Devon Boys | Page 6

a ring of rope over his
shoulder."

"Yes, but what for?"
"Oh, I dunno; don't bother!" said Bob surlily.
Meanwhile Bigley Uggleston was coming along at a lumbering trot,
and as soon as he was within hearing I shouted to him:
"What are you going to do with that rope?" And now for the first time I
noticed that he was carrying a long iron bar balanced in his right hand.
Big did not answer, but came panting on.
"There, I told you so!" cried Bob; "didn't I say so?"
"I don't care if you did," I retorted; and just then our companion panted
up to us and threw himself down, breathless with his exertions.
"What did you fetch the rope for?" I cried eagerly.
"To"--puff--"throw it over"--puff--"the big stone"--puff--"up atop,
same"--puff--"as Bob Chowne said"--puff--"last year."
"There!" I cried triumphantly, turning on Bob.
I was sorry I had spoken directly after, for Bob tightened his lips and
half shut his eyes as he rose slowly to his feet, thrust his hands in his
pockets, and began to move off.
"Here, what are you going to do?" I cried.
"Going home."
"What for?"
"What for? Where's the use o' stopping? You keep on trying to pick a
quarrel with a fellow."
"Why, I don't, Bob. I say, don't go. We're just going to have no end of
fun."

"Yes," cried Big; "and I've brought one of my father's net bars to drive
in the rock and fasten the rope to, and then no one need hold it."
"No, I sha'n't stop," grumbled Bob sourly. "Where's the use o' stopping
with chaps as always want to quarrel?"
"I don't want to quarrel," I said.
"And I'm sure I don't," said Big. "I hate it."
"More don't I," growled Bob. "It's Sep Duncan; he's always trying to
have a row with somebody."
"Here, come on," cried Big. "I've got the rope and the bar."
"No," said Bob, sticking his hands farther into his pockets and sidling
off; "I'm going home."
"Oh, I say, don't spoil our fun, Bob," I cried.
"'Taint me; it's you," he said. "I sha'n't stay."
"Oh, if it's me I'm very sorry," I said, "I didn't mean to be
disagreeable."
"Oh, well, if you're sorry and didn't mean to be disagreeable I'll stay,"
he said. "Only don't you do it again."
"Say you won't," whispered Big.
"Well, I won't do it again," I cried, though I felt all the time as if I
wanted to laugh outright.
"Then I sha'n't say any more about it," said Bob, relenting all at once. "I
say, Big, is that rope strong?"
"Strong enough to hold all of us," he replied. "Here, come along. It'll
soon be dinner-time. I'm getting hungry now."

"Why, you're always hungry, Big," cried Bob as we began to climb the
steep slope diagonally.
"Yes, I am," he assented. "I do eat such a lot, and then I always feel as
if I wanted to eat a lot more."
It was a stiff climb over the loose slates and in and out among the
rough masses of stone that projected every here and there; but the air
grew fresher and cooler as we made our way from sheep-track to
sheep-track, where the little brown butterflies kept darting up in our
path; and as we stopped again and again, it was to get a wider view of
the sail-dotted sea all rippling and sparkling like silver in the sun, while
as we climbed higher still we began to get glimpses of the high hills
along the coast to the west, and the great moor into which the Gap
seemed to run like a rugged trough.
At last after many halts we reached the piled-up mass of rocks known
as the Beacon--a huge heap of moss-grown grey fragments that stood
on the very crest of the ridge.
It was a favourite place with us, and many an expedition had been
made here to sit under the shelter of the great lump of rock that
crowned the heap, a mass about fifteen feet high, and as many long and
broad, the whole forming just such a cube as you find in the sugar basin,
and whose sides were so perpendicular that we had never reached the
top.
But this time, provided with rope, and, by Bigley Uggleston's
forethought, with the iron bar, the ascent seemed easy, and we set about
it at once.
Big soon found a place on the shoulder of our little mountain where
blocks of a ton-weight and less lay around, some of them so weakened
and overhanging that they looked as if a touch would send them
thundering down into the gorge.
Between two of these Big drove in the long iron bar, the rope was
thrown right over the rock,