CHAPTER TEN.
IN A WASP'S NEST.
Days had passed, and strange reports were flying about the sparselyinhabited neighbourhood. Fresh people had seen the witches in theirlong gowns, and it was rumoured that if any one dared to make theventure, they might be found crouching over their fire any dark, stormynight on the slope of Ergles, where nobody ever went, for it was adesolate waste, where a goat might have starved.
The tales grew like snowballs, as they passed from mouth to mouth, butfor the most part they were very unsubstantial in all points save one,and that possessed substance; not only lambs, but sheep, haddisappeared, and in the case of a miner and his wife, who lived somedistance off, and who had been away for a week to a wedding beyond themountains, they returned to their solitary cottage to find that it hadbeen entered in their absence, and completely stripped of everythingmovable, even to the bed, while the very cabbages in the garden had beentorn up and carried away.
Mark had the news from the man himself, and he carried it to his fatherand sister, as he had carried Dummy Rugg's rumour about the witches andtheir fire, which went out so suddenly on being seen.
"Humph!" said Sir Edward, smiling; "that looks as if the witches likedvegetables with their lamb and mutton. Stripped the cottage, and tookthe meal-tub too?"
"Everything, father," said Mark.
"Then it's time the men made a search, my boy," said Sir Edward; "wemust have a robber about. There is the whole explanation of the oldwomen's tales. Well, they will have to bestir themselves, and catch thethief."
It was on that same morning that the news reached Cliff Castle, wheresimilar stories had floated about witches and warlocks having takenpossession of the shivering hills, where the slatey rocks were alwaysfalling, and forming what the country people called screes, which, at adistance, when wet and shiny, looked in the sunshine like cascadesdescending from on high.
"If it comes to any of our sheep being taken, we shall have to take to ahunt, Ralph," Sir Morton had said. "The people like to have a witch ortwo to curdle their blood, but I'm not going to find them in sheep."
It was a glorious morning, and the lad went into the courtyard with hissister to have a look at her new fad, as Nick Garth called it, that isto say, the well-plastered pool with its surrounding of rock-work, inwhich various plants were beginning to flourish and reflect themselvesin the crystal water with which the little pond was filled.
"Capital!" cried Ralph; "but you ought to have a few fish in it. They'dlook well."
"That is just what I wanted you to say, sir," cried Minnie, clapping herhands; "and if you hadn't been such a solemn, serious brother, you wouldhave taken your rod and line, and caught me a few."
"Well, I will," said the lad eagerly; "and some for a fry as well. Thelittle ones will be best for you, and I'll take a tin can for them, aswell as a creel."
An hour later, with a plentiful supply of caddis, caterpillars, andother tempting bait, and rod in hand, Ralph descended to the side of thestream. He was not long in following suit with old Master Rayburn as tohis hose; and then stepping into the water, he began to wade upstream,where it was shallow, going on to the bank where it grew deep.
But the day was too bright and the water too clear for his task. Thefish saw him, and darted away, and when his keen eyes followed them totheir lair, they refused to be tempted out by any bait he threw.
"Just my luck when I come fishing," muttered Ralph, as he waded slowlyon, picking his way among the stones. "There's always something wrong;either it's too hot, or it's too cold, or there's too much water, orthere isn't enough, or the wind's somewhere in the wrong quarter, or Ihaven't got the right bait; and so sure as I was to meet old MasterRayburn, picking flowers on the bank, he'd say: `Ah, you should havecome yesterday, or last week, and then you'd have caught a fish at everythrow.'
"Stupid work, fishing," he said, half-aloud, when he had waded as far ashe could without getting wet, for the water had suddenly deepened andcurved round out of sight, all calm and still beneath the boughs shadingit on either side. "Seems very easy, though, when you watch oldRayburn. He always knows where to throw."
For the moment, he was ready to give up, but feeling that his sisterwould be disappointed if he went back empty-handed, he waded out, andtaking a short cut across the horseshoe formed by the stream, he reachedit again beyond the deeps, where it was possible to wade once more; andbefore entering the bubbling waters, he stood looking upward, thinkinghow beautiful it all was, with the flashing water gurgling and swirlinground the great stones which dotted the bed. Every here and there thesides were glowing with patches of the deep golden, yellow globe-flower;a little farther on, there was a deeper spot with a patch of the greatglistening leaves of the water-lily, not yet in bloom; and as he steppeddown into the water, there was a flutter from a bird seated on a deadtwig, and a flash of azure light gleamed over the river, as thedisturbed kingfisher darted upstream, to be watched till it disappeared.
Flies danced up and down above the water, and every now and then onedropped on the surface, with its wings closed, and sailed downward likea tiny boat. Bees swept by with a humming, slumberous sound; and amongthe sedges at the sides, where the golden irises displayed their lovelyblossoms, the thin-bodied dragon-flies, steel-blue or green, darted ontransparent wing, pairs every now and then encountering fiercely with afaint rustling of wings, and battling for a few seconds, when one woulddart away with the other in pursuit.
Ralph waded on, catching nothing; but the beauties of the placeincreased, and satisfied him so that he began to forget his mission, andpaused now to listen to the soft coo of the wood-pigeon in the grove, tothe quick sharp _tah_! of the jackdaws sailing about high up, where theynested in the bare face of the creviced cliffs. Then on and on again,in sunshine or in shade, for quite a couple of hours, fishing in adesultory way, but with not the slightest result. Then his luck turned.
He had been driven ashore several times by the deep water, but alwaysreturned to the bed of the river where it shallowed, for it was easiergoing than forcing his way amidst the stones, bushes, and trees at theside; and now, as he was wading up toward where the water came over aridge in a cascade, a little shoal of half-a-dozen fish darted upward,and he followed them, with the water growing more and more shallow, tillhis pulses beat with satisfaction, for a little investigation showed himthat he would be able to drive the slippery prey right into a broadstretch where the water was but an inch or two deep, and dottedeverywhere with shoals that were nearly dry.
Fishing was out of the question in a place like that, so twisting hisline round his rod, he used the latter as a walking-staff, and followedtill the prey he sought were compelled to flap themselves along upontheir sides; two trout on finding themselves in such straits leapingright on to one of the half-dried pebbly shoals. Here Ralph pouncedupon one after the other, and transferred them to his creel, after firsttaking out his shoes and hose, which had been reclining there, at restfrom their ordinary avocation of protecting his feet.
"Queer fishing," muttered the lad; "but I've caught them. Now for you."
This to the rest of the shoal, which he chased so perseveringly that hecaught four more by driving them into the shallowest water, the twolargest succeeding by desperate rushes in getting through thetreacherous part, and disappearing in the deeps toward the cascade.
"All too big to go in the little can," thought Ralph. "Never mind; theywill make a fry. Perhaps I can catch some smaller ones the same way."
He tied his shoes together by the strings, and fastened them to thestrap of his creel, tucked his hose through his belt, and went ashoreagain, to make his way beyond the little cascade which fell musicallyover the rocks; and as he was going on by the dammed-up deeps, there wassuddenly a rush among the sedges and rushes, followed by a splash, thelad catching sight of a long, wet, brown body, as the animal made aplunge and disappeared in deep water.
The next moment his eyes rested upon the remains of a feast, in theshape of a fine
trout, half-eaten, evidently quite freshly caught.
"Better fisherman than I am," said Ralph to himself, as he searched thesurface of the water to see if the otter he had disturbed would rise.But the cunning animal had reached its hole in the bank, and was notlikely to return to its banquet: so Ralph went on beyond the deeps towhere the river ran shallow again beneath the overhanging trees, justcatching a glimpse at times of the great cliffs, whose tops oftenresembled the ruins of neglected towers, so regularly were they laid infissured blocks.
Encouraged by his success, though conscious of the fact that it was thework of a poacher more than an angler, Ralph was not long in finding asuitable place for driving a few more fish. Fate favoured him in this,and in their being just of a suitable size for the little pool, and hehad just secured one about six inches long, and was filling his littlecan with water, when he was startled by hearing a half-stifled barkuttered, as if by a dog whose muzzle was being held.
He looked sharply round, and suddenly woke to the fact that, for howlong he could not tell, while he had been stalking the trout, he hadbeen stalked in turn.
For a man suddenly appeared among the bushes on the right, looked acrossthe river, and shouted, "Come on, now."
Three more appeared on the other side, one of whom leaped at once intothe river, while simultaneously a couple of dogs were let loose, anddashed into the shallow water.
"Don't let him go back, lads," shouted the first man. "Run him up: hecan't get away."
Ralph was equal to the occasion. In a sharp glance round, whilesnapping his rod in two where the butt was lashed to the thinner part,he saw that his retreat was cut off down the river, and that his onlychance of escape was to go forward, right and left being sheer wall,twenty feet on one side, two hundred, at least, on the other. Hegrasped, too, the fact that the men about to attack him were evidentlylead-miners, and the thought flashed upon him that he had inadvertentlycome higher till, after a fashion, he was occupying Mark Eden'sposition, trespassing upon an enemy's ground.
These thoughts were lightning-like, as he swung his rod-butt round, andbrought it down heavily upon a big mongrel dog that splashed through theshallows, knocked it right over, to lie yelping and whining as it toreup water and sand, the second dog contenting itself with yapping,snarling, and making little charges, till a lucky blow caught it uponthe leg, and sent it howling back.
This was sufficient for the moment, and Ralph began to retreat, with themen following him.
"There," shouted the one who seemed to be the leader. "It's of no use,so you may give in. We know you, so come out, fish and all. Youhaven't no right up here."
Ralph made no reply, but flushing with anger and annoyance, he hurriedon over the shallows, with the men now in full pursuit, shouting, too,at the dogs, and urging them to renew their attack.
"What an idiot I have been!" muttered the lad, as he splashed on,wishing that he was on open ground, so that he could run; but wishingwas in vain. He was unarmed, too, save for the stout ash-butt of hisspliced rod, and he knew that it would be impossible to defend himselfwith that for long against four strong men, who were apparently only tooeager to get hold of the heir of the rival house, and drag him beforetheir lord. For that they were Sir Edward Eden's men the lad had not adoubt.
But Ralph had little time for thought; action was the thing, and hesplashed on, glancing from right to left to find a spot where he couldland and take to his heels--an impossibility there, for he soon saw thathis only chance was to climb, and that chance was small.
Then, as the men followed some forty yards behind, he saw the light ofhope. Not far ahead, the water looked black and still, as it glidedthrough a narrow defile, shut in by the rocks. That meant deep water;but if he could reach that, he would have to swim, and the men probablywould not dare to follow.
Already the shallows were coming to an end, the water reaching to hisknees; and it was here that, encouraged and bullied into making a freshattack, the dogs overtook him once more, and half swimming, half makingleaps, they came at him, the bigger avoiding a blow, and seizing him bythe left, fortunately without hurt, the animal's teeth meeting only inthe padding of the short breeches of the period; but it held on,growling, and shaking its head violently, while its companion, after adeal of barking, dashed in on the right.
This time Ralph's aim was surer and quicker, the dog receiving a sharpcut across the ear from the butt of the rod, and going down at once, tobegin howling, and swimming in a circle.
Rid thus of one enemy, the lad proceeded to get rid of the second by avery simple plan. Lowering his left hand, he got hold of the strapwhich formed the dog's collar, and in spite of its struggles andworryings, went on as fast as he could go--slowly enough, all the same--to where the water deepened; and as it reached his thigh, he bent hisknees, with the natural result that as the dog held tenaciously to itsmouthful of cloth and padding, its head was beneath the water.
A few seconds were sufficient to make it quit its hold, and come upchoking and barking; but in obedience to the urging on of one of themen, to pluckily renew the attack.
A sharp crack from the butt knocked all the remaining courage out of itshead, and it turned, howling, to swim back toward its masters.
"Here, it's no good, young Darley," yelled one of the men. "You maygive up now. We've got you fast."
"And it'll be the worst for you, if you don't. We have got you now."
"Hold me tight, then," muttered the lad, with a triumphant feeling athis chances of escape beginning to make him glow.
"You mustn't go there," shouted another. "It's woundy deep, and you'llget sucked down."
"Come and be sucked down after me," muttered Ralph, as the dogs beganbarking again furiously, but refused to follow and attack, keeping closeto the men, who were all now in the river, wading slowly, the wallshaving grown too precipitous for them to keep on the sides.
Ralph's progress was slow enough too, for the water had deepened till itwas above his waist, and the next minute was nearly to his armpits,while the river having narrowed now to half its width, the stream thoughdeep came faster, and grew harder to stem.
"D'you hear, youngster!" roared the leader. "You'll be drownded."
"Better that than be caught and dragged up to the Black Tor for thatwretched boor, Mark Eden, to triumph over me," thought Ralph; and hepushed boldly on, forced his way a dozen yards, and then made a step, tofind no bottom, and going down over his head.
"Told you so," rang in his ears, as he struck out and rose, to findhimself being borne back; but a few strokes took him to the right side,where he snatched at some overhanging ferns rooted in the perpendicularwall of rock, checked himself for a few moments, and looked back, to seethe four men, nearly breast-deep, a dozen yards behind, waiting for himto be swept down to their grasp.
"There, give up!" cried another, "for you're drownded. You don't knowthe waters here, like we do. Some o' that goes right down into themine."
To the astonishment of the men, who did not dare to venture farther, thelad did not surrender, but looked sharply about to try and fully grasphis position and his chances of escape. Ahead the water certainlyappeared deeper, for it glided on towards him, looking black, oily, andmarked with sinuous lines. There was no ripple to indicate a shallow,and he could feel, from the pressure against him, that it would beimpossible to stem it in swimming; while most ominous of all, right inthe centre, a little way ahead, there was a spot where the water was alittle depressed. It kept circling round every now and then, forming afunnel-shaped opening about a foot across, showing plainly enough thatthe men were right, and that a portion of the stream passed down thereinto some hole in the rock, to form one of the subterranean courses ofwhich there were several in the district, as he knew both where rivuletsdisappeared, and also suddenly gushed out into the light of day.
Ralph grasped then at once that it would be impossible to escape byswimming against such a stream; that if he could have done so, there wasthe horrible risk of being suck
ed down into some awful chasm to instantdeath; that he could not climb up the wall of rock where he hung onthen; and that, if he let go, he would be borne along in a few momentsto the men's hands; and then, that he would be bound, and dragged away aprisoner, to his shame, and all through trying to get those unfortunatefish.
"It's of no use," he muttered despairingly, as he looked above himagain, and, as he did so, saw that the men were laughing at hispredicament, for, as Touchstone the clown told the shepherd, he was "ina parlous case."
But hope is a fine thing, and gives us rays of light even in the darkestplaces. Just when Ralph felt most despondent, it occurred to him thatthere was another way out of the difficulty, and he proceeded to put itin force by looking straight ahead, along the wall of rock, which randown into the water, and there, just beyond the tuft by which he heldon, and certainly within reach, was one of the perpendicular crackswhich divided the stone into blocks. In an instant he had stretched outhis left hand, forced it in there, drawn himself along till he could getthe other hand in, and was safe so far; and to his great joy found, by alittle searching, that he could find foot-hold, for the horizontal crackran some four feet below the surface, and afforded him sufficientstanding room, if he could only find something to hold on by above.
For the moment he was safe, but his object was to get along the wall,till he could find a place where he could climb the rocky side of theriver; and once clear of the water, he felt that it would go hard if hecould not find some way to the top, the more easily from the fact thatabove the steep piece of wall down into the water the trees grew soabundantly that a climber would for a certainty find plenty of help.
The men remained motionless in the water, watching in the fullexpectation of seeing the lad swept down to them; but he held fast, andonce more reaching forward, he strained outward till he caught a tuft ofgrass, crept on along the submerged ledge to that, and from there gaineda large patch of tough broom. Then came two or three easy movementsonward, bringing the fugitive abreast of the sink, which was larger thanit had appeared from below, and Ralph shuddered as he felt that any onewho approached the vortex would for a certainty be dragged down.
For a few moments he clung there, the nervous thoughts of what might beif he slipped and were caught in the whirlpool being sufficient to halfparalyse him; then turning angry at his feeling of cowardice, he reachedboldly out again, found fresh hand-hold, and did the same again andagain, till he was a dozen yards beyond the sink-hole, and had to stopand think. For the wall was smoother than ever; the stream ranstronger; the distance between the two sides being less, it lookeddeeper; and the next place where he could find hand-hold was apparentlytoo far to reach.
Still, it was his only chance, and taking fast hold with his right, andsomehow thinking the while of Mark's passage along the surface of theHigh Cliff, he reached out farther and farther, pressing his breastagainst the rock, edging his feet along, and then stopping at hisfullest stretch, to find the little root of ivy he aimed at graspingstill six or seven inches away.
The dead silence preserved by the men below was broken by the barking ofone of the dogs. Then all was still again, and Ralph felt that his onlychance was to steady himself for a moment with his feet, loosen his holdwith his right hand, and let himself glide along the face of the rockforward till his left touched the ivy, and then hold on.
If he missed catching hold--?
"I mustn't think of such a thing," he muttered; and he at once put hisplan into action, letting himself glide forward.
As a scholar, fresh from a big school, he ought to have been moremathematically correct, and known that in describing the arc of a circlehis left hand would go lower; but he did not stop to think. Theconsequence was that as his fingers glided over the rough stone, theypassed a few inches beneath the tough stem he sought to grasp, and oncein motion, he could not stop himself. He clutched at the stone with hisright hand, and his nails scratched over it, as he vainly strove to finda prominence or crevice to check him; but all in vain; the pressure ofthe running water on the lower part of his body helped to destroy hisbalance, and with a faint cry, he went headlong into the gliding stream,the men simultaneously giving vent to a yell, half of horror, half ofsatisfaction.
"The sink-hole! Shall I be sucked down?" was the thought that flashedacross the lad's brain, like a lurid light, as he went under; then hestruck out vigorously for the side, and as he rose to the surface sawthat he was being drawn toward the hole where it gaped horribly, andclosed, and gaped again, a few yards away.
If any boy who reads this cannot swim, let him feel that he is sinningagainst himself, and neglecting a great duty, till he can plunge withouta trace of nervousness into deep water, and make his way upon thesurface easily and well. Fortunately for Ralph Darley, he was quite athome in the water, and the strong firm strokes he took were sufficientto carry him well in toward the side, so that he passed the littlewhirlpool where its force was weakest; and as the men below closedtogether, and waded a couple of steps to meet him, they had themortification of seeing him clinging to the wall of rock, half-a-dozenyards above them, and then creeping forward again, step by step, till hereached the point from which he had been swept, and held on there oncemore.
Here, as they watched him curiously, they saw that he remainedmotionless, as if thinking what to do next, as was the case; and comingto the conclusion that he must manage somehow to grasp that tuft of ivy,he tried again, with the dread of the consequences the less from theexperience he had gone through.
Coming to the conclusion that the only way was to raise himself upon histoes at the last moment, and jerk himself forward, he drew in a deepbreath, reached out to the utmost, but raised his left hand more, thenloosened his grasp with his right, and when he thought the moment hadcome, gave a slight bound.
That did it. He caught at the ivy, his fingers closed upon it tightly,and he tried hard to keep his feet upon the ledge below water. But thiseffort failed, his balance was gone, his feet glided from the ledge, andhe swung round, holding on to the ivy, which seemed to be giving way atits roots.
But as Ralph fell, his hand slipped quite a foot down the ivy, and thewater took a good deal of his weight, so that, though the strain uponthe feeble growth was great, it remained firm enough to hold him; and hehung half in, half out of the water for some time, afraid to stir, butall the time energetically using his eyes, to seek for a way out of hisperilous position.
He was not long in coming to a decision. Above the ivy there was one ofthe cracks, and he saw that if he could reach that, he could climb tothe one above, and from there gain the roots of a gnarled hawthorn,whose seed had been dropped in a fissure by a bird generations back, thedryness of the position and want of root-food keeping the tree stuntedand dwarfed. Once up there, another ten or twelve feet would take himto the top of the lower wall, and then he felt that it would go hard ifhe could not climb and hide, or escape up the cliff; so he set to atonce to try.