, but he spoke with the calm assurance of an innocent
man.

"Well," I said, "what do you intend doing with me? You are three to one,
and I am unarmed."

"There you be spaikin' vexed now. Wha's the use of that?"

"No wonder, when your men were trying to kill me, and would, perhaps, if
you hadn't come just then."

"No; they wouldn't, my deear. I was watching; I zeed the man they'd got
to dail weth--fresh as paint, my deear, and shinin' like a makerl's
back. Plenty of rail good fight; and I like that, though I be a man of
paice, Jasper Pennington, my deear."

I waited for him to go on, and although I was much excited, and scarcely
expected to live until morning, I managed to meet his white eyes without
shrinking.

"Spoasing you go out, Bill and Sam, my sonnies," said Cap'n Jack. "Don't
go fur away, my deears; we cudden bear that, could us, Jasper? Do 'ee
smok' then, Jasper? I zee you do. Lots of baccy 'ere, an' pipes too.
Well, this es oncommon lucky. Well, lev us load up, I zay."

Thinking it well to agree with him, I filled a pipe with tobacco and lit
it while Cap'n Jack, with evident satisfaction, smoked peacefully. He
sat opposite me, and I waited for him to speak.

CHAPTER VIII

I GO TO KYNANCE COVE WITH CAP'N JACK TRUSCOTT'S GANG, AND MEET HIS
DAUGHTER TAMSIN

"This ed'n bad bacca, es it, then?" remarked Cap'n Jack, after he had
smoked peacefully for a few seconds.

"No," I replied; "as far as I'm a judge, it's very good." I spoke as
coolly as I could, although to be truthful I might as well have been
smoking dried oak leaves. I could not help realising that my case might
be desperate. I had heard that Cap'n Jack's gang were governed by no
laws, legal or moral, save those which this man himself made. If I
failed, therefore, to fall in with his plans, in all probability Sam
Liddicoat and Bill Lurgy would be called in to complete the work which
they had attempted a little while before. I could not understand a
smuggler, a wrecker, and probably a pirate with pious words upon his
lips; the idea of a man whose hands were red with crime talking about
peace, mercy, and loving-kindness was, to say the least, strange, and I
could not repress a shudder.

After his remark about the quality of the tobacco Cap'n Jack continued
puffing away in silence, occasionally casting furtive glances at me. The
place was very silent, save for the swish of the waves, as they poured
into the outer cave, and rolled the pe