"Hi! Nick! Nick, I say, hallo!" Ralph Darley ran as he shouted at a
couple of his father's men, who were descending the slope on the eastern
side of the castle, each shouldering a short sharp pick, of the kind in
common use for hewing stone.
At first, though they must have heard, they paid no attention whatever;
but at the third angry summons, they both stopped short, looked slowly
round, and seeing their young master running, they stood still, and
waited for him to come up, which he did, panting and angry.
"You, Nick Garth," he cried; "you must have heard me call."
"Yerse," said the man addressed, a strong-built fellow, with a perfectly
smooth face, and an unpleasant-looking pair of eyes, so arranged that
they did not work properly; in fact, he could only use one at a time.
If he brought one to bear upon an object, that eye dragged its fellow
round so that the pupil dived under the man's thick nose; and if he made
an effort to see with the eclipsed one, it served its fellow in the same
way.
"You must have heard too, Ram Jennings."
"Yoss, I heared," said the other man, a dark, rather villainous-looking
fellow, whose face could not be called troubled with yellow specks, but
streaked here and there with a little whitish red, the rest being one
enormous freckle, which covered brow, cheeks, and chin.
"Then why didn't you answer?"
"Both on us stopped," said the first man addressed.
"Ay, that's so," said the other.
"Why didn't you come back, then?"
"'Cause we see you running. Didn't we, mate?"
"Ay, that's so."
"It's your duty to come to me when your called," said Ralph hotly. "The
man to the master, not the master to the man."
"Allus do," said Nick, looking insolently at the lad first with one eye,
and then with the other.
"Don't be impertinent, sir. Now then, where are you two going?"
"Over yonder," said the first man surlily.
"Ay, over yonder," said the other.
"What for?"
"Fads."
"What?"
"Fads. Young missus wants some o' they softy stones cut to build up in
the yard, round a bit o' drain pipe, to make a puddle to keep fishes
in."
"Oh!" said the lad, cooling down. "Go and do it then; I'll wait till
the afternoon."
The men grinned, shouldered their picks, and went off, while the lad
took a few paces in another direction; but turned sharply, and called
the men again, with the same result--that is, they stood still and
waited for him to join them.
"They're a pair of thick-headed fools, that's what they are," muttered
the lad. "I could teach a dog to be more dutiful. Here, Nick--Ram--did
you see those soldiers who came the other day?"
"Nay, only one o' their cloak things as they left behind."
"Left a cloak behind?"
"Ay," said the second man. "I fun' it."
"What did you do with it?"
"Burnt it. Warn't good for nothing else."
"Do you know where they went?"
"Summun said they went to Black Tor, and old Eden set 'em to work in the
mine, and keeps 'em there," said Nick, moving his head from side to
side, so as to bring his eyes alternately to bear upon his young master.
"Oh!" said Ralph softly to himself. Then aloud: "That will do."
The men grinned again, and went off, while Ralph walked slowly away to
where he could throw himself down at the side of the cliff in the
sunshine, swing his legs over the edge, where it was nice and dangerous
if he slipped, and finally leaned back to rest on one elbow, and gaze in
the direction of the high cliff beyond the depression, where the men
were gone to chip out pieces of the soft spongy-looking tufa, which lay
in beds on the slope.
"That's bad news," thought the lad. "I wonder what father will say. It
will be horrible. They will be so strong there, that one doesn't know
what will happen, only that we shall have to fight. Well, then," he
cried hotly, "we'll fight. Let them come. The Darleys have never been
beaten yet."
For the next half-hour, he lay thinking about swords, and pikes, and
armour, and big stones to cast down off the towers upon assailants, and
then his attention was taken by one of the great black ravens, flapping
its way along over the dale, and he watched it till it seemed to him to
slide down toward the cliff, a quarter of a mile away.
By-and-by he saw another great bird, and thought it the same, but
directly after, the first one reappeared, and he saw the pair cross in
the air.
"They've got a nest, and it must be on the High Cliff. Wonder whether I
could hit one of the great thieves with a crossbow-bolt. Be practice,"
he thought; "I may have to shoot at two-legged thieves."
Then the absurdity of his words came to him, and he laughed aloud.
"Well, ravens have only two legs. Rather horrible, though, to shoot at
a man. Well, I don't want to, but if they come and attack us, I'll
shoot, that I will. What are those great birds flying to and fro for?
and, yes, now they're going round and round. I know: a young lamb must
have gone over the cliff, and be bleating on one of the ledges because
it cannot get up. Poor little wretch! They'll pick its eyes out. I'll
go and see. Better get a crossbow first. Might get a shot at one of
the ravens.--Bother! it's such a way to go and fetch it; and if I did,
I'll be bound to say it would want a new string, and it would take ever
so long to get ready. Bother! it's hot, and I shan't go. Perhaps there
isn't a lamb there, after all. Fancy."
He rested his head upon his hand, and watched the far-off ravens,
becoming more and more convinced that a lamb had gone over.
"Then why don't they go at it?" he muttered. "Perhaps it's a sheep, and
they're afraid to attack. Must be something there, or they wouldn't
keep on flying to and fro like that. Well; bother! I don't care.
Sheep and lambs ought to know better."
He tried to take his thoughts back to the castle and its defensive
powers, if the Edens, strengthened by the gang of mercenaries, should
attack them, but it was too hard work to think of the imaginary, when
the real was before him in the shape of a pair of great black ravens,
flying round and round, and showing plainly against the great grey
crags, threatening from moment to moment to attack something down below.
"Here, I must go and see what there is to make them fly about like
that," said the lad to himself, at last, his curiosity getting the
better of his laziness; and, springing up, he began to descend the
slope, making a circuit, so as to reach the high cliff, away from the
precipice, and ascend where he could do so, unseen by the birds.
But before he was half-way down, he caught sight of the two men coming
in his direction rapidly; and as soon as they caught sight of him, they
began to gesticulate, beckoning, waving their caps, and generally
indicating that he was to hurry to their side.
"Oh, you idle beauties!" muttered Ralph. "I should like to give you a
lesson. Spoiled by father's indulgence, you do just as you like. I'm
to run to you, am I? Come here, you lazy dogs!"
He waved his hand to them in turn, but instead of coming on, they
stopped short, and pointed back toward the highest part of the cliff.
"Come here!" roared Ralph, though he knew that they were quite out of
hearing. "You won't come, won't you? Oh, don't I wish I was behind you
with my riding-boots on! I'd give you such a kicking, or use the spurs.
Come here!" he roared. "I want to send one of them for a crossbow.
Well, I don't like doing it, my fine fellows, but if you won't move, I
must. One of you will have to go, though, and walk all the farther.
That's it. I'm right," he continued to himself, as he saw the men keep
on pointing upwards. "Why, what's the matter with them? Dancing about
like that, and slapping their legs. Stop a moment: went up the side gap
to chip out stones for Minnie. Why--yes--no--oh! hang the ravens!
they've hit upon a vein of rich lead, and we shall be as rich as the
Edens."
Ralph set off at a trot down the slope, and this seemed to have an
effect upon the two men, who now began to run, with the result that they
were bound to meet at the bottom of the hollow between the two
eminences.
"Come on, Master Ralph!" roared Nick Garth, as they came within hearing.
"What is it? Found lead?"
"Lead, sir, no, better than that. There's a raven's nest over the other
side yonder."
"Bah! What of that?" cried the lad breathlessly. "Here, Ram, go back
to the castle, and get me a good crossbow and some bolts."
"Going to shoot 'em, master?" cried Nick excitedly. "Well done, you!"
"If I can hit them," said the lad. "What have they found there--a
lamb?"
"Lamb?" cried Nick. "Hor, hor, hoh! You are a rum one, sir. Lamb, eh?
I call un a wolf cub."
"Wolf cub? Oh!" cried Ralph excitedly; and the disappointment about the
lead was forgotten, the crossbow too.
"Come on, sir, this way. Right atop, and you'll be able to look down on
un just above the big birds' nest. He was after the young birds."
"Then that accounts for the ravens flying about so."
"Yes, sir, that's it. We was getting close to the stone quarry, when
Ram, he says: `What's them there birds scrawking about like that there
for?' he says."
"Summut arter the young uns," I says: "and we went to where we could
look, and there was a young wolf cub, getting slowly down. Let's fetch
the young squire," I says; "and we come after you, for I thought you'd
like to have the killing on him."
"Yes, of course, Nick; but I have no bow. I can't reach him with my
sword, can I?"
"Tchah! you'd want a lot o' pikes tied together, and then you wouldn't
do it. I'll show you. There's plenty of big bits o' stone up yonder,
and you can drop 'em on his head, and send him down into the water."
"Yes," cried Ralph breathlessly, as he climbed the steep ascent; "but I
should like to catch him alive, and keep him in a cage."
"Would you, sir? Well, that wouldn't be amiss. Sir Morton would like
to see him, and you could tease him. Down in one o' the dungeons would
be the place, till you got tired on him, and you could kill him then."
"Yes, but to think of his being on the cliff here!"
"Ay, it do seem a game," said the man, chuckling, and showing some ugly
yellow teeth.
As they reached about half-way up, they caught sight of one of the
ravens, shooting high above the top of the cliff, and instead of darting
away at their approach, it only made a circle round, and then descended
like an arrow.
"Tackling on him," cried Ram Jennings.
"Ay, and there goes the other," cried Nick. "Come on, master, or
they'll finish him off before you can get there. Real wild, they birds
is, because he's meddling with their booblins. 'Bout half-fledged,
that's what they be."
"Make haste, then," cried Ralph; and as they hurried on as fast as the
steep ascent would allow, they saw the ravens rise and stoop, again and
again. Then only one reappeared, and a few moments later, neither.
"We shall be too late," cried Ralph excitedly. "They must have killed
him, and are now tearing his eyes out."
"And sarve him right," cried Nick savagely. "What does he do on our
cliff, a-maddling wi' our birds?"
"But it would be such a pity not to take him alive, Nick," panted Ralph
breathlessly.
"How were you going to catch him alive?" growled the man. "Wouldn't
catch us going down to fight un, and you wouldn't like to crawl down
there."
"Get a rope with a loop, noose him, and drag him up," cried Ralph.
"Eh? Hear him, Ram? Who'd ha' thought of that? Comes o' larning, that
does, and going away to school. You'd never ha' thought on it, lad."
"Nay, I shouldn't ha' thought o' that," said Ram heavily; "but I've been
thinking o' somethin' else."
"What?" said Ralph, as they were mounting the last fifty feet of the
steep slope.
"As like enough he's nipped they two birds, and we'd best look out, or
he'll come sudden-like over the edge there, and run for it."
"Forward, then, quick!" cried Ralph; and pressing on, he threw himself
on his breast, and crawled the last few feet, so as to thrust his head
over the edge and gaze down, to see the so-called wolf's cub sheathe his
sword, and prepare to get the young ravens out of their nesting recess
in the face of the cliff.