The Lost Middy Part 17

"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."