s potting at a stray rabbit. As he climbed the field,
however, towards the Carn, on the summit of which he had left Sir Caesar
seated, he saw three small children running along the cliffs to his
left, making for the slope towards the landing-quay, and recognised
them for Tregarthen's three children. He called to them to stop, for
they seemed to be running in a panic. If they heard, they did not obey,
but ran down the hill out of sight. By this--and because he could not
see Sir Caesar on the summit of the Carn--he began to grow alarmed, lit
the candle within his lantern (for it was now nearly dark), and
shouted. He received no answer. He ran to the edge of the Carn, climbed
down thence to the mouth of the adit, and--finding no trace of his
master--began to hunt, still shouting, along the cliffs to the left, in
the direction where he had first spied the children. To cut his story
short," resumed Mr. Pope, after taking breath, "his search led him to
the edge of the cliffs over Piper's Hole, and there, in a tangle of
brambles, his lantern shone on something bright, which proved, when at
no small risk he climbed down to it, to be the barrel of Sir Caesar's
gun. Below the brambles (he says) the ground breaks away very
precipitately to a sheer fall of rock over the entrance of Piper's
Hole. He could not trust himself here, but declares that the earth
below the brambles--so much his lantern showed him--had evidently been
disturbed, and quite recently; as also that the slide was bare and
smooth, with no trace of a body between it and the last ledge over
which a falling body would plunge into the water; and the tide, as he
says--and as, indeed, we know--was almost at full flood. Having
satisfied himself of this, he ran back, down the hill and past the
school to carry the alarm to the house; and from the quay beside the
school he saw Tregarthen's boat crossing to Saaron, and Tregarthen in
it with his three children. Sam called to him, and his call brought out
the schoolmistress, who no sooner heard the story than she fell to
screaming. Tregarthen, though he must have heard the noise they made,
did not respond, but continued pulling calmly towards Saaron.

"Leggo could not say precisely, but admits that the boat was already
nearing Saaron, and that the man, if he heard, possibly did not
understand--that is, if one can suppose him innocent."

"We will suppose him innocent," said the Commandant, "until we have
better evidence that h