e could I, a mere
schoolboy and comparative stranger, possibly be to them? Yet the
unexpected often happens, and the queer cross-currents on the sea of
life bring about unlooked-for meetings with equally strange results.

Two days later a respectable working-man made his appearance at
Coverthorne. We heard that he was a master-builder, and that he had
come to give some advice about repairs. He went all over the house,
even going so far as to climb more than half-way up two of the big
chimneys. It was, I say, given out that he was to ascertain whether
certain of the walls and parts of the roof needed repair, but I
hazarded a shrewd guess that he had been employed by Mr. Denny in a
confidential manner to apply his practical knowledge of building and
architecture in a further attempt to find the secret chamber. If this
were so, the man was not any more successful than we boys had been.
Granted that such a hiding-place really existed, it was constructed in
some most unlikely place, or concealed in an unusually skilful manner.

Miles and I sought it again more than once; but gradually, when the
novelty of the idea had worn off and the quest appeared hopeless, I
must confess that I began to lose interest in the matter, and to devote
my attention to more attractive amusements.

There was certainly no lack of these at Coverthorne. We shot rabbits,
bathed from the beach of the little sheltered cove, and went out to sea
and fished for whiting and pollack. In pursuit of this last-named form
of sport we usually made use of a boat which belonged to the man Lewis.
He seemed very willing for us to have it, often came out with us
himself, teaching us how to row and to use the sail, and refusing to
accept any money in return.

In addition to the fact of having seen him under circumstances which
naturally excited my curiosity, there was something about the man which
roused my interest in a special degree. As a boy he had served in the
navy, having been present at the battle of the Nile; and how eagerly we
listened to accounts of those great fights with the French on sea and
land, the memory of which was still fresh in men's minds when I was a
lad! The brown dog almost always accompanied its master. It was a
very intelligent animal, and however far from home, if given anything
and told to carry it back to its master's cottage, it would do so with
the greatest certainty and promptitude.

Though past middle age, and round-sho