Page:Joan, the curate.djvu/159

Rh "Ay, ay," sang out Robin. And turning to the others, as he rested from his hammering, he made a gesture to them, with his brawny arm, to put down their tools. "They're back," said he "back from the shore. Down with the boat, mates, and let's see what luck they've had!"

Tregenna was furious on learning, as he did from these words, that on this very night there had been a smugglers' raid carried out in his absence.

But he had little time for reflection when a strange thing happened in the great barn below. The men stood silent all round, each holding a rope, which he had hastily untied from a post driven into the ground. At a signal from Robin, who directed the proceedings, the boat was slowly lowered until she had sunk below the level of the floor into the ancient crypt beneath.

For one moment the torches flashed and flared, as the men looked down at the unfinished hull of their boat. Then, just as Tregenna was wondering why the soldiers had not taken up the flooring-boards to look beneath them, he witnessed what he could not