CHAPTER SIX.
NICK GARTH MAKES A FIND.
"Hi! Nick! Nick, I say, hallo!" Ralph Darley ran as he shouted at acouple of his father's men, who were descending the slope on the easternside of the castle, each shouldering a short sharp pick, of the kind incommon 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 slowlyround, and seeing their young master running, they stood still, andwaited 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 perfectlysmooth face, and an unpleasant-looking pair of eyes, so arranged thatthey 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 fellowround so that the pupil dived under the man's thick nose; and if he madean effort to see with the eclipsed one, it served its fellow in the sameway.
"You must have heard too, Ram Jennings."
"Yoss, I heared," said the other man, a dark, rather villainous-lookingfellow, whose face could not be called troubled with yellow specks, butstreaked here and there with a little whitish red, the rest being oneenormous 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. "Theman 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 inthe yard, round a bit o' drain pipe, to make a puddle to keep fishesin."
"Oh!" said the lad, cooling down. "Go and do it then; I'll wait tillthe afternoon."
The men grinned, shouldered their picks, and went off, while the ladtook a few paces in another direction; but turned sharply, and calledthe men again, with the same result--that is, they stood still andwaited for him to join them.
"They're a pair of thick-headed fools, that's what they are," mutteredthe lad. "I could teach a dog to be more dutiful. Here, Nick--Ram--didyou 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 themine, and keeps 'em there," said Nick, moving his head from side toside, 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 towhere he could throw himself down at the side of the cliff in thesunshine, swing his legs over the edge, where it was nice and dangerousif he slipped, and finally leaned back to rest on one elbow, and gaze inthe direction of the high cliff beyond the depression, where the menwere gone to chip out pieces of the soft spongy-looking tufa, which layin beds on the slope.
"That's bad news," thought the lad. "I wonder what father will say. Itwill be horrible. They will be so strong there, that one doesn't knowwhat will happen, only that we shall have to fight. Well, then," hecried hotly, "we'll fight. Let them come. The Darleys have never beenbeaten yet."
For the next half-hour, he lay thinking about swords, and pikes, andarmour, and big stones to cast down off the towers upon assailants, andthen his attention was taken by one of the great black ravens, flappingits way along over the dale, and he watched it till it seemed to him toslide down toward the cliff, a quarter of a mile away.
By-and-by he saw another great bird, and thought it the same, butdirectly after, the first one reappeared, and he saw the pair cross inthe air.
"They've got a nest, and it must be on the High Cliff. Wonder whether Icould 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 ata man. Well, I don't want to, but if they come and attack us, I'llshoot, 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 musthave gone over the cliff, and be bleating on one of the ledges becauseit cannot get up. Poor little wretch! They'll pick its eyes out. I'llgo and see. Better get a crossbow first. Might get a shot at one ofthe 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 everso long to get ready. Bother! it's hot, and I shan't go. Perhaps thereisn'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, andthey're afraid to attack. Must be something there, or they wouldn'tkeep 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 defensivepowers, if the Edens, strengthened by the gang of mercenaries, shouldattack them, but it was too hard work to think of the imaginary, whenthe real was before him in the shape of a pair of great black ravens,flying round and round, and showing plainly against the great greycrags, threatening from moment to moment to attack something down below.
"Here, I must go and see what there is to make them fly about likethat," said the lad to himself, at last, his curiosity getting thebetter of his laziness; and, springing up, he began to descend theslope, making a circuit, so as to reach the high cliff, away from theprecipice, 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 comingin his direction rapidly; and as soon as they caught sight of him, theybegan to gesticulate, beckoning, waving their caps, and generallyindicating that he was to hurry to their side.
"Oh, you idle beauties!" muttered Ralph. "I should like to give you alesson. Spoiled by father's indulgence, you do just as you like. I'mto run to you, am I? Come here, you lazy dogs!"
He waved his hand to them in turn, but instead of coming on, theystopped short, and pointed back toward the highest part of the cliff.
"Come here!" roared Ralph, though he knew that they were quite out ofhearing. "You won't come, won't you? Oh, don't I wish I was behind youwith 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, Imust. 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 keepon pointing upwards. "Why, what's the matter with them? Dancing aboutlike that, and slapping their legs. Stop a moment: went up the side gapto 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 theEdens."
Ralph set off at a trot down the slope, and this seemed to have aneffect upon the two men, who now began to run, with the result that theywere bound to meet at the bottom of the hollow between the twoeminences.
"Come on, Master Ralph!" roared Nic
k 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 otherside yonder."
"Bah! What of that?" cried the lad breathlessly. "Here, Ram, go backto 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--alamb?"
"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 thelead was forgotten, the crossbow too.
"Come on, sir, this way. Right atop, and you'll be able to look down onun 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, whenRam, he says: `What's them there birds scrawking about like that therefor?' he says."
"Summut arter the young uns," I says: "and we went to where we couldlook, and there was a young wolf cub, getting slowly down. Let's fetchthe young squire," I says; "and we come after you, for I thought you'dlike to have the killing on him."
"Yes, of course, Nick; but I have no bow. I can't reach him with mysword, can I?"
"Tchah! you'd want a lot o' pikes tied together, and then you wouldn'tdo 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 Ishould like to catch him alive, and keep him in a cage."
"Would you, sir? Well, that wouldn't be amiss. Sir Morton would liketo see him, and you could tease him. Down in one o' the dungeons wouldbe 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 uglyyellow teeth.
As they reached about half-way up, they caught sight of one of theravens, shooting high above the top of the cliff, and instead of dartingaway at their approach, it only made a circle round, and then descendedlike an arrow.
"Tackling on him," cried Ram Jennings.
"Ay, and there goes the other," cried Nick. "Come on, master, orthey'll finish him off before you can get there. Real wild, they birdsis, 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 thesteep ascent would allow, they saw the ravens rise and stoop, again andagain. Then only one reappeared, and a few moments later, neither.
"We shall be too late," cried Ralph excitedly. "They must have killedhim, and are now tearing his eyes out."
"And sarve him right," cried Nick savagely. "What does he do on ourcliff, a-maddling wi' our birds?"
"But it would be such a pity not to take him alive, Nick," panted Ralphbreathlessly.
"How were you going to catch him alive?" growled the man. "Wouldn'tcatch us going down to fight un, and you wouldn't like to crawl downthere."
"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, thatdoes, 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 beenthinking o' somethin' else."
"What?" said Ralph, as they were mounting the last fifty feet of thesteep slope.
"As like enough he's nipped they two birds, and we'd best look out, orhe'll come sudden-like over the edge there, and run for it."
"Forward, then, quick!" cried Ralph; and pressing on, he threw himselfon his breast, and crawled the last few feet, so as to thrust his headover the edge and gaze down, to see the so-called wolf's cub sheathe hissword, and prepare to get the young ravens out of their nesting recessin the face of the cliff.
Black Tor: A Tale of the Reign of James the First Page 6
