Eden recovered his presence of mind on the instant, and looking coolly
up at Nick Garth, who had shouted at him so insolently, he replied
haughtily: "What is it to you, sir? Be off!"
Then, entirely ignoring Ralph, who was looking down, breathless with
rage and exertion, he carefully withdrew the egg from the nest, in spite
of the pecking of the young ravens, and transferred it to the lining of
his cap.
After this he took off his kerchief, and began to twist it up tightly to
make an apology for a line with which to tie together the young ravens'
legs.
The two men on either side of Ralph looked at him, as if wondering what
he would say.
"Now, then, it's of no use to peck: out you come, my fine fellows.
Quiet, or I'll wring your necks."
As Mark spoke, his right hand was in the nest, feeling about so as to
get four legs together in his grasp, but this took some little time, and
a great deal of fluttering and squealing accompanied the act. But as he
worked, Mark thought hard, and of something else beside ravens. How was
he to get out of this unpleasant fix, being as he was quite at his
enemy's mercy? But all the same, with assumed nonchalance, he drew out
the fluttering ravens, loosened his hold of the shrub with his left
hand, and trusted to his powers of retaining his balance, in spite of
the birds' struggles, while in the coolest way possible he transferred
the legs from his right hand to his left, and proceeded to tie them
tightly.
"There you are," he said. "I think that's safe."
Then, to Ralph's astonishment, the lad began to hum over his song again
about the ravens as, completely ignoring those above, he took hold of
the bush again, and leaned forward to gaze down into the dizzy depths as
if in search of an easy path, but really to try and make out, in his
despair, what would be his chance of escape if he suddenly rose to his
feet and boldly jumped outward. Would he clear all the trees and come
down into the river? And if the last, would it be deep enough to save
him from injury at the bottom?
Where he had crossed was only ankle deep, but there was a broad, still
patch, close up under the cliff, for he had noticed it as he came; but
whether he could reach it in a bold leap, and whether it would be deep
enough to save him from harm, he could not tell; but he was afraid that
if he missed it he would be broken upon the pieces of rock which had
fallen from above.
That way of escape was too desperate, and the more repellent from the
fact that the beech-trees below prevented him from seeing what awaited
him.
He busied himself in pretending to examine the knot he had made about
the birds' legs, and then, raising his sword-belt, he passed one young
raven inside, leaving the other out, so that they hung from his back,
not in a very comfortable position for them, but where they would not be
hurt. All the time though the lad was scanning the rocky face, first to
right then to left, to seek for a way by which he could climb down,
escape upwards being impossible; and he had quickly come to the
conclusion that if unmolested he could manage, by taking his time, to
get down in safety.
He had just decided this when Ralph, who had remained perfectly silent,
exclaimed abruptly, "Now then, come up."
Mark took not the slightest notice, and the order was repeated.
"Hear what the young master says?" growled Nick. "Come up!"
"Are you speaking to me, fellow?" cried Mark angrily. "Be off, I tell
you, before I come up and chastise you."
"Going to stand this, Master Ralph?" growled the man. "Shall I heave a
bit o' stone down upon him, and knock him off?"
For answer, Ralph drew back out of sight, and the two men followed at a
sign, leaving Mark alone, seated upon his perilous perch; but directly
after Ralph's head reappeared, and Nick's close beside it, when Mark
realised--rightly--that the other man had been sent on some mission--
what, he could not tell, but in all probability to fetch more help, so
as to be sure of taking him.
"Now," said Ralph sternly, "are you coming up to surrender?"
"What!" said Mark sharply; "why am I to surrender to you?"
"For trespass and robbery. This is my father's land, and those are our
birds."
Mark laughed scornfully to hide his annoyance, for conscience pricked
hard.
"Your land, indeed!" he cried. "Wild moorland, open to anybody; and as
to the birds, are all the crows yours too?"
Ralph did not condescend to reply, but lay there looking down at the
young representative of his father's rival.
"I wish you good day, Master Owner of the land, and lord of the birds of
the air," said Mark mockingly. "If you had asked me civilly, I might
perhaps have given you a young raven. As it is, I shall not."
"What are you going to do?" said Ralph sharply. "Wait and see," was the
mocking reply. "Shan't I heave this stone down on his head, Master
Ralph?" said Nick in a low tone; but the words came plainly to Mark's
ear, and sent a cold chill of horror thrilling through his nerves; but
he felt better the next moment, and then anger took the place of dread,
for Ralph said sharply, "Put the stone down, sirrah! You know I want to
take the wolf's cub alive."
"Wolf's cub!" said Mark to himself. "Never mind; I may meet him some
day when it is not three to one, and then he shall find that the wolf's
cub can bite."
Then, conscious that his every movement was watched, he cautiously rose
to his feet, made an effort to ignore the presence of lookers-on, and
began to climb sideways along the ledge, by the route he had come.
Still he had no intention of going up, knowing full well that he would
only be giving himself up to insult, and perhaps serious injury, taken
at a disadvantage, as he felt that he must be; but calmly, and in the
most sure-footed way, sidled along, with the ledge getting more and more
narrow, but the hand-hold better.
In this way he passed the spot where he had lowered himself down, and
reached a slight angle, by which he expected, from long experience in
cliff-climbing, to be able to descend to the next.
He was quite right, and it proved to be easier than he had expected; but
a looker-on would have shuddered to see the way in which the lad clung
to the rough stones, where the slightest slip would have sent him down
headlong for at least three hundred feet before he touched anywhere, and
then bounded off again, a mere mass of shapeless flesh.
Mark knew of his danger, but it did not trouble him, for his brain was
too much occupied by the presence of young Darley; and as he descended
he felt a slight flush of pride in doing what he was certain his young
enemy dare not attempt.
In a moment or two he was standing safely--that is, so long as he held
on tightly with his fingers in the crack above--upon the next ledge, a
few inches wide, and his intention had been to go on in the same
direction, so as to be farther from his watchers; but he was not long in
finding that this was impossible, and he had to go back till he was well
beneath Ralph Darley, and saw that he must go farther still before he
attempted to descend to the next rest for his feet.
"It will take a long time to get down like this," he thought; "and
perhaps he'll send below to meet me at the bottom. Perhaps that is what
he has already done. But never mind; I shall have done as I liked, and
not obeyed his insolent orders. Let him see, too, that I'm quite at
home on the rocks, and can do as I like. Wonder whether I shall get
Master Rayburn's egg down safely! Not if they throw a stone down upon
my head.--Now for it."
He had reached another comparatively easy place for descending from the
course of blocks on which he stood, when he suddenly found himself
embarrassed, not by the egg, but by the young birds, which nearly upset
his equilibrium by beginning all at once to struggle and flap vigorously
with their half-fledged wings.
The lad's first impulse, as he clung to the ledge, was to tear the birds
from his belt and throw them down; but his spirit revolted from the
cruelty of the proceeding, and his vanity helped to keep the trophies of
his daring where they were.
"It would look as if I was afraid," he said to himself; and lowering one
foot, he felt for a safe projection, found one, and his other foot
joined the first. A few seconds later his hands were holding the ledge
on which he had just been standing, but his chin was level with them,
and his feet were feeling for the next ledge below, but feeling in vain.
He was disappointed, for experience had taught him that this course of
stones would be about the same thickness as the others, and yet he could
find no crack, not even one big enough to insert his toes.
But he was quite right; the range of stones in that stratum was just
about the same thickness as the others, but the crack between them and
the next in the series, the merest line, over which his feet slipped
again and again, giving him the impression that they were passing over
solid stone; and the birds chose this awkward moment to renew their
struggling and screaming.
"You miserable little wretches," he muttered; "be quiet! Well, it might
be worse. I should have been in a sad pickle if the old birds had
chosen this moment to attack me."
He hung in the same position, with his chin resting on the ledge, as
well as his hands, till the birds were quiet again, and then wondering
whether Ralph Darley was still watching, he slowly let his muscles
relax, and his body subside, till he hung at full stretch, seeking
steadily the while for foot-hold, but finding none, and forced now to
look down between his chest and the rock, to see how far the next ledge
might be.
To his disgust, it was quite two feet lower, and it was forced upon him
that unless he could climb back to the ledge upon which his hands were
clasped, he must let himself drop to the resting-place below.
It was no time for hesitation, and condensing his energies upon what he
knew to be a difficult task, he drew himself up by strong muscular
contraction till his chin once more rested between his hands, and then
grasped the bitter fact that to get up and stand upon the ledge was
impossible; it was too narrow, and he could find no foot-hold to help.
Accepting the position, he let himself sink again to the full length of
his arms, hung motionless for a few moments, and then, keeping himself
perfectly rigid, allowed his fingers to glide over the stone, and
dropped the two feet to the ledge below, perfectly upright and firm. In
all probability he would have found hand-hold the next moment, but,
scared anew by the rush through the air, the young ravens began to flap
their wings violently, and that was sufficient to disturb the lad's
equilibrium. He made a desperate effort to recover it, but one foot
gave way, and he fell, scraping the edge.
Another desperate effort, and he clung to the ledge for a brief moment
or two, and then a yell arose from above, as he went down a few feet and
felt what seemed a violent blow against his side. The next instant his
hands had closed upon the tough stem of a stunted yew, and he was
hanging there, hitched in the little branches, saved from falling
farther, but unable to move from the fear of tearing the shrub from its
root-hold in a crack of the cliff, where there was not a trace of
anything else to which he could cling.