I opened my eyes and found myself in a cave. At first I thought it was the one in which I had fought with Nick Tresidder, but I soon found myself to be mistaken. I lay upon coarse, dry sand, while close to me a fire burned. Its grateful light and warmth caused a pleasant sensation; then I realised that my wet clothes had been taken from me, and that I was rolled in a warm, dry blanket.
"You be better now, Maaster Jasper, be'ant 'ee, then?" I looked up and saw Eli Fraddam bending over me.
"How did I get here?" I asked, in a dazed kind of way, "and where am I?"
"You be cloase to Bedruthan Steps, an tha's where you be, Maaster Jasper; you be in one of the caaves. 'Tes oal lew and coasy 'ere, and you'll be oal right again. But you've bin as sick as a shag, and as cowld as a coddle."
I tried to call to memory what had passed. Then I said, "But how did I get here, Eli, and how long is it since we came?"
"We brought 'ee 'ere, Maaster Jasper, in the booat, ya knaw. You tumbled in the say, and we was a goodish bit afore we cud git 'ee on boaard. We was feard for a long time that you was dead, but you're oal right now. Yer things 'll zoon be dry, and then you c'n dress up oal spruce and purty."
Slowly my mind became clear; then I remembered the man who had been in the boat while Eli and I had been together in the secret passage.
"Where is the man who helped you with the boat?" I asked.
"Here 'ee es. Come 'ere, maaster."