Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-08-03
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE CAVE OF GREEN LIGE1.

hidden them explore. But very soon the
nature of the ground compelled them
TO lessen their pace
The fine beach of coral debris first
gave place to rough shingle; then small
rocks began to crop out here and there,
and then the fore shore grew to be moth
ing but one huge iumbled tanglc of
honeycombed stone They worked their
way painfully along about half a mile
of this, scrambling and clambering and
then Guthrie had to stop and wipe the
perspiration from his brow.
Not much use going farther is
there, Henrietta?' said he Cain
Laversha would never have given him
self the trouble of climbing over ground
like this. Even the heat of the poaching
fever in his blood couldn work such n
miracle. -
mo, / don't think he'd do it-not
willing, that is" returned the woman
promptly. "But he might have been
forced to do it, Them as left the blood
mark on that oar we found might
pee here sir, - she broke off. whats
that ?"
She was pointing TO a huge gray
bowlder in front of her. There were
three or four Enthusiastically new scor-
ings on it, where hobnailed boot had
slipped. struggled TO recover and then
brought its owner down by the run.
Guthrie examined the marks. They
were plain reading. The wearer of this
boot had stepped on an inch wide ledge
Under his weight the film Of stone
which formed the substance of the ledge
had scaled off clean and sharp like a
knife cut.
"And see, cried Henrietta, "there's
the mark where his other toe slipped
There aren't any hobnail scorings there,
but there's shiny red line. made by
copper toe CAPT.
ITS our friend Gains spoor right
enough" exclaimed Guthrie. "Wo
must push on and find him. Ten to one
those numbering brogues of his have
brought him to bad grief over a slip
perry bowlder somewhere.
Now the fact that the farmer should
have been wearing such uncouth foot
gear needs word of explanation.
To DIR. Things amusement and Cap
tain Colepepper' & wrath, he had come
aboard the ketch at Bristol in precisely
the same bucolic attire in which he had
first made his appearance at the little
house in Shaftoe street-hobnailed
boots, yellow CATERS, tight overcoat
and hard, square bowler hat, all COM
plete. When this unseamanlike rig out
caught the shippers eye, he had nearly
exploded. You haymalSing ok" he
had roared. "D'you think I'm going to
have my decks knocked into sleeves by
those internal stubhle mashers2 Take
them off your feet sharp, or take
yourself off the Eureka! And I'm hang
ed if | care much which you dol" And
SO Cain had to ship a pair of smooth
soled shoes instead, and the headgear
difficulty was satisfactorily settled by
a Gallons squall, which took charge of
his stiff hat in the Bristol channel
But to the rest of his attire be stuck
like man on the surface and beneath
it. Indeed report said that he was so
much attached to the yellow leather
CATERS that he invariably slept in them
at night With these triiies, however
the captain did not interfere. "Might
as well try to make sewing machine
into sailor as that fellow Cain, he
declared resignedly. $50 let him stick
to his rig, and then Jones'l II know to
stow him in the regular landsmen
locker, if he gets down there.
Now, Cain was not an emotional
man, but the separation from those
inch soled boots touched him, for it
was like losing part of himself And
SO, as he was not allowed to wear them
on board, he hung them up in the ca
boose and there anointed them daily
with copious libations of grease with
all the devotion of niger to a fetich,
md when the Eureka ran into the an
chorage at Piper's cay and word was
given for all hands to go ashore the
farmer replaced his feet in their favorite
coverings again, mounted the tightly
buttoned fawn colorcd overcoat and
with borrowed felt hat Of Tom Jelly's
10 replace the one he had lost, was in
all outward respects the same individual
who had fled from the unkindness of
that 'tarrihle hard man Abel' at the
instigation of Xusan Pierce. Such attire
IN such climate was provocative Of
laughter, but the wearer was not sensi-
tive, and the shower of chaff which was
rained on him seemed only to have the
effect of confirming him in his love for
the uncouth habiliments Like a child's
headless and armless doll, they were all
the dearer for being despised
Thus it was therefore that the red
copper streak and the parallel scorings
told plain tale to the two people from
the Eureka, and with the certain
knowledge that the farmer had gone
before them they hurried on over the
powders at their best pace,
The going was still very bad. and il
got worse as they proceeded Indeed as
Guthrie nimble footed though he was,
stumbled and foundered among the
rocks, he wondered how the clumsy
Somersetshire man had managed to get
over the ground at all The reason Of
his absence seemed in the light of the
rock scorings clear as daylight now
lie had slipped somewhere and disabled
himself, His shipmates We're sorry for
him, of course, but at the same time
they confessed to one another that it
served him right. a man Of his build,
they agreed, ought never to have gone
trapesing over such an abominabe OBJ