Tom thought the matter over for days as he worked at the speculum now
approaching completion. He had met Pete Warboys twice, but the fellow
looked innocency itself, staring hard and vacantly at him, who longed to
charge him with the theft, but felt that he could not without better
evidence.
Then a bright thought came as he was polishing away opposite his uncle,
and using the finest emery.
"I know," he said to himself, and he waited impatiently to be at
liberty, which was not until after tea.
"Going for a walk, Master Tom?" said David, whom he encountered in the
lane.
"Yes; rather in a hurry now."
"Can't tell him yet, because I'm not sure," thought Tom; and he walked
sharply away for the corner where he had left his uncle in the
bath-chair, and all the memories of that day came back as the various
familiar objects came in view.
"I wonder whether he's quite well again now," said the boy to himself;
"but he can't have been so ill as he thought."
But his walk on that golden orange sunset evening had nothing whatever
to do with his uncle, for, as soon as he reached the bend where the road
began to slope, he struck off to the left in among the trees, trying
hard to follow exactly the same track as that taken by Pete Warboys when
he was pursued.
It was not easy, for the great lad had dodged about among the great
fir-trees in quite a zigzag fashion. Still Tom followed the direction,
with the scaly, pillar-like trunks looking golden-red in the horizontal
rays of the sun, which cast their long shadows in wonderful array, till
it seemed to the boy at last as if he were walking through a quivering
golden mist barred with great strokes of purply black.
"I shan't get there before it begins to be dark," he thought, "for this
can't last. Why, it's like a fiery furnace now burning on great iron
bars." Then there was another change, for the dark-green rough
fir-boughs began to be lit up overhead, and the forest looked brighter
than ever.
A wood of fir-trees is a puzzling place, from the fact that in a mile or
two, consequent upon their regular growth, you may find hundreds,
perhaps thousands, of places exactly alike--the same-looking tall, red,
scaly columns, the same distance apart, the same grey carpet of
fir-needles, and the same grey rough-topped, mushroom-shaped fungi
growing up and pushing the fir-needles aside to make room for them.
Then too the great natural temple, with its dark column-supported roof,
has a way of looking different at morning, noon, and eve; and as
different again according to the state of the weather, so that though
you may be pretty familiar with the place, it is a difficult task to
find your way for the second time.
It was so now with Tom Blount. There was a spot in the wood for which
he had aimed, and it seemed to be the easiest thing possible to go
straight there; but the trees prevented any such straight course, and
after a little dodging in and out the mind refuses to bear all the
changes of course and repeat them to the traveller, who gradually grows
more and more confused, and if he does not hit upon the spot he seeks by
accident, in all probability he has to give it up for what people call a
bad job.
"Here it is at last," said Tom to himself, after following, as he
thought, exactly the course he had taken when he chased Pete Warboys for
throwing stones at the bath-chair, and coming upon a rugged portion of
the fir-wood.
"Bother! I made so sure it was," he muttered, for the opening he sought
beside a great fir-tree was not there, and rubbing one of his ears with
vexation, he stood looking round again, and down long vistas between the
straight tree-trunks.
But no, there was not a sign of the spot he wanted, and the farther he
went the more confused he grew. It was still gloriously bright
overhead, but the dark bars of shadow were nearly all gone, and it
looked as if darkness were slowly rising like a transparent mist out of
the earth; one minute it was up to his knees, and then creeping up and
up till the tree-trunks looked as if they were plunged in a kind of
flood, while their upper portions were glowing as if on fire.
"I'll have one more try," thought Tom, "and then give it up till
to-morrow morning. That's the best time, when you've got the whole day
before you, and not the night. Let's see, what did uncle say about my
getting to know a lot about optics and astronomy? Of course--I
remember: it was nice to be a boy, for he was in the morning of life,
and all the long bright day of manhood before him in which to work; and
the pleasant evening in which to think of that work well done, before
the soft gentle night fell, bringing with it the great peaceful sleep.
How serious he looked when he said all that!"
These thoughts in the coming gloom of the autumn evening made Tom feel
serious too. Then they passed away as he had that other try, and
another, and another, pretty well a dozen before he made a rush for what
he rightly assumed to be the north-east, and finally reached the road
pretty well tired out.
It was before the sun was far above the horizon the next morning that
Tom went out of the garden gate, and by the time he reached the spot
where he had turned into the wood, and gone many yards in amongst the
trees, he found the appearance of the place almost precisely the same as
he had seen it on the previous evening. There was the roof of the
natural temple all aglow, the dark bars across the tall boughs, and the
shadows stretching far away crossing each other in bewildering
confusion. But everything was reversed, and instead of the shadows
creeping upwards they stole down lower and lower, till the roof of
boughs grew dark and the carpet of soft fir-needles began to glow.
Then too, as he went south, the bright light came from his left instead
of his right.
"How beautiful!" he thought. "How stupid it is to lie in bed so long
when everything is so soft and fresh and bright in the morning. But
then bed is so jolly snug and comfortable just then, and it is so hard
to get one's eyes open. It's such a pity," he mused; "bed isn't much
when one gets in first, but grows more and more comfortable till it's
time to get up. I wish one could turn it right round."
These thoughts passed away, for there were squirrels about, and jays
noisily resenting his visit, and shouting to each other in jay--"Here's
a boy coming."
Then he caught sight of a magpie, after hearing its laughing call. A
hawk flew out of a very tall pine in an opening, and strewn beneath
there were feathers and bones suggestive of the hook-beaked creature's
last meal.
But as he followed the track of the pursuit once more, he had that to
take up his attention, till he felt sure that he must be close to the
place he sought, but grew more puzzled than ever as he gazed right round
him.
"It must be farther on," he muttered; and, starting once more, he
stopped at the end of another fifty yards or so, to have a fresh look
round down each vista of trees, which started from where he stood.
It was more open here, and in consequence a patch of bracken had run up
to a goodly height, spreading its fronds toward the light, but there was
nothing visible as Tom turned slowly upon his heels, till he was looking
nearly straight back along the way he had come, and then, quick as
thought, he dropped down amongst the bracken, and crept on hands and
knees till, still sheltered by it, he could watch the object he had
seen.
That object was Pete Warboys, who had suddenly risen up out of the
earth, and stood yawning and stretching himself, ending by giving one of
his shoulders a good rasp against a fir-tree.
"Why, he must have been sleeping there," thought Tom, "and I must have
passed close to his hole. What an old fox he is. Hullo! there's the
dog."
For the big mongrel suddenly appeared, and sprang up so as to place its
paws upon its master's breast, apparently as a morning greeting. But
this was not received in a friendly way.
"Get out!" growled Pete, kicking the dog in the leg. There was a loud
yelp, and Pete shook himself and began to slouch away.
Tom watched him till he had disappeared among the trees, and then went
back over his track till he stood close to the spot whence the lad had
appeared. Here Tom looked round, but nothing was visible till he had
gone a few yards to his right, when, to his surprise, he came to the
side of the opening down in which was the side hole running beneath the
roots of the great fir.
Tom had another look back, and, seeing nothing, he leaped down on to the
soft sand, felt in his pocket, and brought out a tin box of wax-matches.
Then, dropping upon his knees, he lit one, and holding it before him,
crept under the roots and into a little cave like a low rugged tunnel
scooped out of the sandy rock, and in one corner of which was a heap of
little pine boughs, and an exceedingly dirty old ragged blanket.
By this time Tom's match went out, and he lit another, after carefully
placing the burnt end of the first in his pocket.
This light gave him another view of the little hole, for it was quite
small, but there was not much to see. There were the leaves and
blanket, both still warm; there was a stick, and a peg driven into the
side, on which hung a couple of wires; and some pine-tree roots bristled
from the top and sides. That was all.
"No pears, not even a plum-stone," said Tom, in a disappointed tone, for
he had pictured this hole from which he had seen Pete issue as a kind of
robber's cave, in which he would find stored up quantities of stolen
fruit, and perhaps other things that would prove to be of intense
interest.
"Nothing--nothing at all," said Tom to himself, as the last match he had
burned became extinct. "All this trouble for that, and perhaps it
wasn't him after all. But how comic!" he said to himself after a pause.
"He comes here so as to be away from that dreadful old woman. No
wonder."
He was in the act of placing his last extinct scrap of match in his
pocket, as he stood in a stooping position facing the mouth of the
little cave, when he heard a faint rustling sound, and directly after
something seemed to leap right in at the entrance, disturbing the
pendulous fringe of exposed roots which hung down, and crouching in the
dim light close to Tom's feet.
"Rabbit!" he said to himself.
But the next moment he saw that it was not alive, for it lay there in a
peculiar distorted fashion; and as his eyes grew more used to the gloom,
he saw that there was a wire about the poor animal cutting it nearly in
two, and a portion of a strong wooden peg protruded from beneath.
"I begin to see now," muttered Tom. "I dare say I should find the place
somewhere about where he cooks his rabbits, unless he sells them."
Tom wanted to get out now. The poaching was nothing to him, he thought,
and he seemed to have been wrong about the fruit, so he was ready to
hurry away, but something within him made him resent the idea of being
seen prying there; and it was evident that Pete had been out looking at
his wires, and had just brought this rabbit home.
"Perhaps he has gone now," thought Tom; but he did not stir, waiting
till he thought all was clear. Then at the end of a quarter of an hour
he crept out into the open hole, raised his head cautiously, and got his
eyes above the edge, when, to his disgust, he saw that Pete was
approaching hurriedly, swinging another rabbit by the legs.
Tom shot back quickly enough into Pete's lurking-place, and turned to
face him if the fellow came in. He did not think he was afraid of Pete,
but all the same he did not feel disposed to have a tussle before
breakfast. Besides, his leg was rather stiff and painful from the blows
David had given to him.
But he had little time for thinking. All at once the rushing sound
began again, accompanied by a shuffling and a hoarse "Get out," followed
by the sound of a blow, and directly after by a sharp yelp.
Then there was a dull thud as the light was momentarily obscured, and
another rabbit caught in a wire was thrown in.
"Now for it," thought Tom, and he involuntarily stretched out his hand
to seize the stick close to the bed, but clenched his fist instead, and
stood there in his confined stooping position ready to defend himself,
but sorry that he had not boldly gone out at once.
Suddenly there was a fresh darkening of the light, and Tom did seize the
stout stick and hold it lance fashion, for the dog had leaped down into
the hole, and now stood at the little entrance to the cave growling
savagely.
"Let 'em alone," cried Pete, "d'yer hear? Let 'em alone."
But the dog paid no heed. It stood there with its eyes glaring, showing
its teeth, and threatening unheard-of worryings of the interloper.
Still Pete did not grasp the situation. The dog in his estimation was
disobeying him by attempting to worry dead rabbits; and, leaping down
into the hole, he kicked savagely at it, making it yelp loudly and bound
out of the hole, Pete, whose legs up to the waist had now been visible
to Tom, scrambling after the animal, abusing it with every epithet he
could think of, and driving it before him through the wood.
"My chance," thought Tom, and he sprang out, and making a circuit,
struck out for home without seeing either Pete or his dog again.
But Tom did not feel satisfied, for it seemed to him that he was
behaving in a cowardly way; and as he tramped along the lane, he wished
that he had walked out boldly and confronted his enemy instead of
remaining in hiding. Taken altogether, he felt thoroughly grumpy as he
approached the cottage, and it did not occur to him that his sensation
of depression had a very simple origin. In fact it was this. He had
risen before the sun, and had a very long walk, going through a good
deal of exertion without having broken his fast. When breakfast was
half over he felt in the highest spirits, for his uncle had made no
allusion to the adventure in the garden over-night.