If these directions had no meaning I should be none the worse; if there were a treasure, I had as much right to it as any other man; nay, more. Eli was Granfer Fraddam's descendant, and he had given the paper to me. Besides, the longer I thought of it, the more I was convinced that there was a meaning in what I had been reading. Why should it have been written at all? Why was Granfer Fraddam so particular to preserve it? And, above all, why should Cap'n Jack Truscott be so eager to obtain it? I had heard of _Annette_ as forming one of a group of islands lying about thirty miles from the Land's End, but beyond that I knew nothing. It was evidently uninhabited, and regarded by the pirates, if pirates they were, as a safe place to bury their treasure. Anyhow I determined to follow the directions given. So far I had done nothing to get back my own. I had been driven from pillar to post without making a single step forward. At worst I could but fail, while it might be possible that by this step I might be revenged on my enemies. "Yes, Eli," I said, "we'll go, you and I." "Tha's yer soarts," grunted Eli. "We shall want a boat, and we shall want tools, Eli. How are we to get them?" "Aisy, aisy," cried Eli. "Come on, we must be off." "We must walk to Land's End," cried Eli, "and git a boat there. Another say voyage, aw, aw!" I did not altogether like this arrangement, and yet I knew no better plan, so we started on our journey. We had not gone more than a few yards when I turned and looked around. "I heard a footstep," I said. "You be feartened," grunted Eli. "There is some one following us, I'm sure." "How can there be? We be 'ere in the oppen downs, and can zee oal around." He spoke the truth. Around us was a vast stretch of open country upon which nothing grew save stunted furze bushes. It seemed impossible that any one could hide from us. I took heart, therefore, and trudged forward. I feared nothing living--it was the departed dead, the powers of darkness that held me in awe. But for Naomi I would not have ventured to go to the Scilly Isles; the remembrance of her, however, nerved me, for my Pennington pride mixed largely with my love. I knew that if the desires of my heart were fulfilled and she became my wife, I could easily obtain the means to buy back Pennington, but the thought was repugnant to me. Somehow I felt as though I should be disgraced in my own eyes if I did such a thing, natural as some people might regard it, for we Penningtons have always been regarded as an independent race, desiring nothing but that which we could obtain by our own hands and brains. And thus, although I loved Naomi very dearly, I could not bear the thought of asking her to link her life to a penniless outcast.