Part 9 (1/2)

”Well, this is most unexpected,” said Reed warmly. ”Here, Sturgess, I shall come over again to-morrow about eleven. Be here with the men, and you had better bring a couple of lanthorns.”

”Hadn't I better come on to put you in the right road?”

”What! Oh, no! I shall manage. That will do.” The man turned away with the look upon his countenance intensifying; but it was not observed, for Reed walked off in company with his new acquaintance, the pair chatting away as if they had known each other for years.

”Quite gave me a scare,” said the Major. ”Life here is so uneventful.

Very beautiful, but lonely, especially in the winter.”

”But you do not stay here in the winter?”

”Oh yes; I have lived here ten years now.”

”No accounting for taste,” thought Reed; and he glanced sidewise at his companion, but learned nothing. He only saw a quiet-looking country gentleman, whose sun-browned face told of an open-air life.

Sturgess followed them to the great natural gateway at the end of the chasm, where he had stood some days before, but not alone; and he now remained watching them as they went on westward along the narrow path, and round by the huge b.u.t.tress formed by the refuse of the mine, carried and cast down there for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Then as they pa.s.sed on out of sight, the man raised one of his fingers to his lips, and began gnawing roughly at the side of the nail, till he seemed to make up his mind, and took a step or two forward after them, next stopped short again, for a hail came from behind.

”Coming on down to the village, Mr Sturgess?”

He turned and faced one of the two men, and nodded, walking away with him in the other direction, taciturn and strange, answering his companion in monosyllables, and with his thoughts evidently far away.

Not so very, though, for they were with Clive Reed, and promised him no good.

”So you have been examining the old `White Virgin' mine, eh?” said Major Gurdon. ”I heard it was sold. A new company, eh?”

”Yes,” said Reed, smiling; ”a new company--a solid one.”

”Eh? I hope so. But if I had to go in for a mining adventure, I think I should begin here with the material the old miners cast away as rubbish.” He pointed to the great b.u.t.tress they were skirting. ”There it is, already extracted from the mountain, and though poor, rich enough, I should say, to pay a company if worked with modern appliances.”

”You understand these things?” said Reed, looking at his elderly companion searchingly, and noting how deeply lined his brow seemed, and that care and sorrow more than age had given him his hollow-cheeked, anxious air.

”A man who likes geology, mineralogy, and who always lives among these hills, cannot help picking up a little mining lore,” said the Major, with a smile. ”I have searched and toiled, my dear sir--much loss and little gain. I hope yours may prove to be a successful venture.”

”Let's hope so,” said Reed quietly. ”All mining is speculative, and in speculative matters there must be losses as well as gains.”

”And after all, what does it amount to, my young friend? The chase of a will o' the wisp who bears a golden lamp not worth the winning, you will say when you grow as old as I. But there, I shall bore you with this twaddle. What do you say to that for a view? Derbys.h.i.+re in front; broad, honest, hardworking old Yorks.h.i.+re away to your right; at your feet the Swirl--my river, I call it.”

”A lovely prospect, but rather wild,” said Reed, smiling.

”Say savage, and you will be nearer the truth; but I can show you something a little less stern;” and, chatting away pleasantly, he led on along first one slope and then another, till at last they came down upon a narrow track beside a rippling stream, shut in between two perpendicular walls of rock, draped with ivy, and with every cleft and crevice green and bright with trailing birch, moss, and cl.u.s.tering fern.

The water of the little river ran swiftly babbling here among the rocks, there swirling round, eddying and forming whirlpools, one of which, across the river where it washed the perpendicular rock, was evidently very deep, for the water gradually subsided there and grew still and gla.s.sy, reflecting the ivy-curtained walls as it slowly glided round.

”Ah! this is delightful,” cried Reed, as he stopped to gaze at the glancing waters, where the sun made the ripples dazzling to the eye, and then turned to the deep shadows. ”Eden may have been lovely, but this would be good enough for a poor commonplace nineteenth-century fellow like myself.”

”You like it?” said the Major, smiling.

”It's glorious. Is there much of it like this?”

”About a mile. I call it my river here, and the mining men respect my rights generally--that is, unless the trout they catch sight of in some pool is a very fat one indeed.”

He said this with a peculiar smile, as he met Reed's eye.