Author: George Manville Fenn
Category: Nonfiction
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CHAPTER EIGHT.
The breakfast the next morning was rather late, consequent upon CaptainLawrence and his nephew dropping off each into a deep sleep just when itwas about time to rise; but it was a very pleasant meal when they didmeet, for the removal of a great weight from Aleck's mind allowed someother part of his economy to rise rampant with hints that it had missedthe previous day's dinner. There was a pleasant odour, too, pervadingthe house, suggesting that Jane had been baking bread cakes and thenfrying fish.
Aleck noticed both scents when he threw open his window to let theperfume of the roses come in from the garden; but the kitchen windowsand door were open, and the odour of the roses was regularly ousted bythat of the food.
"My word! It does smell good," said the boy to himself, and his lipsparted to be smacked, but gave vent to the interjection "O!" instead,for the movement of the articulations just in front of his ears caused asharp pain.
"That's nice!" muttered Aleck. "How's a fellow to eat with his jaw allstiff like that?"
This reminder of the previous day's encounter brought with it othermemories, which took the lad to the looking-glass, and the reflection hesaw there made him grin at himself, and then wince again.
"Oh, my!" he said, softly. "How it hurts! My face feels stiff allover. I do look a sight. Can't go down to breakfast like this, I know;I'll stop here, and Jane will bring me some up. One can't stir out likethis."
Grasping the fact that it was late, the boy dressed hurriedly, castingglances from time to time at the birds which sailed over from the sea,and at old Dunning, the gardener, who was busy digging a deep trench forcelery, and treating the soft earth when he drove in the spade in soslow and tender a way that it seemed as if he was afraid of hurting it.
Aleck noted this, and grinned and hurt himself again.
"Poor old 'Nesimus," he said, feeling wonderfully light-hearted; "healways works as if he thought it must be cruel to kill weeds."
The boy had a good final look at the old man, who wore more the aspectof a rough fisherman than a gardener. In fact he had pursued the formeravocation entirely in the past, in company with the speculative growingof fruit and vegetables in his garden patch--not to sell to hisneighbours, the fishing folk of the tiny hamlet of Eilygugg, but to"swap" them, as he termed it, for fish. Then the time came when the Dengardener happened to be enjoying himself at Rockabie with a dozen moremen, smoking, discussing shoals of fish, the durability of nets, and thelike, when they suddenly discovered the fact that a party of men hadlanded on the shore from His Majesty's ship Conqueror, stolen up to thetown in the darkness, and, after surrounding the little inn with anetwork of men, drawn the said net closer and closer, and ended bytrammelling the whole set of guests and carrying them off as pressed mento the big frigate.
That was during the last war, and not a man came back to take up hisregular avocation. Consequently there was a vacancy for a gardener atthe Den, and it was afterwards filled up by Fisherman Onesimus Dunning,the wrinkled-faced man handling the spade and dealing so tenderly withhis Mother Earth when Aleck looked out of the window.
"I wonder old Jane hasn't been up to see how I am," said Aleck, as hehandled his comb as gingerly as the gardener did his spade.
"I wonder how Master Aleck is," said Jane, just about the same time."But I won't disturb him. Nothing like a good long sleep for hurts."
"I know," said Aleck to himself; "I can't call down the stairs, becauseuncle would hear. I daresay he's asleep. I'll tell old Ness to goround to the kitchen door and say she is to come up. No, I won't; he'dcome close up and see my face, and it would make her cross now she'sbusy frying fish. How good it smells! I _am_ hungry! Wish she'd bringsome up at once. How _am_ I to let her know?"
He had hardly thought this before he started, for there was a sharp rapat the door, the handle rattled, and the old captain came in.
"Getting up, Aleck, boy?" he said. "Ah, that's right--dressed. Comealong down. You must be hungry."
"I am, uncle," replied the boy, returning his uncle's warm andimpressive grasp; "but I can't come down like this," and the boy made adeprecating gesture towards his battered face.
"Well, you don't look your best, Aleck, lad," said the old man, smiling;"but you are no invalid. Never mind your looks; you'll soon comeright."
Nothing loth, the boy followed his uncle downstairs, Jane hurriedlyappearing in the little breakfast-room with a hot dish and plates onhearing the steps, and smiling with satisfaction on seeing Aleck.
"Ah, that's right, Jane!" said the captain, cheerfully, making the maidbeam again on seeing "master" in such an amiable frame of mind.
"Fried fish?"
"Yes, sir; brill."
"Some of your catching, Aleck?"
"No, sir," put in the maid, eagerly; "that Tom Bodger was over here withit as soon as it was light. He knocked and woke me up. Said MasterAleck forgot it yes'day."
"No wonder," said the captain, smiling at his nephew; "enough to knockanything out of your head, eh, Aleck?"
"Yes, uncle; one of the fishermen said I was to bring it home."
"That's right. Shows you have friends as well as foes in Rockabie."
The breakfast went on, and after the first mouthfuls the boy's jawsworked more easily, and he was enjoying his meal thoroughly, when hisuncle suddenly exclaimed:
"What are you going to do to-day, my boy?"
"Go on with those problems, uncle, unless you want me to do anythingelse."
"I do," said the old man, smiling. "I want you to leave your booksto-day--for a few days, I should say, till your face comes round again--I mean less round, boy," he added, laughing. "Have a rest. Go andramble along the cliffs. Take the little glass and watch the birds tillevening, and then you can fish."
Aleck jumped at the proposal, for the thought of books and writing hadbrought on suggestions of headache and weariness; and soon afterbreakfast he went up to his uncle's study, to find him sitting lookingvery thoughtful, and ready to start at the boy's entry.
"I've come for the spy-glass, uncle," said Aleck.
"To be sure, yes. I forgot," said the old man, hastily. "Take it down,my boy; and mind what you're about--recollect you are half blind. Let'shave no walking over the cliff or into one of the gullies."
"I'll take care, uncle," said the boy, smiling. "I'll be back to dinnerat two."
The captain nodded, and Aleck was moving towards the door, when the oldman rose hastily, overtook him, and grasped his hand for a moment ortwo.
"Just to show you that I have not forgotten yesterday, Aleck, my boy,"he said, gravely, and then he turned away.
"Who could forget yesterday?" thought the boy, as he slipped out by theside door and took the path leading round by the far edge of the cliffwall, the part which was left wild, that is, to its natural growth.
For Aleck's intent was to avoid being observed by the old gardener, whomhe had last seen at work over the celery trench upon the other side ofthe house.
"He'd only begin asking questions about my face, and grinning at me likeone of the great stupid fisher boys," said Aleck to himself, as hepassed the sling strap of the spy-glass over his shoulder and hurried inand out among the bosky shrubs close under the great cliff wall, till,passing suddenly round a great feathery tuft of tamarisk, he camesuddenly upon the very man he was trying to avoid, standing in a verypeculiar position, his back bowed inward, head thrown backward, and asquare black bottle held upside down, the neck to his lips and thebottom pointing to the sky.
Aleck stopped short, vexed and wondering, while the old gardener jerkedhimself upright, spilling some of the liquid over his chin and neck, andmaking a movement as if to hide the bottle, but, seeing how impossibleit was, standing fast, with an imbecile grin on his countenance.
"Morning, Master Aleck," he said. "Strange hot morning. Been diggin';and it makes me that thusty I'm obliged to keep a bottle o' water herein the shady part o' the rocks."
"Oh, are you?" said Aleck, quietly, an
d he could not forbear giving asniff.
"Ah! nice, arn't it, sir? Flowers do smell out here on a morning likethis, what with the roses and the errubs and wile thyme and things. Itdo make the bees busy. But what yer been eating on, sir? Or have yerslipped down among the nattles? Your face is swelled-up a sight. Here,I know--you've been bathing!"
"Not this morning, Ness; I did yesterday."
"That's it, then, my lad, and you should mind. I know you've had one o'they jelly-fish float up agen yer face, and they sting dreadfulsometimes."
"Yes, I know," said Aleck, beginning to move onward past the man; "butit wasn't a jelly-fish that stung my face."
"Wasn't it now? Yer don't mean it was a bee or wops?"
"No, Ness; it was a blackguard's fist."
"Why, yer don't mean to say yer been fighting, do 'ee?"
"Yes, I do, Ness. Going to finish the celery trench?"
"Yes, sir; but the ground's mighty hard. Hot wuck, that it is. Butwhere be going wi' the spy-glass?"
"Over yonder along the cliffs to look at the Eilyguggs."
"Eh?" cried the man, sharply. "'Long yonder, past the houses?"
"Yes."
"Nay, nay, nay, I wouldn't go that away. Go east'ard. It's a dealbetter and nicer that way, and there's more buds."
"I'll go that way another time," said the boy, surlily, and he hurriedon. "A nasty old cheat," he muttered; "does he take me for a child?Water, indeed! Strong water, then. I shouldn't a bit wonder if it wassmuggled gin. But, there, I won't tell tales."
"Ahoy there!" shouted the gardener. "Master Aleck, there's a sight moreeggs yon other way."
"Yes, I know," cried the boy. "Another time." Then to himself, "Botherhis officiousness! Wants to be very civil so that I shan't notice abouthis being there with that bottle."
The man shouted something back, and upon Aleck looking round he saw tohis surprise that he was being followed, the gardener shuffling afterhim at a pretty good rate.
"Now, why does he want me to go the other way?" thought the boy. "Ididn't mind which cliff I went along, but I do now. I'm not going to bedictated to by him. I know, he wants to come with me, just by way of anexcuse to leave off digging for an hour or two and chatter and babbleand keep on saying things I don't want to hear, as well as question meabout yesterday's fight; and I'm not going to give him the chance."
Aleck smiled to himself, and winced again, for the swollen face wasstiff and the nerves and muscles about his eyes in no condition forsmiles. Then, keeping on for a few yards till he was hidden from hisfollower by the thick shrubs, he stooped down, ran off to his right, andreached the path on the other side of the depression, well out of thegardener's sight; and reaching a suitable spot he dropped down upon hisknees, having the satisfaction of watching the man hurrying along tillhe came to where the depression narrowed and the pathway along the chasmbegan.
From here there was a good view downward, and the man stopped short,sheltered his eyes with his right hand to scan the narrow shelf-likedeclivity for quite a minute, before he took off his hat and beganscratching his head, while he looked round and behind before havinganother scratch and appearing thoroughly puzzled.
"Wondering how I managed to drop out of sight," laughed Aleck tohimself.
He was quite right, for he saw Dunning turn to right and left, afterlooking forward, ending by staring straight up in the air, and thenbackward, before giving his leg a sounding rap, and taking off his hatto wipe the perspiration from his forehead.
"He doesn't get so hot as that over his work," said Aleck to himself, ashe crouched lower, laughing heartily; and he had another good laughwhen, after one more careful look, the old gardener shook his headdisconsolately and turned to walk back.
"Given it up as a bad job," he said, merrily. "An old stupid! I couldhave found him. Well, I can go now in peace."
He waited till the coast was clear, and then, stooping low, set off at atrot, getting well down into the gorge-like rift. Striking offgradually to his right, he attacked the great cliff wall in a perfectlyfamiliar fashion, and climbed from ledge to ledge till he reached thetop, glanced back to see that the gardener was not in sight, and thenstrode away over the short, velvety, slippery turf, with the edge of thecliff some fifty yards or so to his left, and the rough, rocky slopethat led up to the scattered cottages of the Eilygugg fishermen to hisright.
He soon reached a somewhat similar chasm to that which ended in his ownboat harbour; but this was far wider, and upon reaching its edge hecould look right down it to the sea, where at its mouth a couple ofluggers and about half a dozen rowboats of various sizes were moored.
The cottages lay round and about the head of the creek, and partlynatural, partly cut and blasted out of the cliff side, ledge after ledgehad been formed, giving an easy way down from the cottages to the boats.But there was not a soul in sight, and nothing to indicate that therewere people occupying the whitewashed cots, save some patches of whitenewly-washed clothes which were kept from being blown away by theplayful wind by means of big cobble stones--smooth boulders--three orfour of which were laid upon the corners of the washing.
There was not even one fisherman hanging about the front of thecottages, where all looked quiet and sleepy in the extreme, so, passingon, Aleck hurried round the head of the narrow rugged harbour, and wassoon after making his way along the piled-up cliffs, keeping well inlandso as to avoid the great gashes or splits which ran up into the land andhad to be circumvented, where they ended as suddenly as they appeared,in every case being perfectly perpendicular, with the water runningright up, looking in some cases black, still, deep and clear, in othersfloored with foam as the waves rushed in over the black, jagged massesof rock that had in stormy times been torn from the sides.
To a stranger nothing could have appeared more terrible than thesezigzag jagged gashes or splits in the stern, rocky coast, for they wereturfed to the sharp edge, where an unwary step would have resulted inthe visitor plunging downward, to drown in the deep, black water, or bemutilated by the rocks amidst which the waters foamed.
But "familiarity breeds contempt," says one proverb, "use is secondnature" another, and there was nothing that appeared terrible to theboy, who walked quickly along close to the edge, glancing perhaps at itsfellow, in some cases only a few yards away, and looking so exactly thecounterpart of that on the near side that it seemed as if only anotherconvulsion of nature was needed to compress and join the crack again sothat it would be possible to walk where death was now lurking.
But there was nothing horrible there to Aleck who in every case turnedinland to skirt the chasm, gazing down with interest the while at thenesting-places of the sea-birds which covered nearly every ledge, eachone being alive with screaming, clamouring, hungry young, strainingtheir necks to meet the swift-winged auks and puffins that darted to andfro with newly-captured fish in their bills.
Aleck had left the whitewashed cottages behind, along with the lasttraces of busy human life in the shape of boat, rope, spar, lobster-pot,and net, to reach one of the most rugged and inaccessible parts of therocky cliffs--a spot all jagged, piled-up rift with the correspondinghollows--and at last selected a place which looked like the beginning ofone of the chasms where Nature had commenced a huge gaping crack a goodhundred feet in depth, though its darkened wedge-shaped bottom was stillquite a hundred feet above where the waves swayed in and out at thebottom, of the cliff. The sides here were not perpendicular, but withjust sufficient slope to allow an experienced, cool-headed cliff-climberto descend from ledge to ledge and rock to rock till a nook could bereached, where, securely perched, one who loved cliff-scanning and thebeauties of the ever-changing sea and shore, could sit and enjoy thewild wonders of the place.
The spot was exactly suited to Aleck's taste; and as old practice andacquaintance with the coast had made giddiness a trouble he never felt,he was not long in lowering himself down to this coign of vantage. Herehe perched himself with a sigh of satisfaction, and watched for a
timethe great white-breasted gulls which floated down to gaze with curiouswatchful eyes at the intruder upon their wild domain. The puffins keptdarting down from the ledges, with beaks pointed, web feet stretched outbehind, and short wings fluttering so rapidly that they were almostinvisible, while the singular birds looked like so many animatedtriangles darting down diagonally to the sea, and gliding over it forsome distance before touching the water, into which they plunged likearrow-heads, to disappear and continue their flight under water tillthey emerged far away with some silvery fish in their beaks.
Some little distance below a few sooty-looking cormorants had takenpossession of an out-standing rock upon which the sun beat warmly, andhere, their morning fishing over, leaving them absolutely gorged, theysat with wings half open and feathers erect, drying themselves, lookingthe very images of gluttonous content.
Birds were everywhere--black, black and white, black and grey, and greyand white, with here and there a few that looked black in the distance,but when inspected through the glass proved to be of a deep bronzymetallic green.
But while the air and rocks were alive with objects that delighted thewatcher's eye, there was plenty to see beside. Close in where the deepwater was nearly still, the jelly-fish floated at every depth, shrinkingand expanding like so many opening and shutting bubbles of soap andwater, glistening with iridescent hues. Farther out the smooth,vividly-blue water every now and then turned in patches from sapphire topurple, and a patch--a whole acre perhaps in extent--became of thedarkest purple or amethyst, all of a fret and work, while silveryflashes played all over it, reflecting the rays of the burning sun. Forplenty of shoals of fish were feeding, over which the birds were rising,falling, darting and splashing, as they banqueted upon their silveryprey.
All this was so familiar to Aleck that, though still enjoying it, hesatisfied himself with a few glances before, carefully focussing theglass he had brought, he began to sweep the coast wherever he couldcommand it from where he sat.
The opposite side of the rift seemed to take his attention most, andperhaps he was examining some of the deep cavernous hollows seen hereand there high up or low down towards the sea; or maybe his attentionwas riveted upon some quaint puffin, crouching, solemn and big-beaked,watching patiently for the next visit of main or dad; or, again, maybethe lad was looking at a solitary greatly-blotched egg, big at one end,going off to almost nothing at the other, and wanting in the soft curvesof ordinary eggs, while he wondered how it was that such an egg shouldnot blow out of its rocky hollow when the wind came, but spin round asupon a pivot instead.
Anyhow, Aleck was watching the other side of the half-made chasm, thegreat wedge-shaped depression in the coast-line, looking straight acrossat a spot about a hundred yards distant in the level, though higher upit was too, and going off to nothing at the bottom, where the placelooked like the dried-up bed of a river.
All at once he started and nearly dropped the glass, as he wrenchedhimself right round to gaze back and up, for a gruff voice had suddenlycried:
"Hullo!"
The next moment the boy, was gazing in a fierce pair of very dark eyesbelonging to a swarthy, scowling, sea-tanned face, the lower part ofwhich was clothed in a crisp black beard, as black as the short head ofhair.
This head of hair of course belonged to a man, but no man was to beseen, nothing but the big round bullet head peering down from the edgeof one of the ledges, while on both sides, apparently not heeding thehead in the least, dozens of wild fowl sat solemnly together, lookingstupid and waiting for the next coming of parent birds.
"Hullo!" cried the head again.
"Hullo!" retorted Aleck, as gruffly as he could, after recovering fromhis surprise. "That you, Eben Megg?"
"Oh! ay, it's me right enough, youngster. What are you doing there?"
"Now?" said Aleck, coolly. "Looking up at your black face."
"Black face, eh, youngster? Perhaps other people ha' got black facestoo. What ha' you been doing of--tumbling off the rocks? Strikes meyou're trying it on for another tumble."
Aleck flushed a little at the allusion to his injured face, feelingguilty too, as it struck him that he had brought the allusion uponhimself, a Rowland for his Oliver, on the principle that those who playat bowls must expect rubbers.
"No, I haven't had a tumble, and I'm not going to tumble," he said,testily. "I daresay I can climb as well as you."
"P'raps you can, youngster, and p'raps you can't; but, if you do want tobreak your neck, stop at home and do it, and don't come here."
"What!" cried Aleck, indignantly. "Why not? I've as good a right hereas you have, so none of your insolence."
"Oh, no, you haven't. All along here's our egging-ground, and we don'twant our birds disturbed."
"Your egging-ground--your birds!" cried Aleck, indignantly. "Why, I docall that cool. You'll be telling me next that the fish in the sea areyours, and that I mustn't whiff or lay a fish-pot or trammel."
"Ay, unless you want to lose your net or other gear. I hev knowed folkas fished on other people's ground finding a hole knocked in the bottomsof their boats."
"What!" cried Aleck. "That's as good as saying that if I fish alonghere you'll sink my boat."
"Didn't say I would, but it's like enough as some 'un might shove aboat-hook through or drop in a good big boulder stone."
"Then I tell you what it is, Master Eben Megg. If any damage is done tomy Seagull you'll have to answer for it before the magistrate."
"Oh! that's your game, is it, my lad? Now, lookye here, don't you getthreatening of me or you'll get the worst on it. We folk at Eilyguggnever interferes with you and the captain and never interferes aboutyour ketching a bit o' fish or taking a few eggs so long as you arecivil; but you're on'y foreigners and intruders and don't belong tothese parts, and we do."
"Well, of all the impudence," cried Aleck, "when my uncle bought thewhole of the Den estate right down to the sea! Don't you know thatyou're intruders and trespassers when you come laying your crab-potsunder our cliff and shooting your seine on the sandy patch off thelittle harbour?"
"No, youngster, I don't; but I do know as you're getting a deal toosarcy, and that I'm going to stop it, and my mates too."
"Get out! Who are you?" cried the boy, indignantly. "What do youmean?"
"I mean that if you want to fish off our shore and wants a man to helpwith your boat you've got to ask some of us to help, and not getbringing none o' your wooden-legged cripples spying and poking about ourground."
"Spy? What is there to spy?" said Aleck, giving the man a peculiarlook.
"Never you mind about that. You be off home, and don't you come spyingabout here with none of your glasses."
Aleck laughed derisively.
"Ah, you may grin, my lad; but I've been a-watching of yer thismorning," said the man, fiercely. "You've been busy with that glass,prying and peering about, and I caught yer at it."
Aleck laughed again.
"Oh! that's what you think, is it?" he said.
"Yes, and it's what I says; so be off home."
"I shall do nothing of the kind, Eben," said the boy, hotly. "I've abetter right here than you have, and I shall come whenever I please.Spying, eh?"
"Ay, spying, youngster; and I won't have it."
"Then it's all true, eh?" said the boy, mockingly.
"What's true?" snarled the man.
"You know. What have you got hidden away among the caverns--Hollandsgin or French brandy? Perhaps it's silk or velvet. No, no; I know.But you can't think that. How do you manage to land the great casks?"
"I dunno what you're talking about, youngster--do you?"
"Thoroughly. But aren't the tobacco casks too big and too heavy to haulup the cliffs?"
"Look here, young fellow," growled the man; "none o' your nonsense.You'd better be off before you get hurt. That's your way back."
"Is it?" said Aleck. "Then I'm not going back till I choose. I say,should you talk like this to one of the
Revenue sloop's men if he cameashore?"
"Oh, we know how to talk to that sort if he comes our way," said theman, with a chuckling laugh; "and they knows it, too, and don't come."
"Nor the press-gang either, eh?" said Aleck, mockingly.
Up to that moment the man's fierce face had alone been seen, but at theword press-gang he gave a violent start and rose to his knees, uponwhich he hobbled close up to the edge of the shelf upon which he hadperched himself.
"Oh, that's it, is it, my lad, eh?" he growled, shaking his fistsavagely. "Then, look here. If the press-gang--cuss 'em!--ever doescome along here we shall know who put 'em up to it, and if they take anyof our chaps--mind yer they won't take all, and them behind'll know whatto do. I'm not going to threaten, but if someone wasn't sunk in hisboat, or had a bit o' rock come tumbling down on him when he was takingup his net under the cliffs, it would be strange to me. D'yer hearthat?"
"Oh, yes, I hear that," retorted Aleck. "So you won't threaten, eh?What do you call that?"
"Never you mind what I call it, youngster; and what I says I means. Sonow you know."
"Yes," said Aleck, coolly; "now I know that what people say about youand your gang up at Eilygugg is quite true."
"What do people say?" shouted the man. "What people?"
"The Rockabie folk."
"And what do they say?"
"That you're a set of smugglers, and, worse still, wreckers when you geta chance, and don't stop at robbery or murder. One of the fishermen--Iwon't say his name--said you were a regular gang of pirates."
"The Rockabie fishermen are a set o' soft-headed fools," snarled theman. "But what do I care for all they say? Let 'em prove it; and, lookhere, if we're as bad as that you folk up at the Den aren't safe."
"Which means that you threaten the captain, my uncle," cried Aleck,defiantly.
"Are you going to tell him what I said?"
"Perhaps I am," said Aleck; "perhaps I'm not. I'm going to do just as Iplease all along this coast, for it's free to everybody, and my unclehas ten times the rights here that you people at the fishermen'scottages have. You've just been talking insolence to me, so let's haveno more of it. This comes of the captain, my uncle, being kind andcharitable to you people time after time when someone has been ill."
The man growled out something in a muttering way.
"Ah, you know it, Eben Megg! It's quite true."
"Who said it warn't?" growled the man; "but if he'd done ten times asmuch I'm not going to have you spying and prying about here. What is ityou want to know?"
"That's my business," said Aleck, defiantly. "I say, you haven't made afortune out of smuggling, have you, and bought the estate?"
"You keep your tongue quiet, will yer?" growled the man, fiercely."What do you know about smuggling?"
"Just as much as you do, Eben Megg," cried the boy, laughing. "Just asmuch as everyone else does who lives here. Didn't our old maid come inscared one night after a holiday and walking across from Rockabie and gointo a fit because she had seen, as she said, a whole regiment of ghostswalking over the moor, leading ghostly horses, which came out of the seafog and crossed the road without making a sound? Jane said they werethe spirits of the old soldiers who were killed in the big fight andburied by the four stones on Black Hill, and that as soon as they wereacross the stony road they were all swallowed up in a mist. She keepsto it till now, and believes it."
"Well, why shouldn't she?" growled the man. "She arn't the first as hasseen a ghost. Why shouldn't she?"
"Because it's so silly, when it was a party of smugglers leading theirhorses, with kegs slung across their backs and bales on pack saddles."
"Bah!" cried the man. "Horses loaded like that would clatter over therough stones."
"Yes," said Aleck, "if their hoofs weren't covered over with bits ofcanvas and a few handfuls of hay."
"What!"
"I found one that a horse had kicked off on the road one morning, Eben,"said the boy. "Ah! I see now."
"See--see what?" said the rough, fisherman-like fellow, sharply.
"See why Ness Dunning was so anxious that I shouldn't come along thecliff this side."
"Ness Dunning?" cried the man, scowling. "What did he say?"
"That I'd better go the other way. Behaved just like a silly ploverwhich wants to prove to you that it has no nest on the moor, and setsyou looking for it."
"Ness Dunning's an old fool," cried the man, fiercely.
"Yes, he is a thick-headed old noodle, Eben; I wouldn't trust him."
"Then because he did that he made you think there was something hidsomewhere and come to hunt for it, did you?" cried the man, angrily.
"No, I didn't think anything of the kind till just this minute, but Isee now. You're not much wiser than old Ness, Eben, for you've beentrying to throw me off the scent too, and now I know as well as if Icould see it that you people have been running a cargo, and you've gotit hidden in one of the caves or sunk in one of the holes."
"What yer talking about?"
"Smuggled goods, Eben. I could find it if I tried now."
The man stepped down from the shelf on which he had been standing, andmade a great show of being exceedingly ferocious, evidently thinkingthat the boy would turn and run away. But Aleck stood fast, not evenstirring when the man was close up, planting his doubled fists upon hiships and thrusting out his lower jaw in a peculiarly animal-like way.
"So you're going to look and see if you can find something hidden, andwhen you've found it you're going to send word to the Revenue cutter mento fetch it, are yer?"
"Who says I am?" said Aleck, sharply.
"Who says it? Why, I do, my lad. So that's what you think you're goingto do, is it?"
"No," said the lad, coolly enough. "Why should I? It's no business ofmine."
"Ho!" growled the man, frowning, and raising one hand to rub his short,crisp, black beard. "No," he said, after a pause, "it arn't no businessof yours, is it?"
"Of course not," said the boy, coolly. "I don't want to know where therun cargo's hidden, and I wasn't looking for it. I only came to watchthe birds and get a few eggs if I saw any that I hadn't got."
The man made a sudden quick movement and caught Aleck's right wristtightly, leaning forward as if to pierce his eyes with the fierce lookhe gave.
"Don't do that--you hurt!" cried Aleck, sharply.
"Yes, I mean to hurt," growled the man. "Now, then, look at me! Isthat true?"
"Do you hear, Eben Megg? You hurt me. Let go, or I shall hit out."
"You'll do what?" cried the big fellow, mockingly, as he tightened hisgrasp to a painful extent, when _spank_! Aleck's left fist flew out,striking the man full on the right cheek, not a heavy blow, but as hardas the boy could deliver, hampered as he was, being dragged close to hisassailant's breast.
"Why, you--" roared the man. He did not say what, but flung the arm hehad at liberty round the boy's waist and lifted him, kicking andstruggling, from the ground, perfectly helpless, with the great musculararm acting like a band of iron, to do more than try to deliver someineffective blows, which his assailant easily avoided.
"Ah! Would you?" he growled, fiercely. "You're a nice young game cockchick, you are. Hold still!" he roared, taking a step forward, to standon the very edge of the shelf. "Keep that hand quiet, or I'll hurl youdown among the rocks. You'll look worse then than you do now."
"Do, if you dare," cried the lad, defiantly.
"You tell me what I asked," growled the man; "is what you said true?"
"I won't tell you while you grip my wrist."
"You'd better speak," cried the man. "D'yer see, you're like a featherto me. I could pitch you right out so as you'd go to the bottomyonder."
"You could, but you daren't?" cried Aleck, grinding his teeth andstriving hard to bear the pain he suffered.
"Oh, I dare--I could if I liked! Nobody would see out here. It wouldkill yer, and nobody would know how it happened; but they'd sa
y whenthey found you that you'd slipped and fell when you was egging. Theywould, wouldn't they? That's true, arn't it?"
"I suppose so," said the boy, huskily.
"And that's what I'm going to do for hitting me, unless you tell mewhether that was true what you said. Now, then, beg me not to hurl yerdown."
"I--shan't," ground out the boy through his set teeth, and a grim smilecrossed the man's dark face, making it look for the moment open andmanly--a smile caused by something akin to admiration.
"Well, you're a nice-tempered sort of a young fellow," growled the man.
"Let go of my wrist."
"Will yer promise not to hit?"
Aleck nodded.
"Nor yet kick?"
The boy nodded again.
"There," said the man, loosening the prisoned wrist. "Now, tell me, isit true?"
"Of course it is," said the boy, haughtily.
"I'll believe yer," growled the man. "There," he continued, droppingthe boy to his feet. "Then you won't look for where the stuff'sstowed?"
Aleck burst into a hoarse laugh.
"Then there is some stowed?"
The man gave himself a wrench, and his face puckered up again withanger.
"Lookye here," he said, more quietly, "I don't say there is, and I don'tsay there arn't; but suppose there is, you're going to swear as youwon't take no notice."
"No, I'm not," said Aleck, boldly.
"Then you do want me to chuck you down yonder?"
"You've got to catch me first," cried the boy, making a backward boundwhich took him ten feet downward before he landed and kept his feet,following up his leap by running along the ledge of stony slate he hadreached and then beginning to climb rapidly.
The man had followed him at once, leaping boldly, but without Aleck'ssuccess, for he slipped, through the stones giving way, and went downquite five-and-twenty feet in a rough scramble before he checked himselfand took up the pursuit, which he soon found would be useless, for hisyoung adversary was lighter and far more active, and soon showed that hewas leaving him behind.
"There, hold hard, Master Aleck," he growled, looking up at the lad. "Iwon't hurt yer now."
"Thankye," said the boy, mockingly, as he stopped, holding on by aprojecting rock in the stiff slope, and well on his guard to go onclimbing if there was the slightest sign of pursuit.
"You made me wild by hitting out at me."
"Serve you right, you great lumbering coward, to serve me like that!"
"I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Yes, you did--brute! You squeezed my wrist as hard as you could."
"Well, I didn't want to hurt you much. But you did make me wild, youknow, hitting me like you did."
"Look here," cried Aleck, fiercely, as the man took a step to continueclimbing to where the boy stood, some thirty feet above him, "you comeanother step, and I'll send this big stone down at you--it is loose."
"I don't want to ketch you now, only to talk quiet without having toshout."
"I can hear you plainly enough. Sit down."
The great muscular fellow dropped at once, seating himself upon theslope and digging his heels into the loose screes to keep from slidingdown.
"There y'are," he growled.
"Now, then," said Aleck, "what do you want to say?"
"Only about you coming along here to-day. You warn't trying to spy outnowt, was yer?"
"No," cried Aleck; "of course I wasn't. I've known for long enough thatyou people at Eilygugg do a lot of smuggling. I've stood with thecaptain, my uncle, of a night and seen you signal with a lanthorn, andthen after a bit seen a light shown out at sea."
"You've seen that, youngster?"
"Lots of times; and the boats going and coming and the lights showing upagainst the cliff. Of course we know what goes on, but my uncle doesn'tcare to interfere, and I've never tried to find out where you hide thesmuggled goods; but I shouldn't be long finding out if I tried."
"Hum!" growled the man, gazing up searchingly. "P'raps you're right,youngster, p'raps you arn't; but there is a deal o' smuggling goes onalong this coast."
"Especially about here," said Aleck, with a smile.
"Well, what's the harm, eh? A man must live, and if one didn't do itanother would."
"Look here; I don't want to know or hear anything about it," criedAleck. "Only I shall come along these cliffs, egging or watching thebirds, as often as I like."
"Well, I don't know as anyone'll mind, Master Aleck, if I speaks to 'emand says as you says as a young gentleman that you'll never take nonotice of anything as you sees or hears--"
"What! How can a gentleman promise anything of the kind about peoplebreaking the law?"
"How? Why, by just saying as he won't."
"A gentleman can't, I tell you. There, I won't promise anything."
The man gave his rough head a vicious scratch, before saying, sharply:
"Then how's a man to trust yer?"
"I don't know," said Aleck, carelessly, "but I'll tell you this. If I'dwanted to I could have found out whether you've got a place to hide yourstuff, as you call it, long enough ago."
"I don't know so much about that," said the man, with a grin.
"Well, then, I could have told the Revenue cutter's men where they hadbetter look."
"But you won't, Master Aleck? We are neighbours, you know."
"Neighbours!" said Aleck, scornfully. "Pretty neighbours! There, I'mnot going to alter my words. I shall make no promises at all."
"Well, you are a young gentleman, and I'll trust yer," said the man;"for I s'pose I must. But I don't know what some of our lads'll say."
"Then I'd better tell my uncle that if anything happens to me he'dbetter get the Revenue cutter's men to hunt out the Eilygugg smugglers,because they pushed me off the cliff."
"Nay, don't you go and do that," said the man, anxiously. "I didn'tmean it."
"Am I to believe that, Eben?" said the boy, sharply.
The man showed his teeth in a laugh, and put his hands round his neck ina peculiar way.
"Look here, Master Aleck," he said; "man who goes to sea has to take hischance o' being drownded."
"Of course."
"And one who tries to dodge the Revenue sailors has to take his chanceof getting a cut from a bit o' steel or a bullet in him."
"I suppose so."
"That's quite bad enough, arn't it?"
"Yes."
"Bad enough for me, sir, so I'm not going to do what might mean being--you know what I mean?"
"What--"
"Yes, that's it. A bit o' smuggling's not got much harm in it, but theycall it murder when a man kills a man."
"By pushing him off a cliff, Eben?" said Aleck. "Yes."