The Adventures of Dick Trevanion: A Story of Eighteen Hundred and FourStrang, Herbert
History
The Adventures of Dick Trevanion: A Story of Eighteen Hundred and Four
Strang, Herbert
Boys -- Juvenile fiction; Great Britain -- History -- 19th century -- Juvenile fiction; Smugglers -- Juvenile fiction
Dick was satisfied. He returned to his room, and, about three o’clock,
mounted to the roof of one of the towers from which the house took its
name. With him he carried an excellent spy-glass which remained to the
Squire from his seafaring days. From this lofty eyrie a view could be
obtained for miles around. If the cobbler and the farmer were on guard
together, it was likely that they would be relieved together, and they
could hardly return, the one to the village, the other to his farm on
the moor, without coming at some part of their journey within range of
vision. Dick felt a momentary damping of the spirits when it occurred
to him that Penwarden’s place of concealment might be some nook below
the cliffs. In that case the sentries would be changed by boat from the
harbour, and he would see nothing of them. But even in that case the
farmer must ascend the hill and cross the moor, and though he might be
concealed at some portions of his road by trees and bushes, he must at
length cross open country. Behind the parapet Dick could watch unseen,
and he settled himself to wait in patience.
CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH
Doubledick on Duty
It was a chill, dreary afternoon. The sky weighed upon earth and sea
like a canopy of lead. The wind moaned and sighed about the roof; the
trees seemed to shiver in their nakedness. From over the cliff came the
hollow murmur of the breakers. Northward Penwarden’s cottage stood
lonely and forlorn; eastward stretched the dark gloomy waste of
moorland; southward the village huddled in its cleft as if for warmth, a
few thin streamers of smoke flying inland on the wind. Nearer the Dower
House a score of men were engaged in erecting sheds and machinery for
Trevanion’s miners, and the sound of their voices came in mournful
cadence to Dick’s ears.
For some time there was scarcely a movement on the face of the country.
Presently a carrier’s cart rumbled down the road, stopping at the Dower
House. Through his spy-glass Dick saw Susan’s bright face smiling as
she spoke to the carrier, who conveyed into the house boxes, baskets,
and packets of various shapes and sizes. Dick remembered that on the
morrow Trevanion was entertaining a party of friends to celebrate the
reopening of the mines. He was miserably conscious of the contrast
between his cousin’s lot and his own. Why, he asked himself, had Fate
dealt so hardly with the Trevanions of the Towers? The cart moved on,
no doubt to the Five Pilchards, where the carrier would refresh himself
before starting on his return journey to Truro. The workmen shouldered
their tools and tramped after it, and when they had disappeared the land
was left in its former immobility.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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