REDE HALL.
As Tregenna went quickly along the shore, he was not too well pleased to find that one of his own men had been a witness, at a little distance, of his discomfiture at the lad’s hands.
The man indeed had a grin on his face when the lieutenant first caught sight of him, which changed to a look of supreme gravity when he caught his captain’s eye. He pulled his forelock, and said the boat was ready.
“I suppose you don’t know who that fellow is that’s got away over the cliff?” said he, sharply.
“Oh, ay, sir, I know who he be well enough,” answered the man, promptly. “He be Jem Bax, by what I’ve heard tell, I’m pretty sure.”
“Jem Bax! That bit of a lad!”
“Ay, sir. And, by what I’ve heard tell, he be about the worst of the whole lot of ’em, old or young!”.
This certainly tallied with the experience Tregenna had had of the young ruffian, so he swallowed his annoyance as well as he could, and, turning again to the man, said shortly—
“And it’s the old story, of course? Nobody knows anything about him, or where he lives, or anything that could help to put us on his track?”
The man appeared to glance about him cautiously, as if afraid that his reply might be overheard by some unseen person. Then he answered, in a low voice—