m
London for her, had confirmed their opinion as to the voyage.

"Let us have no loud talk, tonight," Reuben Hawkshaw ordered. "When
we get our sails spread tomorrow, and are well out of port, you can
talk to your hearts' content; but the night is still, and I want
not that attention of any on shore should be called to the ship.
There has been more foolish talk than enough about her already; so
turn in to rest, lads, without ado. The boatswain will serve you
each out a pottle of cider, such as you never drank on board ship
before, I warrant me, and which is a sample of what you will have,
all the voyage. When you have tossed that off, let each lie down as
he can find space. We will divide into watches, and settle as to
each man's place, tomorrow.

"Pengarvan, set four hands aside to go on shore, with the boat, an
hour before daybreak. Tell them off to sleep where you can lay
hands upon them, easily. Keep the boat alongside, and make off to
the wharf as noiselessly as you can; but I shall be on deck, then,
and will give you further orders."

The second mate only replied, "Ay, ay, Captain Hawkshaw," for he
was a man of but few words.

Reuben Hawkshaw was not fond of Cornishmen, but he made an
exception in the case of Pengarvan--indeed, although their borders
joined, there was little liking among Cornish and Devon men for
each other.

"They are black, ill-conditioned dogs," Reuben Hawkshaw would say;
"good sailors, I own; none better; but glum and surly in their
ways, and with nothing joyous in their natures. It seems to me that
working in the darkness--in those holes of theirs, underground--has
infected the spirits of the whole county; as it might well do,
seeing that, as everyone knows, there are little people who guard
the treasures of the mines; and who, if they cannot do bodily hurt
to those who delve for metals, can yet infect their spirits with a
black melancholy, and do them other grievous harm.

"So when Pengarvan came to me as a boy, on the quay here, and asked
me to take him with me to sea, I did not much like doing so; for I
saw at once, by his speech, that he was Cornish; but I did not like
to turn him away, for he said that he was willing, and accustomed
to the sea. So I gave him a trial, and he has turned out a
first-rate sailor. He is chary of speech, and not given to jest or
laughter; but he is always quick, and willing to obey orders;
taking whatever comes in good part, and bearing himself just t