Chapter 18
this sunshine against the dark water behind," he said, waving one
gracious hand toward the island at his foot, and poising lighter than
ever.
"Oh, take care!" Walter Tyrrel cried, looking up at him, on
tenterhooks. It's so dangerous up there! You might tumble any minute."
"_I_ never tumble," Trevennack made answer with solemn gravity,
spreading one hand on either side as if to balance himself like an
acrobat. But he descended as he spoke and took his place beside them.
Tyrrel looked at the view and looked at the pretty girl. It was
evident he was quite as much struck by the one as by the other.
Indeed, of the two, Cleer seemed to attract the larger share of his
attention. For some minutes they stood and talked, all five of them
together, without further introduction than their common admiration
for that exquisite bay, in which Trevennack appeared to take an almost
proprietary interest. It gratified him, obviously, a Cornish man, that
these strangers (as he thought them) should be so favorably impressed
by his native county. But Tyrrel all the while looked ill at ease,
though he sidled away as far as possible from the edge of the cliff,
and sat down near Cleer at a safe distance from the precipice. He was
silent and preoccupied. That mattered but little, however, as the rest
did all the talking, especially Trevennack, who turned out to be
indeed a perfect treasure-house of Cornish antiquities and Cornish
folk-lore.
"I generally stand below, on top of Michael's Crag," he said to
Eustace, pointing it out, "when the tide allows it; but when it's
high, as it is now, such a roaring and seething scour sets through the
channel between the rock and the mainland that no swimmer could stem
it; and then I come up here, and look down from above upon it. It's
the finest point on all our Cornish coast, this point we stand on. It
has the widest view, the purest air, the hardest rock, the highest and
most fantastic tor of any of them."
"My husband's quite an enthusiast for this particular place," Mrs.
Trevennack interposed, watching his face as she spoke with a certain