and the water's
edge. I believe now that he was trying to get away unobserved: but
finding this hopeless he stood still with his hands in his pockets, and
allowed me to come up. He was bare-headed, and dressed only in shirt
and trousers and boots. Somehow, though I did not recognise him, I
never doubted for a moment that the man belonged either to my own or the
next parish. I was a newcomer in those days, you remember.

"'"Hulloa!" said I, "where do you come from?"'

"'He stared at me stupidly and jerked his thumb over his shoulder
towards the west. I inferred that he came from one of the shore-farms
in that direction. He looked like a middle-aged farmer--a grizzled man
with a serious, responsible face. "But you're wet through," I said, for
his clothes were drenched.

"'For answer he pointed towards the surf, and lifting my lantern again,
I detected a small cask floating a little beyond the breakers.
Now before coming to Lansulyan I had heard some ugly tales of the
wrecking done in these parts, and at the sight of this I fairly lost my
temper. 'It seems to me,' said I, "a man of your age should be ashamed
of himself, lurking here for miserable booty when there are lives to
save! In God's name, if you have a spark of manhood in you, follow me
to the Porth!" I swung off in a rage, and up the beach: after a moment
I heard him slowly following. On the cliff track I swallowed down my
wrath and waited for him to come up, meaning to expostulate more gently.
He did not come up. I hailed twice, but he had vanished into the night.

"'Now this looked ugly. And on reflection, when I reached the Porth and
heard men wondering how on earth a fine ship found herself on
Menawhidden in such weather, it looked uglier yet. The fellow--now I
came to think it over--had certainly shrunk from detection.
Then, thirty hours later, came your story of the face, and upset me
further. I kept my suspicions to myself, however. The matter was too
grave for random talking: but I resolved to keep eyes and ears open, and
if this horrible practice of wrecking did really exist, to expose it
without mercy.

"'Well I have lived some years since in Lansulyan: and I am absolutely
sure now that no such horrors exist, if they ever existed.'

"'But the man?' was Dick's query.

"'That's what I'm coming to. You may be sure I looked out for him: for,
unlike you, I remembered the face I saw. Yet until to-day I have never
seen it since.'

"'