ank God for the existence of
that blessed Boney. All I hope is that he will only try to land at
Springhaven--I mean, of course, when I've got my powder."

"Keep it dry, Captain," said the Rector, in good spirits. "Your
confidence makes us feel comfortable; and of course you would draw all
their fire from the village, and the houses standing near it, as this
does. However, I pray earnestly every night that they may attempt it in
some other parish. But what was it you heard that Frenchman say about
two or three hundred barrels of powder almost within three miles of us?
Suppose it was to blow up, where should we be?"

"Oh, I don't believe a word of that. It must be brag and nonsense. To
begin with, there is no place where they could store it. I know all the
neighbourhood, and every house in it. And there are no caves on this
coast in the cliff, or holes of that kind such as smugglers use.
However, I shall think it my duty to get a search-order from Admiral
Darling, and inspect large farm-buildings, such as Farmer Graves has
got, and another man the other side of Pebbleridge. Those are the only
places that could accommodate large stores of ammunition. Why, we can
take only forty barrels in the fire-proof magazine we have built. We
all know what liars those Frenchmen are. I have no more faith in the 200
barrels of powder than I have in the 2000 ships prepared on the opposite
coast to demolish us."

"Well, I hope you are right," Mr. Twemlow answered. "It does seem a very
unlikely tale. But the ladies are gone. Let us have a quiet pipe. A man
who works as hard as you and I do is entitled to a little repose now and
then."

CHAPTER XLII

ANSWERING THE QUESTION

If Scudamore had not seen Dan Tugwell on board of the London Trader, and
heard from his own lips that he was one of her crew, it is certain that
he would have made a strict search of her hold, according to his orders
in suspicious cases. And if he had done this, it is probable that he
never would have set his nimble feet on deck again, for Perkins (the
American who passed as Sam Polwhele) had a heavy ship-pistol in his
great rough pocket, ready for the back of the young officer's head if
he had probed below the cheeses and firkins of butter. Only two men had
followed the lieutenant from their boat, the rest being needed for her
safety in the strong sea running, and those two at the signal would have
been flung overboard, and the schooner (put about for the mo