"Oh! the smugglers!" Mr. Bastable’s face again wore that strange quizzical smile that Jack had noticed whenever smuggling was mentioned. "That’s another matter. I say we’re a law-abiding folk. There hasn’t been a robbery, an assault, or anything of that kind, for years. So near the Grange, too. As a justice of the peace, I must see that fellow and get a description of the assailant; we’ll raise the hue and cry and have him fast by the heels, I warrant him. I’ll send Tony to Mother Philpot at once." "He said he didn’t see the man who fired the shot." "Nonsense. How could any one take his samples without being seen?" "Permit me," said De Fronsac, smiling. "From vat Monsieur Jack says, de poor man is a compatriot. He is a weaver of Spitalfields, but he talk viz a foreign accent. De French families in Spitalfields have been dere so many generations dat dey are now English; dey vould have no accent, and dis poor man must be, as I myself, a victim of de troubles in France of dis day—perhaps he is a victim of dat Monstair. Vill it not be convenient dat I go to see him at his lodgment, and speak to him in his own language, and learn all dat he has to tell?" "’Tis very good of you, Monsieur; but I don’t want to spoil your dinner, and this must be done at once, or the villain will get away." "De dinner, it is noding!" said De Fronsac with a smile, not perceiving the little grimace that for an instant showed itself on Kate’s lips, or the glance exchanged between her and her mother. "I vill go at once. I do anyzing to serve a friend like you, Monsieur," he said, with a low bow as he rose. After De Fronsac’s departure the family discussed the incident at length, Mr. Bastable becoming more and more indignant as he thought of the outrage committed in that quiet spot and so near his own doors. But Jack felt very uneasy. He could not help connecting the event with the voices he had heard in the copse two nights before. The speakers had seemed to be in altercation; one of them had been De Fronsac. And De Fronsac had offered to go and question the injured man. Jack wondered whether he had better tell his cousin what was passing through his mind, but he did not like to make him uneasy or suspicious if, after all, there was no cause for it. So he decided to say nothing—at least, until De Fronsac had reported the result of his interview. The family were in the drawing-room when the tutor returned. "I have accomplish’ my mission," he said. "I am hot; I valk fast. De man is indeed, I regret to say, a compatriot. He is in England from a young man; vid his parents he arrive fourteen years ago, ven de troubles began. I dink he is honest man. He see only very little bit of de man vat shoot him, but it seem he vas short, and zick, and vid red hair. Dat is vun zing he know: de man had de hair red."