Her son laughed, but there was the note of forced merriment in his voice.

“Where do they say he is—Lancaster?”

“That's it, not a doubt on't.”

“Were they sure of him—the man at Lancaster?”

“No, but I were when they telt me what mak of man it was.”

The blacksmith laughed again over a chisel which he was tempering.

“It's nothing to me, is it, mother?”

“Nowt in the warld, Joey, ma lad.”

“They are after him for a traitor, but I cannot see as it's anything to me what they do with him when they catch hod on him; it's nothing to me, is it, mother?”

“Nowt.”