y. "My father has been talking
about it for some time."

"Yes; and so has Sir Edward Eden been talking about it for some time;
but neither of them does anything, and the wasps' nest thrives; all the
best things in the country are carried up there--the wasps robbing the
bees; and I, though I am a man of peace, say that it is the duty of you
gentlemen to burn that wasps' nest out before anything worse is done,
for the ruffians grow more bold and daring every day, feeling, I
suppose, that they can do these things with impunity."

"Father shall do something at once," cried the lad.

"That's right," cried the old man, patting his late patient on the
shoulder. "I don't want blood shed, and I hardly think any of your
people would come to much harm, for, like most scoundrels of their kind,
I believe the enemy would prove miserable cowards."

"They have proved to be so," cried Ralph warmly. "Father must act now."

"I'll tell you what he ought to do, boy," said the old man, grasping his
visitor by the arm. "Of course he need not make friends, but he ought
to go or send to the Black Tor, and ask Sir Edward to head so many men,
your father doing the same; and then they could march together, and rout
out the scoundrels."

"Yes, it would be easy enough then," said Ralph sadly; "but I know my
father too well: he would not do that."

"No," said the old man, "he would not do that."

The tone in which this was said roused the lad's indignation.

"Well," he said hotly, "do you think this Sir Edward Eden would come and
ask my father to join him?"

"No, boy, I do not," replied the old man, "for I said something of this
kind to Mark Eden only yesterday, when I was fishing up that way, and he
spoke just in the same way as you do."

"You saw him yesterday?" said Ralph eagerly. "How is he?"

"What's that to do with you?" said the old man rather roughly. "You
don't want to know how your enemy is. But all the same, his leg is
nearly well. He limps a little: that is all. Going?"

"Yes," said Ralph hurriedly; "I must be off now. I am going on about a
mile, and coming back this way. Perhaps I shall see you then."

"Going about a mile? Not going to see old Mother Garth?"

"Yes: to take her a present from my sister. Nick told her about his
mother being robbed."

"And your sister wants to make it up to her. Poor old woman! she is in
great trouble, but she will not hear of leaving her cottage up there on
the moor; and sh