"We'll go stright to Carn Barrow," he said, shortly.
"That wasn't Cap'n Jack's plan," was my reply.
"Look 'ere, Squire, I'm to work this. You'm new to this work. I tell 'ee we must git to the Devil's Fryin' Pan by ten o'clock, and then git back to The Stags 'bout twelve."
"Very well," I replied, "I'm ready."
"'Tes a good two mile by road to the Fryin' Pan," he remarked. "And 'tes oppen downs nearly oal the way to The Stags." He seemed to think a minute, then he said, "No, we wa'ant go so far as that, we'll jist go to Bumble Rock, and then kip on the top by Poltream Cove. That'll taake us oal our time."
He led the horse and I carried the lantern, which he said should not be lit until we came to Bumble Rock, which stands by a gully in the headland, where the seas roar with a terrible noise as they break upon the coast.
Not a word was spoken as we went along in the darkness. As well as I could I kept watch on him, for I knew he hated me. He was jealous of me for several reasons. For one thing, since I had come, Tamsin Truscott had ceased to notice him, and for another, he was no longer regarded as the strongest man in the gang. For years he had been proud of this, and now the men laughed at him because I was able to play with both him and his brother. Perhaps the wrestling match at which I had mastered him so easily had more to do with his enmity than the fact that Tamsin no longer smiled on him. For his pride in his strength was greater than his love.
As I have said, it was a wild dark night. A great sea hurled itself on the coast, although ordinarily it could not be called dangerous. As we drew near the rocks, however, we could hear the waves roaring like a thousand angry beasts. Bumble Rock rose up like a great giant, and seemed to laugh at the black waves which it churned into foam. The rocks which we could dimly see, for our eyes had become used to the darkness, seemed like the teeth of a hideous monster, which would cruelly tear any ship that the waves should dash upon them. The thought of the vessel, evidently bound for Falmouth Harbour, being lured to destruction, with all hands on board, was horrible to me, and at that moment a great anger rose in my heart toward the gang among whom I had lived for two months. Hitherto, however, my hands had been unstained by crime, and I determined that for the future, even although I should be hunted down by the men into whose hands I had fallen, I would escape from them that night.
"I've got the tinder and the flint and steel," remarked Israel, "we must git to a lew plaace an' light the candle. Come over 'ere. Ther's a 'ollow behind the rocks, it'll do zackly."
I followed him without a word until we reached a spot that was sheltered from the sea, although we could still hear the waves surging and moaning, while flecks of foam often beat upon our faces.