but
you'd talk differently if it was dark as pitch."

"Shouldn't go if it was dark as pitch, because we shouldn't know where
we were going. I say, you're not going to turn tail?"

"No," said Mike, "I'll go with you; but one can't help feeling a bit
shrinky. I'm ready: come on."

"Let's seem as if we were not going, then," said Vince.

"We shan't see anybody if we go round by the Dolmen," said Mike. "There
isn't a cottage after you pass the one on the Crusy common."

"And nobody lives in that now."

"Why?" said Mike quickly. "Think they saw anything? It's nearest to
the Scraw Cliff."

"See anything? No. But they used to feel--the wind. Why, it's the
highest part of Crag Island! Come along."

"One minute," said Mike. "You said you thought old Joe didn't want us
to go there."

"Yes," said Vince.

"Well, wasn't it because in his rough, surly way he likes us, and didn't
want us to get hurt?"

"Perhaps!" said Vince laconically.

"Well, there couldn't be any other reason."

"Yes, there could. It might be a splendid place for fishing, and for
ormers and queens and oysters, and he don't want any one else to find it
out."

"Yes, it might be that," said Mike; and he set his teeth and looked as
if he were going upon some desperate venture from which he might never
return alive.

Vince looked a little uneasy too, but there was determination plainly
written on his countenance as the two lads, after a glance round to see
if they were observed, made off together; over the stony cliff.

CHAPTER FIVE.

WHILE THE RAVEN CROAKED.

It was getting well on in the afternoon, but they had hours of daylight
before them for their task. To reach the spot would have been a trifle
if they had possessed the wings of the grey gull which floated softly
overhead as if watching them. A few minutes would have sufficed; for,
as the boys had often laughingly said when at home in the centre of the
island, where Sir Francis Ladelle's sheltered manor-house stood, near
the Doctor's long granite cottage among the scattered dwellings of the
fisher-farmers of the place, they could not have walked two miles in any
direction without tumbling into the sea. But to reach the mighty cliffs
overhanging the Scraw was not an easy task.

The way they chose was along the eastern side of the island, close to
the sea, where from north point to south point the place was
inaccessible, there being only three places practicable for a lan