that they were also armed with a pick and
shovel.

"Good-hevenin', missus; how dost do?" said the man who walked foremost,
in a hearty voice.

"Good-hevenin', Eben Trezise; how are _you_?" said Mrs Maggot.

"Braave, thank 'ee," said Trezise; "we've come for a drop o' brandy,
missus, havin' heard that you've got some here, an' sure us can smell
it--eh?"

"Why, iss, we've got wan small drop," said Mrs Maggot, gently arranging
the clothes on the cradle, "that the doctor have order for the cheeld.
You're welcome to a taste of it, but plaise don't make so much noise,
for the poor cheeld's slaipin'."

"He'll be smothered, I do think, if you don't turn his head up a bit,
missus," said the man; "hows'ever you've no objection to let Jim and me
have a look round the place, I dessay?"

Mrs Maggot said they were welcome to do as they pleased, if they would
only do it quietly for the sake of the "cheeld;" so without more ado
they commenced a thorough investigation of the premises, outside and in.
Then they went to the smithy, where Mrs Maggot knew her husband had
concealed two large kegs of smuggled liquor on the hearth under a heap
of ashes and iron debris, but these had been so cleverly, yet
carelessly, hidden that the men sat down on the heap under which they
lay, to rest and wipe their heated brows after their fruitless search.

"Hast 'ee found the brandy?" inquired Mrs Maggot, with a look of
innocence, when the two men returned.

"Not yet," replied Eben Trezise; "but we've not done. There's a certain
shaft near by that has got a bad name for drinkin', missus; p'raps you
may have heard on it? Its breath do smell dreadful bad sometimes."

Both men laughed at this, and winked to each other, while Mrs Maggot
smiled, and, with a look of surprise, vowed that she had not heard of
the disreputable shaft referred to.

Despite her unconcerned look, however, Mrs Maggot felt anxious, for she
was aware that her husband had recently obtained an unusually large
quantity of French brandy and tobacco from the Scilly Islands, between
which and the coasts of Cornwall smuggling was carried on in a most
daring and extensive manner at the time of our story, and she knew that
the whole of the smuggled goods lay concealed in one of those numerous
disused shafts of old mines which lie scattered thickly over that part
of the country. Maggot's absence rendered her position still more
perplexing, but she was a woman of ready wit and self-re