But she was not angry; she crossed her hands, one of which held a rolling-pin, demurely in front of her, and looked down in a stately fashion, not at all disturbed at being discovered in the act of making a pudding, for those were domestic days. “Much the same business, Miss Joan, that the brigadier has with your father,” said Tregenna. “There is no pretense, as you know, betwixt you and me. We are foes avowed. I ask you no questions about your visit to the farm this morning, because I _know_ what took you thither. Neither will you need to ask why I am going again to Rede Hall, to inquire into this mystery concerning the Gray Barn.” “You are going again?” said Joan, with interest, in which he thought he detected fear also. “Yes. And I make no secret of saying I am not going to be fooled by the innocent appearance of the place. I am going again and again, until I have cleared them all out, like wasps out of a hole. Mistress Ann Price and her confederates must find a fresh field for their practises; I swear they shall not continue to carry them on in that part of the coast that is under my vigilance.” “And you do not fear to tell me this, believing, as you do, that I am in league with them myself?” “’Tis for that reason I tell you, that you may warn them they must go.” “Why did you not tell Mistress Ann herself?” asked Joan, with strange quietness. “If you think, as you say, she is concerned with the gang?” “I will tell her when I meet her next,” said Tregenna, promptly. “She has challenged me to go some night and find out for myself the truth of the tales the folks tell about the haunted barn. She——” But Joan interrupted him, with a sudden look of intense anxiety— “She challenged you to go at night? To the great barn?” “Ay, that she did. And I accepted her invitation.” “But you will not go! You must not! ’Twould not be safe——” Joan uttered the words with great earnestness; but stopped, blushing, when she had got so far. Tregenna took up her words— “Not safe! How mean you? Surely my safety is the last thing you would concern yourself with. ’Tis for the safety of these smuggling folk alone that you care.” Joan looked down, and said nothing. But it was plain by the heaving of her breast and by her labored breathing, that she was much agitated. “Is it not so, Miss Joan?” “Nay, Mr. Tregenna, ’tis not so. I would not have you come to harm. If you pursue those whom I have reason to hold in more esteem than you do, I know that ’tis but your duty you are doing.” “And ’tis in the performance of my duty that I must visit Rede Hall again.” “And I tell you again that you must not. Without saying aught against the people that live there, I know there are others that frequent that neighborhood that would not scruple to set upon you, perhaps to kill you, for what you have done to their friends and confederates. No, Mr. Tregenna, if you go, go with your men, or with the general, but go not alone.”