‘I’ll go to Marazion straightaway, Matthias. Sir Oliver won’t mind when I tell him where I’ve been and why. ’Spect he’ll be up here himself when he hears what’s happened.’ Jack sped off to the pony and was soon riding over the dried heather and ferns of the downs, his mind only half on his errand of mercy.

Matthias returned to check on the condition of the injured miner, Ted Trembath. Clem had not been needed to carry home the dead miner and was kneeling beside Ted, pressing a bloodied scrap of cloth against his leg above the knee. Ted was the Wheal Ember’s underground afternoon core captain. He lay unconscious next to five other injured men and a boy, in a corrugated iron shack cleared out as a makeshift field hospital. Lou Hunken, widow of one of the mine’s previous captains killed in a similar accident and living now with her miner son, was wiping dirt, sweat and blood off Ted’s craggy face.

‘He’s lost a lot of blood,’ Clem said.

‘His leg’s stripped clean through to the bone,’ Lou Hunken said glumly, ‘but I think the break’s clean. You’ve bound un up well and good, Preacher, and Clem’s stopped a fresh flow of blood. He’ll stand a good chance if only the doctor’ll come.’

Snatching a glance out of the doorway and up at the sky, Matthias sighed. ‘It’ll be getting dark soon. You may as well go home, Clem. Could be hours before anyone else is brought up.’

‘I’ll keep vigil with you, Matthias,’ Clem replied. ‘Rosie will feed Charity for me and send word if I’m needed for either of the boys.’

Matthias raised his eyebrows and looked even more anxious. ‘Oh, I hope there’s nothing wrong with them.’

‘Rosie was going to tell you, Philip and David have gone down with the measles.’

‘Oh no. I didn’t get the chance to speak to Rosie with all this happening. Are the twins very ill?’

‘Alice doesn’t seem to be too worried but of course you never know with measles.’

‘They should be all right,’ Lou Hunken added. ‘Your young’uns are strong and healthy with farm life, they’ll fare better than the two I lost last year with it.’

On this grim note they all looked back at Ted and fell into a bleak silence.