tories of devil-worship, and--was it
there they practised suttee? What did he mean by that allusion to
widows? And why had he turned pale--yes, pale--when she announced
the Evil One's approaching overthrow?

Miss Marty left him to pick up the pieces, and withdrew in some haste
to the kitchen. Then, half an hour later, while rolling out the
paste for a pie-crust, she imparted the news to Lavinia.

"It's to happen on May-day, Lavinia. The Major had word of it this
morning, and--only think!--Satan is to be bound for a thousand
years."

"Law, miss!" said Lavinia. "Apprentice?"

Cai Tamblyn heard of it in the garden, which was really a small
flagged courtyard leading to the terrace, which again was really a
small, raised platform with a table and a couple of chairs, where the
Major sometimes smoked his pipe and overlooked the harbour and the
shipping. Along each side of the courtyard ran a flower-bed, and in
these Cai Tamblyn grew tulips and verbenas, according to the season,
and kept them scrupulously weeded. He was stooping over his tulips
when Miss Marty told him of the Millennium.

"What's that?" he asked, picking up a slug and jerking it across the
harbour wall.

"It's a totally different thing from the end of the world. To begin
with, Satan is to be taken and bound for a thousand years."

"Oh!" said Cai Tamblyn with fine contempt. "_Him!_"

CHAPTER IV.

HOW THE TROY GALLANTS CHALLENGED THE LOOE DIEHARDS.

That it was the Major's idea goes without saying. At Looe they had
neither the originality for it nor the enterprise.

I have already told you with what sardonic emphasis he quoted the
saying that 'twas hardly worth while for Great Britain to go to war
merely to prove that she could put herself in a good posture for
defence. The main secret of strategy, he would add, is to impose
your idea of the campaign on your enemy; to take the initiative out
of his hands; to throw him on the defensive and keep him nervously
speculating what move of yours may be a feint and what a real attack.
If the Ministry had given the Major his head, so to speak, Agincourt
at least might have been repeated.

But since it enforced him to wait on the enemy's movements, at least
(said he) let us be sure that our defence is secure. Concerning the
Troy battery he had not a doubt; but over the defences of Looe he
could not but feel perturbed. To be sure, Looe's main battery stood
out of reach of harm, but with the