never knaw'd afore--that Jim Cuttance an't invulnerable. I don't mind
the blow, sur--not I. It wor gov'n in feer fight, an' I was wrang."

"I'm glad to find that you view the matter in that light," said Oliver
with a smile, "and, truly, the blow was given in self-defence by one who
will never forget that he owes you his life."

A groan here turned the attention of the party to one of their number
who had seated himself on a rock during the foregoing dialogue.

"What! not hurt, are 'ee, Dan?" said his leader, going towards him.

To this Dan replied with another groan, and placed his hand on his hip.

His comrades crowded round him, and, finding that he was wounded and
suffering great pain, raised him in their arms and bore him into the
cavern, where they laid him on the ground, and, lighting a candle,
proceeded to examine him.

"You had better let me look at him, lads," said Oliver, pushing the men
gently aside, "I am a surgeon."

They gave place at once, and Oliver soon found that the man had received
a pistol-ball in his thigh. Fortunately it had been turned aside in its
course, and lay only a little way beneath the skin, so that it was
easily extracted by means of a penknife.

"Now, friends," said Oliver, after completing the dressing of the wound,
"before I met with you I had missed my way while travelling to St. Just.
Will one of you direct me to the right road, and I shall bid you
good-night, as I think you have no further need of my services."

The men looked at their leader, whom they evidently expected to be their
spokesman.

"Well, sur, you have rendered we some help this hevenin', both in the
way o' pickin' out the ball an' helpin' to break skulls as well as
preventin' worse, so we can do no less than show 'ee the road; but hark
'ee, sur," here the man became very impressive, "ef you do chance to
come across any of us in your travels, you had better not knaw us,
'xcept in an or'nary way, d'ye understand? an' us will do the same by
thee."

"Of course I will act as you wish," said Oliver with a smile, "although
I do not see why we should be ashamed of this affair, seeing that we
were the party attacked. There is only one person to whom I would wish
to explain the reason of my not appearing sooner, because he will
probably know of the arrival in Penzance this morning of the conveyance
that brought me to Cornwall."

"And who may that be?" demanded Jim Cuttance.

"My uncle, Thomas Donnithorne of