."

He went on, forcing his way among the bushes, and clambering over the
great blocks of stone which strewed the sides of the river, and then
stopped suddenly, as he sent up a moor-hen, which flew across the river,
dribbling its long thin toes in the water as it went.

"I wonder," he said thoughtfully, "whether the Darleys think we are
beasts too?"

CHAPTER FIVE.

HOW MARK EDEN FOUND THE RAVEN'S NEST.

"Ah, there he goes," said Mark, beneath his breath, as he stood
motionless, and watched a large raven flapping along, high overhead, in
the direction he was taking. "Perhaps that's the cock bird. Looks big.
The nest may be where old Master Rayburn says, or up this way, and the
bird's going for food."

He waited till the raven disappeared, and then went on down-stream,
taking to a path higher up, which led him by a pretty cottage, standing
in a niche at a bend of the river, so that the place had a good view up
and down-stream, and with its pleasant garden, looked the sort of home
which might well make its owner content.

But Mark Eden's mind was too full of ravens' nests, to leave room for
any contemplation of the old scholar's cottage; and he hurried on by the
path, which cut off two or three bends of the river, taking him right
away for quite a couple of miles, and bringing him to the water's-edge
again, just in front of a mighty cliff, which towered up out of a dense
grove of beeches on the other side of the river.

The place was solitary and still in the extreme; and going close down to
the water's-edge, Mark Eden seated himself upon a mossy stone, between
two great hawthorns, which hid him from anything coming up or
down-stream, while brambles, ferns, and clustering hemlock-plants, hid
his back and front.

It was a pleasant resting-place, to sit and watch the rapidly running
river, which was very shallow here; and from his hiding-place, he could
see the shadows of the ripples, and the stony bottom, and also those
cast by trout, as they glided here and there, waiting for the
unfortunate flies and caterpillars which had fallen from overhanging
boughs, to be washed down the stream.

But Mark had but a glance for the fish: his attention was taken up by
the mass of precipitous stone before him, so steep, that it was only
here and there, in cracks or on ledges, that herb or stunted bush could
find a place to root; and as he scanned the precipice, from its foot
among the beeches, to its brow, five hundred