“Ah! Suppose they do,” he said. “But it isn’t such an easy task. Nobody knows of it but us, Sep, and we can keep the secret.”
“You are right,” I said. “Come along, and let’s make haste and tell him.”
We strode along the cliff path that morning faster, I think, than we had ever gone before, and when we came in sight of our place I was going to rush in and tell my father, but something struck me that it would be only fair to let Bigley go, as he had made the discovery, so I told him to go first.
He would not, though, and we went up to the cottage together, to find Kicksey kicking up a dust in the parlour with a broom.
“Is father up yet?” I cried.
“Yes, my dear, hours ago, and half-way to Barnstaple before now.”
“What!” I cried.
“He’s going to London, my dear, and here’s a letter that Sam was to bring over to you if you didn’t come back to breakfast.”
I tore open the letter and read it in a few moments.
It was very brief, and merely told me that he had had a letter the past night making so stern a demand upon him for money that he had decided to go up to London at once and sell the mine.