If my foes were after me they would have been seen before now, as they came to the edge of the cliffs to spy me out, and anyway I dreaded them less than the growing cold.

Moreover, I thought that Evan would hardly get many men to follow him on a chase of what he had told them was a madman, and a dangerous one at that.

He had his goods to see to also.
So I ran the boat into the black mouth of the gorge, and beached her well by good chance.

I had little time to lose, but I tied her painter to a rock at the highest fringe of tide wrack, in hopes that she might be safe.

It was so dark here that I did not think that Evan would see her from above.