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226 look in his eyes. He was in no very good humor with the young man for having outrun himself in zeal, and was at heart rather pleased that this expedition, designed by his rival, should have been as complete a failure as the last.

"Well, at any rate, you see, General, that there was something wrong with the place, for them all to have deserted it like this," said the lieutenant, reasonably enough.

"More like they have deserted it from fear of quarter-day!" retorted the brigadier. "'Tis a common thing enough a flitting like to this, at such seasons!"

"A least," said Tregenna, who was hot and furious at this fresh rebuff, "you will find the ship under the barn-floor!"

But even as he uttered the words, a chill seized him as he remembered, in a fresh light, a mysterious incident of the previous evening. He was, therefore, more disgusted than surprised when, in searching the barn, the soldiers discovered that the flooring was indeed loose, as he had said, and that there was a crypt beneath: but that though there were traces of the cradle in which the smugglers' boat had been hauled up