No further harm came of the incident; but it served as a healthy
object-lesson for the Dalesmen.
A coincidence it may have been, but, as a fact, for the fortnight
succeeding Kirby's exploit there was a lull in the crimes. There
followed, as though to make amends, the seven days still remembered in
the Daleland as the Bloody Week.
On the Sunday the Squire lost a Cheviot ewe, killed not a hundred yards
from the Manor wall. On the Monday a farm on the Black Water was marked
with the red cross. On Tuesday--a black night--Tupper at Swinsthwaite
came upon the murderer at his work; he fired into the darkness without
effect; and the Killer escaped with a scaring. On the following night
Viscount Birdsaye lost a shearling ram, for which he was reported to
have paid a fabulous sum. Thursday was the one blank night of the week.
On Friday Tupper was again visited and punished heavily, as though in
revenge for that shot.
On the Saturday afternoon a big meeting was held at the Manor to discuss
measures. The Squire presided; gentlemen and magistrates were there in
numbers, and every farmer in the country-side.
To start the proceedings the Special Commissioner read a futile letter
from the Board of Agriculture. After him Viscount Birdsaye rose and
proposed that a reward more suitable to the seriousness of the case
than the paltry 5 pounds of the Police should be offered, and backed his
proposal with a 25 pound cheque. Several others spoke, and, last of all,
Parson Leggy rose.
He briefly summarized the history of the crimes; reiterated his belief
that a sheep-dog was the criminal; declared that nothing had occurred
to shake his conviction; and concluded by offering a remedy for their
consideration. Simple it was, so he said, to laughableness; yet, if
their surmise was correct, it would serve as an effectual preventive if
not cure, and would at least give them time to turn round. He paused.
“My suggestion is: That every man-jack of you who owns a sheep-dog ties
him up at night.”
The farmers were given half an hour to consider the proposal, and
clustered in knots talking it over. Many an eye was directed on M'Adam;
but that little man appeared all unconscious.
“Weel, Mr. Saunderson,” he was saying in, shrill accents, “and shall ye
tie Shep?”
“What d'yo' think?” asked Rob, eying the man at whom the measure was
aimed.
“Why, it's this way, I'm thinkin',” the little man replied. “Gin ye haud
Shep's the guilty one I _wad_, by all manner o' means--or shootin'd be
aiblins better. If not, why”--he shrugged his shoulders significantly;
and having shown his hand and driven the nail well home, the little man
left the meeting.
James Moore stayed to see the Parson's resolution negatived, by a large
majority, and then he too quitted the hall. He had foreseen the result,
and, previous to the meeting, had warned the Parson how it would be.
“Tie up!” he cried almost indignantly, as Owd Bob came galloping up
to his whistle; “I think I see myself chainin' yo', owd lad, like any
murderer. Why, it's yo' has kept the Killer off Kenmuir so far, I'll
lay.”
At the lodge-gate was M'Adam, for once without his familiar spirit,
playing with the lodge-keeper's child; for the little man loved all
children but his own, and was beloved of them. As the Master approached
he looked up.
“Weel, Moore,” he called, “and are you gaein' to tie yer dog?”
“I will if you will yours,” the Master answered grimly.
“Na,” the little man replied, “it's Wullie as frichts the Killer aff the
Grange. That's why I've left him there noo.”
“It's the same wi' me,” the Master said. “He's not come to Kenmuir yet,
nor he'll not so long as Th' Owd Un's loose, I reck'n.”
“Loose or tied, for the matter o' that,” the little man rejoined,
“Kenmuir'll escape.” He made the statement dogmatically, snapping his
lips.
The Master frowned.
“Why that?” he asked.
“Ha' ye no heard what they're sayin'?” the little man inquired with
raised eyebrows.
“Nay; what?”
“Why, that the mere repitation o' th' best sheep-dog in the North'
should keep him aff. An' I guess they're reet,” and he laughed shrilly
as he spoke.
The Master passed on, puzzled.
“Which road are ye gaein' hame?” M'Adam called after him. “Because,”
with a polite smile, “I'll tak' t'ither.”
“I'm off by the Windy Brae,” the Master answered, striding on. “Squire
asked me to leave a note wi' his shepherd t'other side o' the Chair.”
So he headed away to the left, making for home by the route along the
Silver Mere.
It is a long sweep of almost unbroken moorland, the well-called Windy
Brae; sloping gently down in mile on mile of heather from the Mere
Marches on the top to the fringe of the Silver Mere below. In all that
waste of moor the only break is the quaint-shaped Giant's Chair,
puzzle of geologists, looking as though plumped down by accident in the
heathery wild. The ground rises suddenly from the uniform grade of the
Brae; up it goes, ever growing steeper, until at length it runs abruptly
into a sheer curtain of rock--the Fall--which rises perpendicular some
forty feet, on the top of which rests that tiny grassy bowl--not twenty
yards across--they call the Scoop.
The Scoop forms the seat of the Chair and reposes on its collar of rock,
cool and green and out of the world, like wine in a metal cup; in front
is the forty-foot Fall; behind, rising sheer again, the wall of rock
which makes the back of the Chair. Inaccessible from above, the only
means of entrance to that little dell are two narrow sheep-tracks, which
crawl dangerously up between the sheer wall on the one hand and the
sheer Fall on the other, entering it at opposite sides.
It stands out clear-cut from the gradual incline, that peculiar
eminence; yet as the Master and Owd Bob debouched on to the Brae it was
already invisible in the darkening night.
Through the heather the two swung, the Master thinking now with a smile
of David and Maggie; wondering what M'Adam had meant; musing with a
frown on the Killer; pondering on his identity--for he was half of
David's opinion as to Red Wull's innocence; and thanking his stars that
so far Kenmuir had escaped, a piece of luck he attributed entirely to
the vigilance of Th' Owd Un, who, sleeping in the porch, slipped out at
all hours and went his rounds, warding off danger. And at the thought
he looked down for the dark head which should be travelling at his knee;
yet could not see it, so thick hung the pall of night.
So he brushed his way along, and ever the night grew blacker; until,
from the swell of the ground beneath his feet, he knew himself skirting
the Giant's Chair.
Now as he sped along the foot of the rise, of a sudden there burst
on his ear the myriad patter of galloping feet. He turned, and at the
second a swirl of sheep almost bore him down. It was velvet-black,
and they fled furiously by, yet he dimly discovered, driving at their
trails, a vague hound-like form.
“The Killer, by thunder!” he ejaculated, and, startled though he was,
struck down at that last pursuing shape, to miss and almost fall.
“Bob, lad!” he cried, “follow on!” and swung round; but in the darkness
could not see if the gray dog had obeyed.
The chase swept on into the night, and, far above him on the hill-side,
he could now hear the rattle of the flying feet. He started hotly in
pursuit, and then, recognizing the futility of following where he
could not see his hand, desisted. So he stood motionless, listening
and peering into the blackness, hoping Th' Owd Un was on the villain's
heels.
He prayed for the moon; and, as though in answer, the lantern of the
night shone out and lit the dour face of the Chair above him. He shot a
glance at his feet; and thanked heaven on finding the gray dog was not
beside him.
Then he looked up. The sheep had broken, and were scattered over the
steep hill-side, still galloping madly. In the rout one pair of darting
figures caught and held his gaze: the foremost dodging, twisting,
speeding upward, the hinder hard on the leader's heels, swift,
remorseless, never changing. He looked for a third pursuing form; but
none could he discern.
“He mun ha' missed him in the dark,” the Master muttered, the sweat
standing on his brow, as he strained his eyes upward.
Higher and higher sped those two dark specks, far out-topping the
scattered remnant of the flock. Up and up, until of a sudden the sheer
Fall dropped its relentless barrier in the path of the fugitive. Away,
scudding along the foot of the rock-wall struck the familiar track
leading to the Scoop, and up it, bleating pitifully, nigh spent, the
Killer hard on her now.
“He'll doon her in the Scoop!” cried the Master hoarsely, following
with fascinated eyes. “Owd Un! Owd Un! wheer iver are yo' gotten to?” he
called in agony; but no Owd Un made reply.
As they reached the summit, just as he had prophesied, the two black
dots were one; and down they rolled together into the hollow of the
Scoop, out of the Master's ken. At the same instant the moon, as though
loth to watch the last act of the bloody play, veiled her face.
It was his chance. “Noo!”--and up the hillside he sped like a young man,
girding his loins for the struggle. The slope grew steep and steeper;
but on and on he held in the darkness, gasping painfully, yet running
still, until the face of the Fall blocked his way too.
There he paused a moment, and whistled a low call. Could he but dispatch
the old dog up the one path to the Scoop, while he took the other, the
murderer's one road to safety would be blocked.
He waited, all expectant; but no cold muzzle was shoved into his hand.
Again he whistled. A pebble from above almost dropped on him, as if the
criminal up there had moved to the brink of the Fall to listen; and he
dared no more.
He waited till all was still again, then crept, cat-like, along the
rock-foot, and hit, at length, the track up which a while before had
fled Killer and victim. Up that ragged way he crawled on hands and
knees. The perspiration rolled off his face; one elbow brushed the rock
perpetually; one hand plunged ever and anon into that naked emptiness on
the other side.
He prayed that the moon might keep in but a little longer; that his feet
might be saved from falling, where a slip might well mean death, certain
destruction to any chance of success. He cursed his luck that Th' Owd Un
had somehow missed him in the dark; for now he must trust to chance, his
own great strength, and his good oak stick. And as he climbed, he laid
his plan: to rush in on the Killer as he still gorged and grapple
with him. If in the darkness he missed--and in that narrow arena the
contingency was improbable--the murderer might still, in the panic of
the moment, forget the one path to safety and leap over the Fall to his
destruction.
At length he reached the summit and paused to draw breath. The
black void before him was the Scoop, and in its bosom--not ten yards
away--must be lying the Killer and the killed.
He crouched against the wet rock-face and listened. In that dark
silence, poised 'twixt heaven and earth, he seemed a million miles apart
from living soul.
No sound, and yet the murderer must be there. Ay, there was the tinkle
of a dislodged stone; and again, the tread of stealthy feet.
The Killer was moving; alarmed; was off.
Quick!
He rose to his full height; gathered himself, and leapt.
Something collided with him as he sprang; something wrestled madly with
him; something wrenched from beneath him; and in a clap he heard
the thud of a body striking ground far below, and the slithering and
splattering of some creature speeding furiously down the hill-side and
away.
“Who the blazes?” roared he.
“What the devil?” screamed a little voice.
The moon shone out.
“Moore!”
“M'Adam!”
And there they were still struggling over the body of a dead sheep.
In a second they had disengaged and rushed to the edge of the Fall. In
the quiet they could still hear the scrambling hurry of the fugitive far
below them. Nothing was to be seen, however, save an array of startled
sheep on the hill-side, mute witnesses of the murderer's escape.
The two men turned and eyed each other; the one grim, the other
sardonic: both dishevelled and suspicious.
“Well?''
“Weel?”
A pause and, careful scrutiny.
“There's blood on your coat.”
“And on yours.”
Together they walked hack into the little moonlit hollow. There lay the
murdered sheep in a pool of blood. Plain it was to see whence the marks
on their coats came. M'Adam touched the victim's head with his foot. The
movement exposed its throat. With a shudder he replaced it as it was.
The two men stood back and eyed one another.
“What are yo' doin' here?”
“After the Killer. What are you?”
“After the Killer?”
“Hoo did you come?”
“Up this path,” pointing to the one behind him. “Hoo did you?”
“Up this.”
Silence; then again:
“I'd ha' had him but for yo'.”
“I did have him, but ye tore me aff,”
A pause again.
“Where's yer gray dog?” This time the challenge was unmistakable.
“I sent him after the Killer. Wheer's your Red Wull?”
“At hame, as I tell't ye before.”
“Yo' mean yo' left him there?” M'Adam's fingers twitched.
“He's where I left him.”
James Moore shrugged his shoulders. And the other began:
“When did yer dog leave ye?”
“When the Killer came past.”
“Ye wad say ye missed him then?”
“I say what I mean.”
“Ye say he went after the Killer. Noo the Killer was here,” pointing to
the dead sheep. “Was your dog here, too?”
“If he had been he'd been here still.”
“Onless he went over the Fall!”
“That was the Killer, yo' fule.”
“Or your dog.”
“There was only _one_ beneath me. I felt him.”
“Just so,” said M'Adam, and laughed. The other's brow contracted.
“An' that was a big un,” he said slowly. The little man stopped his
cackling.
“There ye lie,” he said, smoothly. “He was small.”
They looked one another full in the eyes.
“That's a matter of opinion,” said the Master.
“It's a matter of fact,” said the other.
The two stared at one another, silent and stern, each trying to fathom
the other's soul; then they turned again to the brink of the Fall.
Beneath them, plain to see, was the splash and furrow in the shingle
marking the Killer's line of retreat. They looked at one another again,
and then each departed the way he had come to give his version of the
story.
“'If Th' Owd Un had kept wi' me, I should ha' had him.”
And--
“I tell ye I did have him, but James Moore pulled me aff. Strange, too,
his dog not bein' wi' him!”