uch time there, especially in
the end chamber where a tiny slit gave on to Port Gorey, and they could
lie and watch all that went on down below.

There they solemnly concocted plans for brother Tom's discomfiture, and
thither they retreated after defeat or victory, while he hunted high
and low for them and never could make out where they had got to.

Then Tom went off to sea, and life, for those at home, became a joy
without a flaw--except the thought that he would sometime come
back--unless he got drowned.

When he returned he was past the boyish bullying and teasing stage, and
his stunts and twists developed themselves along other lines. Moreover,
sailor-fashion, he wore a knife in a sheath at the back of his belt.

He found Nance a tall slim girl of sixteen, her childish prettiness just
beginning to fashion itself into the strength and comeliness of form and
feature which distinguished her later on.

He swore, with strange oaths, that she was the prettiest bit of goods
he'd set eyes on since he left home, and he'd seen a many. And he
wondered to himself if this could really be the Nance he used to hate
and persecute.

But Nance detested him and all his ways as of old.

CHAPTER III

HOW THE NEW MINE CAPTAIN CAME

Tom Hamon and Peter Mauger seated themselves on a rock within a few feet
of the narrow slit out of which Nance and Bernel had been looking.

"Ouaie," said Tom, taking up his parable--"wanted me to join him in
getting a loan on farm, he did."

"Aw, now!"

"Ouaie--a loan on farm, and me to join him, 'cause he couldn' do it
without. 'And why?' I asked him."

"Ah!"

"An' he told me he was goin' to make a fortune out them silver mines."

"Aw!"

"Ouaie! He'd put in every pound he had and every shilling he earned. An'
the more he could put in the more he would get out."

"Aw!"

"'But,' I said, 'suppos'n it all goes into them big holes and never
comes out--'"

"Aw!"

"But he's just crazy 'bout them mines. Says there's silver an' lead, and
guyabble-knows-what-all in 'em, and when they get it out he'll be a rich
man."

"Aw!" said Peter, nodding his head portentously, as one who had gauged
the futility of earthly riches.

He was a young man of large possessions but very few words. When he did
allow his thoughts out they came slowly and in jerks, with lapses at
times which the hearer had to fill in as best he could.

His father had been an enterprising free-trader, and had made mon