"Yes, that I do," cried Ralph quickly. "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 she says that next time the men come to rob her, they'll find she has two pots of boiling water ready for them." Ralph laughed, and went off, crossed the river at the shallows, and climbed the ascent to where the old woman lived in her rough stone cot, in its patch of garden; and as soon as he had given his present, with an addition from his own purse, and the fierce old lady had secured it in her pocket, she turned upon him angrily, upbraiding him and his for allowing such outrages to be committed.