all ready.

"We'll go stright to Carn Barrow," he said, shortly.

"That wasn't Cap'n Jack's plan," was my reply.

"Look 'ere, Squire, I'm to work this. You'm new to this work. I tell 'ee
we must git to the Devil's Fryin' Pan by ten o'clock, and then git back
to The Stags 'bout twelve."

"Very well," I replied, "I'm ready."

"'Tes a good two mile by road to the Fryin' Pan," he remarked. "And 'tes
oppen downs nearly oal the way to The Stags." He seemed to think a
minute, then he said, "No, we wa'ant go so far as that, we'll jist go to
Bumble Rock, and then kip on the top by Poltream Cove. That'll taake us
oal our time."

He led the horse and I carried the lantern, which he said should not be
lit until we came to Bumble Rock, which stands by a gully in the
headland, where the seas roar with a terrible noise as they break upon
the coast.

Not a word was spoken as we went along in the darkness. As well as I
could I kept watch on him, for I knew he hated me. He was jealous of me
for several reasons. For one thing, since I had come, Tamsin Truscott
had ceased to notice him, and for another, he was no longer regarded as
the strongest man in the gang. For years he had been proud of this, and
now the men laughed at him because I was able to play with both him and
his brother. Perhaps the wrestling match at which I had mastered him so
easily had more to do with his enmity than the fact that Tamsin no
longer smiled on him. For his pride in his strength was greater than his
love.

As I have said, it was a wild dark night. A great sea hurled itself on
the coast, although ordinarily it could not be called dangerous. As we
drew near the rocks, however, we could hear the waves roaring like a
thousand angry beasts. Bumble Rock rose up like a great giant, and
seemed to laugh at the black waves which it churned into foam. The rocks
which we could dimly see, for our eyes had become used to the darkness,
seemed like the teeth of a hideous monster, which would cruelly tear any
ship that the waves should dash upon them. The thought of the vessel,
evidently bound for Falmouth Harbour, being lured to destruction, with
all hands on board, was horrible to me, and at that moment a great anger
rose in my heart toward the gang among whom I had lived for two months.
Hitherto, however, my hands had been unstained by crime, and I
determined that for the future, even although I should be hunted down by
the men into whose hands I had fallen, I