Master Rayburn received the raven's addled egg, and gave Ram Jennings a
groat for his trouble, and for telling him all about how it was
obtained, and what followed, keeping the man, and questioning him a good
deal, as he smiled and frowned over the task he began at once, that of
chipping a good-sized hole in one side of the egg, and extracting its
contents in a little wooden bowl of clean water.
At last, after a great deal of sniffing and shuffling about, the man
said, "Done with me, Master Rayburn?"
"Yes," said the old man sharply. "Unless you can tell me any more. But
why?"
"Well, master, I'm pretty hard about the smell, and it falls to me to
clean out the pigsties; and when they've been left a month or two in the
summer, and got pretty ripe, they aren't so nice as bean-fields in
bloom, or the young missus's roses in her bit o' garden; but pigsties
aren't nothing to that there _egg_. It's enough to pyson a black dog."
"Be off with you, then," said the old man, with a dry chuckle; and as
soon as he was alone, he threw the foul water away. "Yes," he muttered,
"it does smell; but that's a splendid egg, and not stained a bit."
"Hah!" he ejaculated a few minutes later. "I'd have given something to
be there. Brave lads. True English, to the backbone; but with their
young minds warped and spoiled by the traditions of this miserable feud.
Why, it must have been grand," mused the old man, shaking his grey
locks. "How I should have liked to see and hear it all! What a fight
to master the inborn hatred! On both sides the evil contending with the
good; and, according to that man's telling, that boy Mark did not show
up well. I don't know, though! He could not help it. He had to fight
the black blood in his veins that has been handed down for generations.
So young Ralph saved his life, made him prisoner, and set him at liberty
like a true honest gentleman; and the other had to battle with his
dislike and bitterness at receiving a favour from his enemy's hands.
"Good Heavens!" he cried aloud. "Enemy's! What contemptible worms we
are, to dare to nurse up such a feeling from father to son, generation
after generation! Why, with them it is an hereditary disease. But who
knows? Those two lads may grow up to be friends, and kill the old feud.
They cannot help respecting each other after such an encounter as that.
I'll try and get hold of young Darley, and then of Mark; and perhaps I
may be able to--Bah! you weak-minded, meddlesome old driveller!" he
cried impetuously. "You would muddle, and spoil all, when perhaps a
Higher Hand is at work, as it always is, to make everything tend toward
the best.
"But I should like to be present, by accident, the next time those two
lads meet."
The meeting took place before many days had passed.
In the interim Ralph Darley had told his father all that had happened,
and Sir Morton had frowned, and looked pleased, and frowned again.
"You think I did wrong father," said the lad.
"No, my boy; I think you behaved splendidly; but you see what a
miserable race those Edens are. You do good to one of them, a boy of
your own age, and he is ready to turn and rend you."
"But I did not go on purpose to do good to him, father. I meant to
catch him, tie him hand and foot, and bring him here to do what you
liked with him."
"Never mind: you acted bravely; and he like a roused wolf's cub, as Nick
Garth called him."
"Felt humbled," said Ralph thoughtfully.
"Yes, my boy. Well, it's all over; but don't go risking your life again
for your enemies. We don't want to quarrel with them unless they force
it on, and I'm afraid they are going to, for I believe Eden has enlisted
that gang of ruffians in his service. I can't hear that they were seen
to go away."
Mark Eden told his father too, about the incident, and Sir Edward looked
very grave.
"As the lad was a Darley, matters are different," he said at last, "and
I don't like your conduct over the matter, Mark. To begin with--well,
to go all through the business, you did wrong."
"Yes, father," said the lad bitterly.
"It was not right for you, a young scholar, and a gentleman, to go upon
their land and invite a quarrel."
"But I wanted the young ravens, father."
"Yes. And they want my lead-mine; and if young Darley comes to try and
take it, I hope you'll break his neck."
"Yes, father."
"But you did not come out well, my boy," said Sir Edward irritably.
"The young cub has some good in him, and he behaved splendidly."
"Yes, father; that made me feel so mad against him, and all the time I
was feeling as if I would have given anything to shake hands, for he was
very brave."
"Well, it would have been, if he had not been a Darley."
"And, of course, I could not shake hands and say thank you to a boy like
him."
"Shake hands--an Eden with a Darley! Impossible, my boy, impossible.
There, it's all over, and you must never give them the opportunity of
insulting you again. That family has done us endless injury."
"And we've done them a deal, too, father."
"Yes, my boy, as much as ever we could. I mean in the old days; for I'm
beginning to think that it's best to let them go their way, if they let
us go ours."
"Yes, father."
"I wish they lived on the other side of the county, instead of so near.
But there, promise me that you will not run foul of any of the savages
again."
"Yes, father, I promise you," said the lad quietly.
"By the way, Mark, you say young Darley had half-a-dozen ruffianly
fellows with him, and they wanted to stone you, and then throw you off
the cliff?"
"Yes, father."
"Do you think any of them were part of the rough crew who came here with
that red-faced captain?"
"I think not, father."
"I'm afraid they went to Sir Morton Darley; so we must be watchful. Let
that other trouble drop now, and be careful for the future. Don't worry
me now; Rugg wants to see me about the mining accounts. Keep out of
mischief, and don't let me hear any more about young Darley."
Mark promised, and went out with the intention of going down the river
to see old Master Rayburn, and ask him whether he had received the egg.
But before he had gone far, the memories of the whole business seemed so
distasteful, and he felt so much annoyed with himself, that he turned
back.
"He'd make me tell him all about it, and I feel as if I couldn't,"
muttered the lad. "It tastes more and more bitter every time I think
about it, and if Master Rayburn began to ask me questions, he'd get it
all out of me, for he has such a way of doing it. I don't believe any
one could tell him a lie without being found out. Of course I shouldn't
tell him one. No, I won't go. He'd say that I behaved badly, and I
don't want to be told, for though I wouldn't own it, I know it better
than any one could tell me. Hang the Darleys! I wish there wasn't one
on the face of the earth."
So, instead of going to old Master Rayburn's cottage, Mark walked back
to the Black Tor, and after making up his mind to go down into the
lead-mine, and chip off bits of spar, he went and talked to his sister,
and told her, naturally enough, all that had passed.
Mary Eden, who was about a year older, and very like him in feature,
shuddered a good deal over parts of his narration, and looked tearful
and pained at the end.
"What's the matter?" he said, rather roughly; "why, you're going to
cry!"
"I can't help it, Mark," she said sadly.
"Why: what makes you look like that?" said the lad irritably.
"Because--because--" she faltered.
"Well, because--because--" he cried mockingly.
"Because what?"
"Don't be angry with me, dear. My brother Mark seems as if he behaved
like a Darley, and that young Darley like my brother Mark."
"Oh!" cried the lad, jumping up in a rage; and he rushed off, in spite
of an appealing cry from Mary, and went down into the mine after all,
where he met Dummy Rugg, old Dan's son, and went for a ramble in the
very lowest and grimmest parts, feeling as if to get away from the light
of day would do him good, for his sister's words had struck very deeply
into his heart.
It was a gloomy place, that mine, and opened out into strange cavernous
places, eaten away by water, or by strange crackings and subsidences of
the earth, in the far distant ages when the boiling springs of the
volcanic regions were depositing the beds of tufa, here of immense
thickness, springs which are still in evidence, but no longer to pour
out waters that scald, but of a gentle lukewarm or tepid temperature,
which go on depositing their suspended stone to this day, though in a
feeble, sluggish manner.
Dan Rugg was Sir Edward's chief man over the mine. Not a gentleman
superintendent, but a genuine miner, who gave orders, and then helped to
carry them out. He had the credit of knowing more about mines than any
man in the midland counties, knowledge gathered by passing quite half
his life underground like a mole.
Dummy was his only child, so-called on account of his being a
particularly silent, stupid-looking boy. But old Dan said he was not
such a fool as he looked, and Dan was right.
Dummy hailed his young master's coming with quiet satisfaction, for Mark
was almost the only being to whom he ever said much; and as soon as he
saw him come to where he was at work, he walked with him to a chest, and
took out a flint and steel and a good supply of home-made candles,
without stopping to ask questions; and then lighting one, he handed it
to Mark, and led off into the part of the mine where the men were not at
work.
"Aren't you going to take a candle, Dummy?" said Mark.
"No, master; I can manage."
"I believe you can see in the dark, like a rat or an owl. Can you?"
"Not very well, Master Mark; but I can see a bit. Got used to it, I
s'pose."
"Well, why are you going down there?" asked Mark.
"'Cause I thought you'd like to see the place I found while you were at
school."
"Ah! Is it worth seeing?"
"Dunno. It's big."
"Been dug out?"
"Nay. It's a big split as goes up ever so far, and goes down ever so
far. Chucked bits down; and they were precious long 'fore they hit
bottom. There's a place over the other side too, and I clum round to
it, and it goes in and in, farther than I could stop to go. Thought I'd
wait till you came home."
"That's right, Dummy. We will not go to-day; but start early some
morning, and take a basket and bottle with us."
"Ay, that's the way. Water's warm in there, I think."
By degrees, from old acquaintance and real liking for the dull heavy
lad, who looked up to him as a kind of prince, Mark dropped into telling
his adventures over the ravens, while they trudged along the black
passages, with Dummy leading, Mark still carrying the candle, and the
lad's huge long shadow going first of all.
The miner's son listened without a word, drinking in the broken
disconnected narrative, as if not a word ought to be lost, and when it
was ended, breaking out with: "Wish I'd been there."
"I wish you had, Dummy. But if you had been, what would you have done?"
"I d'know, Master Mark. I aren't good out in the daylight; but I can
get along on the cliffs. I'd ha' come down to you. I should just like
to ketch any one heaving stones down upon you. I wonder that young
Darley didn't kill you, though, when he'd cotched you. We should ha'
killed him, shouldn't us, sir?"
"Don't know, Dummy," said the lad shortly. "Let's talk about something
else."
Dummy was silent; and they went on and on till Mark spoke again.
"Well," he said, "found any good bits of spar for Miss Mary?"
"Lots, sir. One big bit with two points like a shovel handle. Clear as
glass."
There was another silence, and then Mark spoke again.
"What's going on?"
"Witches, master."
"Eh? What?"
"Things comes in the night, and takes lambs, and fowls, and geese."
"You mean thieves."
"Nay, not like thieves, master. Old Mother Deggins saw 'em the other
night, and they fluttered and made a noise--great black witches, in long
petticoats and brooms. It was a noise like thunder, and a light like
lightnin', she says, and it knocked her down night afore last; and she
won't live in the cottage no longer, but come next to ours."
"Somebody tried to frighten her."
"P'r'aps. Frightened two of our men too. They was coming back from
Gatewell over the hills; and they see a light up by Ergles, where there
aren't no lights, and they crep' up to see what it was, and looked down
and see a fire, with a lot of old witches in long gowns leaning over it,
and boiling something in a pot; and they think it's babies."
"Why do they think that?"
"I d'know, master. Because they thought so, I think. Then, as they
were looking, all at once there was a ter'ble squirty noise, and a rush
like wings; and there was no fire, and nothing to see. Glad I warn't
there. Wouldn't go across the moor by Ergles for anything."
"But you're not afraid to come along here in the dark."
"'Fraid, Master Mark? No: why should I be? Nothing to hurt you here."
"You're a queer fellow, Dummy," said Mark.
"Yes, master. That's what father says. I s'pose it's through being so
much in the mine."
"I suppose so. But you don't mind?"
"Mind, Master Mark? I like it. Wish you was at home more, though.--I
say--"
"Well?"
"If ever you go to fight the Darleys, take me, Master Mark."
"I shall not go to fight the Darleys, Dummy. They may come to fight us,
and if they do, you shall come and help."
"Hah!" ejaculated the rough-looking boy. "I'm pretty strong now. If
they come and meddle with us, do you know what I should like to do,
Master Mark."
"No: hammer them, I suppose."
"Nay; I should like to drive 'em all down to the place I'm going to show
you."
"Well, where is it?"
"Oh, ever so far yet. 'N'our away."
Mark whistled in surprise.
"Not tired, are you, sir?"
"Tired? No; but I didn't think you could go so far."
"Oh yes, you can, sir, if you don't mind crawling a bit now and then.
You can go miles and miles where the stone's split apart. I think it's
all cracks under the hills."
"On you go, then; but don't you want a candle?"
"No, sir; I can see best like this, with you holding the light behind."
Mark relapsed into silence, and his guide remained silent too, and went
on and on, along passages formed by the busy miners of the past, in
following the lode of lead, and along ways that were nature's work.
At last, fully an hour after Dummy had announced how far they had to go,
he stopped short, took a candle, lit it, and looked smilingly at Mark,
who gazed round the natural cavern in which they were, and then turned
to his guide.
"Well," he said, "is this it? Not much of a place. I thought you said
it went farther."
"So it does, Master Mark. Shut your eyes while you count a hundred."
Mark obeyed, and counted his hundred aloud, opened his eyes again, and
he was alone.
"Here! Where are you?" he cried; and he looked about the place, up and
down, but to all appearances, he was in a _cul de sac_, whose walls were
dotted with the fossil stems of _pentacrinites_, over which stalagmitic
petrifaction had gradually formed, looking as if dirty water had run
over the walls in places, and hardened in the course of time to stone.
"Here, Dummy! Haven't run back, have you?" shouted Mark, as it occurred
to him that should the boy have played him a trick, he would have no
little difficulty in getting back to the part where the men were at
work.
But there was no occasion for so loud a cry; the words had hardly passed
his lips when a hand holding a candle suddenly appeared against the wall
in front, and upon stepping to it, he found that the sheet of stalagmite
there, instead of touching the wall, was a foot away, leaving room for
any one to creep up a steep slope for thirty or forty feet, and continue
the way through a long crevice, whose sides looked as if they might have
separated only a few hours before.
"This is the way," said Dummy, and he led on for a quarter of an hour
longer, with a peculiar rushing noise growing louder, till it became a
heavy dull roar, as the narrow crack through which they had passed
suddenly opened out into a vast cavity which, below the ledge on which
they stood, ended in gloom, and whose roof was lost in the same
blackness; but the echoes of the falling water below told them that it
must be far enough above their heads.
"What a horrible hole!" cried Mark.
"Yes; big," said Dummy. "Look: I climbed along there. It's easy; and
then you can go right on, above where the water comes in. It's warm in
here."
"Yes, warm enough."
"Shall we go any farther?"
"No, not to-day. Let's stop and look. Shall I throw down my candle?"
"No, Master Mark: it's no good. Goes out too soon. I'll light a
match."
He took an old-fashioned brimstone match from his breast, lit both its
pointed ends, waited till the sulphur was fluttering its blue flame, and
the splint was getting well alight and blackening, and then he reached
out and let it fall, to go burning brightly down and down, as if into a
huge well. Then it went out, and they seemed for the moment to be in
darkness.
"I don't think it's very, very deep," said Dummy quietly; "but it's all
water over yonder. Seen enough, Master Mark!"
"Yes, for one day. Let's go back now."
Dummy topped the long wicks with his natural snuffers, to wit, his
finger and thumb, and led the way back, after Mark had taken a final
glance at the vast chasm.
"So you found this place out, Dummy?"
"Yes, Master Mark. I'm always looking for new holes when I've nothing
to do and the men aren't at work."
"It's of no use: there's no lead."
"No: aren't any ore. All spar and stones like this."
"Well, we must bring hammers and find some good pieces next time we
come."
"And go on along by the water, Master Mark?"
"If you like. Want to find how far it goes?"
"Yes: I want to find how far it goes, master. Perhaps it opens
somewhere. I often think we must come out somewhere on the other side."
"That would be queer," said Mark thoughtfully; "but I don't think my
father would be pleased. Seem like making a way for the Darleys to come
in and attack us."
Dummy stopped short, and turned to stare open-mouthed at his young
chief.
"What a head you've got, Master Mark," he said. "I never thought of
that."
"Didn't you? Well, you see now: we don't want to find another way in."
"Yes, we do, if there is one, Master Mark, and stop it up."
Very little more was said as they went back, Mark becoming thoughtful,
and too tired to care about speaking. But that night he lay in bed
awake for some time, thinking about the visit to the cavernous mine, and
how it honeycombed the mountainous place: then about Dummy's witches,
and the fire and caldron, at the mouth of the hole by Ergles, a mighty
limestone ridge about three miles away. Then after a laugh at the easy
way in which the superstitious country people were alarmed, he fell
asleep, to begin a troublous dream, which was mixed up in a strangely
confused way with the great chasm in the mine, down which he had worked
his way to get at the ravens' nest: and then he started into
wakefulness, as he was falling down and down, hundreds upon hundreds of
feet, to find his face wet with perspiration, and that he had been lying
upon his back.