"Come, Sep," he said sharply, "you're getting a great fellow now, and I
want you, the bigger you grow, the more frank and open. I don't want
you to grow into one of those men who look upon their father as someone
to be cheated and blinded in every way, instead of as their truest and
firmest friend and adviser. Now, sir, you have something on your mind."
"Yes, father," I said slowly.
"Hah! I thought as much. In mischief yesterday?"
"I'm afraid so, father."
"Well, out with it. You know my old saying, `The truth can be blamed,
but can never be shamed.'"
"Yes, father."
"Well, I'm sure my boy could not bear to be shamed."
"Oh, no, father."
"Of course not," he said quietly. "And I'm sure you've got manly
feeling enough not to be afraid of being blamed; so out with it, sir,
and take your punishment, whatever it is, as the son of a sailor
should."
"Yes, father," I exclaimed with a sort of gasp, and then I told him what
we had done with the powder.
"Humph! Nice fellows!" he exclaimed as I ended. "Why, you might have
blown each other to pieces. Powder wants using only by an experienced
man, and young Chowne, who seems to have played first fiddle, seems to
know more about his father's powders than that out of a keg. Humph! So
you blew down one of the lumps of stone?"
"Yes, father."
"Well, why didn't you say so at once?" he continued tartly, "and not
shuffle and shirk. It was a foolish, monkeyish trick, but I suppose no
great harm's done. What did you do it for?"
"To see the stones rush down, sir," I said.
"Humph! Well, don't do so any more."
"I will not, father," I said hastily.
"That's well. Now we will not say any more about it. Many stones come
down?"
"Yes, father, they swept a bare place down the side of the cliff right
to the old rock."
"Here, Sep," said my father excitedly, holding out the lump of mineral,
"did you pick this up before or after?"
"After, father; where the rock was swept bare."
My father looked at me quite excitedly.
"Done breakfast?" he said sharply.
"Yes, father."
"Put on your hat and come with me to the Gap. Stop a moment. Did your
school-fellows notice that piece of rock--did you show it to them?"
"No, father. I was alone when I found it."
"So much the better. Then, look here, Sep; don't say anything to them
about it, nor about what you see to-day."
"No, father; but--"
"Don't ask any questions, boy. I am not sure but you may have made a
very important discovery in the Gap. I had no idea of there being any
metals there."
"And are there, father?"
"We are going to see, my boy. So now, keep your counsel. Put on your
cap and we will walk over to the Gap at once, when you can show me the
exact spot where you found this piece."
I grew as excited as my father seemed to be, but with this difference,
namely, that as I grew warmer he grew more cool and business-like.
After I had given him some better idea of the place where the specimen
had been found, he decided that we would not go round by the cliff path,
and past Jonas Uggleston's cottage, but take a short cut over the high
moorland ground at the back of the bay, and so on to the Gap, where we
could descend just where we lads had blown down the rock.
It was not a long walk that way, though a hilly one, and before half an
hour had passed we were close to the edge of the ravine, and directly
after on the spot from whence the stone had been dislodged.
Here for the first time I noticed the handle of a hammer in my father's
pocket as he stooped down and examined the place where the rock lay, and
then shook his head. "No, not here," he said. "Go on first." I led
the way and he followed, noting where the rock had bounded off, and then
descending to where it had charged the other pieces and rushed on down,
baring a portion of the side of the ravine, as I have said, to the very
rock.
"Hah!" ejaculated my father suddenly, as he seemed to pounce upon a
fragment of stone something like the first I held. "Here's another, and
another, and another," I said. "Yes, plenty," he replied rather
hoarsely, as he picked up a couple more pieces. "Place them in your
pocket, boy."
As he spoke he looked about him up and down, and ended by uttering
another sharp exclamation, for in one place there was a rugged patch of
rock just like the fragments we held, and seeming as if the cliff-side
there was one solid mass.
"Look here, Sep," he said quietly; "be smart, and gather up all the
rough pieces of common grey slate you can find and throw them about here
I'll help."
I set to work and he aided me vigorously, with the result that in a
short time we had hidden the bright metallic-looking patch, and then he
laid his hand upon my arm.
"That will do," he said. "Now, keep a silent tongue in your head. I'll
talk more to you afterwards. Let's go home now. Stop," he cried,
starting; "don't seem to look, but turn your head slightly towards the
sea. Your eyes are better than mine. Who's that standing on the piece
of rock over yonder. Can you see?"
"No, father, not yet."
"Look more to the north, boy. Just over the big rock that stands out of
the cliff-side. There's a man watching us."
"Yes, I see, father," I cried.
"Who is it?" he whispered, as he led the way along by the steep slope so
that we might descend and go up the Gap by the stream side and reach the
shore.
"Yes, I know, I'm sure now," I cried. "It's old Jonas Uggleston."
"Humph! Of all men in the world," said my father. "Well, the place is
my own now, and no one has a right to interfere."
He walked on silently for a few minutes, and then said softly: "I would
rather no one had known yet." Then aloud to me: "Come, Sep, let's get
home and see what these rocks are made of. I'm beginning to think that
you have made a great find."