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198 stay till I learn what has become of Lieutenant Tregenna."

The girls' unseen hearer could contain himself no longer. He had at first thought that it would be safer for Joan to return to her home in ignorance of his presence in the farmhouse. But on hearing her express this brave resolution, he felt that there was nothing for it but to make his presence known to her. He, therefore, dealt three sounding blows on the trap-door above his head with one of his pistols. The weight of the door was so great, especially as Ann was still standing on it, that it did not move. But the noise he made arrested Joan's attention, and aroused her suspicion.

"What's that?" she cried, as she came nearer to Ann.

The blows were repeated, and then Tregenna's voice, muffled but recognizable, reached her ears:

"Lift up this door, Mistress Ann. Let me out, or I'll put a bullet through it."

And as he spoke, he succeeded in raising the trap-door a couple of inches, and in thrusting the muzzle of his pistol through the aperture.