no bounds. Lying at my feet in this
inner cave were casks of spirits and wines. There were, I afterward
discovered, many other things there too. There were great packages of
tobacco, and bales of stuff which at that time I did not understand. It
was evident that Granfer Fraddam's trade was not abandoned, although it
was thought that smuggling was not carried on to any extent in the
neighbourhood of St. Eve. It is true that many things were obtained in
the neighbourhood which the Preventive officers could not account for,
but that was understood to be owing to Jack Truscott's gang, who defied
the law, and did many wild deeds down by the Lizard and at Kynance. At
Polventor the Preventive men were very keen, so keen were they that the
dozen or two fishermen who lived there were not, as far as I knew, in
any way suspected of unlawful deeds. And Polventor was the only fishing
village within three miles of our parish where it seemed possible for
smuggling to be carried on.

Not that we thought hardly of the smugglers, even of Jack Truscott and
his men. We all regarded the law as very unjust, and owing to the fact
that many things were obtained in the parish very cheaply by them, we
winked at their doings, and looked sourly on the Preventive men and
their doings. At the same time, as far as I knew, no one dreamed of
smuggling being carried on near the coast of St. Eve. Thus it was that
Granfer Fraddam's Cave was a mere tradition, and many people thought
that the King's officers ought to be removed to some other part of the
coast, where there would be some necessity for their existence.

I thought long of these things, and presently came to the conclusion
that this cave was used as a kind of storage-place by some smuggler's
gang. Probably this was one of Jack Truscott's many hiding-places, and
would be used by him when the Government spies were busy watching
elsewhere.

Anyhow, my discovery made me think of the cave more as the home of the
living than the dead, and thus fears were dispelled. It is true my
solitude might at any time be broken by a gang of desperate men, but
that did not trouble me. So I fetched the blanket which old Betsey had
lent me and took it into this inner cave, and after a while went to
sleep.

Eli Fraddam brought some food to me again in the morning, but I did not
tell him what I had discovered through the night, neither did I
encourage him to stay. Usually he had sat with me for hours, and had
talk