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38 her face, seemed to promise that she would at least give a civil answer.

"Was that a troop of soldiers I caught sight of coming into the village?" asked he, as indifferently as possible, when he had returned her salutation with deferential courtesy.

"Maybe it were, sir," replied the woman promptly, with demure cheerfulness; "but I doan't rightly know. I were out at back yonder when I heard the noise." She glanced out of the corners of her eyes at an older woman outside the door of the next cottage. "Old Jenny yonder can tell ye more 'n me, sir," added she slyly; "she's been there all the toime."

Tregenna, concealing the mortification he felt, turned to Jenny.

But her stolid face offered little hope of success.

"Ay," said she, in a voice like a man's, "I've been sittin' an' standin' about here, I 'ave, all mornin'; but I han't seen naught."

"You haven't seen a wagon full of smugglers, maybe, coming through at full gallop?" cried Tregenna, losing all patience with the mendacious females. "Nor a troop of soldiers after them?"