between him and the last leap he had taken; there was nothing left him
but to fight, or be hurled into the sea, five hundred feet below.

"Lie down, lie down!" I shouted to him, as if he were a dog, for I had
seen a battle like this before, and knew that the sheep had no chance of
life except from his greater weight, and the difficulty of moving him.

[Illustration: 150.jpg "Lie down!" I shouted]

"Lie down, lie down, John Ridd!" cried Mother Melldrum, mocking me, but
without a sign of smiling.

The poor sheep turned, upon my voice, and looked at me so piteously that
I could look no longer; but ran with all my speed to try and save him
from the combat. He saw that I could not be in time, for the goat was
bucking to leap at him, and so the good wether stooped his forehead,
with the harmless horns curling aside of it; and the goat flung his
heels up, and rushed at him, with quick sharp jumps and tricks of
movement, and the points of his long horns always foremost, and his
little scut cocked like a gun-hammer.

As I ran up the steep of the rock, I could not see what they were doing,
but the sheep must have fought very bravely at last, and yielded his
ground quite slowly, and I hoped almost to save him. But just as my head
topped the platform of rock, I saw him flung from it backward, with a
sad low moan and a gurgle. His body made quite a short noise in the air,
like a bucket thrown down a well shaft, and I could not tell when it
struck the water, except by the echo among the rocks. So wroth was I
with the goat at the moment (being somewhat scant of breath and unable
to consider), that I caught him by the right hind-leg, before he could
turn from his victory, and hurled him after the sheep, to learn how he
liked his own compulsion.

CHAPTER XIX

ANOTHER DANGEROUS INTERVIEW

[Illustration: 152.jpg Illustrated Capital]

Although I left the Denes at once, having little heart for further
questions of the wise woman, and being afraid to visit her house under
the Devil's Cheese-ring (to which she kindly invited me), and although
I ran most part of the way, it was very late for farm-house time upon
a Sunday evening before I was back at Plover's Barrows. My mother had
great desire to know all about the matter; but I could not reconcile it
with my respect so to frighten her. Therefore I tried to sleep it off,
keeping my own counsel; and when that proved of no avail, I strove to
work it away, it might be, by heavy ou