ees on the other side; even the river was
invisible from where he sat; and getting his breath now after his
exertions, he turned, and began to look upward.

Ralph was born somewhere about three miles from where he sat, but he had
inadvertently wandered into a part that was perfectly unfamiliar to him,
the feud between the two families having resulted in its being
considered dangerous for either side to intrude within the portion of
the rugged mountainous land belonging to the other.

Still, the lad had some notion of the bearings of the cliff hills from
seeing them at a distance, and he rapidly came to a conclusion as to
which would be the best course for him to take to avoid the occupants of
the Black Tor; but when any one is flurried he is liable to make
mistakes, and much more likely when deep in a tangle of pathless wood,
and listening for the steps of those who are seeking to make him a
prisoner.

According to Ralph's calculations, the narrow gap which led eastward to
the edge of the huge hollow in which the narrow, roughly conical mass of
limestone rose crowned with the Eden Castle, lay away to his left; and
as he had in climbing kept on bearing to the right, he was perfectly
certain that he had passed right over the men in the river. He felt,
therefore, that he had nothing to do but keep steadily on in the same
course, always mounting higher at every opportunity of doing so unseen,
until close to the top, when he could keep along the edge unseen till
well on his way homeward, and then take to the open downs above.

The silence below was encouraging, and in spite of being compelled often
to creep beneath the bushes, and here and there descend to avoid some
perpendicular piece of rock, he got on, so that he grew more and more
satisfied that he had escaped, and had nothing to do but persevere, and
be well out of what had promised to be a very awkward predicament. His
clothes clung to his back, and his legs were terribly scratched, while
one of his feet was bleeding; but that was a trifle which he hardly
regarded.

Just before him was a steeper bit than usual, and he hesitated about
trying to climb it; but the way up or down seemed to promise no better,
so taking advantage of the dense cover afforded by the trees, he
steadily attacked the awkward precipice, the dwarf trees helped him with
their gnarled trunks, and he mastered the ascent, found himself higher
up than he had expected, crawled a step or two farth