ng to find a
spot, whence I can do it.'

'Gwenny can climb like any cat. She has been up there in the summer,
watching the young birds, day by day, and daring the boys to touch them.
There are neither birds, nor eggs there now, of course, and nothing
doing. If you see but six rooks' nests; I am in peril and want you. If
you see but five, I am carried off by Carver.'

'Good God!' said I, at the mere idea; in a tone which frightened Lorna.

'Fear not, John,' she whispered sadly, and my blood grew cold at it:
'I have means to stop him; or at least to save myself. If you can come
within one day of that man's getting hold of me, you will find me quite
unharmed. After that you will find me dead, or alive, according to
circumstances, but in no case such that you need blush to look at me.'

Her dear sweet face was full of pride, as even in the gloom I saw: and I
would not trespass on her feelings by such a thing, at such a moment, as
an attempt at any caress. I only said, 'God bless you, darling!' and
she said the same to me, in a very low sad voice. And then I stole below
Carver's house, in the shadow from the eastern cliff; and knowing
enough of the village now to satisfy all necessity, betook myself to my
well-known track in returning from the valley; which was neither down
the waterslide (a course I feared in the darkness) nor up the cliffs at
Lorna's bower; but a way of my own inventing, which there is no need to
dwell upon.

A weight of care was off my mind; though much of trouble hung there
still. One thing was quite certain--if Lorna could not have John Ridd,
no one else should have her. And my mother, who sat up for me, and with
me long time afterwards, agreed that this was comfort.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

A GOOD TURN FOR JEREMY

John Fry had now six shillings a week of regular and permanent wage,
besides all harvest and shearing money, as well as a cottage rent-free,
and enough of garden-ground to rear pot-herbs for his wife and all
his family. Now the wages appointed by our justices, at the time of
sessions, were four-and-sixpence a week for summer, and a shilling less
for the winter-time; and we could be fined, and perhaps imprisoned, for
giving more than the sums so fixed. Therefore John Fry was looked upon
as the richest man upon Exmoor, I mean of course among labourers, and
there were many jokes about robbing him, as if he were the mint of the
King; and Tom Faggus promised to try his hand, if he came acros