Tregeagle was a pretty evil man in life. He married one rich heiress after another and murdered each of them to get their inheritances, he underpaid his employees and hit small kids. It was no surprise he went straight to Hell when he died.
It was rather surprising though when he returned from Hell when called to give evidence from a burning witness stand. No one really expected him to turn up but once he did it was not so easy to get rid of him. Tregeagle did not want to go back down after the trial was over, so he did a runner. I believe it is at this point he stops being the bad guy and becomes, in comparison to his pursuer, the hero.
Tregeagle wanted to repent. Luckily (depending on your point of view) God took pity and offered Tregeagle various tasks to cleanse his soul and win redemption, as well as protection from Satan who had a soul to claim. Tregeagles first task was to make rope using sand from 'Loe Bar' (Which is a sand bar seperating a town soon to be known as Helston, home of the Blue Anchor, home of the sacred Spingo from the rest of the world by boat). Unfortunately the tide kept coming in and washing away his work before it was finished. So it was one of those perpetual tasks much like that greek bloke who rolled rocks up hills or was it getting pecked to bits by carrion poultry?
Anyway, Tregeagle got sick of doing this task for God, it seemed kinda pointless so he stopped. Big mistake, Satan and his Hell Hounds chased Tregeagle all over the place. During the chase Tregeagle jumped off the Lizard Point and pretended to be swimming to Brittany but really ducked into a cave and hid a while. Satan leapt over to Brittany and hunted high and low whilst Tregeagle nipped over to Helston for a pint of Spingo. Satan were'nt stupid and as soon as he'd realised where Tregeagle was (one of his minions probably told him) he picked up a granite boulder and chucked it over the channel. It flew burning through the sky but God of course protected the home of Spingo and deflected the huge stone of hell so it landed up the road and that is how the town became known as Helston.
Tregeagle knew he was running out of time when he heard the stone land but the beer was good. Eventually he heard the Hell Dogs howling and so he was off again. After a good deal more running around Tregeagle entreated God to give him another chance. God rolled his heavenly eyes and told Tregeagle to empty out Dozemary Pool using a shell with a hole in it. Well he tried and all the while Satan and his faithfull hounds stood and waited. Tregeagle worked and worked but the pool was bottomless and so was the sea shell.
You guessed it, he chucked that job and so it goes on....