Templeton drew out a specification of his smoke machine and sent it to the Ministry of Munitions. In about a fortnight he received a formal letter of acknowledgment. But by that time he had almost forgotten the smoke machine, other ideas having absorbed his attention and activities.
TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED
I
Mrs. Trenchard that evening, after a brief absence from the living-room, reappeared in her best flowered bonnet and a muslin shawl and announced her intention of going "just there and back." Her husband, who was reading the newspaper, looked up and nodded. Templeton was sketching out a specification, and did not hear what she said. Eves gave her a cheerful au revoir from the depths of the chair where he lay at ease, and smiled at her retreating form.
"'Tis like that, sir," said the farmer, catching his look. "'There and back' in our family do mean a gossip with Martha Runt."
"The wife of Runt the smith?"
"Ay, that be the woman. I've not a word to say against Martha—not a word; but she be a rare workman with her tongue. We shan't see no more of Mother till supper-time."
He relapsed into his paper, and Eves stretched his legs and watched Templeton steadily pursuing his task.
Mrs. Trenchard returned a good hour before she was expected. Her rosy cheeks were flushed a deeper shade than usual; her bonnet was awry.
"I never did!" she exclaimed, pulling the strings into a knot. "No, never in all my born days, without a word of a lie in it—never hev I seed or heard no such goings on."