"Wot be 'is game, us 'ud like to know?" he muttered.
Since Silas's death, the former mate had become the master and owner of the lugger Fairy, his share on the various nefarious transactions undertaken by Porthoustoc enabling him to find the purchase-money. The new owner was hoping to continue in the former skipper's business. Reticent and apparently slow-witted, he had formed a shrewd idea of the nature of the Alerte's activities; but the difficulty that confronted him lay in the fact that he did not know the medium of communication between Captain Cain and his agent. He was willing to become Porthoustoc's successor in the business; Cain would have been only too glad of his services. But the connecting link had snapped, hence a complete deadlock.
"Welcome, sir, welcome!" exclaimed Mr. Primmer, on Vyse's arrival.
"Well, how goes it?" asked Rollo.
"Terrible queer place, this, sir," replied the ex-bo'sun. "People hereabouts tell you everything you don't want to know. If you do want to know anything they are as tight as the intercepted thread of the breech-block of a fifteen-inch gun, if you understan' my meanin'. I'm taboo—sort of leper amongst this little lot. They don't take to newcomers."
"Well, I hope we shan't be here long, Mr. Primmer," said Rollo. "I'd like to get away before Christmas."
"Same 'ere, sir," agreed the new tenant cordially. "We'll get to work soon as you like. I've got crowbar, picks and spades an' such-like. An' I brought a sack of cement up from Plymouth. Thought it 'ud make 'em think if I got it hereabouts."
"I'll change, and then we'll have a look at the kitchen," decided Rollo. "It'll make a bit of a mess, I fancy."
"My missus she don't mind," said Mr. Primmer reassuringly. "Fact is, we've been doin' all the cooking in the spare room—proper sort o' galley it makes."
Having completed the necessary change of clothing, Rollo, accompanied by his host, went to the room under discussion. It was about twenty feet in length and fifteen in breadth, stone walled and stone floored. A doorway gave direct access to the garden; another into the living-room. There were two narrow windows, which gave the place a look of perpetual gloom. One wall was blank, the kitchen having been partly let into the steep hillside at the back of the cottage.