es of gold, which he spent lavishly. Amongst other
things he bought a farm, which bordered on the sea, but the lawyer to whom
he was to pay the money was taken aback at receiving it in coins from
pretty nearly every country in the world, doubloons, ducats, dollars,
pistoles! At first he refused to accept them, but a look from Coppinger,
and a threat, made him change his mind. He accepted the coins without
another word, and handed over the papers.

Of course, when Coppinger realized his power, and saw how everyone
feared him, he grew more and more daring. He closed up bridle-paths, to
which he had no possible right, and made new ones, where he had no right
to make them, and forbade anyone but his own friends to use them after a
certain hour in the evening, and no one dared disobey him. Their roads
were called 'Coppinger's Tracks,' and all met at a headland called
'Steeple Brink,' a huge hollow cliff which ran three hundred feet sheer up
from the beach, while the vast, roomy cave beneath it ran right back into
the land. Folks said it was as large as Kilkhampton Church, and they were
not far wrong.

This was called 'Coppinger's Cave,' and here took place such scenes of
wickedness and cruelty as no one can imagine in these days. Here all the
stores were kept, wines, spirits, animals, silks, gold, tea, and
everything of value that they could lay hands on. No one but the crew
ever dared to show themselves there, for it was more than their lives were
worth, the crew being bound by a terrible oath to help their captain in
any wickedness he might choose to perpetrate. So it came to pass that
all, whether of his band or not, gave in to him, and were ruled by him as
though they were slaves and he their lord.

His own house, too, was full of misery and noisy, disgraceful scenes.
When John Hamlyn died, Coppinger had obtained possession somehow of
everything belonging to him, with the exception of a large sum of money
which went to the widow. Coppinger meant to have this money too, though,
so he began by getting small sums from his mother-in-law from time to
time, until she at last refused to give him any more, and even his threats
and coaxings failed to move her.

Cruel Coppinger was not a man to be baulked in any way, so he soon hit
upon a plan. Taking his wife to her room, he tied her to the post of the
great bedstead, then calling in her mother he told her that he was going
to flog Dinah with the cat-o'-nine-tails w