Chapter 8

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_ CHAPTER EIGHT.

The breakfast the next morning was rather late, consequent upon Captain Lawrence and his nephew dropping off each into a deep sleep just when it was about time to rise; but it was a very pleasant meal when they did meet, for the removal of a great weight from Aleck's mind allowed some other part of his economy to rise rampant with hints that it had missed the previous day's dinner. There was a pleasant odour, too, pervading the house, suggesting that Jane had been baking bread cakes and then frying fish.

Aleck noticed both scents when he threw open his window to let the perfume of the roses come in from the garden; but the kitchen windows and door were open, and the odour of the roses was regularly ousted by that of the food.

"My word! It does smell good," said the boy to himself, and his lips parted to be smacked, but gave vent to the interjection "O!" instead, for the movement of the articulations just in front of his ears caused a sharp pain.

"That's nice!" muttered Aleck. "How's a fellow to eat with his jaw all stiff like that?"

This reminder of the previous day's encounter brought with it other memories, which took the lad to the looking-glass, and the reflection he saw there made him grin at himself, and then wince again.

"Oh, my!" he said, softly. "How it hurts! My face feels stiff all over. 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 like this."

Grasping the fact that it was late, the boy dressed hurriedly, casting glances 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 for celery, and treating the soft earth when he drove in the spade in so slow 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; "he always 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 aspect of a rough fisherman than a gardener. In fact he had pursued the former avocation entirely in the past, in company with the speculative growing of fruit and vegetables in his garden patch--not to sell to his neighbours, 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 Den gardener happened to be enjoying himself at Rockabie with a dozen more men, smoking, discussing shoals of fish, the durability of nets, and the like, when they suddenly discovered the fact that a party of men had landed on the shore from His Majesty's ship Conqueror, stolen up to the town in the darkness, and, after surrounding the little inn with a network of men, drawn the said net closer and closer, and ended by trammelling the whole set of guests and carrying them off as pressed men to the big frigate.

That was during the last war, and not a man came back to take up his regular avocation. Consequently there was a vacancy for a gardener at the Den, and it was afterwards filled up by Fisherman Onesimus Dunning, the wrinkled-faced man handling the spade and dealing so tenderly with his 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 he handled 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, because uncle would hear. I daresay he's asleep. I'll tell old Ness to go round to the kitchen door and say she is to come up. No, I won't; he'd come close up and see my face, and it would make her cross now she's busy frying fish. How good it smells! I _am_ hungry! Wish she'd bring some up at once. How _am_ I to let her know?"

He had hardly thought this before he started, for there was a sharp rap at the door, the handle rattled, and the old captain came in.

"Getting up, Aleck, boy?" he said. "Ah, that's right--dressed. Come along down. You must be hungry."

"I am, uncle," replied the boy, returning his uncle's warm and impressive grasp; "but I can't come down like this," and the boy made a deprecating 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 come right."

Nothing loth, the boy followed his uncle downstairs, Jane hurriedly appearing in the little breakfast-room with a hot dish and plates on hearing the steps, and smiling with satisfaction on seeing Aleck.

"Ah, that's right, Jane!" said the captain, cheerfully, making the maid beam 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 with it as soon as it was light. He knocked and woke me up. Said Master Aleck forgot it yes'day."

"No wonder," said the captain, smiling at his nephew; "enough to knock anything 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 jaws worked more easily, and he was enjoying his meal thoroughly, when his uncle suddenly exclaimed:

"What are you going to do to-day, my boy?"

"Go on with those problems, uncle, unless you want me to do anything else."

"I do," said the old man, smiling. "I want you to leave your books to-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 and ramble along the cliffs. Take the little glass and watch the birds till evening, and then you can fish."

Aleck jumped at the proposal, for the thought of books and writing had brought on suggestions of headache and weariness; and soon after breakfast he went up to his uncle's study, to find him sitting looking very 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's have 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 dinner at two."

The captain nodded, and Aleck was moving towards the door, when the old man rose hastily, overtook him, and grasped his hand for a moment or two.

"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 the side door and took the path leading round by the far edge of the cliff wall, 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, whom he had last seen at work over the celery trench upon the other side of the house.

"He'd only begin asking questions about my face, and grinning at me like one of the great stupid fisher boys," said Aleck to himself, as he passed the sling strap of the spy-glass over his shoulder and hurried in and out among the bosky shrubs close under the great cliff wall, till, passing suddenly round a great feathery tuft of tamarisk, he came suddenly upon the very man he was trying to avoid, standing in a very peculiar position, his back bowed inward, head thrown backward, and a square black bottle held upside down, the neck to his lips and the bottom pointing to the sky.

Aleck stopped short, vexed and wondering, while the old gardener jerked himself upright, spilling some of the liquid over his chin and neck, and making a movement as if to hide the bottle, but, seeing how impossible it 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 here in the shady part o' the rocks."

"Oh, are you?" said Aleck, quietly, and he could not forbear giving a sniff.

"Ah! nice, arn't it, sir? Flowers do smell out here on a morning like this, what with the roses and the errubs and wile thyme and things. It do make the bees busy. But what yer been eating on, sir? Or have yer slipped 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 dreadful sometimes."

"Yes, I know," said Aleck, beginning to move onward past the man; "but it 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. But where 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 deal better and nicer that way, and there's more buds."

"I'll go that way another time," said the boy, surlily, and he hurried on. "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 was smuggled gin. But, there, I won't tell tales."

"Ahoy there!" shouted the gardener. "Master Aleck, there's a sight more eggs yon other way."

"Yes, I know," cried the boy. "Another time." Then to himself, "Bother his officiousness! Wants to be very civil so that I shan't notice about his being there with that bottle."

The man shouted something back, and upon Aleck looking round he saw to his surprise that he was being followed, the gardener shuffling after him at a pretty good rate.

"Now, why does he want me to go the other way?" thought the boy. "I didn't mind which cliff I went along, but I do now. I'm not going to be dictated to by him. I know, he wants to come with me, just by way of an excuse to leave off digging for an hour or two and chatter and babble and keep on saying things I don't want to hear, as well as question me about yesterday's fight; and I'm not going to give him the chance."

Aleck smiled to himself, and winced again, for the swollen face was stiff and the nerves and muscles about his eyes in no condition for smiles. Then, keeping on for a few yards till he was hidden from his follower by the thick shrubs, he stooped down, ran off to his right, and reached the path on the other side of the depression, well out of the gardener's sight; and reaching a suitable spot he dropped down upon his knees, having the satisfaction of watching the man hurrying along till he came to where the depression narrowed and the pathway along the chasm began.

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-like declivity for quite a minute, before he took off his hat and began scratching his head, while he looked round and behind before having another scratch and appearing thoroughly puzzled.

"Wondering how I managed to drop out of sight," laughed Aleck to himself.

He was quite right, for he saw Dunning turn to right and left, after looking forward, ending by staring straight up in the air, and then backward, before giving his leg a sounding rap, and taking off his hat to wipe the perspiration from his forehead.

"He doesn't get so hot as that over his work," said Aleck to himself, as he crouched lower, laughing heartily; and he had another good laugh when, after one more careful look, the old gardener shook his head disconsolately and turned to walk back.

"Given it up as a bad job," he said, merrily. "An old stupid! I could have found him. Well, I can go now in peace."

He waited till the coast was clear, and then, stooping low, set off at a trot, getting well down into the gorge-like rift. Striking off gradually to his right, he attacked the great cliff wall in a perfectly familiar fashion, and climbed from ledge to ledge till he reached the top, glanced back to see that the gardener was not in sight, and then strode away over the short, velvety, slippery turf, with the edge of the cliff some fifty yards or so to his left, and the rough, rocky slope that led up to the scattered cottages of the Eilygugg fishermen to his right.

He soon reached a somewhat similar chasm to that which ended in his own boat harbour; but this was far wider, and upon reaching its edge he could look right down it to the sea, where at its mouth a couple of luggers and about half a dozen rowboats of various sizes were moored.

The cottages lay round and about the head of the creek, and partly natural, partly cut and blasted out of the cliff side, ledge after ledge had 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 there were people occupying the whitewashed cots, save some patches of white newly-washed clothes which were kept from being blown away by the playful wind by means of big cobble stones--smooth boulders--three or four of which were laid upon the corners of the washing.

There was not even one fisherman hanging about the front of the cottages, where all looked quiet and sleepy in the extreme, so, passing on, Aleck hurried round the head of the narrow rugged harbour, and was soon after making his way along the piled-up cliffs, keeping well inland so as to avoid the great gashes or splits which ran up into the land and had to be circumvented, where they ended as suddenly as they appeared, in every case being perfectly perpendicular, with the water running right up, looking in some cases black, still, deep and clear, in others floored with foam as the waves rushed in over the black, jagged masses of rock that had in stormy times been torn from the sides.

To a stranger nothing could have appeared more terrible than these zigzag jagged gashes or splits in the stern, rocky coast, for they were turfed to the sharp edge, where an unwary step would have resulted in the visitor plunging downward, to drown in the deep, black water, or be mutilated by the rocks amidst which the waters foamed.

But "familiarity breeds contempt," says one proverb, "use is second nature" another, and there was nothing that appeared terrible to the boy, who walked quickly along close to the edge, glancing perhaps at its fellow, in some cases only a few yards away, and looking so exactly the counterpart of that on the near side that it seemed as if only another convulsion of nature was needed to compress and join the crack again so that it would be possible to walk where death was now lurking.

But there was nothing horrible there to Aleck who in every case turned inland to skirt the chasm, gazing down with interest the while at the nesting-places of the sea-birds which covered nearly every ledge, each one being alive with screaming, clamouring, hungry young, straining their necks to meet the swift-winged auks and puffins that darted to and fro with newly-captured fish in their bills.

Aleck had left the whitewashed cottages behind, along with the last traces 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 the rocky cliffs--a spot all jagged, piled-up rift with the corresponding hollows--and at last selected a place which looked like the beginning of one of the chasms where Nature had commenced a huge gaping crack a good hundred feet in depth, though its darkened wedge-shaped bottom was still quite a hundred feet above where the waves swayed in and out at the bottom, of the cliff. The sides here were not perpendicular, but with just sufficient slope to allow an experienced, cool-headed cliff-climber to descend from ledge to ledge and rock to rock till a nook could be reached, where, securely perched, one who loved cliff-scanning and the beauties of the ever-changing sea and shore, could sit and enjoy the wild wonders of the place.

The spot was exactly suited to Aleck's taste; and as old practice and acquaintance with the coast had made giddiness a trouble he never felt, he was not long in lowering himself down to this coign of vantage. Here he perched himself with a sigh of satisfaction, and watched for a time the great white-breasted gulls which floated down to gaze with curious watchful eyes at the intruder upon their wild domain. The puffins kept darting down from the ledges, with beaks pointed, web feet stretched out behind, and short wings fluttering so rapidly that they were almost invisible, while the singular birds looked like so many animated triangles darting down diagonally to the sea, and gliding over it for some distance before touching the water, into which they plunged like arrow-heads, to disappear and continue their flight under water till they emerged far away with some silvery fish in their beaks.

Some little distance below a few sooty-looking cormorants had taken possession of an out-standing rock upon which the sun beat warmly, and here, their morning fishing over, leaving them absolutely gorged, they sat with wings half open and feathers erect, drying themselves, looking the very images of gluttonous content.

Birds were everywhere--black, black and white, black and grey, and grey and 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 bronzy metallic green.

But while the air and rocks were alive with objects that delighted the watcher's eye, there was plenty to see beside. Close in where the deep water was nearly still, the jelly-fish floated at every depth, shrinking and expanding like so many opening and shutting bubbles of soap and water, glistening with iridescent hues. Farther out the smooth, vividly-blue water every now and then turned in patches from sapphire to purple, and a patch--a whole acre perhaps in extent--became of the darkest purple or amethyst, all of a fret and work, while silvery flashes played all over it, reflecting the rays of the burning sun. For plenty of shoals of fish were feeding, over which the birds were rising, falling, darting and splashing, as they banqueted upon their silvery prey.

All this was so familiar to Aleck that, though still enjoying it, he satisfied himself with a few glances before, carefully focussing the glass he had brought, he began to sweep the coast wherever he could command it from where he sat.

The opposite side of the rift seemed to take his attention most, and perhaps he was examining some of the deep cavernous hollows seen here and there high up or low down towards the sea; or maybe his attention was riveted upon some quaint puffin, crouching, solemn and big-beaked, watching patiently for the next visit of main or dad; or, again, maybe the 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 curves of ordinary eggs, while he wondered how it was that such an egg should not blow out of its rocky hollow when the wind came, but spin round as upon a pivot instead.

Anyhow, Aleck was watching the other side of the half-made chasm, the great wedge-shaped depression in the coast-line, looking straight across at a spot about a hundred yards distant in the level, though higher up it was too, and going off to nothing at the bottom, where the place looked like the dried-up bed of a river.

All at once he started and nearly dropped the glass, as he wrenched himself right round to gaze back and up, for a gruff voice had suddenly cried:

"Hullo!"

The next moment the boy, was gazing in a fierce pair of very dark eyes belonging to a swarthy, scowling, sea-tanned face, the lower part of which was clothed in a crisp black beard, as black as the short head of hair.

This head of hair of course belonged to a man, but no man was to be seen, nothing but the big round bullet head peering down from the edge of one of the ledges, while on both sides, apparently not heeding the head in the least, dozens of wild fowl sat solemnly together, looking stupid and waiting for the next coming of parent birds.

"Hullo!" cried the head again.

"Hullo!" retorted Aleck, as gruffly as he could, after recovering from his 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 faces too. What ha' you been doing of--tumbling off the rocks? Strikes me you're trying it on for another tumble."

Aleck flushed a little at the allusion to his injured face, feeling guilty too, as it struck him that he had brought the allusion upon himself, a Rowland for his Oliver, on the principle that those who play at 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 to break 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 here as you have, so none of your insolence."

"Oh, no, you haven't. All along here's our egging-ground, and we don't want our birds disturbed."

"Your egging-ground--your birds!" cried Aleck, indignantly. "Why, I do call that cool. You'll be telling me next that the fish in the sea are yours, 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 folk as fished on other people's ground finding a hole knocked in the bottoms of their boats."

"What!" cried Aleck. "That's as good as saying that if I fish along here you'll sink my boat."

"Didn't say I would, but it's like enough as some 'un might shove a boat-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 to my 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 get threatening of me or you'll get the worst on it. We folk at Eilygugg never interferes with you and the captain and never interferes about your ketching a bit o' fish or taking a few eggs so long as you are civil; but you're on'y foreigners and intruders and don't belong to these parts, and we do."

"Well, of all the impudence," cried Aleck, "when my uncle bought the whole of the Den estate right down to the sea! Don't you know that you're intruders and trespassers when you come laying your crab-pots under our cliff and shooting your seine on the sandy patch off the little harbour?"

"No, youngster, I don't; but I do know as you're getting a deal too sarcy, and that I'm going to stop it, and my mates too."

"Get out! Who are you?" cried the boy, indignantly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that if you want to fish off our shore and wants a man to help with your boat you've got to ask some of us to help, and not get bringing none o' your wooden-legged cripples spying and poking about our ground."

"Spy? What is there to spy?" said Aleck, giving the man a peculiar look.

"Never you mind about that. You be off home, and don't you come spying about here with none of your glasses."

Aleck laughed derisively.

"Ah, you may grin, my lad; but I've been a-watching of yer this morning," 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 a better 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--Hollands gin 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 haul up 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 came ashore?"

"Oh, we know how to talk to that sort if he comes our way," said the man, 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 the word press-gang he gave a violent start and rose to his knees, upon which he hobbled close up to the edge of the shelf upon which he had perched himself.

"Oh, that's it, is it, my lad, eh?" he growled, shaking his fist savagely. "Then, look here. If the press-gang--cuss 'em!--ever does come along here we shall know who put 'em up to it, and if they take any of our chaps--mind yer they won't take all, and them behind'll know what to do. I'm not going to threaten, but if someone wasn't sunk in his boat, or had a bit o' rock come tumbling down on him when he was taking up his net under the cliffs, it would be strange to me. D'yer hear that?"

"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. So now you know."

"Yes," said Aleck, coolly; "now I know that what people say about you and 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 get a chance, and don't stop at robbery or murder. One of the fishermen--I won't say his name--said you were a regular gang of pirates."

"The Rockabie fishermen are a set o' soft-headed fools," snarled the man. "But what do I care for all they say? Let 'em prove it; and, look here, 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 I please all along this coast, for it's free to everybody, and my uncle has ten times the rights here that you people at the fishermen's cottages have. You've just been talking insolence to me, so let's have no more of it. This comes of the captain, my uncle, being kind and charitable 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 as much I'm not going to have you spying and prying about here. What is it you want to know?"

"That's my business," said Aleck, defiantly. "I say, you haven't made a fortune 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 as much as everyone else does who lives here. Didn't our old maid come in scared one night after a holiday and walking across from Rockabie and go into a fit because she had seen, as she said, a whole regiment of ghosts walking over the moor, leading ghostly horses, which came out of the sea fog and crossed the road without making a sound? Jane said they were the spirits of the old soldiers who were killed in the big fight and buried by the four stones on Black Hill, and that as soon as they were across the stony road they were all swallowed up in a mist. She keeps to it till now, and believes it."

"Well, why shouldn't she?" growled the man. "She arn't the first as has seen a ghost. Why shouldn't she?"

"Because it's so silly, when it was a party of smugglers leading their horses, with kegs slung across their backs and bales on pack saddles."

"Bah!" cried the man. "Horses loaded like that would clatter over the rough stones."

"Yes," said Aleck, "if their hoofs weren't covered over with bits of canvas 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 the cliff 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 plover which wants to prove to you that it has no nest on the moor, and sets you 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 hid somewhere 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 I see now. You're not much wiser than old Ness, Eben, for you've been trying to throw me off the scent too, and now I know as well as if I could see it that you people have been running a cargo, and you've got it 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, and made a great show of being exceedingly ferocious, evidently thinking that the boy would turn and run away. But Aleck stood fast, not even stirring when the man was close up, planting his doubled fists upon his hips 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, and when you've found it you're going to send word to the Revenue cutter men to 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 going to do, is it?"

"No," said the lad, coolly enough. "Why should I? It's no business of mine."

"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 business of yours, is it?"

"Of course not," said the boy, coolly. "I don't want to know where the run cargo's hidden, and I wasn't looking for it. I only came to watch the 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 wrist tightly, leaning forward as if to pierce his eyes with the fierce look he gave.

"Don't do that--you hurt!" cried Aleck, sharply.

"Yes, I mean to hurt," growled the man. "Now, then, look at me! Is that 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 his grasp 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 hard as the boy could deliver, hampered as he was, being dragged close to his assailant's breast.

"Why, you--" roared the man. He did not say what, but flung the arm he had at liberty round the boy's waist and lifted him, kicking and struggling, from the ground, perfectly helpless, with the great muscular arm acting like a band of iron, to do more than try to deliver some ineffective blows, which his assailant easily avoided.

"Ah! Would you?" he growled, fiercely. "You're a nice young game cock chick, you are. Hold still!" he roared, taking a step forward, to stand on the very edge of the shelf. "Keep that hand quiet, or I'll hurl you down 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 feather to me. I could pitch you right out so as you'd go to the bottom yonder."

"You could, but you daren't?" cried Aleck, grinding his teeth and striving hard to bear the pain he suffered.

"Oh, I dare--I could if I liked! Nobody would see out here. It would kill yer, and nobody would know how it happened; but they'd say when they found you that you'd slipped and fell when you was egging. They would, 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 me whether that was true what you said. Now, then, beg me not to hurl yer down."

"I--shan't," ground out the boy through his set teeth, and a grim smile crossed the man's dark face, making it look for the moment open and manly--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, is it true?"

"Of course it is," said the boy, haughtily.

"I'll believe yer," growled the man. "There," he continued, dropping the boy to his feet. "Then you won't look for where the stuff's stowed?"

Aleck burst into a hoarse laugh.

"Then there is some stowed?"

The man gave himself a wrench, and his face puckered up again with anger.

"Lookye here," he said, more quietly, "I don't say there is, and I don't say there arn't; but suppose there is, you're going to swear as you won'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 bound which 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 had reached and then beginning to climb rapidly.

The man had followed him at once, leaping boldly, but without Aleck's success, for he slipped, through the stones giving way, and went down quite five-and-twenty feet in a rough scramble before he checked himself and took up the pursuit, which he soon found would be useless, for his young adversary was lighter and far more active, and soon showed that he was leaving him behind.

"There, hold hard, Master Aleck," he growled, looking up at the lad. "I won't hurt yer now."

"Thankye," said the boy, mockingly, as he stopped, holding on by a projecting rock in the stiff slope, and well on his guard to go on climbing 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, you know, hitting me like you did."

"Look here," cried Aleck, fiercely, as the man took a step to continue climbing to where the boy stood, some thirty feet above him, "you come another 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 to shout."

"I can hear you plainly enough. Sit down."

The great muscular fellow dropped at once, seating himself upon the slope and digging his heels into the loose screes to keep from sliding down.

"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 out nowt, was yer?"

"No," cried Aleck; "of course I wasn't. I've known for long enough that you people at Eilygugg do a lot of smuggling. I've stood with the captain, my uncle, of a night and seen you signal with a lanthorn, and then 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 up against the cliff. Of course we know what goes on, but my uncle doesn't care to interfere, and I've never tried to find out where you hide the smuggled 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 on along 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 it another would."

"Look here; I don't want to know or hear anything about it," cried Aleck. "Only I shall come along these cliffs, egging or watching the birds, as often as I like."

"Well, I don't know as anyone'll mind, Master Aleck, if I speaks to 'em and says as you says as a young gentleman that you'll never take no notice of anything as you sees or hears--"

"What! How can a gentleman promise anything of the kind about people breaking 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'd wanted to I could have found out whether you've got a place to hide your stuff, 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 had better look."

"But you won't, Master Aleck? We are neighbours, you know."

"Neighbours!" said Aleck, scornfully. "Pretty neighbours! There, I'm not 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'd better 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't mean 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 in a peculiar way.

"Look here, Master Aleck," he said; "man who goes to sea has to take his chance o' being drownded."

"Of course."

"And one who tries to dodge the Revenue sailors has to take his chance of 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 they call it murder when a man kills a man."

"By pushing him off a cliff, Eben?" said Aleck. "Yes." _

Read next: Chapter 9

Read previous: Chapter 7

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