I heard the sound of footsteps echoing along a passage, and a minute later the little old man I have mentioned came to me.
"It is time for you to have your medicine," he said.
Hitherto I had drunk it without demur; now I determined to avoid taking it.
"I will attend to it presently," I said, "but for the present I want us to talk together. I suppose you know you are placing yourself in great danger by keeping me here?"
"Of course," I went on, "I know that you are only the tool of others. My enemy's name begins with T, doesn't it?"
"This cannot last much longer," I said; "I have friends who will be searching for me. Hanging's a serious matter. I shall take serious steps when I get away from here."
"When you do," he replied, significantly.
"Do you think I shall stay here always?" I retorted.
"How can you get away? This morning you climbed up and looked out of that window. You did not know I saw you, but I did. Well, what did you see? You know you are on the top of a cliff, and it is nearly three hundred feet to the beach. Well, you cannot escape that way; if you tried you would break your neck. Very well; the only other way to escape is to try and escape through that door. Well, what would happen then? You would not get up the passage a dozen steps before you would be shot."
"Still it would go hard with Richard Tresidder if his perfidy should come out."
"It can never come out. Yes, I know what is in your mind. Well, supposing you get well enough to be set at liberty? You would be taken to Pendennis Castle as mysteriously as you have been taken here. But where are you? You cannot tell. Are you in England, Ireland, or Scotland? You do not know."
"Not, I should think, more than a week. You seem to be very much improved in your health."
Now this set me wondering greatly, for I did not expect such a revelation. Still I managed to remain calm.
"Certainly. You have been a madman; as such you have been a constant menace to Miss Naomi Penryn. She has been much afraid of you, and has dreaded the thought of your being at liberty."
"Little man," I said, "you know this is a lie."
"I wish it were. I have nothing whatever against you; on the contrary, I rather like you."
He spoke this kindly, and I detected, as I thought, a friendly look in his face, so acting on the impulse of the moment I said to him, "Will you listen to what I have to tell you?"