Slain By The Doones | Page 8

expected, and long before his father wanted him, though he loved him
so much in his absence. For I heard a deep voice in the kitchen one
night (before I was prepared for such things, by making a backway out
of my bedroom), and thinking it best to know the worst, went out to ask
what was doing there.
A young man was sitting upon the table, accounting too little of our
house, yet showing no great readiness to boast, only to let us know who
he was. He had a fine head of curly hair, and spoke with a firm
conviction that there was much inside it. "Father, you have possessed
small opportunity of seeing how we do things now. Mother is not to be
blamed for thinking that we are in front of what used to be. What do we
care how the country lies? We have heared all this stuff up at Oare. If
there are bogs, we shall timber them. If there are rocks, we shall blow
them up. If there are caves, we shall fire down them. The moment we
get our guns into position----"
"Hush, Bob, hush! Here is your master's daughter. Not the interlopers

you put up with; but your real master, on whose property you were
born. Is that the position for your guns?"
Being thus rebuked by his father, who was a very faithful-minded man,
Robert Pring shuffled his long boots down, and made me a low
salutation. But, having paid little attention to the things other people
were full of, I left the young man to convince his parents, and he soon
was successful with his mother.
Two, or it may have been three days after this, a great noise arose in the
morning. I was dusting my father's books, which lay open just as he
had left them. There was "Barker's Delight" and "Isaac Walton," and
the "Secrets of Angling by J. D." and some notes of his own about
making of flies; also fish hooks made of Spanish steel, and long hairs
pulled from the tail of a gray horse, with spindles and bits of quill for
plaiting them. So proud and so pleased had he been with these trifles,
after the clamour and clash of life, that tears came into my eyes once
more, as I thought of his tranquil and amiable ways.
"'Tis a wrong thing altogether to my mind," cried Deborah Pring,
running in to me. "They Doones was established afore we come, and
why not let them bide upon their own land? They treated poor master
amiss, beyond denial; and never will I forgive them for it. All the same,
he was catching what belonged to them; meaning for the best no doubt,
because he was so righteous. And having such courage he killed one, or
perhaps two; though I never could have thought so much of that old
knife. But ever since that, they have been good, Miss Sillie, never even
coming anigh us; and I don't believe half of the tales about them."
All this was new to me; for if anybody-had cried shame and death upon
that wicked horde, it was Deborah Pring, who was talking to me thus! I
looked at her with wonder, suspecting for the moment that the
venerable Councillor--who was clever enough to make a cow forget her
calf--might have paid her a visit while I was away. But very soon the
reason of the change appeared.
"Who hath taken command of the attack?" she asked, as if no one
would believe the answer; "not Captain Purvis, as ought to have been,

nor even Captain Dallas of Devon, but Spy Stickles by royal warrant,
the man that hath been up to Oare so long! And my son Robert, who
hath come down to help to train them, and understandeth cannon
guns----"
"Captain Purvis? I seem to know that name very well. I have often
heard it from my father. And your son under him! Why, Deborah, what
are you hiding from me?"
Now good Mrs. Pring was beginning to forget, or rather had never
borne properly in mind, that I was the head of the household now, and
entitled to know everything, and to be asked about it. But people who
desire to have this done should insist upon it at the outset, which I had
not been in proper state to do. So that she made quite a grievance of it,
when I would not be treated as a helpless child. However, I soon put a
stop to that, and discovered to my surprise much more than could be
imagined.
And before I could say even half of what I thought, a great noise arose
in the hollow of the hills, and came along the valleys, like the