"Come, Roger Trevanion," he said presently, "yet there is room."

"The horses?" I queried.

"Ah yes," he said, quickly coming to me. "I can make no provision for them."

I gave a gesture of impatience.

"You have a story to tell me, Roger Trevanion," he said, "and it is well it should be told quickly. But there is plenty of grass on the moors, and your horse obeys you like a Christian. Take off the saddle, and tell it to go yonder out of sight, and the other will follow."

I was not long in doing his bidding. I pulled off the head-gearing and saddles from both the animals, and then I told Chestnut what I wanted[Pg 154] him to do. I am sure he understood me perfectly, for he trotted some distance across the moors, the other nag following as Uncle Anthony had said.

"There be many horses grazing on these moors," said the old man, as though he divined the thoughts in my mind, "so yours will attract no notice."

I looked around me again, and then up at the vast mass of bluish schorl rock on which the lonely chapel was built.

"A wise man doth mount the high rock, and rest in peace," he said, repeating the very words he had used when I had seen him at Endellion, only now he spoke like a man of learning and not in the Cornish vernacular as he had spoken then. "Happy are they who in trouble seek the shelter of the wise man's high place."

"I remember," I replied, "that is why I came."

"You will not be troubled," he said, "it hath a bad name. Spirits of the dead are said to haunt this moor."

"The Killigrews fear not man nor devil, especially Otho," I replied.

"Come, you have much to tell me," was his answer. "At present no man is in sight, but come. The lady Nancy and her serving-maid will want food and rest, and there is trouble in your eyes."

I followed him as he climbed towards the summit of his hiding-place, but I found it a difficult task, for it was almost perpendicular; the foot-places were but narrow, too, and the holding-places few. But Uncle Anthony went easily, like[Pg 155] one who had ascended and descended many times, as indeed he had.

I discovered that the building in which the old man lived was divided into two apartments. The one he had used for domestic purposes, and the other for prayer and meditation. The latter was the one known at St. Michael's Chapel.

"It is but little I can offer," remarked he; "but such as I have give I unto thee. Come, we will go where the lady and her serving-maid resteth."

As I entered the strange hiding-place, Mistress Nancy looked eagerly towards me as if expecting danger, but I quickly dispelled her fears, and a few minutes later we were all eating such fare as Uncle Anthony had been able to provide. Little was said during the meal; all of us were apprehensive of danger, and, when we had eaten, the old man led me into the chapel.

"I can guess much," he said, "perchance you will wish to tell me more."

I hesitated, for in truth I wot not how much to tell. I knew next to nothing of the story-teller, who led such a strange existence. Who was the man who masqueraded one day as a traveling droll, and the next as hermit? Moreover, how came he to know my name? That he was a man possessed of great powers of penetration was easily to be seen, and I felt almost afraid as he fixed his keen gray eyes upon me.

I looked from the window and saw three horsemen coming along the road we had travelled, and pointed towards them.

[Pg 156]

"The Killigrews," I said.

"Yes, but they will not come here." He spoke with certainty, and I could not help believing that he told the truth.

"Who are you, Uncle Anthony?" I asked.

"A friend of the oppressed, and one who never forgets a kindness," he replied.

"Have you powers more than is ordinarily possessed by men?"

"There be those who have eyes, and see, and there be those who have eyes and see not. I see."

"How know you what my name is?"

He smiled. "Is the name of Trevanion an obscure one? Are the features of the Trevanions unknown? Cornwall is not a large county, and there be those who know it well."

"But you knew not when we entered Endellion together."

"There be those who, in hours of quiet thought, recall impressions once made. There be those who can search the human heart, and read the mind."

"Such powers belong only to the God who made us," I replied.

"There be those to whom God speaks. Those who dream dreams and see visions."

I looked at him questioningly, but I could read nothing in his face; when I looked into his eyes my own fell, even as the hands of a feeble swordsman fall before those of his master.

"If you know all, what need is there for me to tell you?" I stammered.

[Pg 157]

"No man knows all," he replied. "But I have seen the face of the Lady Nancy Molesworth. I have looked into her soul and seen its weariness and sorrow. I know the hopes of the Killigrews. I looked into your heart, and knew that your life was linked unto hers. I wrote the word 'Roche' on that piece of paper, and have waited for your coming."

"And beyond that?"

"Beyond that, nothing certain."

I debated with myself whether I should tell him everything, but I was afraid and held my peace.

"Have you naught to tell me, Roger Trevanion?" he said presently.

"I had heard of the maid's imprisonment at Endellion," I replied, "and I determined to set her at liberty." Then I described to him what had happened as I have here written it down.

"But what is the end to be?"

"She wishes to be taken to the house of John Polperro."

"And you will take her there?"

I was silent, for I remembered the promise I had made to Peter Trevisa.

Again he scanned my features closely. "Love you this maid?" he asked sternly.

"I love no maid!" I replied scornfully.

"Then what is your purpose? Oh, I know your history, Roger Trevanion. I know that for years you have taken no woman to your heart. I know that you have lived in poverty for years. Would you wed her for her possessions?"

[Pg 158]

"I would wed no woman for her possessions," I replied angrily. "Women are naught to me."

"So I have been told. Then do you help her from pure chivalry? Is it your purpose to take her to the place she desires to go? Have you faced imprisonment and death without thought of reward?"

"What is that to you?" I asked.

"This," he replied. "You need my help, and I must be assured that you mean all that a gentleman should mean before I extend it further."

"Gentleman!" I cried, "what know you of the feelings of a gentleman? You a droll, a travelling tale-teller!"

This I said with a purpose, for I desired to see further into the heart of the man. I saw too that I had not spoken in vain. His eyes flashed angrily, and he placed his hand on his left hip as though he carried a sword there.

"As good a gentleman as you," he cried angrily, and for the moment he had lost control over himself. "I have a name as good as yours, my family—" he stopped, feeling doubtless that he had been betrayed into saying more than he intended.

"If you are a gentleman," I replied, "you will know that a man does not tell all that is in his heart to every passing stranger. You evidently have your secret, you do not tell it to me."

"True," he replied quietly. "I spoke hastily, Roger Trevanion. I know too that the word of a Trevanion is to be trusted, thus I will not question it." Then he waited for some time in[Pg 159] silence, his eyes occasionally scanning the wild moors around, and again resting upon me.

"I am waiting," he said presently.

"For what?"

"Your word."

"What word?"

"The word that your motives are honourable. That you seek only to carry out the maid's wishes. That you will take her to the house of John Polperro, and then, if she wishes, leave her as a gentleman should."

I did not answer. I could not.

"I wait," he said presently.

"I am not accustomed to pledge my word and tell my purposes to strangers," I replied. "I must consider."

"And I must consider," he retorted.

"What?"

"Whether I tell the lady Nancy not to trust you. Whether I shall send word to the Killigrews telling of your whereabouts, or throw you on the rocks beneath us!"

I laughed in his face, and yet as I looked at his lean sinewy body, and saw the flash of his eyes, my laughter died on my lips. I felt sure that he could not easily carry out his threat, but I saw I should be a fool if I made him my enemy.

"It will not be well for us to be at cross purposes," I said presently. "Believe me, I would not do the maid an ill turn."

"And methinks I spoke hastily, foolishly," he replied, "for in truth I am no fighter. I forgot[Pg 160] that I am an old man, that my sinews are soft and my bones stiff."

"Besides," I suggested, "the maid Nancy hath a will of her own. She is not easily forced."

"Yes, yes," he replied eagerly, "we must speak with her. Nothing must be done hastily. As you said some time ago, the Killigrews will be watching around Polperro's house, and she must not go there yet. No, no!"

He spoke, I thought, rather to himself than to me, and I wondered what was in his mind.

"The Killigrews will be scouring the countryside," he went on, "but it will be many hours before they think of Roche Rock. Of that I will swear. She is safe yet, but she cannot stay here long. It would neither be seemly nor right, and Uncle Anthony hath many hiding-places—many."

"We will have to stay here till nightfall," I said, as though he still trusted in me.

"Yes," he replied, "and as soon as she hath rested we will speak together. You feel weary perchance. Lie down on this pallet and rest."

"No, I cannot rest; my mi............