This gallery climbed steeply and came out at the bottom of a short shaft. The circle of light at the top was blue and the sun was shining on one half of the protecting wall. There was no ladder to show that it was used, but stone footholds had been placed so that it was easy to climb up the rock wall. I blinked as I climbed over the stone wall into a patch of gorse. The mist had gone. The sky was blue. The light hurt my eyes. I switched off my lamp and looked about me.
I was about fifty yards inland from the main shaft of Wheal Garth. There was no one in sight. The world was very quiet and still, but it was a live stillness, not the deathly stillness underground. A corncrake chattered in a patch of scrub and there was the hum of bees in the blazing gold of the gorse bushes. The chaos of the mine workings, which had looked so grim in the mist, now blended pleasantly into the landscape of wild cliffs and grass green headlands. The debris of rock, which had before looked grey, was now a mass of colour from dark purple to russet brown. The workings sloped away in a riot of dark colour to the cliff tops, and beyond the cliff tops was the sea, calm and blue and shimmering with light.
I climbed up to a slight knoll and lay down in the warm heather to eat my lunch. Cripples' Ease was hidden beyond the rise of the hill, but I could see the track that wound down from it through the ruined mine buildings. And beyond was Botallack Head. There was a farm on the top of it. And down the near side of it were remains of the mine. An old chimney stood out against the shadowed darkness of the cliffs halfway down, and right at the foot, almost in the break of the waves, an engine house stood on a slab of rock. It looked like an aged fort. There were others strung along the cliff top to my left, out towards the headland known as Kenidjack Castle. Three, I counted, square and solid with thick granite walls and broken chimneys of warm red brick rising from one corner.
A girl's voice hallooed. It was far away, towards Botallack Head. I turned, rustling the dry bells of the heather. A lizard scuttled into a crevice of a rock. It was a moment before I could pick the girl out. She was almost at the foot of the Head, standing on the slab of rock on which the old engine house stood. Her hair was blonde and she wore a red shirt and white shorts, and she was waving. In the distance she looked infinitely attractive, infinitely desirable. A man's voice called in answer and I saw his figure scrambling down the rocky path to join her.
I lay back and closed my eyes. How nice to be on holiday. How nice to be on holiday down there with a girl. I'd never realised how beautiful Cornwall could be. My father had always said it was the most beautiful spot on earth, but when I'd arrived I'd thought it bleak and grim. I opened my eyes again — the boy and. girl were climbing up a narrow path to the top of the cliffs. I watched them disappear over the top of the headland.
I closed my eyes again. The shimmer of the sea was very bright. But the sun hadn't the hard glare of the Italian sun — it was somehow soft and iridescent and the country was green and pleasant, not burnt an arid brown.
When I looked about me again, a figure was coming over the brow of the hill that hid Cripples' Ease. I sat up. It was a girl. She was not coming down the track, but striking across the heather above the mine. She was walking straight towards me, taking the direct route from Cripples' Ease to the shaft of Wheal Garth. It was Kitty. She was wearing a brown skirt and a green jersey. Her legs were bare and brown, and her hair was blowing in the wind.
I turned over on to my elbow and watched her as she came towards me across the heather. She had a basket in her hand and she was gazing out across the sea. She moved carelessly and with ease, as though she'd walked these cliff tops all her life. I wondered if she, too, were glad to be out of that house. Fifty yards from me she turned down the slope towards Wheal Garth. She didn't notice me in the heather. Soon I could see into the basket. It contained milk and bread and several packages. 'Are you looking for me?' I asked.
She stopped and glanced quickly round. 'Oh,' she said seeing me looking down at her. 'You startled me. Captain Manack asked me to bring these things down to you.' She held up the basket. 'I'll leave the basket here. One of the men can bring it back when they come up this evening.' She set the basket down. 'I brought it straight down because I thought you might need bread for lunch. Those biscuits must be awfully dry. The milk's fresh, too.' She started back the way she had come.
'Don't go,' I said. 'Come up here and sit with me for a moment.'