Nigel could contain himself no longer. As he observed the man's
deprecatory air, and thought of his own position, he burst into a fit of
hearty laughter, whereupon the negro recovered himself and smiled the
smile of the guiltless.

"Come," said Nigel at last. "Lead on, you rascal! When I see your master
I shall know what to say."

"All right, Massa Nadgel, but mind what you say, else I won't answer for
de consikences. Foller me an' look arter your feet, for de road is
roughish."

The negro's last remark was unquestionably true, for the road--if a mere
footpath merits the name--was rugged in the extreme--here winding round
the base of steep cliffs, there traversing portions of luxuriant
forest, elsewhere skirting the margin of the sea.

Moses walked at such a pace that Nigel, young and active though he was,
found it no easy matter to keep up with him. Pride, however, forbade him
to show the slightest sign of difficulty, and made him even converse now
and then in tones of simulated placidity. At last the path turned
abruptly towards the face of a precipice and seemed to terminate in a
small shallow cave. Any one following the path out of mere curiosity
would have naturally imagined that the cave was the termination of it;
and a very poor termination too, seeing that it was a rather
uninteresting cave, the whole of the interior of which could be seen at
a single glance from its mouth.

But this cave served in reality as a blind. Climbing by one or two