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The Black Tor: A Tale of the Reign of James the First, a fiction by George Manville Fenn |
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Chapter 22. A Cure For The Headache |
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_ CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. A CURE FOR THE HEADACHE Master Rayburn was anxiously expected at the Black Tor, Mark's first act having been to send Dummy Rugg down to his cottage to ask him to come up; and not finding him there, the boy had very bravely followed him to Cliff Castle, in the full belief that he would be there, and on learning that he was, he sent a message in, and then hurried away. Matters went on in a very similar way at the Tor, even to Sir Edward accidentally finding that something was wrong, and going to the building at the entrance to the mine, where the wounded men were being attended. But he did not take matters in the same spirit as his inimical neighbour, but attacked his old friend furiously, vowed that he would never forgive him, and threatened his son with the severest punishment, though he did not say what. Master Rayburn said nothing, but went on dressing the men's wounds, till, regularly worked up into a perfect fury, Sir Edward turned upon him again. "This ends everything between us, Master Rayburn," he cried. "I have treated you as a friend, made you welcome at my table, and allowed my son to make you a kind of companion; but now, have the goodness to recollect that we are strangers, and if the gang from out of the cavern yonder attack you, get out of the trouble in the best way you can, for you will have no help from me." "Very well," said Master Rayburn quietly. "And now, sir, leave my place at once." "Oh no!" said the old man quietly, as Mark looked on, scarlet with annoyance, but feeling that he must suffer for what had happened. "Oh no!" cried Sir Edward, aghast. "Have the goodness to explain what you mean." "Certainly," replied the old man. "I have not finished with this man, and I have another to attend later on." "Leave, sir, at once," cried Sir Edward. "No," replied the old man quietly. "You are angry, and are saying that which in calmer moments you will regret. Those men require my assistance, and I must insist upon staying." Sir Edward made an angry gesture. "Go on, then," he cried; "finish what you have to do, and then leave at once." "Yes," replied Master Rayburn calmly; "but it will be necessary for me to come day after day for quite a week. This man will need much attention." Sir Edward turned and walked angrily out of the place; and as if not a word had been said, the old man went on with his task until he had ended. Then telling the men to be of good heart, for their injuries were none of them serious, he went to the door with Mark, whose face was troubled and perplexed. "There, you need not look like that, my lad," he said. "Your father's angry now, but he'll calm down, and I don't think he will say much to you. It is more likely that he will want to take revenge upon those ruffians. Cheer up, my boy: I'm not angry with you for what you've done. It was the fighting afterwards that was the unlucky part." The old man hurried away, and Mark stood watching him descend the slope. "Cheer up, indeed!" he muttered; "who's to cheer up at a time like this? I wish I hadn't listened to that miserable scrub of a Darley. I always hated him, and I might have known that associating with him would lead me into trouble.--Well, what do you want?" This was to Dummy Rugg, who, like his young master, had escaped without much damage. "Only come to talk to you, Master Mark," said the boy humbly. "Then you can be off. I don't want to talk." "I'll talk, then, and you listen, Master Mark," said the boy coolly; and Mark opened his eyes, and was about to order the lad off, but Dummy went on quickly. "I've been thinking it all over," he said. "That gunpowder's the thing. When we go next we'll take a lot in bags. When we get there, and they're hiding in that narrow bit, I'll untie the bags and throw two or three in. Then we can throw three or four torches, and one of them's sure to set the powder on fire, and start 'em; then we can all make a rush." "Oh, then you think that we shall go again?" "Oh yes, we must go again, Master Mark. Why, if we didn't go, the robbers would think we were afraid, and come at us. You're not going to sit down and look as if we were beat?" "Well, it would be too bad, Dummy," said Mark, thoughtfully. "Bad? I should think it would, Master Mark. I say, wasn't it grand last night?" "Grand?" "Yes; when we were in the cave, with the lights shining, and the pikes sparkling. If they had only come out and fought fair, it would have been splendid." "Then you would like to go again, Dummy?" "Of course, sir. Wouldn't you?" "Yes, I suppose so," said Mark thoughtfully. "Yes, you must go again, and take 'em all prisoners. But I suppose you won't go to-night?" "Go to-night? No!" "Well, there's nothing going on in the mine to-day. Father's too sore to head the men, and he's going to lie down and rest till his arm's better. What do you say to having a good long day below there, and finding which way the river runs--the one we heard?" "Bah! Stuff! Rubbish! After being up fighting all the night! You must be mad." "No, I aren't," said Dummy. "I only want you to come. It'll do you good. You don't know how much better you'll feel after a good walk and climb down there." "What's the good, Dummy?" "We want to find out where the water goes to that is always falling. I'm sure some of it comes out of our river, where the hole's in the stream." "And what good will it do to know where the water goes?" "I don't know, but I want to. Can't go to work after such a night as we had. There's nobody down the mine to-day." Mark put his hand to the place where he had received the blow. "Headache, Master Mark?" "Yes. All jarred-like." "Then come down. I've often had a bad headache when I've gone down into the mine, and it's been so quiet and still there that it has soon got better. Do come, Master Mark; it'll be better than sitting thinking about being beaten last night." "Very well, Dummy," said Mark at last: "I don't feel as if I could go to bed and sleep, and I don't want to be thinking." "And you'll have too much to do down there to think." "Yes, I suppose so; and if I stay up, I shall be meeting my father and catching it. Oh, I only wish we had won the day." "Couldn't; 'cause it was night," said the boy thoughtfully. "Well, be ready with the candles, and I'll come in half-an-hour, as soon as I've seen how the men are." "Oh, they're all right, and gone to sleep. They don't mind. But you ought to have let us beat the Darleys, as we didn't beat the robbers." "You go and get the candles," said Mark sourly. "Like to have torches too, master?" said the lad, with a cunning grin. "You speak to me again like that, you ugly beggar, and I won't go," cried Mark wrathfully. "Think I want all that horrible set-out with the torches brought up again?" "I'm off to get the candles ready, Master Mark," said Dummy humbly; and he hurried down the steep steps to get to the mouth of the mine. "Wish I'd kicked him," muttered Mark, as soon as he was alone. "I do feel so raw and cross. I could fight that Ralph Darley and half-kill him now. Here, let's go and see how miserable all the men are; it'll do me good." He hesitated about going, though, for fear of meeting his father; but feeling that it was cowardly, he went to where the men lay now, found them asleep, and came out again to go into the dining-room and make a hasty breakfast; after which he went out, descended the steep steps out in the side of the rock upon which the castle was perched, glanced up at it, and thought how strong it was; and then came upon Dummy, waiting with his candle-box and flint and steel, close by the building where the blasting-powder was kept. "Let's take these too, Master Mark," he said, pointing to the coils of rope which had been brought back from the cave; "we may want 'em." He set the example by putting one on like a baldric, Mark doing the same with the other. "Now for a light," he said, taking out his flint, steel, and tinder-box. "Well, don't get scattering sparks here," said Mark angrily. "Suppose any of the powder is lying about, you'll be blowing the place up." "Not I," said the boy, smiling; "I'm always careful about that." He soon obtained a glow in the tinder, lit a match, and set a candle burning. Then taking each one of the small mining-picks, the two lads descended into the solitary place, Dummy bearing the light and beginning to run along cheerily, as if familiarity with the long wandering passages and gloomy chambers had made them pleasant and home-like. Mark followed him briskly enough, for the solemn silence of the place was familiar enough to him, and he looked upon it merely as a great burrow, which had no terrors whether the men were at work or no. Dummy went steadily on, taking the shortest way to the chamber where he had shown his companion that it was no _cul de sac_, but the entrance to the grotto where nature had effected all the mining, and at last the great abyss where the sound of the falling water filled the air was reached. Here Dummy seated himself, with his legs swinging over the edge, and looked down. "That's where the river water comes in," he said, "through a big crack. Now let's see where it goes, because it must go somewhere." "Right into the middle of the earth, perhaps," said Mark, gazing down into the awful gulf, and listening to the rushing sound. "Nay," said Dummy; "water don't go down into the earth without coming out again somewhere. Dessay if we keep on we shall come out to daylight." "Eh?" cried Mark; "then we had better find it and stop it up, for as I said the other day, we don't want any one to find a back way into our mine." "That's what I thought, Master Mark," said Dummy quietly. "Wouldn't do for Purlrose and his men to find it, and come in some day, would it?" "No; that wouldn't do at all, Dummy." "No, sir. But how's your head?" "My head? Oh, I'd forgotten all about it." "I know'd you would," said the lad, grinning. "Don't feel so tired, neither?" "No." "Then I'll light another candle, and we'll get on: but don't you get slipping while we are going round here, because I don't know how deep it is, and I mightn't be able to get you out." "You take care of yourself, and lead on," said Mark shortly. "I dare say I can go where you do." Dummy nodded, and after handing the second candle to his master, he went along sidewise, and then lowered himself over the edge of the gulf, and dropped out of sight. "Only 'bout a fathom, Master Mark," he shouted, "and plenty of room." Mark did not hesitate, but lowered himself in turn, and dropped upon his feet, to find they were upon a rugged shelf, about four feet wide, sloping downward right by the side of the gulf; and passing along this, they soon reached the other side of the great chasm, to stand nearly opposite to the end of the passage where they had entered, but about twenty feet lower; and here they again looked down into the awesome depths. But nothing was to be seen. The water fell from somewhere beneath where they had entered; and as they judged, plunged deep down into a wide chasm, and from thence ran out and under the great crack, which the boy found out as the way they had to go. "Stream runs right under that, Master Mark. I went along some way, and every now an' then I could hear it, deep down. I say, did you bring anything to eat?" "Some bread that I couldn't manage at breakfast." "So did I," said the boy. "P'r'aps we may want it by-and-by." "We want better lights, Dummy," said Mark, after they had progressed some distance. The boy turned round with a merry look, and was about to suggest torches once more, but at a glance from Mark's eyes, he altered his mind and said: "Yes, those don't give much." But pitiful as the light was, it was sufficient for them to see walls covered with fossils, stalactites hanging from the roofs of chambers, others joined to the stalagmites on the floor, and forming columns, curtains, and veils of petrifaction, draping the walls as they went through passage, hall, and vast caverns whose roofs were invisible. And all the time, sometimes plainly, sometimes as the faintest gurgling whisper, they heard the sound of flowing water beneath their feet. "Well, this is grand!" said Mark; "but it's of no use." "Aren't no lead," said the boy quietly; "but it's fine to have such a place, and be able to say it's ours. May be some use." "But I say, how are you going to find your way back?" "Oh, I dunno," said the boy carelessly. "I've often been lost in the other parts, and I always found my way out." "Yes, but how?" "Oh, I dunno, quite, Master Mark," said the boy earnestly, "but it's somehow like this. I turn about a bit till I feel which is the right way, and then I go straight on, and it always is." "Mean that, Dummy?" "Oh yes, Master Mark; that's right enough. But come along." There was a certain excitement in penetrating the dark region, with its hills and descents, passages and chambers, deep cracks and chasms, down in which water was running, and strange ways, formed either by the settling or opening of the rock, or literally cut away by the rushing water; and every step was made interesting by the weird shapes around, formed by the dripping of water from the roof. Earth there was none, the stalactites and stalagmitic formations were of the cleanest stone, pale drab, cream, or ruddy from the solution of iron; and at last, when they must have been walking, climbing, forcing their way through narrow cracks, or crawling like lizards, for hours, the boy stooped by a little pool of crystal water in the floor, and said: "Don't you think a bit o' bread and cheese would be nice, Master Mark?" "Yes; that's what's the matter with me," cried the lad. "I was beginning to feel poorly. It's because I did not have a proper breakfast." The next minute they had stuck their twice renewed candles in a crack in the rock wall, and were seated upon a dry stalagmite looking like the top of a gigantic mushroom, eating ravenously, and moistening their dry food with copious draughts from the crystal pool. There was water, too, below them, a low rushing gurgle announcing that they were still following the course of the subterranean stream running through a wide crevice in the floor. "How much farther does it go, Dummy?" The boy shook his head. "May be for miles; but we'll see now, won't we?" "Let's finish our eating first, and then see how we feel," said Mark. "If we don't now, we will some other time. I say, if that water was not running, how quiet it would be!" "Yes," said Dummy, with his mouth full. "I don't think anybody was ever here before." "I suppose not," said Mark, looking round. "Here, have some more of my cheese," said the boy. "You haven't got none." Mark nodded, and took the piece cut by the boy's pocket-knife, for it improved the dry bread. "It's some of yours," said Dummy, with a grin. "They give it me in the kitchen." Mark was looking round, and listening to the water. "I say, Dummy, suppose there was to be a storm outside, and this place filled up, we should be drowned." "Never been no water along here, only drips," said the boy, examining the floor. "No, there's never been any floods here." "How do you know?" "Been some mud or sand left," said the boy, scraping in a narrow chink in the floor. "All hard stone." "I suppose you're right; but we must be very deep down." "No. I have been thinking, just as you have to when we're looking for fresh lead, we've been down a deal, and we've been up a deal, 'bout as much one as t'other. I should say we're just a little lower down than when we started from that big water-hole, but not much." "Made my back ache a bit, Dummy," said Mark, with a groan, as he leaned himself against a column which was pleasantly smoothed and curved. "Yes, we've come a good way," replied Dummy, "and you didn't have no sleep last night." The boy munched his last crust, and then lay flat down on his breast, with his mouth over the pool, lowered his lips, and took a long deep drink, after the fashion of a horse. After this, he rolled himself clear away, and lay upon his back, staring at the two candles stuck in the crack a few feet above his head. "Does rest your back and lynes, Master Mark, to lie like this for a bit. You just try it." There was no reply. "D'you hear, Master Mark? You try it." Still no response, and he turned his head, to see that his companion's chin was resting upon his chest. "Sleep!" said Dummy, with a little laugh. "Can't stand being up all night like I can. Being on night-shifts, sometimes, I s'pose. Well, let him sleep for a few minutes, and then I'll wake him." Then all was blank. _ |
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