Rodney Stone

go on that this book is his story rather than mine, and that there came a time when his name and his fame were in the mouths of all England. You will bear with

ear-cut face, his black curls, and his step so springy and light that it seemed as if he were bound to earth by some lesser tie than the heavy-footed villagers round him. He had not yet attained his full six foot of stature, but no judge of a man (and every woman, at least, is one) coul

h him, or run with him, or swim with him? Who on all the country side, save only Boy Jim, would have swung himself over Wolstonbury Cliff, and clambered down a hundred feet with the mother hawk flapping at his ears in the vain struggle to hold him from

ad the missus; but if mill you must, it will not be my fault if

ng before he made

And he would draw me into his enthusiasms also, so that I was glad to play Friday to his Crusoe when he proclaimed that the Clump at Clayton was a desert island, and that we were cast upon it for a week. But when I found that we were actually to sleep out there without covering every night, and that he proposed that our food should be the sheep of the Downs (wild goats he called them) cooked upon a fire, which was to be made by the rubbing

ed it from the roadside mud. Jim only had seen where it had fallen, and he would not deign even to point it out to a beggar. Nor would he stoop to give a reason in such a case, but would answer all remonstrances with a curl of his lip and a flash of his dark eyes. Even at school he was the same, with such a sense of his own dignity, that other folk had to think of it too. He might say, as he did

ch led to an adventure which makes

m had left, he being nigh sixteen and I thirteen. It was my Saturday half-holiday, and we spent it, as we often did, out upon the Downs. Our favourite place was beyond Wolstonbury, where we could stretch ourselves upon the soft

of a chalk-pit; if we turned upon our left, we overlooked the huge blue stretch of the Channel. A convoy, as I can well remember, was coming up it that day, the timid flock of merchantmen in front; the frigates, like well-train

ve you heard that Cli

Who was there in all the Down country who

the story o

he nearest friend of Lord Avon, and was at this card-party when the thing happened. I heard the vicar and my mothe

I asked my aunt about it, she would give me no answer; and

as, as I have heard, your uncle's best friend; and it is bu

the story

Sir Charles Tregellis, my uncle, was the third; and Lord Avon the fourth. They are fond of playing cards for money, these great people, and they played and played for two days and a night. Lord Avon lost, and Sir Lothian lost, and my uncle lost, and Captain Barrington won unt

rd Avon

his wristband was clutched in the dead man

y hang h

saw that they had brought it home to him, and then he fled. He ha

e ghost

many who ha

e house st

d Sir Lothian Hume-the same who was at the card-party-is his nephew and

t, plucking at the shor

will you come with me to-ni

old, the very

r would n

abed. I'll wait for

Royal is

a window ea

fraid,

re with me, Roddy. I'll promise

he country side that would dare. But I had no pride of that sort. I was quite of the same way of thinking as the others, and would as soon have thought of passing my night at Jacob's gibbet on Ditchling Common as in the haunted house of Cliffe Royal. Sti

r me at the smithy corner. We crossed John's Common together, and so past Ridden's Farm, meeting only one or two riding officers upon the way. There was a brisk wind blowing, and the moon kept peeping through the rifts of the scud, so that our road was sometimes silver-clear, and sometimes so black that we foun

te open, and up we went, the gravel squeaking beneath our tread. It towered high, the old house, with many little windows in which the moon glinted, and

whispered Jim. "Here's o

e far enough, Jim?" said I

ft you i

I'll not

nstant. "Now, Roddy, give me your hands." With a pull he had me up

loor! There was such a sudden boom and reverberation that we

s!" he cried; "we'll strike a lig

e burned up, we saw an arched stone roof above our heads, and broad d

heads of deer jutting out, and a single white bust, which sent my heart into my mouth, in the corner. Many rooms opened out of this, and we wandered

rds, Jim," said I, in a hushed vo

centre of the sideboard. Sure enough it was a pile of playing-cards-forty packs, I should think,

e that stair le

, clutching at his arm. "That mus

you kn

saw on the ceiling-Oh, Jim

re was a great, dark smudge up

said he; "but anyhow I'm g

im, don't

e more than a minute. There's no use going on a ghost hunt

ed lips and his staring eyes fixed upon the black square of the stair opening. He still held the light, but his fingers twitched, and with every twitch the shadows sprang from the walls to the c

ir opened. There was a silence in which I could hear my poor heart thumping, and then when I looked again the figure was gone,

hand under my arm, he half led and half carried me out of the house. It w

u stand

ut I'm

k your pardon, Roddy. I was a fool to bring you on such an er

d, plucking up my courage now that I co

a spirit

o you

sh into a wall, as easily as an eel in

upon me, and every nerv

Jim! Take me

es followed mine. Amid the gloom of the o

By heavens, come what may, my ar

eavy steps ploughed their way through the soft grave

upon it l

spirit, anyw

t of surprise, and

, and then, "I'll break you

have loosened Jim's g

ncle!"

s young Master Rodney Stone, as I'm a living sinner! What in the

big bundle on his arm,-and such a look of amazement upon his face as would hav

ploring,"

be Captain Cooks, either of you, for I never saw such a pai

never was afraid; but sp

iri

fe Royal, and we'v

ion gave

it?" said he. "Did yo

nished

on whistle

uble with the folk of this world, Boy Jim, without going out of your way to mix up with those of another. As to young Master Rodney Stone, if

d not but observe that the bundle was no longer under his arm. We were near

up to Cliffe

y a duty turns up that the likes of you have no idea of. When you'

carried to lonely places at night, so that from that time on, if I had heard that the preventives had made