"Ah, there he goes," said Mark, beneath his breath, as he stood
motionless, and watched a large raven flapping along, high overhead, in
the direction he was taking. "Perhaps that's the cock bird. Looks big.
The nest may be where old Master Rayburn says, or up this way, and the
bird's going for food."
He waited till the raven disappeared, and then went on down-stream,
taking to a path higher up, which led him by a pretty cottage, standing
in a niche at a bend of the river, so that the place had a good view up
and down-stream, and with its pleasant garden, looked the sort of home
which might well make its owner content.
But Mark Eden's mind was too full of ravens' nests, to leave room for
any contemplation of the old scholar's cottage; and he hurried on by the
path, which cut off two or three bends of the river, taking him right
away for quite a couple of miles, and bringing him to the water's-edge
again, just in front of a mighty cliff, which towered up out of a dense
grove of beeches on the other side of the river.
The place was solitary and still in the extreme; and going close down to
the water's-edge, Mark Eden seated himself upon a mossy stone, between
two great hawthorns, which hid him from anything coming up or
down-stream, while brambles, ferns, and clustering hemlock-plants, hid
his back and front.
It was a pleasant resting-place, to sit and watch the rapidly running
river, which was very shallow here; and from his hiding-place, he could
see the shadows of the ripples, and the stony bottom, and also those
cast by trout, as they glided here and there, waiting for the
unfortunate flies and caterpillars which had fallen from overhanging
boughs, to be washed down the stream.
But Mark had but a glance for the fish: his attention was taken up by
the mass of precipitous stone before him, so steep, that it was only
here and there, in cracks or on ledges, that herb or stunted bush could
find a place to root; and as he scanned the precipice, from its foot
among the beeches, to its brow, five hundred feet above where he sat, he
wondered whether the ravens nested there.
No more likely place could be found for the great birds to rear their
young; the cliff looked inaccessible, and days would pass, sometimes
weeks, and not a soul come near.
"Old Master Rayburn must be right," thought the lad. "What eyes he has
for everything of this kind. There are no rooks in the beeches; there
isn't a jackdaw about; and I haven't seen a rock-dove; all proof that
the ravens are here, for the others would not dare to nest near them.
Only be to hatch young ones for food. But I don't see my gentleman nor
his lady."
A hoarse, distant bark was heard, just as the lad's neck began to ache
with staring up in vain, in the search for the nest, and he sat
perfectly motionless, crouched amongst the hemlock and heracleum, to be
rewarded by seeing a shadow thrown on the white limestone far on high,
and directly after one of the great glossy black birds alight, right on
the edge of the cliff, from whence it hopped into the air, and seemed to
let itself fall some forty feet, down behind a stunted patch of broom,
which had rooted in a cleft. There it disappeared for a few moments, to
reappear, diving down toward the stream, but only to circle upward
again, rise higher and higher, and finally disappear over the cliff,
half a quarter of a mile away.
"Found it!" panted Mark; "a nest with young ones. Chance if there are
any eggs for Master Rayburn."
He leaned back to examine the place.
"Can't get up there," he muttered at last; "but it would be easy to get
down from the top. I could do it, but--"
He took off his cap, and gave his brown hair a vicious scratch, for
there were other obstacles in the way.
It would be easy to wade across the river; easy to make his way along
the other side to where the cliff sloped, five hundred yards lower down
the stream. From there he could reach the high down, which was broken
off short to form the cliff, and walk along the edge till he was exactly
over the nest, and then descend. Those were not obstacles, but trifles.
The great difficulty was moral. That great mass of limestone was on
the Darley estate, and for a few minutes, the lad felt as if he must
give it up.
But obstacles only spurred him on to action, and he cried to himself,
petulantly:
"Is it theirs? Who are they, to claim an open wild place like that?
They'll be saying next that all Darbyshire belongs to them. It's as
much ours as theirs, and, if we had our rights, it would be ours. I
shall go, in spite of all the Darleys in the county. Who are they?
Piece of rock and moor like that, and they claim it. Let them. I shall
not stop away for them."
The boy flushed, and ignoring the fact that he was about to commit a
trespass, he slipped off shoes and hose, waded straight across the
shallow river, and sat down on the other side to dry his feet, and put
on hose and shoes again.
And all the time he felt a strong desire to glance up and down the
river, to see if he had been observed by any one; but in his pride of
heart he would not, for fear that he would be seen watching, and some
one connected with his family's enemies take it for a sign of fear.
This done, he rose, gave his feet a stamp, glanced up at the face of the
cliff, to see one of the parent ravens fly off, uttering an angry croak;
and then he began to bear off to the right, so as to ascend the low part
of the cliff, reaching the top quite five hundred yards away, and
turning at once to continue his ascent by walking along the edge, which
rose steeply, till it reached the point above the raven's nest, and then
sloped down into a hollow, to rise once more into the wooded eminence
which was crowned by Cliff Castle, the Darleys' home.
"They've a deal better place than we," said Mark to himself, as he
strode on, in full defiance of the possibility of being seen, though it
was hardly likely, a great patch of mighty beech-trees, mingled with
firs, lying between the top of the big cliff and the Darleys' dwelling.
"More trees, and facing toward the west and south, with the river below
them, while our home is treeless and bare, and looks to the north and
east, and is often covered with snow when their side's sunny and bright.
My word! warm work, climbing up here, and the grass is as slippery as
if it had been polished. Mustn't go over. Father wouldn't like it if I
were to be killed; but I shouldn't be, for I should come down in the
tree-tops, and then fall from bough to bough into the river, and it's
deep just under the raven's nest."
Thinking this, he went on, up and up, cautiously, clear of head as one
who had from childhood played about the cliffs, and reaching the summit
breathless, to stand on the extreme verge, watching one of the ravens,
which came sailing up, saw him at a distance, rose above his head, and
then began to circle round, uttering hoarse cries.
"Ah, thief!" cried the lad; "I see what you have in your beak. A
chicken; but your tricks are at an end. No more feeding young ravens
here."
"Better get to the nest, first, though," said the boy laughingly; and he
leaned forward, quite out of the perpendicular, to look down below the
bush which sheltered the nest. "Easy enough: I can do it. If Ralph
Darley had been half a fellow, he would have taken it himself. Better
take off my sword, though. No; mustn't leave that in the enemy's
country. I'll take it down with me. Be nice to come up again, and find
that one of those ragged Jacks had got hold of it! I wonder whether Sir
Morton engaged them the other day. Very likely. He's bad enough to do
such an ungentlemanly thing. What did that fellow call himself. Pearl
nose? Ought to have been Ruby nose. No, no; I remember now; it was
Pearl Rose. My word, how high and mighty he was! Quite threatening.
He'd go straight to Sir Morton Darley, if father did not enlist him and
his men in our service. That upset father, just as he was thinking
whether he should have them. He never could bear being threatened. How
soon he sent them about their business, and threatened to summon the
miners as well as our men. It will be awkward, though, if Sir Morton
has engaged them, and strengthened his followers like that. May mean an
attack. I wonder whether he did take their offer. If he has, father
will wish he had agreed to the fellow's terms. I don't know, though.
As he said to me, they would have been falling out with the mine men,
and they seemed a ragged, drunken-looking set. Glad he sent them about
their business."
All this, suggested by the possibility of losing his sword, just when he
was upon an enemy's land; but he had not stopped on the top to think,
for after lying down upon his breast, to gaze down and select the best
place for his descent, he turned as he mused, lowered his legs, and
began to descend, finding that after all his sword was not much in his
way.
It was no new thing to Mark Eden to climb about the limestone cliffs,
which formed one side of the Gleame, sometimes sloping down gradually,
at others perpendicular, and in some cases partly overhanging, though in
the latter case, it meant only for a few winters before, after being
well saturated, the frost split them, piece by piece, till they went
thundering down among the trees, generally to bound right into the river
bed.
But, sloping or perpendicular, the formation was nearly always the same,
stratum after stratum of from one to three feet in thickness, lying one
upon the other, and riven into blocks which looked as if they had been
laid by giant masons, to form a monstrous wall. Consequently, between
the strata and their upright dividing cracks, there were plenty of
places where a bold climber could find foot and hand-hold, without
counting upon roots of trees, wiry shrubs, and tough herbs, to hold on
by when other objects failed.
So easily enough, down went Mark, humming his tune again, and changing
the humming to singing about the three ravens sitting on a tree, though
in this instance, excepting the young in the nest below, there were only
two, and instead of sitting, they were sailing round and round, croaking
and barking angrily, the cock bird, if it was not the hen, making a
pretence every now and then, to dart down and strike at the would-be
marauder, who was descending to their home.
But Mark lowered himself steadily enough, laughing at the angry birds,
and listening for the first cries of their young, as he wondered how big
they would be.
He soon found that appearances were deceitful, upon a great height like
that, for instead of the bush which hid the nest, being forty feet from
the cliff brow, it was a good sixty, and the climbing was not so good as
he had anticipated. The limestone crumbled away here and there; tufts
of tough grass came out by the roots, and the stunted stems of bushes
were not plentiful enough for hand-hold. But whenever the lad found the
place too difficult, he edged off to right or left, and found an easier
spot from which he lowered himself, and edged his way back along the
joining of the next row of blocks.
To any one gazing from the opposite side, his appearance, flattened
against the cliff, would have seemed appalling, but to Mark Eden it was
a mere nothing; he was descending the old cliff, and trying to find the
easiest way, that was all. No nervous qualms troubled him, and the
thought of falling never once came into his head.
Lower and lower, with the sun beating upon his back, and the ravens
croaking more and more loudly, and getting more threatening.
"Just wait till I get down to the bush, my fine fellows," he said aloud.
"Then you may come on if you like, and I should like to see you do it;
only look out, for it means spitting yourselves. Glad I brought my
sword."
He was now only about ten feet above the bush; and as he held on for a
few moments and looked down, he saw that there was a good-sized ledge in
front of a cranny, in which the nest must be, and upon this ledge,
bones, bits of wool, feathers, and remains of rabbits' fur, were
scattered, showing how hard the old birds had worked to feed their
young.
He saw, too, something else which completely upset one of his plans,
which was, to continue his descent right to the bottom of the cliff,
after securing the young ravens; for the strata retired for some
distance below the bush, and he grasped at once the fact, that he must
return by the way he descended.
"Wish I had a bag with me," he thought, as he heard a peculiar squeaking
arise from beneath his feet. "Never mind: I'll tie their legs together
with my handkerchief, or thrust them into toy breast."
_Croak_--_croak_--_craw_--_awk_! came from one of the ravens, as it
swept by him with a rush.
"Wait a minute, my fine fellow, or madam," said the boy. "Hard for you,
perhaps; but how many chickens and ducklings have you stolen? how many
unfortunate lambs have you blinded this spring? Can't have ravens here.
Hah! that's it."
For upon forcing his hands well into a fault in the rock, he had lowered
his feet and found good foot-hold on the ledge, lowered himself a little
more, and saw that he could easily sit down, hold on by his left hand,
the stout bush being ready, and draw out a pair of well-grown nestlings
as soon as he liked.
"I'm afraid, Master Rayburn, that if there are eggs I should get them
broken if I put them in my pocket," he said aloud; "and if they do
break, phew! It would be horrible. Ah, put them in my cap. Let's
see."
He thrust his right hand into the niche, and snatched it back, for the
young ravens were big enough to use their beaks fiercely, and set up a
loud, hoarse series of cries, as soon as they found that an enemy was at
the gate.
"You vicious little wretches!" he cried. "My word, they can bite. Ah,
would you!"
This was to one of the ravens, which rendered frantic by the cries of
the young, swooped at him, and struck him with a wing in passing.
"Declaration of war, eh!" he said. "Well, it's your doing, you
murderous creatures, you lamb-slayers. I did not know you could be so
fierce."
The raven had sailed off to a distance now, croaking loudly, and joined
its mate; and as at the next movement of Mark, seated on his perilous
perch, the young ravens screeched hoarsely again, it was evident that
there was to be a fresh attack, this time united.
But the lad reached down his right arm, got hold of the hilt of his thin
rapier, and pressing closely to the niche, drew the weapon from its
sheath.
"Now then!" he cried, as the blade flashed in the sunshine, "I'm ready
for you. A new way of killing ravens. Come on."
He had not long to wait, for finding the entrance to their nesting-place
partly darkened, the young birds set up a loud series of cries,
maddening the old ones, and with a rush, down came one of them, so
fiercely that the lad's arm received a heavy stroke from a powerful
wing, the sword, passing through the feathers, between the bird's wing
and body.
"That's one to you," said the lad, drawing his breath with a sharp hiss.
"My word, you can hit hard! It's your life or mine, my fine fellow, so
look out."
Almost before he had breathed these words, amidst the outcry made by the
young, the second raven stooped at him, just as a falcon would at a
heron, and it came so unexpectedly, that once more the point of the
sword was ill directed, and a severe buffet of the bird's wing nearly
sent him down.
"This is getting too serious," he said, pressing his teeth together, as
he for the first time fully realised what enormous power a bird has in
its breast muscles.
They gave him no time for thinking, the first bird which had attacked,
after taking a swift curve round and upward, coming down again with a
fierce rush. But it was its last. Mark's sword was too well pointed
this time; there was a whirr, a heavy thud which made the hilt jar
against the lad's thigh, and the brave fierce bird had spitted itself so
thoroughly, that it struggled and beat its wings heavily as it lay on
the lad's lap, till he thrust out his arm to keep off the rain of blows,
and the bird fluttered itself off the rapier, and fell with the force of
a stone, down, down, out of sight.
A hoarse croak set the lad on guard again, and none too soon, for once
more he received a heavy blow from the companion raven's wing, as it
passed him with a whirr, striking the bush as well. Then recovering
itself from the stoop which carried it low down, it sailed up again, to
prepare for another attack.
"A bad miss," muttered the lad. "There was so little time to aim. Now
then, come on again."
The raven was far enough away, but as if it heard the challenge, it
swept round, and came on now from the other direction, an awkward one
for Mark; but he managed to hoist himself round a little, and presented
his point steadily at the advancing bird, as it came on, looking small
at first, then rapidly appearing bigger and bigger, till, with a furious
whish through the air, it was upon him.
"Hah!" ejaculated the lad, as his right arm was swung round by the
violence of the raven's stoop, and the unfortunate bird had shared its
mate's fate, for with the rush it had not only pierced itself through
and through, but swept itself off the blade, wrenching the holder's
shoulder, and falling, fluttering feebly, downward, till it too passed
from sight.
"Well done, brave birds!" panted the lad. "Seems too bad: but it has
saved no end of lambs. Who'd have thought that they would fight like
that? Why, they could have beaten me off. Lucky I brought my sword.
Phew! it has made me hot," he muttered, as he wiped the blade carefully;
and after a little wriggling to find the hole in the scabbard, thrust
the weapon home. "They will not come at me again; so now for our young
friends."
He began to feel the nest again, making the young birds squeal hoarsely,
and peck at him viciously as well; but after the parents' attack, this
seemed trifling, and, to his great satisfaction, he found that there was
an egg as well.
"Must get that down safe," he said. "Old Master Rayburn will be so--"
He did not finish his sentence, for at that moment a hoarse voice
shouted: "Hallo, below! What you doing there?" And looking up, to his
horror he saw three heads against the sky, as their owners lay on the
cliff and looked down at him; one of the faces being that of Ralph
Darley, the others, those of two of the enemy's men.