Black Tor: A Tale of the Reign of James the First

by George Manville Fenn

  CHAPTER NINE.

  ANOTHER TURN OF FORTUNE'S WHEEL.

  Master Rayburn received the raven's addled egg, and gave Ram Jennings agroat for his trouble, and for telling him all about how it wasobtained, and what followed, keeping the man, and questioning him a gooddeal, as he smiled and frowned over the task he began at once, that ofchipping a good-sized hole in one side of the egg, and extracting itscontents in a little wooden bowl of clean water.

  At last, after a great deal of sniffing and shuffling about, the mansaid, "Done with me, Master Rayburn?"

  "Yes," said the old man sharply. "Unless you can tell me any more. Butwhy?"

  "Well, master, I'm pretty hard about the smell, and it falls to me toclean out the pigsties; and when they've been left a month or two in thesummer, and got pretty ripe, they aren't so nice as bean-fields inbloom, or the young missus's roses in her bit o' garden; but pigstiesaren'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 assoon 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 tobe there. Brave lads. True English, to the backbone; but with theiryoung minds warped and spoiled by the traditions of this miserable feud.Why, it must have been grand," mused the old man, shaking his greylocks. "How I should have liked to see and hear it all! What a fightto master the inborn hatred! On both sides the evil contending with thegood; and, according to that man's telling, that boy Mark did not showup well. I don't know, though! He could not help it. He had to fightthe 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 libertylike a true honest gentleman; and the other had to battle with hisdislike and bitterness at receiving a favour from his enemy's hands.

  "Good Heavens!" he cried aloud. "Enemy's! What contemptible worms weare, to dare to nurse up such a feeling from father to son, generationafter generation! Why, with them it is an hereditary disease. But whoknows? 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 Imay be able to--Bah! you weak-minded, meddlesome old driveller!" hecried impetuously. "You would muddle, and spoil all, when perhaps aHigher Hand is at work, as it always is, to make everything tend towardthe best.

  "But I should like to be present, by accident, the next time those twolads 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 amiserable race those Edens are. You do good to one of them, a boy ofyour 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 tocatch him, tie him hand and foot, and bring him here to do what youliked with him."

  "Never mind: you acted bravely; and he like a roused wolf's cub, as NickGarth called him."

  "Felt humbled," said Ralph thoughtfully.

  "Yes, my boy. Well, it's all over; but don't go risking your life againfor your enemies. We don't want to quarrel with them unless they forceit on, and I'm afraid they are going to, for I believe Eden has enlistedthat gang of ruffians in his service. I can't hear that they were seento go away."

  Mark Eden told his father too, about the incident, and Sir Edward lookedvery grave.

  "As the lad was a Darley, matters are different," he said at last, "andI 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 upontheir 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 andtake 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 Iwas feeling as if I would have given anything to shake hands, for he wasvery 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 likehim."

  "Shake hands--an Eden with a Darley! Impossible, my boy, impossible.There, it's all over, and you must never give them the opportunity ofinsulting 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'mbeginning to think that it's best to let them go their way, if they letus 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 savagesagain."

  "Yes, father, I promise you," said the lad quietly.

  "By the way, Mark, you say young Darley had half-a-dozen ruffianlyfellows with him, and they wanted to stone you, and then throw you offthe cliff?"

  "Yes, father."

  "Do you think any of them were part of the rough crew who came here withthat red-faced captain?"

  "I think not, father."

  "I'm afraid they went to Sir Morton Darley; so we must be watchful. Letthat other trouble drop now, and be careful for the future. Don't worryme now; Rugg wants to see me about the mining accounts. Keep out ofmischief, and don't let me hear any more about young Darley."

  Mark promised, and went out with the intention of going down the riverto 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 sodistasteful, and he felt so much annoyed with himself, that he turnedback.

  "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 thinkabout it, and if Master Rayburn began to ask me questions, he'd get itall out of me, for he has such a way of doing it. I don't believe anyone could tell him a lie without being found out. Of course I shouldn'ttell him one. No, I won't go. He'd say that I behaved badly, and Idon't want to be told, for though I wouldn't own it, I know it betterthan any one could tell me. Hang the Darleys! I wish there wasn't oneon the face of the earth."

  So, instead of going to old Master Rayburn's cottage, Mark walked backto the Black Tor, and after making up his mind to go down into thelead-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 tearfuland pained at the end.

  "What's the matter?" he said, rather roughly; "why, you're going tocry!"

  "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 behavedlike a Darley, and that young Darley like my brother Mark."

  "Oh!" cried the lad, jumping up in a rage; and he rushed off, in spiteof 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 thevery lowest and grimmest parts, feeling as if to get away from the lightof day would do him good, for his sister's words had struck very deeplyinto his heart.

  It was a g
loomy place, that mine, and opened out into strange cavernousplaces, eaten away by water, or by strange crackings and subsidences ofthe earth, in the far distant ages when the boiling springs of thevolcanic regions were depositing the beds of tufa, here of immensethickness, springs which are still in evidence, but no longer to pourout waters that scald, but of a gentle lukewarm or tepid temperature,which go on depositing their suspended stone to this day, though in afeeble, sluggish manner.

  Dan Rugg was Sir Edward's chief man over the mine. Not a gentlemansuperintendent, but a genuine miner, who gave orders, and then helped tocarry them out. He had the credit of knowing more about mines than anyman in the midland counties, knowledge gathered by passing quite halfhis life underground like a mole.

  Dummy was his only child, so-called on account of his being aparticularly silent, stupid-looking boy. But old Dan said he was notsuch a fool as he looked, and Dan was right.

  Dummy hailed his young master's coming with quiet satisfaction, for Markwas almost the only being to whom he ever said much; and as soon as hesaw him come to where he was at work, he walked with him to a chest, andtook out a flint and steel and a good supply of home-made candles,without stopping to ask questions; and then lighting one, he handed itto Mark, and led off into the part of the mine where the men were not atwork.

  "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, Is'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 atschool."

  "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 sofar. Chucked bits down; and they were precious long 'fore they hitbottom. There's a place over the other side too, and I clum round toit, and it goes in and in, farther than I could stop to go. Thought I'dwait till you came home."

  "That's right, Dummy. We will not go to-day; but start early somemorning, 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 heavylad, who looked up to him as a kind of prince, Mark dropped into tellinghis adventures over the ravens, while they trudged along the blackpassages, with Dummy leading, Mark still carrying the candle, and thelad's huge long shadow going first of all.

  The miner's son listened without a word, drinking in the brokendisconnected narrative, as if not a word ought to be lost, and when itwas 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 canget along on the cliffs. I'd ha' come down to you. I should just liketo ketch any one heaving stones down upon you. I wonder that youngDarley 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 somethingelse."

  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 asglass."

  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 othernight, and they fluttered and made a noise--great black witches, in longpetticoats and brooms. It was a noise like thunder, and a light likelightnin', she says, and it knocked her down night afore last; and shewon'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 fromGatewell over the hills; and they see a light up by Ergles, where therearen't no lights, and they crep' up to see what it was, and looked downand 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 theywere looking, all at once there was a ter'ble squirty noise, and a rushlike wings; and there was no fire, and nothing to see. Glad I warn'tthere. 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 somuch in the mine."

  "I suppose so. But you don't mind?"

  "Mind, Master Mark? I like it. Wish you was at home more, though.--Isay--"

  "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. Ifthey 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 showyou."

  "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'sall 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 wenton and on, along passages formed by the busy miners of the past, infollowing 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 turnedto his guide.

  "Well," he said, "is this it? Not much of a place. I thought you saidit 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, andhe was alone.

  "Here! Where are you?" he cried; and he looked about the place, up anddown, but to all appearances, he was in a _cul de sac_, whose walls weredotted with the fossil stems of _pentacrinites_, over which stalagmiticpetrifaction had gradually formed, looking as if dirty water had runover 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 occurredto him that should the boy have played him a trick, he would have nolittle difficulty in getting back to the part where the men were atwork.

  But there was no occasion for so loud a cry; the words had hardly passedhis lips when a hand holding a candle suddenly appeared against the wallin front, and upon stepping to it, he found that the sheet of stalagmitethere, instead of touching the wall, was a foot away, leaving room forany one to creep up a steep slope for thirty or forty feet, and continuethe way through a long crevice, whose sides looked as if they might haveseparated only a few hours before.

  "This is the way," said Dummy, and he led on for a quarter of an hourlonger, with a peculiar rushing noise growing louder, till it became aheavy
dull roar, as the narrow crack through which they had passedsuddenly opened out into a vast cavity which, below the ledge on whichthey stood, ended in gloom, and whose roof was lost in the sameblackness; but the echoes of the falling water below told them that itmust be far enough above their heads.

  "What a horrible hole!" cried Mark.

  "Yes; big," said Dummy. "Look: I climbed along there. It's easy; andthen you can go right on, above where the water comes in. It's warm inhere."

  "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 amatch."

  He took an old-fashioned brimstone match from his breast, lit both itspointed ends, waited till the sulphur was fluttering its blue flame, andthe splint was getting well alight and blackening, and then he reachedout and let it fall, to go burning brightly down and down, as if into ahuge well. Then it went out, and they seemed for the moment to be indarkness.

  "I don't think it's very, very deep," said Dummy quietly; "but it's allwater 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, hisfinger and thumb, and led the way back, after Mark had taken a finalglance at the vast chasm.

  "So you found this place out, Dummy?"

  "Yes, Master Mark. I'm always looking for new holes when I've nothingto 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 wecome."

  "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 openssomewhere. I often think we must come out somewhere on the other side."

  "That would be queer," said Mark thoughtfully; "but I don't think myfather would be pleased. Seem like making a way for the Darleys to comein and attack us."

  Dummy stopped short, and turned to stare open-mouthed at his youngchief.

  "What a head you've got, Master Mark," he said. "I never thought ofthat."

  "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 bedawake for some time, thinking about the visit to the cavernous mine, andhow it honeycombed the mountainous place: then about Dummy's witches,and the fire and caldron, at the mouth of the hole by Ergles, a mightylimestone ridge about three miles away. Then after a laugh at the easyway in which the superstitious country people were alarmed, he fellasleep, to begin a troublous dream, which was mixed up in a strangelyconfused way with the great chasm in the mine, down which he had workedhis way to get at the ravens' nest: and then he started intowakefulness, as he was falling down and down, hundreds upon hundreds offeet, to find his face wet with perspiration, and that he had been lyingupon his back.