Tales and Novels, vol 2 | Page 7

be sure
to find it again. Then I showed him the way to the secret passage; but
this passage he knew already, for by it he had descended into the mine
this night.
"As we passed along, I pointed out the heaps of ore which lay ready to
be carried off. 'It is enough, Jervas,' said he, clapping his hand upon my
shoulder; 'you have given me proof sufficient of your fidelity. Since
you were so ready to die in a good cause, and that cause mine, it is my
business to take care you shall live by it: so follow me out of this place
directly; and I will take good care of you, my honest lad.'
"I followed him with quick steps, and a joyful heart: he took me home
with him to his own house, where he said I might sleep for the rest of
the night secure from all fear of murderers: and so, showing me into a
small closet within his own bedchamber, he wished me a good night;
desiring me, if I waked early, not to open the window-shutters of my
room, nor go to the window, lest some of his people should see me.
"I lay down, for the first time in my life, upon a feather-bed; but,
whether it was from the unusual feeling of the soft bed, or from the
hurry of mind in which I had been kept, and the sudden change of my
circumstances, I could not sleep a wink all the remainder of the night.

"Before daybreak, my master came into my room, and bid me rise, put
on the clothes which he brought me, and follow him without making
any noise. I followed him out of the house before any body else was
awake; and he took me across the fields towards the high road. At this
place we waited till we heard the tinkling of the bells of a team of
horses. 'Here comes the waggon,' said he, 'in which you are to go. I
have taken every possible precaution to prevent any of the miners or
people in the neighbourhood from tracing you; and you will be in
safety at Exeter, with my friend Mr. Y----; to whom I am going to send
you. Take this,' continued he, putting a letter directed to Mr. Y---- into
my hand; 'and here are five guineas for you. I shall desire Mr. Y---- to
pay you an annuity of ten guineas out of the profits of the new vein,
provided it turns out well, and you do not turn out ill. So fare you well,
Jervas. I shall hear how you go on; and I only hope you will serve your
next master, whoever he may be, as faithfully as you have served me.'
"'I shall never find so good a master,' was all I could say for the soul of
me; for I was quite overcome by his goodness and by sorrow at parting
with him, as I then thought, for ever."

CHAPTER II.
"The morning clouds began to clear away; I could see my master at
some distance, and I kept looking after him, as the waggon went on
slowly, and as he walked fast away over the fields; but, when I had lost
sight of him, my thoughts were forcibly turned to other things. I
seemed to awake to quite a new scene, and new feelings. Buried
underground in a mine, as I had been from my infancy, the face of
nature was totally unknown to me.
"'We shall have a brave fine day of it, I hope and trust,' said the
waggoner, pointing with his long whip to the rising sun.
"He went on whistling, whilst I, to whom the rising sun was a spectacle
wholly surprising, started up in astonishment! I know not what
exclamations I uttered, as I gazed upon it; but I remember the waggoner

burst out into a loud laugh. 'Lud a marcy,' said he, holding his sides, 'to
hear un, and look at un, a body would think the oaf had never seen the
sun rise afore in all his born days!'
"Upon this hint, which was nearer the truth than he imagined,
recollecting that we were still in Cornwall, and not out of the reach of
my enemies, I drew myself back into the waggon, lest any of the
miners, passing the road to their morning's work, might chance to spy
me out.
"It was well for me that I took this precaution; for we had not gone
much farther when we met a party of the miners; and, as I sat wedged
up in a corner behind a heap of parcels, I heard the voice of Clarke,
who asked the waggoner as he passed us, 'What o'clock it