It should not be forgot ten, however, that even at this latter end of the nineteenth century there still lingers iu many parts of Cornwall superstitious be liefs that ceased to obtain followers in other parts about the middle ages. Mining is essentially a precarious and dangerous calling, and in such a remote spot as St. Ooiumb’s Cove—almost cut off from communication with the busy world, and in a locality where nature herself con spired to overawe man—-there was nothing strange in the fact that the miners employed iu the Wheal Merlin should still cherish the legends of their forefathers- Indeed, they had some ground for the strange beliefs they held. On more than one occasion weird predic tions had been verified in a, strange and remarkable way. Omens that could only have been of super natural origin had, through the key of cer tain prior prophecies been interpreted, and they had been fulfilled. More than one hundred years before the date on which this story opens an ancestor of Edward Trenoweth had met the phan tom of Penfold in one of the drives of the Wheal Merlin. The spectre—so Trenoweth said —nointed menacingly in a northerly direction, and then, like the usual orthodox ghost, vanished. This Trenoweth was a man more than ordinarily sceptical for a Cornishman, and he refused to listen to the appeals made to him by certain of the villagers when he told them of the apparition. They urged that he should not work in the mine for a week and a day or harm would befall him. The period of a week and a day was uni versally considered as the longest in which a spirit could exercise a malign influence. Even Mrs. Trenoweth urged her husband to take heed of the warning given, but he was obdurate. He pointed out, like a shrewd, sensible man that he was, that he could not see how working the mine would precipitate his fate any sooner than remain ing above ground for a few days and per haps having an encounter with some strag gling emugglora or pirates who might drop into the Cove. If his hour had come his bolt would fall equally sura above ground as a few hundred feet below the surface. 