“Yes. I’ve watched him from my window several times. I can just look over that rocky stretch that’s laid bare by the tide.”

“Why, you can’t see much from there,” said Gwyn.

“Yes I can. I’ve got father’s field-glass up, and I can see him quite plain. I saw him yesterday morning just at daylight. I’d been in father’s room to give him his medicine, for his fever has been threatening to come back.”

“Trying to find a lobster or a crab or two.”

“People don’t go lobstering with a hammer.”

“Expected to find a conger, then, and wanted the hammer to knock it down.”

Joe laughed.

“You’ve got to hit a conger before you can knock it down. Not easy with a hammer.”

“Well, what was he doing?”

“Oh, I don’t know, unless he was chipping the stones to try whether a vein of tin runs up there.”