as any mother could her child, and never left the cave except when he was
forced to seek food. But after the fever passed it left me very thin, as
I could see from hands and arms, and weaker than a baby; and I used to
lie the whole day, not thinking much, nor troubling about anything, but
eating what was given me and drawing a quiet pleasure from the knowledge
that strength was gradually returning. Elzevir had found a battered
sea-chest up on Peveril Point, and from the side of it made splints to
set my leg--using his own shirt for bandages. The sand-bed too was made
more soft and easy with some armfuls of straw, and in one corner of the
cave was a little pile of driftwood and an iron cooking-pot. And all
these things had Elzevir got by foraging of nights, using great care that
none should see him, and taking only what would not be much missed or
thought about; but soon he contrived to give Ratsey word of where we
were, and after that the sexton fended for us. There were none even of
the landers knew what was become of us, save only Ratsey; and he never
came down the quarry, but would leave what he brought in one of the
ruined cottages a half-mile from the shaft. And all the while there was
strict search being made for us, and mounted Excisemen scouring the
country; for though at first the Posse took back Maskew's dead body and
said we must have fallen over the cliff, for there was nothing to be
found of us, yet afterwards a farm-boy brought a tale of how he had come
suddenly on men lurking under a wall, and how one had a bloody foot and
leg, and how the other sprung upon him and after a fierce struggle
wrenched his master's rook-piece from his hands, rifled his pocket of a
powder-horn, and made off with them like a hare towards Corfe. And as to
Maskew, some of the soldiers said that Elzevir had shot him, and others
that he died by misadventure, being killed by a stray bullet of one of
his own men on the hill-top; but for all that they put a head-price on
Elzevir of 50, and 20 for me, so we had reason to lie close. It must
have been Maskew that listened that night at the door when Elzevir told
me the hour at which the cargo was to be run; for the Posse had been
ordered to be at Hoar Head at four in the morning. So all the gang would
have been taken had it not been for the Gulder making earlier, and the
soldiers being delayed by tippling at the Lobster.

All this Elzevir learnt from Ratsey and told me to pass the time,