"Name it all, constable, don't spin it out so long," said Nathan Pendry. "Put the 'ooman out of her misery."
"Well, I will. Neighbour Doubledick be this day in Rusco."
"Dear life!" exclaimed Mrs. Doubledick.
"How do 'ee know that, constable?" asked Tonkin.
"I heerd it all wi' my own ears. Seems as if Joe Penwarden was to go, but the voyage wer too much for his old aged stummick, so he and young Trevanion sent neighbour Doubledick instead."
He then repeated what he had overheard at the window of the Parsonage, his audience listening in wrath and amazement.
"So ye see," he concluded, "he dussn't show his face hereabouts again, for they two will swear to him afore Sir Bevil, and neither might nor power can save un. Seems to me as ye've met your match in young Squire."
This opened the floodgates of rage, and the room rang with execrations and threats of vengeance. At last Tonkin declared that he would sail to Roscoff next day, hear Doubledick's version of the matter, and learn whether the innkeeper himself admitted the impossibility of returning from his exile. Meanwhile he bound all those present not to disclose their knowledge of what had happened. He felt that the ignominious failure of the scheme would make them all a laughing-stock, which was especially to be avoided now that a score of miners had been imported into the village by John Trevanion. The men loyally kept the secret, even Petherick restraining his gossiping tongue, for he had a wholesome fear of Tonkin.
Next morning, therefore, Tonkin sailed away in his own lugger, beating out against a stiff breeze. An hour or two later, Mr. Mildmay paid a visit in the cutter to the scene of the night's events, seized the tubs still left in the smugglers' den, broke up the windlass, and blocked up the tunnel leading to the well.
Next afternoon Dick and Sam launched their boat, and sailed out to fish at some distance from the point of the Beal. Meeting them on the cliff, Penwarden advised them to keep their eye on the weather. The sky was threatening, and the boat, while safe enough on a calm sea, had not proved her capacity to ride out a storm.