"And you've never been there?"
"Not me."
Tom's face fell—fell so suddenly and to an expression so woeful that Jack laughed outright, though he sympathized with Tom's disappointment.
"But I knows a man that has been there," Billy continued. "He's the man that found it. 'Tis like, now, that he's the only man that's ever been inside."
"Then the place isn't well known?"
"So far as I can tell, nobody knows it but ol' Joe West."
When they ran Billy's punt to old Joe West's stage, at Ruddy Cove, that night, Joe was inside, splitting the day's catch of cod. They broached the object of their visit without delay. Would he guide them to the cave at Little Tickle Basin? But Joe shook his head. The squid were in the harbour, and the fish were taking the bait in lively fashion. The loss of a day's catch was "beyond thinkin' of."
"Do you know the bearings?" Tom asked.
"T' be sure. 'Tis very simple t' get near the spot; but 'tis wonderful hard t' find the hole. 'Tis all overgrown. You might hunt for a year, I'm thinkin', an' never find it. When you does find it, it takes a deal o' nerve t' crawl in. 'Tis that dark an' damp! You keeps thinkin' all the time, too, that something will fall over the hole an' shut you in. If you crawls through," Joe concluded, impressively, "be sure one o' you stays outside."
"But we've no chart of the place," Tom complained.