the pirates, if pirates
they were, as a safe place to bury their treasure.

Anyhow I determined to follow the directions given. So far I had done
nothing to get back my own. I had been driven from pillar to post
without making a single step forward. At worst I could but fail, while
it might be possible that by this step I might be revenged on my
enemies.

"Yes, Eli," I said, "we'll go, you and I."

"Tha's yer soarts," grunted Eli.

"We shall want a boat, and we shall want tools, Eli. How are we to get
them?"

"Aisy, aisy," cried Eli.

"Come on, we must be off."

"We must walk to Land's End," cried Eli, "and git a boat there. Another
say voyage, aw, aw!"

I did not altogether like this arrangement, and yet I knew no better
plan, so we started on our journey. We had not gone more than a few
yards when I turned and looked around.

"I heard a footstep," I said.

"You be feartened," grunted Eli.

"There is some one following us, I'm sure."

"How can there be? We be 'ere in the oppen downs, and can zee oal
around."

He spoke the truth. Around us was a vast stretch of open country upon
which nothing grew save stunted furze bushes. It seemed impossible that
any one could hide from us.

I took heart, therefore, and trudged forward. I feared nothing
living--it was the departed dead, the powers of darkness that held me in
awe. But for Naomi I would not have ventured to go to the Scilly Isles;
the remembrance of her, however, nerved me, for my Pennington pride
mixed largely with my love. I knew that if the desires of my heart were
fulfilled and she became my wife, I could easily obtain the means to buy
back Pennington, but the thought was repugnant to me. Somehow I felt as
though I should be disgraced in my own eyes if I did such a thing,
natural as some people might regard it, for we Penningtons have always
been regarded as an independent race, desiring nothing but that which we
could obtain by our own hands and brains. And thus, although I loved
Naomi very dearly, I could not bear the thought of asking her to link
her life to a penniless outcast.

Besides another fear possessed me. From what Lawyer Trefry had hinted
when we parted, and from what Naomi had said to me, it was possible that
the Tresidders had become possessed of her property. I pondered long
over what she had said concerning the conversation held between the
priests and Richard Tresidder. I tried to discover why they desired to
have her regard