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Rh first without an idea as to any connection between the smuggler's visit and Joan's abrupt departure.

"Had it naught to do with your conduct towards another woman, think you?" suggested Parson Langney, watching him with keen eyes. "It was at the same time that Tom told us of the death of poor Ann Price."

At the mention of the name Tregenna started up.

"What did he tell her about that?" asked he quickly.

"Ah!" said the vicar, with meaning. "Then it had something to do with that, eh?"

"Surely, surely, sir, Joan has too much sense, too much generosity, to be angry with me for showing kindness towards a dying woman!" cried the young man, with fire.

"Nay," said the parson, "I know not. A lass is a strange creature: how far did thy kindness go, Harry?"

Tregenna frowned. It flashed across his mind now that perhaps one of the smugglers' boats had been hovering about the cutter at the time of Ann's death, unnoticed in the excitement and commotion caused by the return