"What have we to do with the Devil's Church?"
"The dreckshuns be there," and he laughed in his strange, guttural way.
As I have said, being better educated than most of the Cornish folk, I had been led to disbelieve in many of the foolish stories told, but I shuddered at the idea of going there. For, first of all, it was very difficult to get into, and could only be reached when the tide was out, and it was, moreover, reputed to be accursed ground. Here shipwrecked sailors had been lured by inviting lights and welcome sounds, and here they had met their doom.
"I'll not go there, Eli," I gasped.
"Don't be a vool, Jasper Pennington," snarled Eli. "We sh'll be saafe there. Nobody will disturb us. I put it there, I did. Come on, Pennington; and yer love is there, you boobah."
I saw that the dwarf was much excited, and, like one under a spell, I followed him without another word. We climbed over many slippery, dangerous rocks, and then walked over the grass-grown summits of a small island. Then we slowly descended on the south side of the island. Neither of us spoke, for we were in great danger. Below us, many feet down, were great jagged rocks, at whose feet the frothy waves leaped.
"How much farther?" I asked.
"Here we be," grunted Eli, and he disappeared.
The next minute I found myself in a roomy cavern.
"Wait, and I'll get a light," cried Eli, feeling in his pockets.