The Cave Twins Part 8

"Won't it ever get mended?" asked Firefly anxiously.

"Shan't we ever get back to the cave, then?" cried Firetop.

"No," sobbed Limberleg. "We'll have to stay here till we die."

Firefly whimpered a little and crept close to her mother on the log, but Firetop noticed that his father wasn't crying, so he swallowed several large lumps in his throat and sat up straight. For some time they stayed on the bluff and looked down the steep banks of broken earth and rocks into the deep water below.

Great logs were floating about and huge trees, uprooted from the banks, were lying with their tops in the water.

At last Limberleg said in a discouraged voice, "Well, what shall we do?"

"The first thing to do," said Hawk-Eye, "is to go down to the beach and see what we can find to eat."

Beyond the steep cliffs on which they stood there was a bay with a wide beach. Beyond the bay great rocks extended in a chain out into the water. If you have been to England, you may have pa.s.sed those very rocks. They are called "The Needles."

Hawk-Eye and Limberleg and the Twins climbed down to the beach. They were so hungry that they were almost ready to eat sand and pebbles, like chickens, if they could find nothing else.

But there was plenty of seaweed on the beach and they found little mussels clinging to it. They ate both the seaweed and the mussels, as they walked along.

"See all the little holes in the sand," cried Firetop, when they were quite far out on the beach. "Water spurts out of them every time I step."

"Let's dig down and see what does it," said Firefly. "Maybe it's something good to eat."

They took a large sh.e.l.l and sc.r.a.ped away the sand. They had never seen clams before, and Firefly got her finger pinched. Hawk-Eye opened a sh.e.l.l and ate one. He smacked his lips, and then he said, "Dig as many as you can, while I make a fire. Our supper is right here."

The Twins worked like beavers, while Hawk-Eye and Limberleg made a drift-wood fire far back on the beach in a sheltered place near the cliffs.

Then Limberleg made a bed of seaweed in the coals and put in the clams as fast as the children brought them up from the sand. They must have steamed at least half a bushel! They ate every one, and I am quite sure this was the very first clam-bake that any one ever had in this world.

As they rested beside the fire after supper, warmed and fed, they began to feel more cheerful. Hawk-Eye said: "Anyway, we shall never be hungry while we stay here. Perhaps we shall like it just as well as we liked our forest cave."

Then Limberleg had a happy thought. "Do you know," she said, "I believe the water G.o.ds were lonesome and are glad that we came! They don't want us to go away again, and so they made the piece of land fall into the water to keep us here! You remember about that fis.h.!.+ I'm not afraid.

I think they mean to take care of us."

And that was such a comforting thought that they went to sleep and slept soundly all night beside their drift-wood fire.

The Cave Twins--by Lucy Fitch Perkins

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE ISLAND.

One.

If I were to tell you all the things that the Twins and their father and mother did on that island, it would make a book as big as the dictionary; so I can only tell you a very little about the wonderful days that followed. In the first place, they soon found out that it was a wonderful island. Small as it was, it had the most astonis.h.i.+ng things in it.

There were great cliffs and jagged rocks along its coast in some places, and there were beautiful broad sandy beaches right next to them. The waves had washed holes clear through some of these great rocks and left them standing there like huge ruins.

The beaches were covered with star-fish and beautiful sh.e.l.ls and seaweed and crabs and jelly-fish and stones of all colours. The Twins found something new every time they played there.

Inland there were hills and valleys with sparkling streams of clear water running through them. There were sunny open meadows where bison grazed. In the woods there were deer and small game of all kinds, but though Hawk-Eye went everywhere in the days that followed the earthquake, he never saw a sign of a cave bear or of tigers or lions, or any of the more savage beasts which made life in their old home so full of terror.

Neither did he find a trace of any other human beings.

The season was early on the warm southern side of the island. The wild fruit trees were already in blossom, making the air sweet with fragrance, and giving promise of fruit later on.

There were all sorts of wild flowers and all kinds of trees in the woods, and everything was so beautiful and seemed so safe that it was easy to believe, as Limberleg said, that the water G.o.ds did mean to take care of them.

Two.

One day when Hawk-Eye and Limberleg had gone deer-hunting, Firetop and Firefly climbed a high cliff on the east coast to hunt for pigeons'

eggs. From the top of the hill, they could see for miles and miles in every direction. The cliffs were on a long point of land, and behind the point was a deep bay, where all sorts of things could be picked up, when the tide was low. In a cleft of the rock Firetop found a nest with four eggs in it. He and Firefly were sitting on top of the hill eating them, when Firefly saw a queer black spot part way down the cliff, toward the east.

"What's that?" she said, pointing.

"Let's go and find out," said Firetop.

They climbed cautiously down to a lower level and worked their way through the bushes and vines which covered the sloping side of the bluff.

"It must be somewhere near here," said Firetop, "but I can't see it.

It's hidden behind the bushes, whatever it is."

"Maybe it was a bear and he has moved," said Firefly, looking fearfully over her shoulder.

Of course they could not be quite sure there were no such creatures on the island.

"Pooh," said Firetop, "I'm not afraid. Come along."

They hunted up and down and sideways for some distance along the bluff, and were almost ready to give up, when a branch that Firetop was holding broke and he fell backward down the slope. He rolled over two or three times, and when he stopped rolling and sat up he was looking directly into the mouth of a great dark cave. A lot of stones and dirt came tumbling down with him, and, with that and some noise that Firetop made himself, there was quite a disturbance.

The cave was full of owls, and when the stones and dirt and a boy dropped in on them suddenly, they were very much surprised. No fewer than six of them flew out of the cave, and as they were blinded by the light, they b.u.mped right into Firetop.

Those still in the cave flew about and beat their wings against the rocks. This made a terrible sound in the hollow cave, and besides that, they hooted. Firetop had never met an owl at such short range before, and his red hair stood straight up on his head, he was so scared. He beat the owls off with his arms and yelled at the top of his lungs.

Firefly heard him and came plunging through the bushes after him. In another minute she too had fallen through the same place and landed beside Firetop. By the time they had picked themselves up, the owls had flown to a shelf on the rock, and there they roosted in a row, staring solemnly at the Twins.

They neither moved nor spoke. Somehow the Twins expected them to speak and say something very reproving. They looked just that way. The Twins didn't wait to find out what it would be, however. They went cras.h.i.+ng through the bushes and back to the top of the rock as fast as they could go.

That afternoon, when Hawk-Eye and Limberleg came home, bringing a young deer on their shoulders, the children told them about the cave and pointed it out from the top of the rock. Hawk-Eye at once threw down the deer and made a fire. Then he took a flaming torch in one hand and his spear in the other and started down the bluff.

"How did you get to the cave?" he asked Firetop.

"We went part way down the bluff and fell in," said Firetop.