I saw it: peering in through the last
window westward in the south aisle--the one above the font. I ran out,
you remember, and found nobody: then I fetched a lantern and flashed it
about the churchyard.'

"'There were gravestones in plenty a man could hide behind. Should you
remember the face?'

"Dick considered for a while. 'No: it didn't strike me as a face so
much as a pair of eyes; I remember the eyes only. They were looking
straight into mine."

"'Well, now. I've always guessed there was something queer about that
_Nerbuddha_ business: though till now I've never told a soul my chief
reason for believing so. After you left me that night, and while I was
dressing, it occurred to me from the last of the three signals--the only
one I saw--that the wreck must be somewhere near the Carracks, and that
Farmer Tregaskis had a seine-boat drawn up by the old pallace [1] at
Gunner's Meadow, just opposite the Carracks.'"

"'It struck me that if it were possible to knock up Tregaskis and his
boys and the farmhand who slept on the premises, and get this boat
launched through the surf, we should reach the wreck almost as soon as
the life-boat. So I took a lantern and ran across the fields to the
farm. Lights were burning there in two or three windows, and Mrs.
Tregaskis, who answered my knock, told me that her husband and the boys
had already started off--she believed for Gunner's Meadow, to launch
their boat. There had been talk of doing so, anyhow, before they set
out. Accordingly, off I pelted hot-foot for the meadow, but on reaching
the slope above it could see no lanterns either about the pallace or on
the beach. It turned out afterwards that the Tregaskis family had
indeed visited the beach, ten minutes ahead of me, but judging it beyond
their powers to launch the boat short-handed through the surf, were by
this time on their way towards the Porth. I thought this likely enough
at the time, but resolved to run down and make sure.

"'Hitherto I had carried my lantern unlit: but on reaching the coombe
bottom I halted for a moment under the lee of the pallace-wall to strike
a match. In that moment, in a sudden lull of the breakers, it seemed to
me that I heard a footstep on the loose stones of the beach; and having
lit my candle hastily I ran round the wall and gave a loud hail. It was
not answered: the sound had ceased: but hurrying down the beach with my
lantern held high, I presently saw a man between me