The Lost Middy Part 16

"Yes," said Aleck, "if their hoofs weren't covered over with bits of canvas and a few handfuls of hay."

"What!"

"I found one that a horse had kicked off on the road one morning, Eben,"

said the boy. "Ah! I see now."

"See--see what?" said the rough, fisherman-like fellow, sharply.

"See why Ness Dunning was so anxious that I shouldn't come along the cliff this side."

"Ness Dunning?" cried the man, scowling. "What did he say?"

"That I'd better go the other way. Behaved just like a silly plover which wants to prove to you that it has no nest on the moor, and sets you looking for it."

"Ness Dunning's an old fool," cried the man, fiercely.

"Yes, he is a thick-headed old noodle, Eben; I wouldn't trust him."

"Then because he did that he made you think there was something hid somewhere and come to hunt for it, did you?" cried the man, angrily.

"No, I didn't think anything of the kind till just this minute, but I see now. You're not much wiser than old Ness, Eben, for you've been trying to throw me off the scent too, and now I know as well as if I could see it that you people have been running a cargo, and you've got it hidden in one of the caves or sunk in one of the holes."

"What yer talking about?"

"Smuggled goods, Eben. I could find it if I tried now."

The man stepped down from the shelf on which he had been standing, and made a great show of being exceedingly ferocious, evidently thinking that the boy would turn and run away. But Aleck stood fast, not even stirring when the man was close up, planting his doubled fists upon his hips and thrusting out his lower jaw in a peculiarly animal-like way.

"So you're going to look and see if you can find something hidden, and when you've found it you're going to send word to the Revenue cutter men to fetch it, are yer?"

"Who says I am?" said Aleck, sharply.

"Who says it? Why, I do, my lad. So that's what you think you're going to do, is it?"

"No," said the lad, coolly enough. "Why should I? It's no business of mine."

"Ho!" growled the man, frowning, and raising one hand to rub his short, crisp, black beard. "No," he said, after a pause, "it arn't no business of yours, is it?"

"Of course not," said the boy, coolly. "I don't want to know where the run cargo's hidden, and I wasn't looking for it. I only came to watch the birds and get a few eggs if I saw any that I hadn't got."

The man made a sudden quick movement and caught Aleck's right wrist tightly, leaning forward as if to pierce his eyes with the fierce look he gave.

"Don't do that--you hurt!" cried Aleck, sharply.

"Yes, I mean to hurt," growled the man. "Now, then, look at me! Is that true?"

"Do you hear, Eben Megg? You hurt me. Let go, or I shall hit out."

"You'll do what?" cried the big fellow, mockingly, as he tightened his grasp to a painful extent, when _spank_! Aleck's left fist flew out, striking the man full on the right cheek, not a heavy blow, but as hard as the boy could deliver, hampered as he was, being dragged close to his a.s.sailant's breast.

"Why, you--" roared the man. He did not say what, but flung the arm he had at liberty round the boy's waist and lifted him, kicking and struggling, from the ground, perfectly helpless, with the great muscular arm acting like a band of iron, to do more than try to deliver some ineffective blows, which his a.s.sailant easily avoided.

"Ah! Would you?" he growled, fiercely. "You're a nice young game c.o.c.k chick, you are. Hold still!" he roared, taking a step forward, to stand on the very edge of the shelf. "Keep that hand quiet, or I'll hurl you down among the rocks. You'll look worse then than you do now."

"Do, if you dare," cried the lad, defiantly.

"You tell me what I asked," growled the man; "is what you said true?"

"I won't tell you while you grip my wrist."

"You'd better speak," cried the man. "D'yer see, you're like a feather to me. I could pitch you right out so as you'd go to the bottom yonder."

"You could, but you daren't?" cried Aleck, grinding his teeth and striving hard to bear the pain he suffered.

"Oh, I dare--I could if I liked! n.o.body would see out here. It would kill yer, and n.o.body would know how it happened; but they'd say when they found you that you'd slipped and fell when you was egging. They would, wouldn't they? That's true, arn't it?"

"I suppose so," said the boy, huskily.

"And that's what I'm going to do for hitting me, unless you tell me whether that was true what you said. Now, then, beg me not to hurl yer down."

"I--shan't," ground out the boy through his set teeth, and a grim smile crossed the man's dark face, making it look for the moment open and manly--a smile caused by something akin to admiration.

"Well, you're a nice-tempered sort of a young fellow," growled the man.

"Let go of my wrist."

"Will yer promise not to hit?"

Aleck nodded.

"Nor yet kick?"

The boy nodded again.

"There," said the man, loosening the prisoned wrist. "Now, tell me, is it true?"

"Of course it is," said the boy, haughtily.

"I'll believe yer," growled the man. "There," he continued, dropping the boy to his feet. "Then you won't look for where the stuff's stowed?"

Aleck burst into a hoa.r.s.e laugh.

"Then there is some stowed?"

The man gave himself a wrench, and his face puckered up again with anger.

"Lookye here," he said, more quietly, "I don't say there is, and I don't say there arn't; but suppose there is, you're going to swear as you won't take no notice."