"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-gla.s.s?"
"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, pa.s.sing 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 circ.u.mvented, 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 ma.s.ses 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 sh.o.r.e, 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s 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 gla.s.s, 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."