Chapter 20 Chapter Twenty For Miss Campbell

After a while Oliver Sinclair hurried across the dike to the cave where the basalt steps began to turn upward.The Melville brothers and Partridge followed.Lady Bess stays in the Cranshall Cave in great anxiety, preparing everything for Helena's return. The sea has risen so high that it has overflowed the upper pillars and is surging over the railings, making it impossible to pass the berm. Since you can't get into the cave, you can't get out of it.If Miss Campbell was there, she was imprisoned, but how would one know if she was there, and how could one get to her? "Helena! Helena!"

This cry, thrown into the constantly roaring waves, can others hear it?It was as if the roar of wind and waves had poured into the cave.No sound can get in, nor can your eyes go in. "Perhaps Miss Campbell isn't there?" said Sam, still trying to cling to the glimmer of hope. "Where will she be?" Sieb said. "Yeah, where's she then?" cried Oliver. "Am I wasting my efforts on the high ground of the island, among the rocks on the coast, and elsewhere? If she ever came back, she might have come back to us. She is there! There!" It was recalled how often the impudent young girl expressed her desire to go to Finger's Cave and watch some storm.Had she forgotten that the sea, under the action of the hurricane, would keep filling up the hole, and that the cave would be a prison, whose doors could not be knocked open?

Now, what can everyone try to do to get to her and save her? The hurricane hit this corner of the island directly.Driven by it, the waves sometimes rose to the vault, where they crashed with a deafening noise, and the overflowing water, driven by the impact, fell again, full of foam, like a waterfall in Nicaragua.However, the waves in the lower part, due to the effect of the swell in the open sea, caused the torrent to surge, and the dam there also collapsed suddenly.Just now the sea hit even the deepest part of the cave. Where would Miss Campbell find shelter without being hit by the waves?The front of the cavern faced directly the onslaught of spray which swept irresistibly across the berm, both when entering and when exiting.

Still don't want to believe that the cheeky young girl is there!How could she resist the encroachment of the raging sea into this blind alley?Had her body been battered, torn, swept away by the whirlpool, thrown out perhaps?Wouldn't the rising tide have carried her along the dikes and reefs to Cranshall? "Helena! Helena!" Everyone kept shouting this name, but the sound of wind and waves swallowed everything.Without a response, there can be no response. "No! No! She's not in the cave!" went on the Melvey brothers, to their dismay. "There she is!" said Oliver Sinclair.

He pointed to a piece of clothing that had been swept out by an echo and thrown onto a basalt step.Oliver rushed over. It was the "headband," the Scotch ribbon that Miss Campbell wore on her head. Is there any doubt now? But if the strap could be pulled off her head, wouldn't Miss Campbell have been crushed by a piece of it hitting the rock wall of the cave? "I'll go and see!" Oliver yelled. When the water gushed out, half of the berm was exposed, and he seized the opportunity to grab the first post of the railing.But a gust of water pulled him down and overturned him on the berm.

Had it not been for Fateridge, who risked his life on top of him, Oliver would have rolled all the way to the last step, and the sea would have swept him away, and Partridge would have been unable to save him. Oliver stood up again, determined to enter the cave undiminished. "Miss Campbell's there!" he kept saying. "Since she wasn't thrown outside like this cloth, she must be alive! Then she may have found a hiding place in some undulating place! But her strength will soon be exhausted! She can't hold on to the tide When it falls...! So I have to get to her!"

"I'll go!" said Partridge. "No! . . . I'll go!" Oliver Sinclair replied. He had an excellent idea of ​​getting to Miss Campbell, and he was going to try, but he had only a one per cent chance of success. "Wait for us here, gentlemen," he said to the Melville brothers. "We'll be back in five minutes. Come on, Partridge!" The two uncles stayed at the outward corner of the island under the cover of the cliff, so that the sea water would not rush here.But Oliver and Partridge returned to Cranshall Cave as quickly as possible. It was half past eight in the evening.

Five minutes later the young man and the old servant returned, and pulled along the dike the boat of the Clorida that Captain John had left for them. Was Oliver going to let the sea throw him into a cave?Because he can no longer get there from land. yes!He wants to try.He was risking his life, he knew it, but he didn't hesitate. The boat was pulled to the foot of the steps, dodging the surf that turned back from a basalt step. "I'll go with you," said Partridge. "No, Partridge," Oliver replied. "No! You can't overload the boat, it's useless! If Miss Campbell is alive, I'll be enough!"

"Oliver!" cried the brothers, sobbing uncontrollably. "Oliver, save our girl!" The young man shook hands with both of them, then jumped into the boat, sat on the middle deck, grabbed two oars, and entered the whirlpool nimbly, and waited for a while, and the back current of a huge wave swept the water away. He brought the boat to Finger's Grotto, and the boat was hoisted, but with Oliver's skilful row, the boat remained in line, and if it went sideways, it would surely be capsized. For the first time, the sea lifted the boat very high, almost to the top of the vault.It seemed that the carapace was about to smash against the rocky pedestal, but when the wave retreated, an irresistible retreat pushed it back out to sea.

The boat shook like this three times, then rushed towards the cave, was rushed back again, and couldn't get through at all, and the water blocked the exit of the cave. Oliver was composed, balancing on his sculls. Finally, a higher crest lifted the boat, and the boat swayed for a while on the back of the liquid that was almost parallel to the high ground of the island. Then, the deep vibration of the waves spread to the foot of the cave, and Oliver was thrown obliquely, as if Descending the slope of the waterfall. Those who stood watching this scene gave a cry of horror, as if the boat was about to be smashed against the pillars at the corner of the entrance rock on the left.

But the fearless young man straightened the boat with a single stroke of the oar, and the exit was now exposed, and at the moment before the sea was about to make another big wave, he disappeared into the cave as quickly as an arrow. A second later, the waves hit like an avalanche, surging all the way to the top of the island. Would the boat crash into the depths of the cave, and now have two victims instead of one? absolutely not.Oliver passed quickly, without hitting the jagged top of the vault.A bunch of basalt rock carts were blocked out of the boat without overturning, and the boat survived with such a block.In a second, he reached the opposite rock wall, but he was only worried that he would be swept outside by the vortex instead of hanging on a protruding place in the depths. Fortunately, under the force of the blow, which was softened by the reverse heave, the boat hit a kind of tube-coral closet at the "head" of the cave.The boat was half over, but Oliver clung to a piece of basalt with the tenacity of a drowning man, and went up to the top, shooting through the onslaught of the sea. After a while, the shattered boat was swept away by a return wave and thrown outside.The Melveys and Partridge saw the wreck of the boat floating out, and thought that the brave lad who had gone to the rescue might have perished.