are a cruel pair,' another put in, 'and we shall have new gibbets on
Ridgedown for leading lights. Once I get even with Maskew, the other may
go hang, ay, and they may hang me too.'

'The Devil send him to meet me one dark night on the down alone,' said
someone else, 'and I will give him a pistol's mouth to look down, and
spoil his face for him.'

'No, thou wilt not,' said a deep voice, and then I knew that Elzevir was
there too; 'none shall lay hand on Maskew but I. So mark that, lad, that
when his day of reckoning comes, 'tis _I_ will reckon with him.'

Then for a few minutes I did not pay much heed to what was said, being
terribly straitened for room, and cramped with pain from lying so long in
one place. The thick smoke from the pitch torches too came curling across
the roof and down upon me, making me sick and giddy with its evil smell
and taste; and though all was very dim, I could see my hands were black
with oily smuts. At last I was able to wriggle myself over without making
too much noise, and felt a great relief in changing sides, but gave such
a start as made the coffin creak again at hearing my own name.

'There is a boy of Trenchard's,' said a voice that I thought was
Parmiter's, who lived at the bottom of the village--'there is a boy of
Trenchard's that I mistrust; he is for ever wandering in the graveyard,
and I have seen him a score of times sitting on this tomb and looking out
to sea. This very night, when the wind fell at sundown, and we were hung
up with sails flapping, three miles out, and waited for the dark to get
the sweeps, I took my glass to scan the coast-line, and lo, here on the
tomb-top sits Master Trenchard. I could not see his face, but knew him by
his cut, and fear the boy sits there to play the spy and then tells
Maskew.' 'You're right,' said Greening of Ringstave, for I knew his
slow drawl; 'and many a time when I have sat in The Wood, and watched the
Manor to see Maskew safe at home before we ran a cargo, I have seen this
boy too go round about the place with a hangdog look, scanning the house
as if his life depended on't.'

'Twas very true what Greening said; for of a summer evening I would take
the path that led up Weatherbeech Hill, behind the Manor; both because
'twas a walk that had a good prospect in itself, and also a sweet charm
for me, namely, the hope of seeing Grace Maskew. And there I often sat
upon the stile that ends the path and opens on the down, and watched the