'You had better,' Mrs Tresize answered composedly, 'hitch your horse's bridle to the staple you'll find on the left, and step inside—that is, if you are not in too great a hurry.' Here she turned for a look behind her. 'My goodness!' she cried with a well-feigned start, 'if you haven't scared the doctor into fetching a gun!'
Mr Rattenbury stared past her into the passage. 'Doctor Unonius?' he exclaimed, catching his breath in surprise.
'At your good service, Mr Rattenbury, though you have given us a shock, sir. May I ask what keeps you afoot to-night? Not a run of goods, I hope?'
Mr Rattenbury stared at him. If any one man in the whole countryside bore a reputation of simple probity, it was Doctor Unonius. Impossible to connect him with tricks to defraud the Revenue! And yet had not the young riding-officer distinctly seen Landaveddy show and anon eclipse a light, and in such a fashion that it could only be interpreted as a signal.
'There has been a run, and an infernally daring one,' said Mr Rattenbury; 'in Lealand Cove, not half an hour ago. And the deuce of it is we had warning of it all along.'
'Warning?' echoed Mrs Tresize, with a touch of anxiety in her voice.
'Yes, ma'am. It was known to us—though I'll not tell you how—that Truman, the Grampound butcher, was acting freighter for a pretty large run, and for a week now two of my fellows have been at Grampound keeping an eye on him. I sent over a relief this very afternoon, and the relieved men brought back the report that Truman had scarcely quitted his house for a week. They left at four o'clock. It was dusk, and he'd lit a couple of candles in his shop, and was seated there reading a newspaper. Another thing put us off. The boat chartered was the Bold Venture, with Cornelius Roose on board. Cornelius—as I dare say you have heard, doctor—is the cleverest spotsman on this coast; but he was never yet known to risk a run unless he had his brother John to help ashore. So we kept a sharp eye on John Roose, and unbeknown to him, as we thought. Well, to-night he attends a prayer-meeting at Polruan, that's five miles east of home, and starts back at ten o'clock, our men shadowing him all the way. Goes quietly to bed he does, and just as I'm thinking to do the same, be shot if Cornelius hasn't beaten up with a foul wind, dodged the cutter, and nipped into Lealand Cove, where somebody has two score of pack horses waiting—'
'Pack horses?'
'Yes, the old game. It hasn't been played before in my time, and my men had almost forgotten the trick of it. The horses need training, you see, and we reckoned the trained ones had all died out.'
'Horses?' repeated Doctor Unonius. 'Then that accounts for the noise
I heard—'