"Speaking for us all," the smith went on, "I’m certain sure there’s not a man of us but hopes the gen’lman’s invention bain’t ruined out and out. Anything as will beat the Germans hev our hearty good wishes, eh, souls?" "Hear, hear!" cried the butcher. "There, neighbour Noakes, you was too primitive," said the baker, reprovingly. "’Tis a good cause we suffer in, and I’m not the man to complain. And speaking for us all, I say three cheers for the young gen’lman." The cheers were given, Noakes dissenting. Eves shook hands with them all round, Noakes excepted. Then he helped them to right the manual, and gave them a genial good-bye as they trundled it off. "We’ve had a ripping day, Bob," he said, mopping his brow. "The smoke was splendid—a first-rate stink. Old Noakes’s face was a picture." He laughed heartily. "I’m afraid the tricycle is crocked for ever," said Templeton with a gloomy look, "and I don’t approve——" "Oh, pax! You can pay Trenchard for the old thing out of your tenner; and you’re jolly ungrateful. If I hadn’t chipped in they wouldn’t have cheered you. Let’s pick up the ruins and get ’em back somehow. Buck up!" Mr. Trenchard received Templeton’s apologies for the break-up of the tricycle very good-naturedly. He refused his offer to buy it or have it repaired. "’Tis come to a good end, if so be your invention is a success," he said. Templeton drew out a specification of his smoke machine and sent it to the Ministry of Munitions. In about a fortnight he received a formal letter of acknowledgment. But by that time he had almost forgotten the smoke machine, other ideas having absorbed his attention and activities. *TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED* *I* Mrs. Trenchard that evening, after a brief absence from the living-room, reappeared in her best flowered bonnet and a muslin shawl and announced her intention of going "just there and back." Her husband, who was reading the newspaper, looked up and nodded. Templeton was sketching out a specification, and did not hear what she said. Eves gave her a cheerful _au revoir_ from the depths of the chair where he lay at ease, and smiled at her retreating form. "’Tis like that, sir," said the farmer, catching his look. "’There and back’ in our family do mean a gossip with Martha Runt." "The wife of Runt the smith?" "Ay, that be the woman. I’ve not a word to say against Martha—not a word; but she be a rare workman with her tongue. We shan’t see no more of Mother till supper-time." He relapsed into his paper, and Eves stretched his legs and watched Templeton steadily pursuing his task. Mrs. Trenchard returned a good hour before she was expected. Her rosy cheeks were flushed a deeper shade than usual; her bonnet was awry. "I never did!" she exclaimed, pulling the strings into a knot. "No, never in all my born days, without a word of a lie in it—never hev I seed or heard no such goings on."