my head._ A range of hills, of which this was the ruing acclivity, first met my gaze, and thou I perceived three petticeated figures armed with muskets, and girdles full of knives and pistols, that flashed in the sun. They wrre about the distance of a hundred and fifty yards, and were descending. It struck me instantly that they had misunderstood the information of their accomplices, and were seeking for me in some break in the rocks further on.

ESI toreoffmy boots,which were fortumately only secured by elastic, and clearing the crevice, walked erect, without looking back, toward a mound of loose stunes more than a hundred yards distant. So speedily was my transit accomplished, and, thanks to my precaution, so silently, that it remained undetected. As I crouched down behind the

ro first stone sufficiently large to give me it shelter, only the head of one of the robbers b were visible, apparently keeping guard, while le his comrades examined the recesses In which it I was supposed to bo hid. There was no >f time to bo lost, so I began creeping from y hillock to hillock, increasing my speed with e every step, till, secure from|observations, 1, bounded away up hill. y My triumphant consciousness of freedom h prevented me from feeling at first the incone venience of traversing loose sharp stones in ■, my stockinged feet, but the exertion of the s I ascent soon brought me to a pause, and I i | saw, as I turned to look out for signs of pur- , | suit, that I had left a bloody track behind five. I pulled my coat off aud severed the rlsaves from the body, and doubling them inward, manufactured the most troublesome bootathat ever mortal waddled in. Having attached them by tearing my long stocking into strips, I proceeded at as swift space as these arrangements would allow. The-delay, short as ire-was, was enough to cause intense pain from the cuts, and my courage saxir as I heard cries- from a distance that shewed that the mistake bad been discovered, and

that the brigands were at last on the right scent. I did no* slacken my speed however and kept my eyoo wide open, seeking sons* spot advantageous for hiding or defence. I had reached and passed the crest of the first hill in the chain abutting on the sea, and found myself above a deep, narrow valley, at the bottom ef which a rapid stream Sowed and brawled,, while the opposite bank ascended steeply toward the furthest range. To stay on the summit would be certain capture as soon as they had passed a projecting angle a few hundred yards off; therefore, nothing was left to mo but to trust to chance. My descent was tolerably easy. I was not ebary of my wardrobe, or afraid of making a noise beside the careering stream. So wherever the declivity was steep, I let myself s l: de dona, my bandhged feet serving admirably to arrest my progress at the right moment. I reached the water nearly in the middle of the valley, and enjoyed a moment’s happiness as the cold fluid, penetrated to the wounds I had received. It was bnt an evanescent pleasure however for either fancy or extraordinary quickened senses told me that my foes were near. On the farther tide of the stream rose a thicket to the height of six or seven feet, and (tending (thirty or forty feet downward, its obscurity being considerably increased by the spray from a cascade create I by a sudden fall of tha ground. Toward this I made, and had barely ensconsed myself in the first bushes ere a red fez appeared on the height, and the gleam of a musket barrel told me that the decisive moment was approaching. Apparently my track had ceased to be traceable, for the man in the fez, now joined by a considerable party, among whom I fancied I could recognise the crew of the boat, looked round without taking any definite directicn.

One of the party suddenly shouted to the others, pointing with his musket downward to the rabble over which I had descended. I must have left some fragment of cloth on a sharp stone or briar, for all seemed equally contented with the discovery, and began to make toward my hiding place with a certainty of step that I thought made further concealment impossible. I pushed aside the interlacing branches, rather with the intention of seeking a vantage ground for a flight than with any serious hope of evasion, my English spirit coming out at that moment in a dogged determination to bide every extreme sooner than submit to ignominious captivity and the long and ruinons process of ransoming. I had gone on hands and knees for a while, when I was startled afresh by a column of smoko not many yards ahead. It proceeded evidently from a camp-fire, for I could hear voices, bat how it was that I had not observed it before I could not conceive.

To continue advancing was madness, so I broke off to the right, and, after a struggle with the underwood, gained a clear space extending to the foot of the cliffs, and sheltered on the other hand by the thicket Then I gave way to despair. I was fairly cornered. No opening in any direction, and, even if there had not been so many spying eyes,, no possibi ,; tyJ of ascending the steep, flat rock. Careless what might now come, I appreached the latter with the loitering step of a man meeting certain death, while fresh cries warned me that tho scent was good, and I had bat a few minutes before me. Perhaps from a slight stumble, or from the relaxation of tho muscles, my revolver slipped from my grasp, just as I could reach the rook with my outstretched hand. 1 bent down after is, hut it had rolled out of sight, and I stood pozzled. But I found an explanation, on perceiving that the urotmd sunk toward a ema”. cavity, which expanded into a hole large enough to admit the body of a man. I was slender then, both from youth rnd the heat of the climate, and to squeeze myself through was the work of an instant.

Instead of striking my head up against the extramity of the hollow as I expected. I found tha aperture increased as I progressed, and when my feet were within I could turn round and surveyed my hidingplace. I had gone downward it appeared, for tho boulder which pressed against the mouth of tho cavern like a huge seal was distinctly visible by a thin rim of light. It was balanced insecurely, I thought, for where I had crept in only a small stone which had arrested it prevented it from slipping down and closing up the opening entirely. It was a hard matter to resolve which were better —to leave the opening and die pistol in hand, or be smoked out, or remove tho stone and run the risk, or rather meet the certainty of a lingering death, blocked in by a mass of rook that three such as I could not have shaken

Sounds approaching, and a loud laugh that showed mo what I might expect from the courtesy of my captors, removed every scruple, and I knocked the stone with little difficulty avray. Down sank the boulder slowly and softly, leaving me in almost total darkness, but with the consolation that, however skilful were my pursuers, they were as little likely to light upon my refuge as if I sit comfortably in a London hotel Deep silence followed the grinding sound of the sinking mass and the shouts and imprecations of the brigands. What their comments on my disappearance might be I had no means of ascertaining, for every aperture was hermetically sealed, and, though I did not yet remark any deficiency of air, the darkness cou’d be felt. I did not care to realise my danger, for, despite all selfcontrol, the agony of flight had been so great that rest in any shapa'was a relief. I could not reflect, but lay at my full length, breathing slowly, and enjoying the absence of pain more than I had ever done an active pleasure. A long space must have elapsed thus, perhaps several fceurr, and whether I slept or not I cannot tell ; but at length I roused myself, aided by the gnawings of my stomach, which had not received its proper tribute since the I* st night’s supper, and began to grope aimlessly about. In front, all was as smooth as if built up with solid masonry, and I only hurt my shoulder by one or. two tentative pushes. Above, about two feet over my held when sitring, there was an undulating ceiling, quite glassy to the touch, and broken hero and there by long pendants which I recognised as stalactites. The sides, too, seemed, from the bulging proportions, to be formed of, or covered with, the same material. To the back, ;however, far as I might stretch my arms, nothing met me. Remembering that stalactites were generally found in extended places, and also calling to my mind my former experience of caves, I began to conceive the hope that my dwelling might extend far underground, and, perhaps, have other outlets. Taking off my shirt, I tore into strips, which 1 made shift to plait so that they should be tolerably still and easy to burn, and then extracting the ball from one of my metal cartridges, 1 spread the powder on the ground, and struck the cap sharply with a stone. A flash rewarded mo, and, though it burned my face painfully, I was well content when I saw that the linen had canght fire and was smoldering. With much trouble I then blew it into a flame, which I nourished with fresh strips, while I looked about me. Feeling had not deceived mo. It was a cavo full of stalactites, widening, and rising near me to six or eight feet high, but shrinking further on, as far as I could discern by the imperfect light, to a hole smaller than that I entered by. I gazed in doubt on the linen burning away, and that aperture in the distance which might be the road to life, or only a new place of torment. (To le continued.)