sion the evangelist, who was appointed to the St. Mabyn
circuit, had tried to get into conversation with him, but found his
task extremely difficult. Paul would listen in silence, but would make
no response whatever to the minister's eager questionings.

On his return to St. Mabyn, after his meeting with his mother on the
Altarnun Moors, he seemed more grim and taciturn than ever. Silently
he went to his work, and silently he continued the whole day, paying
but little heed to the gibes of the miners, and never laughing at their
elementary jokes. During his evenings he read eagerly concerning life
in the big towns, of the means of education there, and of opportunities
for obtaining knowledge, but he said nothing about it to the cottagers
with whom he lived. He never uttered a word concerning what his mother
had told him. The secret lay deep in his heart, and his purposes must
be made known to none.

In truth, a new passion had entered his heart: a greater bitterness
than he had yet known completely possessed him. Hitherto, while he had
resented the insults which had been heaped upon him by those who
sneered at the place of his birth and upbringing, he never seemed to
think of himself as hardly treated; now he pondered deeply over the
black shadow that lay upon his life. What had he done that he should
be treated so? Why should he be homeless and friendless while other
lads were situated so differently? What was the good of the minister
talking about a kind Providence and the love of God? He remembered the
previous Sunday evening sermon on the "Duty of forgiving one's
enemies." What did the preacher know about it? He called to mind the
look on his mother's face, the agony of her voice; he realised the
bitter years she had spent in silence and misery, and remembered who
was responsible for it all. Thus Paul became a kind of atheist. He
was not yet old enough to think deeply about it, but incipient unbelief
was in the boy's mind and heart. It darkened his thoughts and gave a
sombre hue to life. In any case he was not going to trouble about
religion. He remembered the vow he had made after he had left his
mother, and he determined that nothing should stop him from carrying
out his purposes.

As chance would have it, too, events seemed to shape his course
quickly. A few weeks after his journey to Altarnun Moors, a young
fellow who was commonly called Jacker, a kind of half-gipsy lad who
worked at the mine