The Black Tor Part 49

"Yes, can't you see he is wounded and burnt? Run, or I'll go myself!"

Dummy, awed by this--to him--awful threat, dashed down the zigzag at a dangerous pace, while, at their young master's orders, the two miners gently lifted and bore the insensible lad up to the castle, into the dwelling-house, and then to Mark's chamber, where he was laid upon the bed.

As soon as he had dismissed the bearers, Mark began to bathe the lad's temples, and in a few minutes he opened his eyes and stared wildly round.

"Where am I?" he said.

"Here: safe," said Mark.

Recollection came back to the poor fellow's swimming brain, and he threw his legs off the couch and tried to rise, but sank back with a groan.

"There: you can't," said Mark soothingly, and he took his hand. "Tell me--what's happened? You didn't see, because you'd fainted when I had you brought in, but we're in trouble too. But I suppose you know. Were you going to help?"

"To help?" said Ralph faintly. "No; to ask for help. They took us by surprise. Our men wounded. Just at day-break. We were all asleep.

They climbed in."

"Who did? Purlrose?"

"Yes; and his men. Father called me to dress, and we called the men together, but they got between us and the arms. The cowards! they cut us down. The poor lads who were wounded too. All so sudden. In a few minutes it was all over. Father prisoner--half our men dead; rest locked in one of the lower rooms: and I crawled away--to lie down and die, I thought."

"Why, it must have been after they had failed here," muttered Mark.

"They did not see me; I was behind an over-turned table, and a curtain and chair over me. I could hear all they said. They sat and drank after they had dragged out four of our poor fellows, dead."

"Then they sat and talked; I heard them. That captain said Cliff Castle would do as well as Black Tor, and they would stay there."

"Ah!" panted Mark excitedly.

"And a great deal more. It meant that they'd taken the place, and I felt then that I must die. I don't know how long they were there. It was hot and stifling, and there was smoke, and a man rushed in, and said the prisoners had escaped, and set fire to the place."

Ralph shuddered and was silent, till Mark began bathing his face again, when he seemed to revive a little, and wandered on:

"Fire burned so fast--crawled out--through the window--Minnie's fish-pool--castle burning so fast--father--Minnie--help!--oh help!"

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

DRAWING TOGETHER.

Mark bathed the sufferer's face again, but there was no return to consciousness, and growing more and more alarmed, he hurried to his father's chamber and woke him, Sir Edward as he leaped up, still dressed, s.n.a.t.c.hing eagerly at his sword. "You, Mark?" he cried. "The enemy?"

"Yes--no, father. Come quickly. Young Darley's here, dying."

"Young Darley here!"

"Yes, in my room," cried Mark wildly. "I've sent for Master Rayburn, but come and do something; we mustn't let the poor fellow die."

And in a wild incoherent way, he told Sir Edward all he knew.

"Then in their disappointment they went on down there," cried Sir Edward, as excited now as his son. "The fiends! the monsters!" he continued, as he entered his son's room. "Poor boy! Oh, Mark, lad, but for G.o.d's mercy, this might have been you. Oh! who can think about the old family enmity now? How long is it since you sent for old Rayburn?"

"Ever so long, father. Oh, I say, don't--don't say you think he'll die, father!"

"Heaven forbid, my boy," said Sir Edward softly, and he laid his hand gently on the wounded lad's brow--and kept it there as Master Rayburn entered the room.

"You've heard, then!" he cried, throwing down his hat and stick, and beginning to examine his patient.

"Yes, Mark tells me. Is it all true?"

"True, yes," growled Master Rayburn. "I find they attacked you, were beaten, and then went across and round by the down to Cliff Castle.

When I got there it was in ashes, burnt out, and the wretches had gone back with what plunder they could save, and two prisoners to their den."

"Two prisoners?"

"Yes--put your finger here, Mark, while I clip off his hair. Here's a bad cut--Sir Morton badly hurt, and his sweet young child, Minnie."

"Oh!" cried Sir Edward excitedly. "But is this true--are you sure?"

"I had it from one of his men, Nick Garth. Badly wounded too. But he and three others broke out of their window where they were prisoned, in a tower chamber, and out of revenge, to keep the enemy from keeping the place, as they were going to do, they set it on fire."

"Who did?" said Sir Edward sharply.

"Nick Garth and Ram Jennings. He's wounded too. A fine chance for you now, Eden. You can march in and take possession of your enemy's lands."

"I'll march in and take possession of that cursed den that my boy here tried to take, and failed," raged out Sir Edward. "Mark, we can do nothing here. Off with you, and muster every man we have. I can't show mercy now. Tell Daniel Rugg to get ready an ample supply of powder and fuses, and I'll blow up the hornets' nest, and let them stifle where they lie. Rayburn, you'll stay with this poor lad; and Heaven help you to save his life."

"Amen," said Master Rayburn softly.

"His father--his sister--carried off by these demons," muttered Sir Edward, and seizing his son's arm, he hurried with him to give his orders himself.

Mark Eden followed his father, feeling half stunned. The one thought which seemed to stand out clear above a tangle of others, all blurred and muddled, in his brain, was that these troubles--the attack on the Black Tor, and the hundred times more terrible one upon Cliff Castle-- were caused by him. Certainty Ralph Darley had something to do with it, but he was badly wounded and out of the question now, so that he, Mark Eden, must take all the blame.

Then, too, he could not understand his own acts. It all seemed so absurd, just such a confused sequence of events as would take place in a dream, for him to be listening to Ralph's appeal for help, and to begin pitying him, his natural enemy, feeling toward him as if he were his dearest friend; and then, with his heart burning with rage against those who had injured him and his, to follow his father, panting to get ready an expedition whose object was to drive Captain Purlrose and his murderous, thieving crew off the face of the earth.

That was not the greatest puzzle which helped to confuse Mark Eden, for there was his father's conduct, so directly opposed to everything which had gone before; but at last, after fighting with his confusion for some time, his head grew clearer, and he drew a long deep breath.

"I know how it is," he said to himself, with a curious smile, mingled of pleasure and pain; "the old trouble's dead. This business has killed it, and I'm jolly glad."

"Mark, boy," said his father just then, and it seemed to the lad that his father must have been thinking and feeling in a similar way, "I daresay you think my conduct strange, after all the teachings of the past, but nature is sometimes stronger than education, and after what has taken place we must, as English gentlemen, forget all old enmity, and behave toward the Darleys as--as--as--"

"I'm sure Ralph and his father would have behaved towards us, if we had been in such a terrible state."

"Yes, my boy--thank you--exactly," cried Sir Edward, with a sigh of relief. "I was afraid you would think it half mad and strange of me to be doing this, when--when you see we could go over and take possession of the Darley's place, and hold it for our own."

"But we couldn't now, father," cried Mark. "If it had been a challenge, and we had gone and attacked them, and conquered, it would have been grand, but the Edens couldn't go and fight wounded men--hit people when they are down."

"No, my boy," said Sir Edward firmly; "the Edens could not do that."