There was that in his look which cowed Sarah, and she reflected that he
might be less dangerous if he were drunk. So she brought the rum.
Ogden was pouring himself a great dose into a tumbler, when a sudden
hesitation possessed him, and he flung the bottle from him into the
fireplace. There was a shivering crash, and then a vast sheet of
intolerable flame. The intense heat drove Ogden from the hearth. He
seized the candle, and went upstairs into his bedroom.
Sarah and Jim waited to see whether he would come down again, but he
remained in his room, and they heard the boards creak as he walked from
wall to wall. This continued an hour. At last old Sarah said,--
"I cannot bide no longer. Let's go and seech th' childt;" and she
lighted two lanterns, which, doubtless, were in better condition, and
better provided with candles, than the one she had lent to Mr. Ogden.
They went into the stable and cowhouse (or _mistle_ as it was called in
that country), and called in the softest and most winning tones their
voices knew how to assume. "Little Jacob, little Jacob, come, my lad,
come; it's nobbut old Sarah an' Jim. Mestur's i' bedd."
They went amongst the hay with their lanterns, in spite of the risk of
setting it on fire, but he was not there. He was not to be found in any
of the out-buildings. Suddenly an idea struck Jim.
"If we'd nobbut his bit of a dog, who'd find him, sure enough."
But Feorach had disappeared. Feorach was with her young master.
They began to be rather alarmed, for it was very cold, and intensely
dark. The lad was certainly not on the premises. They set off along the
path that led to the rocks. They examined every nook and cranny of the
huge masses of sandstone, and their lanterns produced the most
unaccustomed effects, bringing out the rough projections of the rock
against the unfathomable black sky, and casting enormous shadows from
one rock to another. Wherever their feet could tread they went, missing
nothing; but the lad was not amongst the rocks. It began to be clear to
them that he could not even be in a place of such shelter as that. He
must be out on the open moor.
"We mun go and tell Mestur," said Jim. "If he's feared about th' childt,
he willn't be mad at him."
So they returned straight to the house, and went to Mr. Ogden's room. He
had gone to bed, but was not asleep. If he thought about little Jacob at
all, his reflections were probably not of an alarming kind. The child
would come back, of course.
"Please, sir," said Jim, "Master Jacob isn't come back, and we can't
find him."
"He'll come back," said Ogden.
"Please, sir, I'm rather feared about him," said Jim; "it's nearly two
hours sin' he left the house, and it's uncommon cold. We've been seekin'
him all up and down, old Sarah and me, and he's nowhere about th'
premises, and he isn't about th' rocks neither."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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