"Let the chiel bide," said Nathan Pendry. "They be like two twains in everything, mischief and all, and they ’m best not parted." "Iss, fay, my brother Ben was twain to me," said Simon Mail, "and ’a quenched away when they took un from me." "Why, dear life now, neighbour Mail," cried Mrs. Doubledick, "bean’t it true, then, that yer brother Ben was shot in the nuddick at some great battle in Egypt, or other furrin land?" "True, he was; but he couldn’t ha’ been if he hadn’t been parted from I." "A-course not, ye chucklehead!" said Mrs. Doubledick. "If ye hadn’t been parted he would ha’ been talkin’ foolishness along with ’ee now. Off ye go now, neighbours all. The lads will do better wi’out ye, and there bean’t no need to send over to Redruth for a doctor." "I wish ’ee well, Maister Trevanion," said Pendry as he went out. "Us do hate ’ee like p’ison, that’s true; but I don’t care who the man is, ’twas a brave deed, and that I’ll stand by, so theer!" The village folk were somewhat divided in their opinion as to their future attitude towards the inmates of the Towers. The better sort, of whom Nathan Pendry may be taken as a representative, were so much struck by Dick’s rescue of Jake, that their feelings underwent a change. They were not at first very ready to show their altered sentiments openly, but the leaven was beginning to work. If Dick, who had been so much persecuted, they argued, had the generosity to risk his life on behalf of one of those who had most injured him, it was hardly credible that he should really be the spy and informer he was suspected of being. Others, however, would not agree that the family was less open to suspicion, so far as smuggling was concerned, because of a single plucky act. Their view was supported by John Trevanion, who, having heard of the incident, took care to drop seeds of depreciation in the ears of such of the fishers as he encountered here and there. The former party received a notable accession on the evening of the rescue. Isaac Tonkin returned home. The first person he met when he set foot on the jetty was Nathan Pendry, who told him what had happened in his absence. Tonkin was so much surprised at the news that he did not wait to give an account of his discoveries in Roscoff, but hurried at once to his house, where, as Pendry had told him, Jake had been put to bed. "Be ye feelin’ bad, my sonny?" he said with rough tenderness, leaning over the boy. "Not so bad as I did in the water, Feyther," Jake replied. "’Tis good to hear, my son. You be safe as a trippet, right enough. And ’twas young Squire saved ’ee! Well, there’s norra man in the whole parish could ha’ done it. I reckon ye gied un a proper word o’ thanks?" Jack did not reply. "Did ’ee hear what I axed ’ee? A-course ye gied young Squire a good word for ’s kindness? Did ’ee, or did ’ee not?" "I didn’." "Ye didn’! And why not?" "Never did it come into my head."