"I am sorry your sight is so bad," Dick said compassionately. "It must be dreadful not to be able to read!"
"I could never read, young gentleman—I was never taught; but I've always had a good memory, and I can remember what I hear in church on Sundays even now! 'Tis a blessing my home is so near the church, I say!"
At that point Dr. Warren remarked that he must proceed as he had still several patients left to visit. So they said good-bye to Granfer Cole, who went back to his seat in the porch, gratified at having had an interview with Sir Richard Gidley's grandson, for it had given him something fresh to think about.
"I never saw any one so old as Granfer Cole before!" Dick exclaimed, as Firefly turned into the village street. "Fancy having lived nearly a hundred years, and never having learned to read in all that time! I do wish he had said more about the secret passage, Uncle Theophilus!"
"I do not think he really knows more about it than other people; he heard it mentioned by his father, and so has no doubts about there being a secret passage somewhere; but he has no more idea than I have where it is. What makes you think about it so much?"
"I hardly know! It would be such fun to find it! Wouldn't father be surprised?"
"Well, Dick, I cannot advise you where to begin a search if you mean to make one. The knowledge of the entrances to the passage died with one of your ancestors; people say he was a smuggler, and that those others who knew about the passage were killed in a fray with the custom-house officers under the cliffs more than a hundred years ago. You may well look shocked! Sir Richard evidently did not tell you that?"
"No," Dick replied, appearing much impressed. "Is it very dishonest to be a smuggler?"
"Yes, very. A smuggler is a thief because he robs the revenue of his country."
Dick looked thoughtful. It was not pleasant to think there was a thief in his list of ancestors, however daring he might have been.