The Black Tor Part 18

"He'll like enough be doing it," said the leader. "I tilled him to fetch a rope, and if he does anything else, he'll hear of it from me.

What we wants is to take our prisoner up proper to the master, and get our reward."

Then they began muttering in a low voice among themselves, taking care that their prisoner should not hear, as he lay upon his back, staring straight up at the blue sky, and thinking of how soon it had come upon him to be suffering Mark Eden's reverse.

At last a hail came from below, and the man panted breathlessly up to them, throwing down a coil of thin rope, with which, after turning him over upon his face, the men, in spite of his struggles, tightly and cruelly tied their prisoner's arms behind him, and then his ankles and knees. They were about to lift him up, when there was a sharp barking heard again.

"Here, you, Tom," cried the leader, who had been most savage in dragging the knots as tightly as possible, "I told you to take those dogs back."

"Well, so I did. I didn't bring 'em."

"They've come all the same," cried the other. "Well, it don't matter now. Perhaps Buzz wants a taste of these here naked legs."

The dog barked close at hand now.

"Here, you, jump up, before he has you," cried the leader brutally; and then he stared wonderingly, for there was a sharp rustling amongst the bushes, and the dog sprang out to them, closely followed by Mark Eden, who cried in wonder:

"Why, hallo: then this is what Buzz meant! Whom have you got there?"

The men drew back, and Mark stooped, as the dog barked violently, turned the prisoner over, and once more the two enemies were gazing curiously in each other's eyes.

Ralph did not flinch, but a dull feeling of despair ran through him as he saw Mark Eden's face light up, his eyes flashing, and a smile of triumph playing about his lips.

Mark did not speak for a time. Then he turned his back upon the prisoner.

"Do you know who this is?" he said to the men.

"Oh yes, Master Mark, we know him. Don't you? It's young Darley, from below there. We was having a bit of a ramble 'fore going down in the mine, and we'd got the dogs, to see if there was any chance of a rabbit pie for supper; but they didn't find one; they found his nabbs here instead. We had to hold the dogs' muzzles to keep 'em quiet till he'd got by."

"What was he doing?"

"Wading, and ketching our trout. We let him go right up to the deep water, down below where the narrows are, and we thought we'd trapped him; but somehow he managed to scramble up the side and get up here, so we set the dogs on, and they run him down. Look here, Master Mark; he'd got all these trout. Fine 'uns too."

The man opened Ralph's creel, and held it out for Mark to see, the lad nodding at the sight.

"Know'd where the good uns was."

"And what were you going to do with him?" said Mark quietly.

"We had to ketch him first," said the man, with a savagely stupid grin.

"And he give us a lot o' trouble, and we thought best thing to do was to tie a stone to his neck and pitch him in one of the holes. But Tom, here, said the master wouldn't like it, and seeing he was a Darley, might like to make a sample of him, or keep him down in the mine to work. So we tied him tight, and was going to swing him between us, and carry him up to the gateway for the master to see. Then you come."

Mark made no sign of either satisfaction or anger, but stood thinking for a minute or so, before turning again to where Ralph lay gazing straight up to the sky, waiting for whatever fate might be his, and setting his teeth hard in the firm determination to die sooner than ask for mercy from the cruel young savage who stood before him with what seemed to be a malicious grin upon his face.

And as he lay, Ralph thought of his school life, and all that had pa.s.sed there, and how strange it was that in the wild part of Midland England there, amongst the mountains of the Peak, people could still be so savage as to be able to follow their own wills to as great an extent as did the barons and feudal chiefs of a couple of hundred years before.

Such thoughts as these had never come to him till after he had left home for school, to find his level. Earlier in his boyhood his father had appeared to him to be chief or king of the district, with a neighbour who was a rival chief or king. He knew that King James ruled the land; but that was England, away from the Peak. There, Sir Morton Darley, knight, was head of all, and the laws of England did not seem to apply anywhere there. Then he had gradually grown more enlightened, and never more so than at the present moment, as he lay bound on the mossy stones, feeling that unless his father came with a strong enough force to rescue him, his fate might even be death. And the result? Would the law punish the Edens for the deed? He felt that they would go free. They were to a pretty good extent outlaws, and the deed would never be known beyond their district. The moors and mountains shut them in. But Sir Morton, Ralph felt, would never sit down quietly. He would for certain attack and try to punish the Edens, and the feud would grow more deadly than ever.

Thoughts like these ran through his brain as he lay there, till the silence was broken by Mark Eden, whose face plainly told of the supreme pleasure he felt in seeing his young enemy humbled thus before him.

"Well," he said at last, "are you not going to beg to be set at liberty?"

Ralph looked at him defiantly.

"No," he said.

"Want to be taken up to the Tor, and hung from the tower as a scarecrow to keep away all the other thieves?"

"What is it to you?" replied Ralph bitterly.

"You came and took our trout," said Mark, with a sneer; and he raised his foot as if tempted to plant it upon the prisoner's chest.

"Yes, I came and caught some trout: but I looked upon the river as free to me, as you thought our cliff was free to you."

"Hah!" cried Mark triumphantly; "I knew you would begin to beg for your life."

"I have not begged," said Ralph coldly. "You spoke to me and I answered."

"Ropes hurt?" said Mark, after a pause, during which he could find nothing else to say.

Ralph smiled.

"Look for yourself," he said. "They don't quite cut to the bone."

"Our mine lads are strong," said Mark proudly. "Strong enough to beat your wretched set of servants if ever they dare come up here."

"So brave and strong that you are glad to hire a gang of ruffianly soldiers to help you," said Ralph scornfully.

"What? Those fellows in rags and rust? Pooh! We would not have them."

Ralph opened his eyes a little wider.

"The Edens want no paid help of that kind. We're strong enough to come and take your place whenever we like; but as you won't be there, it will not matter to you."

"No," said Ralph, who was sick with pain, and faint from the throbbing caused by his bonds.

"But it would be a pity for my father to have you hung as a scarecrow,"

said Mark mockingly. "I don't like to see such things about. What do you say to going down to work always in our lead-mine?"

"Nothing," said Ralph coldly.

"Better to live in the dark there, on bread and water, than to be killed."

Ralph made no reply, but gazed fixedly in the speaker's eyes.

"Better beg for your life, boy," said Mark, placing his foot now on the prisoner's chest.

"What! of you?" cried Ralph.

"Yes: I might make you my lackey, to wait upon me. That is what the Darleys should do for the Edens."