down oi goes again. Just when oi gets to t' bottom there war a great shouting oop at top. ' They're just too late,' a man says; 'the kegs be all safe away except this last lot,' for the horses and carts had gone off the instant as they got their loads. ' Now we must run for it, for the revenue men will be as savage as may be when they voinds as they be too late.' 'Where be us to run?' says oi. 'Keep close to me, oi knows the place,' says he.
' So we runs down and voinds as they had tumbled the bar'Is into t' boat again, and t' men war just pushing her off when there war a shout close to us. ' Shove, shove!' shouts the men, and oi runs into t' water loike t' rest and shooved. Then a lot o' men run up shouting, ' Stop! in the king's name!' and began vor to fire pistols.
' Nateral oi wasn't agoing to be fired at for nowt, so oi clutches moi stick and goes at 'em wi' the rest, keeping
close to t' chip as told me as he knew the coontry. There was a sharp foight vor a minute. Oi lays aboot me hearty and gets a crack on my ear wi' a cootlas, as they calls theer swords, as made me pretty wild.
' We got the best o't. ' Coom on,' says the man to me, ' there's a lot moor on 'em a cooming.' So oi makes off as hard as oi could arter him. He keeps straight along at t' edge o' t' water. It war soft rowing at first, vor t' place war as flat as a table, but arter running vor a few minutes he says, 'Look owt!' Oi didn't know what to look owt vor, and down oi goes plump into t' water. Vor all at once we had coomed upon a lot o' rocks covered wi' a sort of slimy stuff, and so slippery as you could scarce keep a footing on 'em. Oi picks myself up and vollers him. By this toime, Maister, oi war beginning vor to think as there warn't so mooch vun as oi had expected in this koind o' business. Oi had been working two hours loike a nigger a-carrying tubs. Oi had had moi ear pretty nigh cut off, and it smarted wi' the salt water awful. Oi war wet from head to foot and had knocked the skin off moi hands and knees when oi went down. However there warn't no toime vor to grumble. Oi vollers him till we gets to t' foot o' t' rocks, and we keeps along 'em vor aboot half a mile.
' The water here coombed close oop to t' rocks, and presently we war a walking through it. ' Be'st a going vor to drown us all?' says oi. ' We are jest there,' says he. ' Ten minutes later we couldn't ha' got along.' T' water war a-getting deeper and deeper, and t' loomps of water cooms along and well-nigh took me off my feet. Oi was aboot to turn back, vor it war better, thinks oi, to be took by t' king's men than to be droonded, when he says, ' Here we be.' He climbs oop t' rocks and oi follows him. Arter climbing a short way he cooms to a hole i' rocks, joost big enough vor to squeeze through, but once inside it opened out into a big cave. A chap had struck a loight, and there war ten or twelve more on us thar. ' We had better wait another five minutes,' says one, ' to see if any more cooms along. Arter that the tide ull be too high.'
'We waits, but no one else cooms; me and moi mate war t' last. Then we goes to t' back of the cave, whar 't rock sloped down lower and lower till we had to crawl along one arter t'other pretty nigh on our stomachs, like raats going into a hole. Oi wonders whar on aarth we war agoing, till at last oi found sudden as oi could stand oopright. Then two or three more torches war lighted, and we begins to climb oop some steps cut i' the face of t' rock. A rope had been fastened alongside to hold on by, which war a good job for me, vor oi should never ha' dared go oop wi'out it, vor if oi had missed my foot there warn't no saying how far oi would ha' fallen to t' bottom. At last the man avore me says, 'Here we be!' and grateful oi was, vor what wi' the crawling and the climbing, and the funk as oi was in o' fallino- the swaat was a-runninrj down me loike water. The torches war put out, and in another minute we pushes through some bushes and then we war on t' top of the cliff, a hundred yards or so back from t' edge, and doon in a sort of hollow all covered thickly over wi' bushes. We stood and listened vor a moment, but no sound war to be heard. Then one on 'em says, ' We ha' done 'em agin. Now the sooner as we gets off to our homes the better.' Looky for me, Jack war one of the lot as had coom up through the cave. ' Coom along, Luke,' says he,' oi be glad thou hast got out of it all roight. We must put our best foot foremost to get in afore day breaks.' So we sets off, and joost afore morning we gets back to village. As to t' other two from Varley, they never coom back agin. Oi heerd as how all as war caught war pressed for sea, and oi expect they war oot in a ship when a storm coom on, when in coorse they would be drownded. Oi started next day vor hoam, and from that day to this oi ha' never been five mile away, and what's more, oi ha' never grudged the price as they asked for brandy. It ud be cheap if it cost voive toimes as much, seeing the trouble and danger as there be in getting it ashore, to say nothing o' carrying it across the sea.'
' That was an adventure, Luke,' Ned said, ' and you were well out of it. I had no idea you had ever been engaged in defrauding the king's revenue. But now I must be off. I shall make straight across for the mill without going into Varley.'
One night Ned had as usual gone to the mill, and having carried clown the twelve barrels from the office and placed them in a pile in the centre of the principal room of the mill he retired to bed. He had been asleep for some hours when he was awoke by the faint tingle
of a bell. The office was over the principal entrance to the mill, and leaping from his bed he threw up the window and looked out. The night was dark, but he could see a crowd of at least two hundred men gathered in the yard. As the window was heard to open a sudden roar broke from the men, who had hitherto conducted their operations in silence.
' There he be, there's the young fox; burn the mill over his head. Now to work, lads, burst in the door.'
And at once a man armed with a mighty sledge-hammer began to batter at the door.
Ned tried to make himself heard, but his voice was lost in the roar without. Throwing on some clothes he ran rapidly down-stairs and lighted several lamps in the machine-room. Then he went to the door, which was already tottering under the heavy blows, shot back some of the bolts, and then took his place by the side of the pile of barrels with a pistol in his hand.
In another moment the door yielded and fell with a crash, and the crowd with exultant cheers poured in. They paused surprised and irresolute at seeing Ned standing quiet and seemingly indifferent by the pile of barrels in the centre of the room.
'Hold!' he said in a quiet clear voice, which sounded distinctly over the tumult. ' Do not come any nearer, or it will be the worse for you. Do you know what I have got here, lads? This is powder. If you doubt it, one of you can come forward and look at this barrel with the head out by my side. Now I have only got to fire my pistol into it to blow the mill, and you with it, into the air, and I mean to do it. Of course I shall go too; but some of you with black masks over your faces, who, I suppose, live near here, may know something about me, and may know that my life is not so pleasant a one that I value it in the slightest. As far as I am concerned you might burn the mill and me with it without my lifting a ringer; but this mill is the property of my mother, brother, and sister. Their living depends upon it, and I am going to defend it. Let one of you stir a single step forward and I fire this pistol into this barrel beside me.' And Ned held the pistol over the open barrel.
A dead silence of astonishment and terror had fallen upon the crowd. The light was sufficient for them to see Ned's pale but determined face, and as his words came out cold and steady there was not one who doubted that he was in earnest, and that he was prepared to blow himself and them into the air if necessary.
A cry of terror burst from them as he lowered the pistol to the barrel of powder. Then in wild dismay every man threw down his arms and fled, jostling each other fiercely to make their escape through the doorway from the fate which threatened them. In a few seconds the place was cleared and the assailants in full flight across the country. Ned laughed contemptuously. Then with some difficulty he lifted the broken door into its place, put some props behind it, fetched a couple of blankets from his bed, and lay down near the powder, and there slept quietly till morning.
Luke and Bill Swinton were down at the factory an hour before the usual time. The assailants had for the most part come over from Huddersfield, but many of the men from Varley had been among them, The terror which Ned's attitude had inspired had been so great that the secret was less well kept than usual, and as soon as people were astir the events of the night were known to most in the village. The moment the news reached the ears of Luke and Bill they hurried down to the mill without going in as usual for their mug of beer and bit of bread and cheese at the ' Brown Cow.'
The sight of the shattered door at once told them that the rumours they had heard were well founded. They knocked loudly upon it.
'Hullo!' Ned shouted, rousing himself from his slumbers; 'who is there? What are you kicking up all this row about?'
' It's oi, Maister Ned, oi and Bill, an glad oi am to hear your voice. It's true, then, they haven't hurt thee?'
' Not a bit of it,' Ned said as he moved the supports of the door. ' I think they got the worst of it.'
' If so be as wdiat oi ha' heard be true you may well say that, Maister Ned. Oi hear as you ha' gived 'em such
