Devon Boys

"Is there no more to see than this?" I said in a disappointed tone.

"There is another gallery below here, and two above, but they are just the same. Shall we go and see them?"

"If Bigley likes," I said rather gruffly.

"No, I don't think I want to see any more," he replied.

My father laughed, and went on in front with one candle while I followed with the other, till we reached the foot of the shaft.

"Silver mine sounds better than it looks, eh, my lads!" he said.

We neither of us answered, for it seemed like damping his enterprise.

But he did not heed our silence, for he began to climb slowly up the ladders, and as he reached the first platform, we followed, and then on and on with the water splas.h.i.+ng and the pump going, and now and then the creaking sound of the windla.s.s coming down to us as the men over the bucket shaft wound up each heavy load of ore.

"There, I'm going back into my office," said my father. "You, lads, have had enough mining for to-day. I shall not want you, Sep."

"Don't the open air look clear and fresh?" I said as soon as we were alone, and I gazed round at the patches of green upon the hills, and the bright sea out at the end of the Gap.

"Yes," said Bigley, with a s.h.i.+ver. "I shouldn't like to work in a mine.

I say, I suppose your father's getting very rich now, isn't he?"

"I suppose so," I said.

"That's what the people say. Binnacle Bill says he has got heaps of silver locked up in the strong place below the office under iron doors.

Have you seen it?"

"No," I said; "and I shouldn't think it's true. Hallo! Look yonder.

Why, there's Bob Chowne!"

Bob it was, and the mine, the coming of the French, and everything else was forgotten, as we went down to the beach, ready enough for a ramble beneath the rocks, after six months' absence from home.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

FRIENDS AND ENEMIES.

At seventeen one's ideas are very different to what they are at fourteen, and matters that seemed of no account in the earlier period looked important at the more mature. For it used to seem to us quite a matter of course that Bigley's father should have a lugger, and if the people said he went over to France or the Low Countries with the men who came over from Dodcombe, and engaged in smuggling, why, he did. It was nothing to us.

We never troubled about it, for Bigley was our school-fellow, and old Jonas was very civil, though

But now that we were getting of an age to think and take notice of what was said about us, Bob Chowne began to suggest that he and I ought to make a change.

"You see it don't seem respectable for me, the son of the doctor, and you of the captain, who is our mine owner, to be such friends with one whose father is a regular smuggler."

"How do you know he is?" I said.

"How do I know? Oh, everybody says so. Let's drop him."

"I sha'n't," I said, "unless father tells me to Bigley can't help it."

"Then you'll have to drop--I mean I shall drop you," said Bob haughtily.

"Very well," I said, feeling very much amused at the pompous tone in which he spoke. Not that I wanted to be bad friends with Bob Chowne; but I knew that he was only in one of his "stickly" fits, as we used to call them, and that it would soon be over.

"Very well, eh?" exclaimed Bob. "Oh, if you choose to prefer his society to mine, Good morning."

He walked off with his nose in the air, and, half annoyed, half amused, I went over the hill to the mine, where my father was busily examining some specimens of the lead that had been cut off the corners of some newly-cast ingots.

"Well, Sep," he said. "Coming to help?"

I replied that I was, somewhat unwillingly, for I had caught sight of Bigley coming up the valley, and I wanted to join him, and try and show that I did not intend to give up an old school friend because his father's name was often on people's lips.

"Who's that you are looking for?" said my father.

"Only young Uggleston, father," I said.

I looked at him intently and felt troubled, for he frowned a little, and, before I knew what I was saying, the words slipped:

"You don't mind Bigley Uggleston coming here, do you, father?"

"Yes--no," he said, sitting up up very stiffly. "I don't like your giving up old companions, Sep, or seeming to be proud; but there are beginning to be reasons why you should not be quite so intimate with young Uggleston."

"Oh, father!" I exclaimed dolefully. "Why, I thought that you and old Uggleston were good friends now."

"Oh, yes; the best of friends," said my father sarcastically. "He pays his rent regularly, and we always speak civilly to each other when we meet."

As he spoke there was a look in his face which seemed to say, "We don't like each other all the same."

"Look here, Sep," continued my father. "You are getting a big fellow now, and I am going to speak very plainly to you; of course, you understand that this is in confidence; it is quite private."

"Yes, father," I said sadly.

"Then you must understand that, though Jonas Uggleston is my tenant here, he is not a very satisfactory one, for there can be no doubt that he carries on rather a risky trade; but, so long as the authorities do not interfere with him, and he behaves himself, I am not going to take upon myself the task of being his judge."

"No, father."

"At the same time I cannot be intimate with him. I don't like him, and I don't like the companions who come over from Stinchcombe to man his lugger, and I'll tell you why. Do you know that, now this little mine is developing itself, I very often have blocks of silver here to a considerable amount."

"I have often thought you must have, father."

"You were quite right, and they are stored below this floor in a strong cellar cut and blasted out of the solid rock. I have good doors and keys, and take every precaution; but at the same time I often feel that it is very unsafe, and of course I send it into town as often as I can."

"But you don't think, father--"

"That Jonas Uggleston would steal it? I hope not, my boy; but at the same time I feel as if I ought not to expose myself to risks, and I prefer to keep Jonas Uggleston at the same distance as he has before stood. We can be civil."

"I'm sorry," I said.