I went on eating my breakfast and watching him closely, for I did not want to lose that piece of stone, and I was afraid that he would ask me more questions about it, sooner than bear which I was ready to see him throw the piece of rock out of the window, when, if he threw it far enough, the chances were that it would go over the cliff and fall upon the beach.
Just as I feared, the questions came as he put on his glasses and examined the fragment more closely.
“Where did you get this, Sep?” he said—“on the beach?”
“No, father, up on this side of the Gap.”
“Whereabouts?”
“About three hundred yards from Uggleston’s cottage, and half-way up the slope, where the rocks stand up so big on the top.”
“Hah! Yes, I know the place. It was lying on the slope, I suppose?”
“Well, ye–es, father.”
“Humph, strange!” he muttered. “There can’t be any metals there. Somebody must have dropped it.”
I hesitated. I wanted to speak out, but I was afraid, for I did not know what he would say if he heard that we had blown up one of the rocks with gunpowder, and sent all those stones hurtling down the side of the cliff.