"I could, sonny. Do you think I'm a cheeld? I've got the county ringed--I've got men everywhere. Cap'n Jack Truscott's gang is a big affair, my son, an' I telly this, ef you tried to git away to-night you'd be a dead man afore to-morrow, for oal I'm a man of paice, and send presents to the passon in place of tithes; I doan't stand no nonsense, mind that, my son." His white eyes shone with a strange light, and I knew he had his fears about my loyalty. "The truth es, Jasper," went on Cap'n Jack, "you've come wi' we, and wi' we you must stay; that es, till you git 'nough to buy back Pennington. Aw, aw!" "And if I do?" "I shell 'ave a squire for my friend, and--well, you'll still be one o' we. You see, my sonny, we've got many ways o' doin' things, an' when I once gits 'old ov a chap, well, I sticks. But theer, sonny, wot's the use ov angry words. I'm a paicable man, and wen you knaw us better, you'll knaw 'ow we stick to aich other through thick and thin. I like 'ee, Jasper, an' I've got need ov 'ee. A strong fella you be--Israel Barnicoat and his brother Micah was just like little babbies to 'ee. A schullard, too, and knaw figgers. Iss, a year on the _Flyin' Swan_ on an expedishan I'm a thinkin' on will buy back Pennington, and then, well, we shall see, Jasper. Why shudden I be the squire's father-in-law, eh, sonny? An' Tamsin es a grand maid, ed'n she then?" Slowly my mind grasped his meaning, but I did not speak. "Still, tho' you be a fav'rite ov mine, Jasper, the booys be jillus, that ev it. An' ther's a bit of work on to-night, sonny. There's a craft a few miles out, an' to-night will be baisly and black. Well, the booys insist on your takin' our ould mare, an' tyin' a lantern on to her neck, an' leadin' 'er on the cliff toward the Lizard. It'll do thou'll mare good, and be a light to the vessel." "Such a light would lure her on to the rocks!" I cried. "Wud et, Jasper? Well, some wud blaame Providence for these things. But it must be done." "And suppose the Preventive men see me?" "Wot be a couple of sich chaps to you? You could knack their 'eads together like you ded by Micah and Israel." "And if I refuse?" He looked at me steadily for a minute with his white eyes gleaming strangely in the firelight; then he said, slowly, "Ef you refuse this time, my sonny, you'll never refuse no more in this world." All the same I made up my mind that I would escape from Cap'n Jack's gang that very night, and that I would take no part in luring a vessel on to destruction. CHAPTER X WHAT BECAME OF THE WRECKERS' LIGHT--HOW I ESCAPED AND ENTERED PENNINGTON