kill a stoat or other vermin.'
Then he opened the lanthorn slide, took out from his neckcloth that same
pin with the onyx head which he had used in the Why Not? and fixed it in
the tallow a short inch from the top, setting the lanthorn down upon the
sward in front of Maskew.

As for me, I was dismayed beyond telling at these words, and made
giddy with the revulsion of feeling; for, whereas, but a few minutes
ago, I would have thought nothing too bad for Maskew, now I was turned
round to wish he might come off with his life, and to look with terror
upon Elzevir.

It had grown much lighter, but not yet with the rosy flush of sunrise;
only the stars had faded out, and the deep blue of the night given way to
a misty grey. The light was strong enough to let all things be seen, but
not to call the due tints back to them. So I could see cliffs and ground,
bushes and stones and sea, and all were of one pearly grey colour, or
rather they were colourless; but the most colourless and greyest thing of
all was Maskew's face. His hair had got awry, and his head showed much
balder than when it was well trimmed; his face, too, was drawn with heavy
lines, and there were rings under his eyes. Beside all that, he had got
an ugly fall in trying to escape, and one cheek was muddied, and down it
trickled a blood-drop where a stone had cut him. He was a sorry sight
enough, and looking at him, I remembered that day in the schoolroom when
this very man had struck the parson, and how our master had sat patient
under it, with a blood-drop trickling down his cheek too. Maskew kept his
eyes fixed for a long time on the ground, but raised them at last, and
looked at me with a vacant yet pity-seeking look. Now, till that moment I
had never seen a trace of Grace in his features, nor of him in hers; and
yet as he gazed at me then, there was something of her present in his
face, even battered as it was, so that it seemed as if she looked at me
behind his eyes. And that made me the sorrier for him, and at last I felt
I could not stand by and see him done to death.

When Elzevir had stuck the pin into the candle he never shut the slide
again; and though no wind blew, there was a light breath moving in the
morning off the sea, that got inside the lanthorn and set the flame
askew. And so the candle guttered down one side till but little tallow
was left above the pin; for though the flame grew pale and paler to the
view in the growing morning light, yet it burnt freely all the time. So
at last there was left, as I judged, but a quarter of an hour to run
before the pin should fall, and I saw that Maskew knew this as well as I,
for his eyes were fixed on the lanthorn.

At last he spoke again, but the brave words were gone, and the thin voice
was thinner. He had dropped threats, and was begging piteously for his
life. 'Spare me,' he said; 'spare me, Mr. Block: I have an only daughter,
a young girl with none but me to guard her. Would you rob a young girl of
her only help and cast her on the world? Would you have them find me dead
upon the cliff and bring me back to her a bloody corpse?'

Then Elzevir answered: 'And had I not an only son, and was he not brought
back to me a bloody corpse? Whose pistol was it that flashed in his face
and took his life away? Do you not know? It was this very same that shall
flash in yours. So make what peace you may with God, for you have little
time to make it.'

With that he took the pistol from the ground where it had lain, and
turning his back on Maskew, walked slowly to and fro among the
bramble-plumps.

Though Maskew's words about his daughter seemed but to feed Elzevir's
anger, by leading him to think of David, they sank deep in my heart; and
if it had seemed a fearful thing before to stand by and see a
fellow-creature butchered, it seemed now ten thousand times more fearful.
And when I thought of Grace, and what such a deed would mean to her, my
pulse beat so fierce that I must needs spring to my feet and run to
reason with Elzevir, and tell him this must not be.

He was still walking among the bushes when I found him, and let me say
my say till I was out of breath, and bore with me if I talked fast, and
if my tongue outran my judgement.

'Thou hast a warm heart, lad,' he said, 'and 'tis for that I like thee.
And if thou hast a chief place in thy heart for me, I cannot grumble if
thou find a little room there even for our enemies. Would I could set thy
soul at ease, and do all that thou askest. In the first flush of wrath,
when he was taken plotting against our lives, it seemed a little thing
enough to take his evil life. But now these morning airs have cooled me,
and it goes against my will to shoot a cowering hound tied hand and foot,
even though he had murdered twenty sons of mine. I have thought if
there be any way to spare his life, and leave this hour's agony to read a
lesson not to be unlearned until the grave. For such poltroons dread
death, and in one hour they die a hundred times. But there is no way out:
his life lies in the scale against the lives of all our men, yes, and thy
life too. They left him in my hands well knowing I should take account of
him; and am I now to play them false and turn him loose again to hang
them all? It cannot be.'

Still I pleaded hard for Maskew's life, hanging on Elzevir's arm, and
using every argument that I could think of to soften his purpose; but he
pushed me off; and though I saw that he was loth to do it, I had a
terrible conviction that he was not a man to be turned back from his
resolve, and would go through with it to the end.

We came back together from the brambles to the piece of sward, and there
sat Maskew where we had left him with his back against the stone. Only,
while we were away he had managed to wriggle his watch out of the fob,
and it lay beside him on the turf, tied to him with a black silk riband.
The face of it was turned upwards, and as I passed I saw the hand pointed
to five. Sunrise was very near; for though the cliff shut out the east
from us, the west over Portland was all aglow with copper-red and gold,
and the candle burnt low. The head of the pin was drooping, though very
slightly, but as I saw it droop a month before, and I knew that the final
act was not far off.

Maskew knew it too, for he made his last appeal, using such passionate
words as I cannot now relate, and wriggling with his body as if to get
his hands from behind his back and hold them up in supplication. He
offered money; a thousand, five thousand, ten thousand pounds to be set
free; he would give back the Why Not?; he would leave Moonfleet; and all
the while the sweat ran down his furrowed face, and at last his voice was
choked with sobs, for he was crying for his life in craven fear.

He might have spoken to a deaf man for all he moved his judge; and
Elzevir's answer was to cock the pistol and prime the powder in the pan.

Then I stuck my fingers in my ears and shut my eyes, that I might
neither see nor hear what followed, but in a second changed my mind and
opened them again, for I had made a great resolve to stop this matter,
come what might.

Maskew was making a dreadful sound between a moan and strangled cry; it
almost seemed as if he thought that there were others by him beside
Elzevir and me, and was shouting to them for help. The sun had risen, and
his first rays blazed on a window far away in the west on top of Portland
Island, and then there was a tinkle in the inside of the lanthorn, and
the pin fell.

Elzevir looked full at Maskew, and raised his pistol; but before he had
time to take aim, I dashed upon him like a wild cat, springing on his
right arm, and crying to him to stop. It was an unequal struggle, a lad,
though full-grown and lusty, against one of the powerfullest of men, but
indignation nerved my arms, and his were weak, because he doubted of his
right. So 'twas with some effort that he shook me off, and in the
struggle the pistol was fired into the air.

Then I let go of him, and stumbled for a moment, tired with that bout,
but pleased withal, because I saw what peace even so short a respite had
brought to Maskew. For at the pistol shot 'twas as if a mask of horror
had fallen from his face, and left him his old countenance again; and
then I saw he turned his eyes towards the cliff-top, and thought that he
was looking up in thankfulness to heaven.

But now a new thing happened; for before the echoes of that pistol-shot
had died on the keen morning air, I thought I heard a noise of distant
shouting, and looked about to see whence it could come. Elzevir looked
round too, but Maskew forgetting to upbraid me for making him miss his
aim, still kept his face turned up towards the cliff. Then the voices
came nearer, and there was a mingled sound as of men shouting to one
another, and gathering in from different places. 'Twas from the cliff-top
that the voices came, and thither Elzevir and I looked up, and there too
Maskew kept his eyes fixed. And in a moment there were a score of men
stood on the cliff's edge high above our heads. The sky behind them was
pink flushed with the keenest light of the young day, and they stood out
against it sharp cut and black as the silhouette of my mother that used
to hang up by the parlour chimney. They were soldiers, and I knew the
tall mitre-caps of the 13th, and saw the shafts of light from the sunrise
come flashing round their bodies, and glance off the barrels of their
matchlocks.

I knew it all now; it was the Posse who had lain in ambush. Elzevir saw
it too, and then all shouted at once. 'Yield at the King's command: you
are our prisoners!' calls the voice of one of those black silhouettes,
far up on the cliff-top.

'We are lost,' cries Elzevir; 'it is the Posse; but if we die, this
traitor shall go before us,' and he makes towards Maskew to brain him
with the pistol.

'Shoot, shoot, in the Devil's name,' screams Maskew, 'or I am a
dead man.'

Then there came a flash of fire along the black line of silhouettes,
with a crackle like a near peal of thunder, and a fut, fut, fut, of
bullets in the turf. And before Elzevir could get at him, Maskew had
fallen over on the sward with a groan, and with a little red hole in the
middle of his forehead.

'Run for the cliff-side,' cried Elzevir to me; 'get close in, and they
cannot touch thee,' and he made for the chalk wall. But I had fallen on
my knees like a bullock felled by a pole-axe, and had a scorching pain in
my left foot. Elzevir looked back. 'What, have they hit thee too?' he
said, and ran and picked me up like a child. And then there is another
flash and fut, fut, in the turf; but the shots find no billet this time,
and we are lying close against the cliff, panting but safe.




CHAPTER 10

THE ESCAPE

... How fearful
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
... Ill look no more
Lest my brain turn--_Shakespeare_


The while chalk was a bulwark between us and the foe; and though one or
two of them loosed off their matchlocks, trying to get at us sideways,
they could not even see their quarry, and 'twas only shooting at a
venture. We were safe. But for how short a time! Safe just for so long as
it should please the soldiers not to come down to take us, safe with a
discharged pistol in our grasp, and a shot man lying at our feet.

Elzevir was the first to speak: 'Can you stand, John? Is the bone
broken?'

'I cannot stand,' I said; 'there is something gone in my leg, and I feel
blood running down into my boot.'

He knelt, and rolled down the leg of my stocking; but though he only
moved my foot ever so little, it caused me sharp pain, for feeling was
coming back after the first numbness of the shot.

'They have broke the leg, though it bleeds little,' Elzevir said. 'We
have no time to splice it here, but I will put a kerchief round, and
while I wrap it, listen to how we lie, and then choose what we shall do.'

I nodded, biting my lips hard to conceal the pain he gave me, and he went
on: 'We have a quarter of an hour before the Posse can get down to us.
But come they will, and thou canst judge what chance we have to save
liberty or life with that carrion lying by us'--and he jerked his thumb
at Maskew--'though I am glad 'twas not my hand that sent him to his
reckoning, and therefore do not blame thee if thou didst make me waste a
charge in air. So one thing we can do is to wait here until they come,
and I can account for a few of them before they shoot me down; but thou
canst not fight with a broken leg, and they will take thee alive, and
then there is a dance on air at Dorchester Jail.'

I felt sick with pain and bitterly cast down to think that I was like to
come so soon to such a vile end; so only gave a sigh, wishing heartily
that Maskew were not dead, and that my leg were not broke, but that I was
back again at the Why Not? or even hearing one of Dr. Sherlock's sermons
in my aunt's parlour.

Elzevir looked down at me when I sighed, and seeing, I suppose, that I
was sorrowful, tried to put a better face on a bad business. 'Forgive me,
lad,' he said, 'if I have spoke too roughly. There is yet another way
that we may try; and if thou hadst but two whole legs, I would have tried
it, but now 'tis little short of madness. And yet, if thou fear'st not, I
will still try it. Just at the end of this flat ledge, farthest from
where the bridle-path leads down, but not a hundred yards from where we
stand, there is a sheep-track leading up the cliff. It starts where the
under-cliff dies back again into the chalk face, and climbs by slants and
elbow-turns up to the top. The shepherds call it the Zigzag, and even
sheep lose their footing on it; and of men I never heard but one had
climbed it, and that was lander Jordan, when the Excise was on his heels,
half a century back. But he that tries it stakes all on head and foot,
and a wounded bird like thee may not dare that flight. Yet, if thou art
content to hang thy life upon a hair, I will carry thee some way; and
where there is no room to carry, thou must down on hands and knees and
trail thy foot.'

It was a desperate chance enough, but came as welcome as a patch of blue
through lowering skies. 'Yes,' I said, 'dear Master Elzevir, let us get
to it quickly; and if we fall, 'tis better far to die upon the rocks
below than to wait here for them to hale us off to jail.' And with that I
tried to stand, thinking I might go dot and carry even with a broken leg.
But 'twas no use, and down I sank with a groan. Then Elzevir caught me
up, holding me in his arms, with my head looking over his back, and made
off for the Zigzag. And as we slunk along, close to the cliff-side, I
saw, between the brambles, Maskew lying with his face turned up to the
morning sky. And there was the little red hole in the middle of his
forehead, and a thread of blood that welled up from it and trickled off
on to the sward.

It was a sight to stagger any man, and would have made me swoon perhaps,
but that there was no time, for we were at the end of the under-cliff,
and Elzevir set me down for a minute, before he buckled to his task. And
'twas a task that might cow the bravest, and when I looked upon the
Zigzag, it seemed better to stay where we were and fall into the hands
of the Posse than set foot on that awful way, and fall upon the rocks
below. For the Zigzag started off as a fair enough chalk path, but in a
few paces narrowed down till it was but a whiter thread against the
grey-white cliff-face, and afterwards turned sharply back, crossing a
hundred feet direct above our heads. And then I smelt an evil stench,
and looking about, saw the blown-out carcass of a rotting sheep lie
close at hand.

'Faugh,' said Elzevir, 'tis a poor beast has lost his foothold.'

It was an ill omen enough, and I said as much, beseeching him to make his
own way up the Zigzag and leave me where I was, for that they might have
mercy on a boy.

'Tush!' he cried; 'it is thy heart that fails thee, and 'tis too late now
to change counsel. We have fifteen minutes yet to win or lose with, and
if we gain the cliff-top in that time we shall have an hour's start, or
more, for they will take all that to search the under-cliff. And Maskew,
too, will keep them in check a little, while they try to bring the life
back to so good a man. But if we fall, why, we shall fall together, and
outwit their cunning. So shut thy eyes, and keep them tight until I bid
thee open them.' With that he caught me up again, and I shut my eyes
firm, rebuking myself for my faint-heartedness, and not telling him how
much my foot hurt me. In a minute I knew from Elzevir's steps that he
had left the turf and was upon the chalk. Now I do not believe that there
were half a dozen men beside in England who would have ventured up that
path, even free and untrammelled, and not a man in all the world to do it
with a full-grown lad in his arms. Yet Elzevir made no bones of it, nor
spoke a single word; only he went very slow, and I felt him scuffle with
his foot as he set it forward, to make sure he was putting it down firm.

I said nothing, not wishing to distract him from his terrible task, and
held my breath, when I could, so that I might lie quieter in his arms.
Thus he went on for a time that seemed without end, and yet was really
but a minute or two; and by degrees I felt the wind, that we could scarce
perceive at all on the under-cliff, blow fresher and cold on the
cliff-side. And then the path grew steeper and steeper, and Elzevir went
slower and slower, till at last he spoke:

'John, I am going to stop; but open not thy eyes till I have set thee
down and bid thee.'

I did as bidden, and he lowered me gently, setting me on all-fours upon
the path; and speaking again:

'The path is too narrow here for me to carry thee, and thou must creep
round this corner on thy hands and knees. But have a care to keep thy
outer hand near to the inner, and the balance of thy body to the cliff,
for there is no room to dance hornpipes here. And hold thy eyes fixed on
the chalk-wall, looking neither down nor seaward.'

'Twas well he told me what to do, and well I did it; for when I opened my
eyes, even without moving them from the cliff-side, I saw that the ledge
was little more than a foot wide, and that ever so little a lean of the
body would dash me on the rocks below. So I crept on, but spent much time
that was so precious in travelling those ten yards to take me round the
first elbow of the path; for my foot was heavy and gave me fierce pain to
drag, though I tried to mask it from Elzevir. And he, forgetting what I
suffered, cried out, 'Quicken thy pace, lad, if thou canst, the time is
short.' Now so frail is man's temper, that though he was doing more than
any ever did to save another's life, and was all I had to trust to in the
world; yet because he forgot my pain and bade me quicken, my choler rose,
and I nearly gave him back an angry word, but thought better of it and
kept it in.

Then he told me to stop, for that the way grew wider and he would pick me
up again. But here was another difficulty, for the path was still so
narrow and the cliff-wall so close that he could not take me up in his
arms. So I lay flat on my face, and he stepped over me, setting his foot
between my shoulders to do it; and then, while he knelt down upon the
path, I climbed up from behind upon him, putting my arms round his neck;
and so he bore me 'pickaback'. I shut my eyes firm again, and thus we
moved along another spell, mounting still and feeling the wind still
freshening.

At length he said that we were come to the last turn of the path, and he
must set me down once more. So down upon his knees and hands he went, and
I slid off behind, on to the ledge. Both were on all-fours now; Elzevir
first and I following. But as I crept along, I relaxed care for a moment,
and my eyes wandered from the cliff-side and looked down. And far below I
saw the blue sea twinkling like a dazzling mirror, and the gulls wheeling
about the sheer chalk wall, and then I thought of that bloated carcass of
a sheep that had fallen from this very spot perhaps, and in an instant
felt a sickening qualm and swimming of the brain, and knew that I was
giddy and must fall.

Then I called out to Elzevir, and he, guessing what had come over me,
cries to turn upon my side, and press my belly to the cliff. And how he
did it in such a narrow strait I know not; but he turned round, and lying
down himself, thrust his hand firmly in my back, pressing me closer to
the cliff. Yet it was none too soon, for if he had not held me tight, I
should have flung myself down in sheer despair to get quit of that
dreadful sickness.

'Keep thine eyes shut, John,' he said, 'and count up numbers loud to me,
that I may know thou art not turning faint.' So I gave out, 'One, two,
three,' and while I went on counting, heard him repeating to himself,
though his words seemed thin and far off: 'We must have taken ten minutes
to get here, and in five more they will be on the under-cliff; and if we
ever reach the top, who knows but they have left a guard! No, no, they
will not leave a guard, for not a man knows of the Zigzag; and, if they
knew, they would not guess that we should try it. We have but fifty yards
to go to win, and now this cursed giddy fit has come upon the child, and
he will fall and drag me with him; or they will see us from below, and
pick us off like sitting guillemots against the cliff-face.'

So he talked to himself, and all the while I would have given a world to
pluck up heart and creep on farther; yet could not, for the deadly
sweating fear that had hold of me. Thus I lay with my face to the cliff,
and Elzevir pushing firmly in my back; and the thing that frightened me
most was that there was nothing at all for the hand to take hold of, for
had there been a piece of string, or even a thread of cotton, stretched
along to give a semblance of support, I think I could have done it; but
there was only the cliff-wall, sheer and white, against that narrowest
way, with never cranny to put a finger into. The wind was blowing in
fresh puffs, and though I did not open my eyes, I knew that it was moving
the little tufts of bent grass, and the chiding cries of the gulls
seemed to invite me to be done with fear and pain and broken leg, and
fling myself off on to the rocks below.

Then Elzevir spoke. 'John' he said, 'there is no time to play the woman;
another minute of this and we are lost. Pluck up thy courage, keep thy
eyes to the cliff, and forward.'

Yet I could not, but answered: 'I cannot, I cannot; if I open my eyes, or
move hand or foot, I shall fall on the rocks below.'

He waited a second, and then said: 'Nay, move thou must, and 'tis better
to risk falling now, than fall for certain with another bullet in thee
later on.' And with that he shifted his hand from my back and fixed it
in my coat-collar, moving backwards himself, and setting to drag me
after him.

Now, I was so besotted with fright that I would not budge an inch,
fearing to fall over if I opened my eyes. And Elzevir, for all he was so
strong, could not pull a helpless lump backwards up that path. So he gave
it up, leaving go hold on me with a groan, and at that moment there rose
from the under-cliff, below a sound of voices and shouting.

'Zounds, they are down already!' cried Elzevir, 'and have found Maskew's
body; it is all up; another minute and they will see us.'

But so strange is the force of mind on body, and the power of a greater
to master a lesser fear, that when I heard those voices from below, all
fright of falling left me in a moment, and I could open my eyes without a
trace of giddiness. So I began to move forward again on hands and knees.
And Elzevir, seeing me, thought for a moment I had gone mad, and was
dragging myself over the cliff; but then saw how it was, and moved
backwards himself before me, saying in a low voice, 'Brave lad! Once
creep round this turn, and I will pick thee up again. There is but fifty
yards to go, and we shall foil these devils yet!'

Then we heard the voices again, but farther off, and not so loud; and
knew that our pursuers had left the under-cliff and turned down on to the
beach, thinking that we were hiding by the sea.

Five minutes later Elzevir stepped on to the cliff-top, with me
upon his back.

'We have made something of this throw,' he said, 'and are safe for
another hour, though I thought thy giddy head had ruined us.'

Then he put me gently upon the springy turf, and lay down himself upon
his back, stretching his arms out straight on either side, and breathing
hard to recover from the task he had performed.

*       *       *       *       *

The day was still young, and far below us was stretched the moving floor
of the Channel, with a silver-grey film of night-mists not yet lifted in
the offing. A hummocky up-and-down line of cliffs, all projections,
dents, bays, and hollows, trended southward till it ended in the great
bluff of St. Alban's Head, ten miles away. The cliff-face was gleaming
white, the sea tawny inshore, but purest blue outside, with the straight
sunpath across it, spangled and gleaming like a mackerel's back.

The relief of being once more on firm ground, and the exultation of an
escape from immediate danger, removed my pain and made me forget that my
leg was broken. So I lay for a moment basking in the sun; and the wind,
which a few minutes before threatened to blow me from that narrow ledge,
seemed now but the gentlest of breezes, fresh with the breath of the
kindly sea. But this was only for a moment, for the anguish came back
and grew apace, and I fell to thinking dismally of the plight we were in.
How things had been against us in these last days! First there was losing
the Why Not? and that was bad enough; second, there was the being known
by the Excise for smugglers, and perhaps for murderers; third and last,
there was the breaking of my leg, which made escape so difficult. But,
most of all, there came before my eyes that grey face turned up against
the morning sun, and I thought of all it meant for Grace, and would have
given my own life to call back that of our worst enemy.

Then Elzevir sat up, stretching himself like one waking out of sleep, and
said: 'We must be gone. They will not be back for some time yet, and,
when they come, will not think to search closely for us hereabouts; but
that we cannot risk, and must get clear away. This leg of thine will keep
us tied for weeks, and we must find some place where we can lie hid, and
tend it. Now, I know such a hiding-hole in Purbeck, which they call
Joseph's Pit, and thither we must go; but it will take all the day to get
there, for it is seven miles off, and I am older than I was, and thou too
heavy a babe to carry over lightly.'

I did not know the pit he spoke of, but was glad to hear of some place,
however far off, where I could lie still and get ease from the pain. And
so he took me in his arms again and started off across the fields.

I need not tell of that weary journey, and indeed could not, if I wished;
for the pain went to my head and filled me with such a drowsy anguish
that I knew nothing except when some unlooked-for movement gave me a
sharper twinge, and made me cry out. At first Elzevir walked briskly, but
as the day wore on went slower, and was fain more than once to put me
down and rest, till at last he could only carry me a hundred yards at a
time. It was after noon, for the sun was past the meridian, and very hot
for the time of year, when the face of the country began to change; and
instead of the short sward of the open down, sprinkled with tiny white
snail-shells, the ground was brashy with flat stones, and divided up into
tillage fields. It was a bleak wide-bitten place enough, looking as if
'twould never pay for turning, and instead of hedges there were dreary
walls built of dry stone without mortar. Behind one of these walls,
broken down in places, but held together with straggling ivy, and
buttressed here and there with a bramble-bush, Elzevir put me down at
length and said, 'I am beat, and can carry thee no farther for this
present, though there is not now much farther to go. We have passed
Purbeck Gates, and these walls will screen us from prying eyes if any
chance comer pass along the down. And as for the soldiers, they are not
like to come this way so soon, and if they come I cannot help it; for
weariness and the sun's heat have made my feet like lead. A score of
years ago I would have laughed at such a task, but now 'tis different,
and I must take a little sleep and rest till the air is cooler. So sit
thee here and lean thy shoulder up against the wall, and thus thou canst
look through this broken place and watch both ways. Then, if thou see
aught moving, wake me up.--I wish I had a thimbleful of powder to make
this whistle sound'--and he took Maskew's silver-butted pistol again from
his bosom, and handled it lovingly,--'tis like my evil luck to carry
fire-arms thirty years, and leave them at home at a pinch like this.'
With that he flung himself down where there was a narrow shadow close
against the bottom of the wall, and in a minute I knew from his heavy
breathing that he was asleep.

The wind had freshened much, and was blowing strong from the west; and
now that I was under the lee of the wall I began to perceive that
drowsiness creeping upon me which overtakes a man who has been tousled
for an hour or two by the wind, and gets at length into shelter.
Moreover, though I was not tired by grievous toil like Elzevir, I had
passed a night without sleep, and felt besides the weariness of pain to
lull me to slumber. So it was, that before a quarter of an hour was past,
I had much ado to keep awake, for all I knew that I was left on guard.
Then I sought something to fix my thoughts, and looking on that side of
the wall where the sward was, fell to counting the mole-hills that were
cast up in numbers thereabout. And when I had exhausted them, and
reckoned up thirty little heaps of dry and powdery brown earth, that lay
at random on the green turf, I turned my eyes to the tillage field on the
other side of the wall, and saw the inch-high blades of corn coming up
between the stones. Then I fell to counting the blades, feeling glad to
have discovered a reckoning that would not be exhausted at thirty, but
would go on for millions, and millions, and millions; and before I had
reached ten in so heroic a numeration was fast asleep.

A sharp noise woke me with a start that set the pain tingling in my leg,
and though I could see nothing, I knew that a shot had been fired very
near us. I was for waking Elzevir, but he was already full awake, and put
a finger on his lip to show I should not speak. Then he crept a few paces
down the wall to where an ivy bush over-topped it, enough for him to look
through the leaves without being seen. He dropped down again with a look
of relief, and said, ''Tis but a lad scaring rooks with a blunderbuss; we
will not stir unless he makes this way.'

A minute later he said: 'The boy is coming straight for the wall; we
shall have to show ourselves'; and while he spoke there was a rattle of
falling stones, where the boy was partly climbing and partly pulling
down the dry wall, and so Elzevir stood up. The boy looked frightened,
and made as if he would run off, but Elzevir passed him the time of day
in a civil voice, and he stopped and gave it back.

'What are you doing here, son?' Block asked.

'Scaring rooks for Farmer Topp,' was the answer.

'Have you got a charge of powder to spare?' said Elzevir, showing his
pistol. 'I want to get a rabbit in the gorse for supper, and have dropped
my flask. Maybe you've seen a flask in walking through the furrows?'

He whispered to me to lie still, so that it might not be perceived my leg
was broken; and the boy replied:

'No, I have seen no flask; but very like have not come the same way as
you, being sent out here from Lowermoigne; and as for powder, I have
little left, and must save that for the rooks, or shall get a beating for
my pains.'

'Come,' said Elzevir, 'give me a charge or two, and there is half a crown
for thee.' And he took the coin out of his pocket and showed it.

The boy's eyes twinkled, and so would mine at so valuable a piece, and
he took out from his pocket a battered cowskin flask. 'Give flask and
all,' said Elzevir, 'and thou shalt have a crown,' and he showed him the
larger coin.

No time was wasted in words; Elzevir had the flask in his pocket, and the
boy was biting the crown.

'What shot have you?' said Elzevir.

'What! have you dropped your shot-flask too?' asked the boy. And his
voice had something of surprise in it.

'Nay, but my shot are over small; if thou hast a slug or two, I would
take them.' 'I have a dozen goose-slugs, No. 2,' said the boy; 'but
thou must pay a shilling for them. My master says I never am to use them,
except I see a swan or buzzard, or something fit to cook, come over: I
shall get a sound beating for my pains, and to be beat is worth a
shilling.'

'If thou art beat, be beat for something more,' says Elzevir the tempter.
'Give me that firelock that thou carriest, and take a guinea.'

'Nay, I know not,' says the boy; 'there are queer tales afloat at
Lowermoigne, how that a Posse met the Contraband this morning, and shots
were fired, and a gauger got an overdose of lead--maybe of goose slugs
No. 2. The smugglers got off clear, but they say the hue and cry is up
already, and that a head-price will be fixed of twenty pound. So if I
sell you a fowling-piece, maybe I shall do wrong, and have the Government
upon me as well as my master.' The surprise in his voice was changed to
suspicion, for while he spoke I saw that his eye had fallen on my foot,
though I tried to keep it in the shadow; and that he saw the boot clotted
with blood, and the kerchief tied round my leg.

''Tis for that very reason,' says Elzevir, 'that I want the firelock.
These smugglers are roaming loose, and a pistol is a poor thing to stop
such wicked rascals on a lone hill-side. Come, come, _thou_ dost not want
a piece to guard thee; they will not hurt a boy.'

He had the guinea between his finger and thumb, and the gleam of the gold
was too strong to be withstood. So we gained a sorry matchlock, slugs,
and powder, and the boy walked off over the furrow, whistling with his
hand in his pocket, and a guinea and a crown-piece in his hand.

His whistle sounded innocent enough, yet I mistrusted him, having caught
his eye when he was looking at my bloody foot; and so I said as much to
Elzevir, who only laughed, saying the boy was simple and harmless. But
from where I sat I could peep out through the brambles in the open gap,
and see without being seen--and there was my young gentleman walking
carelessly enough, and whistling like any bird so long as Elzevir's head
was above the wall; but when Elzevir sat down, the boy gave a careful
look round, and seeing no one watching any more, dropped his whistling
and made off as fast as heels would carry him. Then I knew that he had
guessed who we were, and was off to warn the hue and cry; but before
Elzevir was on his feet again, the boy was out of sight, over the
hill-brow.

'Let us move on,' said Block; 'tis but a little distance now to go, and
the heat is past already. We must have slept three hours or more, for
thou art but a sorry watchman, John. 'Tis when the sentry sleeps that
the enemy laughs, and for thee the Posse might have had us both like
daylight owls.'

With that he took me on his back and made off with a lusty stride,
keeping as much as possible under the brow of the hill and in the shelter
of the walls. We had slept longer than we thought, for the sun was
westering fast, and though the rest had refreshed me, my leg had grown
stiff, and hurt the more in dangling when we started again. Elzevir was
still walking strongly, in spite of the heavy burden he carried, and in
less than half an hour I knew, though I had never been there before, we
were in the land of the old marble quarries at the back of Anvil Point.

Although I knew little of these quarries, and certainly was in evil
plight to take note of anything at that time, yet afterwards I learnt
much about them. Out of such excavations comes that black Purbeck Marble
which you see in old churches in our country, and I am told in other
parts of England as well. And the way of making a marble quarry is to
sink a tunnel, slanting very steeply down into the earth, like a well
turned askew, till you reach fifty, seventy, or perhaps one hundred feet
deep. Then from the bottom of this shaft there spread out narrow passages
or tunnels, mostly six feet high, but sometimes only three or four, and
in these the marble is dug. These quarries were made by men centuries
ago, some say by the Romans themselves; and though some are still worked
in other parts of Purbeck, those at the back of Anvil Point have been
disused beyond the memory of man.

We had left the stony village fields, and the face of the country was
covered once more with the closest sward, which was just putting on the
brighter green of spring. This turf was not smooth, but hummocky, for
under it lay heaps of worthless stone and marble drawn out of the
quarries ages ago, which the green vestment had covered for the most
part, though it left sometimes a little patch of broken rubble peering
out at the top of a mound. There were many tumble-down walls and low
gables left of the cottages of the old quarrymen; grass-covered ridges
marked out the little garden-folds, and here and there still stood a
forlorn gooseberry-bush, or a stunted plum-or apple-tree with its
branches all swept eastward by the up-Channel gales. As for the quarry
shafts themselves, they too were covered round the tips with the green
turf, and down them led a narrow flight of steep-cut steps, with a slide
of soap-stone at the side, on which the marble blocks were once hauled up
by wooden winches. Down these steps no feet ever walked now, for not only
were suffocating gases said to beset the bottom of the shafts, but men
would have it that in the narrow passages below lurked evil spirits and
demons. One who ought to know about such things, told me that when St.
Aldhelm first came to Purbeck, he bound the old Pagan gods under a ban
deep in these passages, but that the worst of all the crew was a certain
demon called the Mandrive, who watched over the best of the black marble.
And that was why such marble might only be used in churches or for
graves, for if it were not for this holy purpose, the Mandrive would
have power to strangle the man that hewed it.

It was by the side of one of these old shafts that Elzevir laid me down
at last. The light was very low, showing all the little unevennesses of
the turf; and the sward crept over the edges of the hole, and every crack
and crevice in steps and slide was green with ferns. The green ferns
shrouded the walls of the hole, and ruddy brown brambles overgrew the
steps, till all was lost in the gloom that hung at the bottom of the pit.

Elzevir drew a deep breath or two of the cool evening air, like a man who
has come through a difficult trial.

'There,' he said, 'this is Joseph's Pit, and here we must lie hid until
thy foot is sound again. Once get to the bottom safe, and we can laugh at
Posse, and hue and cry, and at the King's Crown itself. They cannot
search all the quarries, and are not like to search any of them, for they
are cowards at the best, and hang much on tales of the Mandrive. Ay, and
such tales are true enough, for there lurk gases at the bottom of most of
the shafts, like devils to strangle any that go down. And if they do come
down this Joseph's Pit, we still have nineteen chances in a score they
cannot thread the workings. But last, if they come down, and thread the
path, there is this pistol and a rusty matchlock; and before they come to
where we lie, we can hold the troop at bay and sell our lives so dear
they will not care to buy them.'

We waited a few minutes, and then he took me in his arms and began to
descend the steps, back first, as one goes down a hatchway. The sun was
setting in a heavy bank of clouds just as we began to go down, and I
could not help remembering how I had seen it set over peaceful Moonfleet