CHAPTER IX.
TRAITRESS OR FRIEND?
The October sunshine was bright; there was a pleasant, bracing breeze coming from the sea; the brown trees were at their prettiest, as they shed their showers of dead leaves at the lightest touch of the wind: yet the brigadier and Lieutenant Tregenna, as they rode side by side away from Rede Hall, noted none of these things: for to them the sky was lowering and the wind whistled of failure and disappointment.
“Did you search the great barn?” asked Tregenna, interrupting a string of his companion’s curses upon things in general and women in particular.
“Ay, every corner of it, and poked into every cranny,” answered General Hambledon, morosely. “There was naught in the whole place, but a couple of rusty plowshares, a few sacks full of grain, and some lumber that we turned inside out in search of contraband goods. But no, sir, not so much as a keg of aqua vitæ, or a quid of tobacco was there in any corner.”
“They’re cunning folk,” said Tregenna, rather dismally. “I have small faith in Mistress Ann’s toothache, for one thing.”
“Nay, why should she feign?” said the brigadier, quickly. “The lass looked vastly ill, to my thinking. Had she been herself, I warrant we should have had some sport, at least; for I’ve found her ready with her tongue, and as full of jests as she is of tricks.”
“You think now that she’s a confederate of the smugglers?”
“Damme, it seems like it. Wherever one asks about these cattle, one hears talk of this Rede Hall, as if ’twere their headquarters. The difficulty is to take the beggars unawares. They must have been prepared this morning. Odds life!” The general started violently as he uttered these words, evidently struck by a new idea. “The parson! He was at the squire’s this morning, when we went to get the warrant! It’s as like as not he’s friendly to the gang, like all the rest of them in these parts. Mayhap he guessed our errand, and was away to put them on their guard before we left the house! Eh, sir? What do you think about it?”
Tregenna was frowning gloomily. He was honest; biting his lips, he made confession of his share in the mystery.