Nic's heart beat fast as he ran lightly along the path, reached the
house, and ran round to the stable-yard, where Solly and the men were
waiting.
"Ready, my lads?" he said in a low, husky voice, full of the excitement
he felt.
"We'll go on round to the back of the pool at once. The sailors are
here, thirty strong, with their officer; so we ought to give the enemy a
severe lesson.--Ah! Don't cheer. Ready?--Forward. Come, Solly; we'll
lead."
"Precious dark, Master Nic," growled the old sailor in a hoarse whisper.
"We shan't hardly be able to tell t'other from which."
"Ah! I forgot," cried Nic excitedly. "Halt! Look here, my men. Our
password is `Tails,' and our friends have to answer `Heads.' So, if you
are in doubt, cry `Tails,' and if your adversary does not answer `Heads'
he's an enemy."
"Why, a-mussy me, Master Nic?" growled Solly, "we shan't make heads or
tails o' that in a scrimble-scramble scrimmage such as we're going to be
in. What's the skipper thinking about? Let me tell 'em what to do."
"You heard your master's order, Solly," replied Nic.
"Yes, sir, of course; but this here won't do no harm. Look here, my
lads; as soon as ever we're at it, hit hard at every one who aren't a
Jack. You'll know them."
Nic felt that this addition could do no harm, so he did not interfere,
but led on right past the way down to the falls, which had shrunk now to
a little cascade falling with a pleasant murmur, for the draining of the
heavy thunder-showers was nearly at an end, and the pool lay calm enough
in the black darkness beneath the overhanging rocks and spreading
trees--just in the right condition for a raid, and in all probability
full of salmon.
All at once the old sailor indulged in a burst of chuckles.
"Hear something, Bill?" said Nic.
"No, my lad, not yet; I was on'y thinking. They was going to bring a
cart up the road yonder, waren't they?"
"Yes; one of the men said so," replied Nic.
"Well, we're a-going to give 'em something to take back in that cart
to-night, my lad," whispered the man, with another chuckle; "and it
won't be fish, nor it won't be fowl. My fingers is a-tingling so that I
thought something was the matter, and I tried to change my stick from my
right hand into my left."
"Well, what of that?" said Nic contemptuously; "it was only pins and
needles."
"Nay, Master Nic, it waren't that. I've been a sailor in the king's
ships and have had it before. It was the fighting-stuff running down to
the very tips of my fingers, and they wouldn't let go."
"Hush! don't talk now," whispered Nic; "there may be one or two of the
enemy yonder."
"Nay, it's a bit too soon for 'em, sir; but it'll be as well to keep
quiet."
The narrow paths of the tangled wilderness at the back of the pool were
so well known to all present that their young leader had no difficulty
in getting them stationed by twos and threes well down the sides of the
gorge on shelves and ledges where the bushes and ferns grew thickly,
from whence, when the poachers were well at work, it would be easy to
spring down into the water and make the attack. For the flood had so
far subsided now that the worst hole was not above five feet deep, and
the greater part about three, with a fairly even bottom of ground-down
rock smoothed by the pebbles washed over it in flood-time.
Here it was that the salmon for the most part congregated, the
new-comers from the sea taking naturally to the haunts of their
forerunners from time immemorial, so that poacher or honest fisher
pretty well knew where he would be most successful.
Nic chose a central spot for himself and Solly, some four feet above the
level of the black water, and after ranging his men to right and left he
sat down to wait, with all silent and dark around, save for the murmur
of the water and the gleaming of a star or two overhead, for besides
this there was not a glint of light. Still, the place seemed to stand
out before him. Exactly opposite, across the pool, was the narrow
opening between the steep rocks on either side; and he knew without
telling that as soon as the poachers began their work his father would
send some of his active allies into the bed of the stream lower down, to
advance upward, probably before the whistle was blown.
"And then the scoundrels will be in a regular trap before they know it,"
thought Nic, as he strained his ears to catch the sound of the sailors
being stationed in their hiding-places; but all was still save the soft
humming roar of the falling water plunging into the pool.
An hour passed very slowly, and Nic's cramped position began to affect
him with the tingling sensation known as pins and needles; this he did
not attribute to the movement of his nerve-currents eager to reach his
toes and fill him with a desire to kick his enemies, but quietly changed
his position and waited, trembling with excitement, and longing now to
get the matter over, fully satisfied as he was that his friends were all
in position and ready for the fray.
At last!
There was a sharp crack, as if someone had trodden upon a piece of
dead-wood away up to the right. Then another crack and a rustling, and
an evident disregard of caution.
"Come along, my lads," said a low, harsh voice; and then there was a
splash, as if a man had lowered himself into the water. "They had
enough of it last time, and won't come this, I'll wager. If they do,
we're half as many again, and we'll give 'em such a drubbing as'll stop
'em for long enough."
"Needn't shout and holloa," said another voice from the side. "Keep
quiet. We don't want to fight unless we're obliged."
"Oh no, of course not!" said the man with the harsh voice mockingly.
"If we do have to, my lads, two of you had better take Pete Burge home
to his mother."
There was a low laugh at this, and Pete remained silent as far as making
any retort was concerned, but directly after Nic felt a singular thrill
run through him as the man said softly:
"Three of you get there to the mouth and drop the net across and hold
it, for the fish will make a rush that way. Don't be afraid of the
water. Shove the bottom line well round the stones, and keep your feet
on it. A lot got away last time."
There was the sound of the water washing as men waded along the side of
the great circular pool, and then the whishing of a net being dropped
down and arranged.
"Ha, ha!" laughed a man; "there's one of 'em. Come back again' my legs.
He's in the net now. Can't get through."
"Now then," cried the harsh-voiced fellow; "open those lanthorns and get
your links alight, so as we can see what we're about."
"Not zo much noise, Humpy Dee," said Pete sharply, as the light of three
lanthorns which had been carried beneath sacks gleamed out over the
water, and the light rapidly increased as dark figures could be seen
lighting torches from the feeble candles and then waving their sticks of
oakum and pitch to make them blaze, so that others could also start the
links they carried.
At first the light was feeble, and a good deal of black smoke arose, but
soon after over a dozen torches were burning brightly, showing quite a
little crowd of men, standing in the black water, armed with hooks and
fish-spears, and each with a stout staff stuck in his belt.
The scene was weird and strange, the light reflected from the cliff-like
sides of the pool seeming to be condensed upon the surface; and the
faces of the marauders gleamed strangely above the flashing water,
beginning to be agitated now by the startled salmon; while rising upward
there was a gathering cloud of black, stifling smoke.
"Ready there with that net," cried Humpy Dee, a broad-shouldered,
dwarfed man, whose head was deep down between his shoulders.
"Ay, ay!" came from the mouth of the pool.
"Less noise," cried Pete angrily. "Here, you, Jack Willick, and you,
Nat Barrow, go up towards the house and give us word if anyone's coming,
so as we may be ready."
"To run?" snarled Humpy Dee. "Stop where you are, lads. If the old
squire meant to come with his gang he'd ha' been here afore now, and--"
_Phee-yew_!
The Captain's shrill silver whistle rang out loudly at this instant, and
Nic and his men grasped their cudgels more tightly.
"Now for it, lads," he shouted, and he sprang from his ledge into the
water and made at Humpy Dee.