George Manville Fenn

“ High up in the Pennine Range the waters gathered in the great reservoirs of bog and moss to form a stream, an infant river, which ran clear as crystal, of a golden hue, right down the bottom of the gorge; here trickling and singing musically, there spreading into a rocky pool, plunging down into fall after fall, to gather again into black, dark hollows as if to gain force for its next spring; and nowhere in England did moss, fern, and water-plant grow to greater perfection than here, watered as they were by the soft, fall-made mists. ”

“ Another or two of those strangely drawn-out seconds passed, and then the watchers had their reward. The great, green, mossy wall, with all its luxuriance of orange-tinted bracken and golden fern, seemed to shiver as if touched by a passing wind. Then the quivering motion ceased, the whole centre crumbled softly down, and it was as if some huge, hoary monster, a living earthquake, had leaped from the prison in which it was bound, to spring upon its prey—the great mill buildings below. ”

“ A few minutes later, umbrella, easel, and colour-box were safely stowed away in a narrow opening in the face of the limestone rock, and the three were trudging on upwards to a mighty bend. There a great rift opened out into a wide amphitheatre, where, shallow and bright with flashing stickle, the stream danced among the stones, to calm down directly after in deep pool after pool, which looked like so many silvery mirrors netted by the rings formed by the rising fish.
“Now, Mr Manners,” cried Josh, “what do you say to that? Are there any trout in Willows’ waters?” ”

“ The whole building seemed to thrill with the vibration caused by the turning wheel, the weight of the water making the entire building quiver as if it were alive.
“Rather weird,” said Manners. “I never was here before at such a time. Does the place always throb in this way?”
“When the wheel is going fast,” replied Will, “it gently shakes the biggest beams.”
“Sounds as if it might shake the place down in time.”
“Oh, no,” said Will; “it’s too solid for that.”
“Well,” said Josh, “there’s nobody doing anything here. If there was, there’d be a light. It was only echoes. Come along.” ”

“ Fishing too—the artist who came down was only too glad to make them friends, seeing how they knew the homes of the wily trout in the rocky nooks below the great fall down by the sluice, where the waters rushed from beneath the splashing wheel; and in the deep, deep depths of the great dam where the waters were gathered as they came down from the hills above, forming a vast reserve that never failed, but kept up the rattle and clatter of looms from year to year, and formed a place where the boys early learned to dive and swim, making their plunges from one of the ferny shelves above. ”

“ No, no! there is no corner—everything has gone. Oh, surely he can’t be drowned!”
There was no reply, but, headed by Willows, a strong party of the men followed him and the boys down the track of the mighty torrent—a clean-swept path of stone, for mill, house, sheds, cottages, the whole of the tiny village was not!
There was nothing to impede their way for fully half a mile, and there, in a deep curve down in the valley, in a turgid stream still running fast, lay in wild confusion, baulk and beam, rafter and mass of swept-down stone, the relics of the water’s prey. ”

“ There was a quick trampling faintly heard on the wet stone floor, followed by a rush, a glide, a heavy bump, and a roar of smothered laughter.
“Yes, it’s all very fine, young fellows,” growled the artist, as he gathered himself up; “a nasty, slimy beast! I tried to stop him with my foot, and it was like the first step made in a skate. Has it gone?”
“Gone? Yes,” cried Josh. “Never mind; there are plenty left. They’re awful things to hold. He would have got away all the same.”
“Not if I’d had a good grip,” said Manners. ”

“ I, as your employer, tell you most regretfully, James Drinkwater, that from this day your connection with the mill must cease—I will not say entirely, for it would cause me bitter regret to lose so old and valued a servant; but matters cannot longer go on like this. In justice to others, as well as myself, this must come to an end. You have always been a difficult man with whom to deal, but, during the past six months, a great change has come over you, and I am willing to think that much of it is due to some failing in your health. ”

“ There, Mr Manners, I don’t think that you’ll miss any of your sport. My experience is that places which swarm with trout one day are empty the next, and vacant spots where you have thrown a fly in vain will another time give you a fish at nearly every cast.”
“Well,” said Manners, “as I have had my fright for nothing, my nature’s beginning to assert itself, and the main question now with me is breakfast. Now, boys, will you come and join me? I can’t smell them, but I can almost venture to say for certain that Mrs Drinkwater is frying trout. ”

“ Hat and caps were snatched up, and the next minute all three were running as fast as the rugged stones and the dangerous nature of the path would allow, downward towards the mill, their faces suffused by the warm glow which rose from out of the valley beyond the trees.
For a few moments the pat, pat of the runners’ feet, and the rattle and rush of the stones they dislodged were the only sounds to be heard. Then came a loud shout from below, a confused murmur of voices, the wild shriek of a woman, followed by the hoarse voice of a man, shouting “Fire! Fire!” ”

“ Meanwhile, from the directions Willows was giving, the alarm was spreading fast, men’s voices giving it everywhere.
There were a few women’s shrieks heard, children began to cry, and there was wild excitement about the Mill House. Women’s voices, too, were heard remonstrating, and words were uttered about saving this or that; but Willows rushed up to the first group, and shouted—
“Silence, there! Save your lives! Up the sides as fast as you can, and as high as you can climb. At any moment the dam may be washed away like so much salt. Think of nothing but your lives!” ”

“ I have slaved it all away for a thankless taskmaster.”
“Bah!” said the artist, with a laugh. “Mr Willows a taskmaster! Why, it’s too absurd! He’s one of the very best men that ever lived; and in your heart of hearts you know it, Drinkwater. You know it quite well.”
“I want revenge,” said the man.
“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed the artist. “Revenge! Why, Drinkwater, it’s really funny. Revenge! What are you going to do? Blow up the mill?”
“Eh?” said the man, shifting uneasily in his seat and turning to stare at his companion. “Blow up the mill? What, me?”
“There, there,” said Manners, “I didn’t mean it. ”

“ It was Josh Carlile, wasn’t it?”
“Shan’t tell,” cried Will; “and if you don’t let us get up directly, I’ll poke holes through all your canvases, and pitch your paints into the dam.”
The artist filled his mouth as full of tobacco smoke as he could, bent down, and puffed it in a long stream full in the boy’s face, making him struggle afresh violently, but all in vain.
“Well, you are a nice boy—very,” said the artist. “Your father must be very proud of you. It is quite time you were washed; you’ve a deal of mischief in you that would be much better out. Now then, it was Josh Carlile, wasn’t it?” ”

“ In short, in those brief moments he had grasped the fact that a dangerous flaw had been formed in the dam, which, if unchecked, might mean destruction to them all.
“Father! Father!” cried Will, rushing into his father’s bedroom.
“I’m afraid it’s worse, my boy,” was the reply. “I’ll lie still for a few hours and see if my headache passes off.”
“Father, wake up; you don’t understand—the water’s breaking through the dam!”
There was a heavy bump on the floor, which made the wash-hand jug rattle in the basin, as Mr Willows sprang out of bed, with his headache quite cured by the nervous shock. ”

“ I fear so,” said Willows, in the same tone. “It’s revenge, and the engine has been purposely left out of gear. No,” he cried, as if in agony, his words having given him intense pain; “I won’t believe a man could be so base.”
There was the scuffling rush of feet just then, and the object of his thoughts, wild and weird-looking from his dwarfish aspect, glistening head, and staring eyes, dashed up.
“Here, fools! Idiots! Are you going to let the poor old mill burn down?” ”

“ One moment all were there intact; the next they were gone, and in their place a mighty river of water was tearing down the vale with a hiss and roar that struck the gazers dumb; and then a great gap was visible where the vast dam-wall had been, the pool was empty, there was little more than a stream, and the roaring monster that had swept all before it could be heard gnashing, raging and destroying, far away below.
Chapter Twenty. Fighting the Destroyer.
An awful hush of silence. It seemed as if it was too much for human brain to bear. ”

“ Do you think I want to end my days in the Union when you kick me off like a worn-out dog? Yes, yes, I’ll go; but look out. Long years of work have not crushed all the spirit out of your slave. Look out! Look out! The worm has turned, and the days are coming when you will feel its sting. ”

“ Isn’t the fall thundering down!”
Will was right. Another heavy shower was coming over from the hills; but it did not overtake the party before they had all reached home, and then Nature made up for a long dry time by opening all her reservoirs, to fill pool, gully, and lynn, the waters roaring for hours down the echoing vale, till the next morning the placid stream was one foaming torrent that seemed to threaten to bear away every projecting rock that stood in its way, while every sluice was opened at the mill to relieve the pressure of the overburdened dam. ”

“ The man shook his head.
“I don’t need no rest,” he said. “I have worked hard all my life, and it won’t hurt me to do a bit more.”
“Hark at that,” said Josh. “Old grumpus!”
“Better leave him alone,” said Willows. “He will have his own way. Don’t interfere.”
“Oh, very well,” said the Vicar. “Want a rest, Mr Manners?”
“No, no. We had better get on. What time is it?”
“Midnight—just after,” said the mill-owner.
“Your wife will be anxious about you, Drinkwater,” said the artist.
“Not she,” was the response. “My wife knows me.” ”

“ Go back to the cottage, and, if you will take advice, you will go right away for a month, or two, or three. You are not a poor man, as you have proved to me by your acts, by coming to your bitter tyrant to invest your little savings again and again. Now, sir, speak out as you did just now, so that all your fellow-workers may hear. Are not these words true?”
James Drinkwater stood alone out there in the bright sunshine, which glistened on his polished bare crown as he glared at his employer, whilst his hands kept on opening and shutting in company with his lips. ”

“ The boys were right about Drinkwater, for the man was more fiercely morose than ever. His efforts to avoid all who knew him, and spend the greater part of his time moping in the woodlands and high up the valley towards the headwaters of the stream, were so much waste of time, for all men and women too, and the children, for the matter of that, avoided him now as one who was ogreish and evil. Master, Vicar, the artist, and the two lads might cast away all idea of his guilt respecting the fire if they liked, but the work-people declared that his was the hand that fired the mill. ”

“ I shall just tie your hands together—yes, I can easily do it now—and then drop you both into the pool.”
“What?” yelled Josh. “Why, you’d drown us!”
“Hold your noise, Josh. He daren’t.”
“Daren’t! Why not? You are only boys, and all boys are a nuisance. You’ve spoilt five of my canvases, and wasted a lot of my paint, making scarecrows—at least, one of you did. But there, I won’t be hard; I’ll only drop in the one who did it. Who was it? Was it you, Josh Carlile?” ”

“ The men worked away nobly at the clanging pumps, and every now and then in her eager excitement, some sturdy, strong-armed woman made a run forward to thrust husband or brother aside and take his place, working with a will, and sending quite a hissing deluge to flood the untouched parts of the roof, and gradually fight back the flames foot by foot, till their farther progress was stopped, and the rest was easy. ”

“ That sounds bad,” continued the artist, as soon as the Vicar had related the incident that had passed. “Poor fellow! He doesn’t drink, I know: sober as a judge. Temper—that’s what it is.”
“I don’t like to hear those threats,” said the Vicar.
“Pooh! Wind! Fluff! People say all sorts of things when they are in a passion, and threaten high jinks. I do sometimes, don’t I, boys? Take no notice, Mr Willows. We are not going to have the peace of our happy valley spoiled because somebody gets in a fantigue. Well, boys, how does the fire-engine go?” ”

“ Yes, it isn’t so bad as usual,” said the artist, sadly. “I may say it is pretty. But that’s all. I have tried very hard, but there is nothing great in my stuff. I suppose I haven’t got the right touch in me. But never mind; painting has given me many a happy day amongst the most beautiful scenes in creation, and I suppose that I oughtn’t to grumble if it gives me honest pleasure instead of coin. Why, it has made me friends, too, with a pair of as reckless young ruffians as ever gloried in playing a trick. My word, Josh, I must be a good man! ”

“ And all at once, as if hoping to lighten their labours—lovers of music as these people are—a shrill, musical, woman’s voice arose, starting a familiar chorus, which was taken up directly by the young, to rise and fall and swell along the valley, the sweet soprano tones supported by the roaring waters’ heavy bass. ”