humor, kept within doors, and satisfied their curiosity by furtive peeps from behind the drapery of their windows.
The brigadier perceived the lieutenant, called "Halt," in a guttural voice, to his men, and proceeded to unfold his grievances, with a plentiful interlarding of strange oaths.
It was the old story that Tregenna knew so well: nobody had seen the smugglers; nobody had heard them; nobody had the least idea that there were such people about, or could give a suggestion as to the way they had gone.
"Ods my life, sir, we got to the river through following what I took for their trail; but there was no bridge, and I knew no means of getting across it, since the water appeared to be high and the stream swift. So, sir, the dd rascals may e'en be at t'other end of the county by this, and curse me if I see how they're to be got at, when every wench and every child in the place is on their side—damme!"
While he thus railed on, Tregenna became suddenly aware that he had an attentive listener in the person of the respectable-looking woman with the basket, who had evidently followed
