“Of course,” was the reply; and they trudged on together for about a hundred yards, and then climbed over the loose stone-wall, and then up a rugged slope dotted with gigantic fragments of granite. A stone’s throw or so on their left was the edge of the uneven cliff, which went down sheer to the sea; and all about them the great masses towered up, and their path lay anywhere in and out among tall rocks wreathed with bramble and made difficult with gorse.
But they were used to such scrambles, and, the mining captain leading, they struggled on with the gulls floating overhead, starting a cormorant from his perch, and sending a couple of red-legged choughs dashing over the rough edge to seek refuge among the rocks on the face of the cliff.
It was a glorious morning, the sea of a rich bright blue, and here and there silvery patches told where some shoal of fish was playing at the surface or demolishing fry.
There was not a house to be seen, and the place was wild and chaotic in the extreme, but no one alluded to its ruggedness, all being intent upon the object of their quest, which they soon after came upon in the upper part of a deep gully, on one side of which there was a rough quadrangular wall of piled-up stones, looking like the foundations of a hut which had fallen to ruin; and here they paused.
“Now, look here,” said the man; “that place don’t look anything; but your father, young Pendarve, has got a fortune in it, and I want to see what it’s like. So what do you say to going down with my hammer and bringing up a few chips?”
“Why don’t you go?” said Gwyn.
“’Cause you two couldn’t pull me up again. It’s a job for a boy.”
“Then let’s send down Joe Jollivet. He isn’t worth much if we lose him.”
“Oh, I say,” began the boy in dismay; but he read the twinkle in his companion’s eye, and laughed.
“I wouldn’t mind going down. Is the rope strong?”