The smugglers were furious. Some one must have betrayed them. Occasionally there were traitors among them, but rarely, for the fate of an informer, if discovered, was of such a nature as to deter others. When they returned to the inn to drown their disappointment and talk over the occurrence, Doubledick shrugged. "What about yer fine friends at the Towers now, Zacky?" he said. "Good sakes! How could ’em know?" cried the exasperated fisher. "Oh, you simple soul! Didn’ I see yer Jake a-fishin’ along wi’ young Squire only yesterday?" "Rabbit it all! Do ’ee mean to say ’tis Jake that split? Why, daze me, the boy didn’ know about it hisself, Doubledick; we kept it so close." "Well, I only tell ’ee what I seed. ’T ’ud be hard to b’lieve sech a miserable dirty thing o’ Jake, I own it. In course he never done it, bein’ a Tonkin; ’twas only my little bit o’ fun. But I don’t care who the man is, they folks up at Towers hev turned preventives; norra one of ’ee woll make me b’lieve different." "Dear life! Won’t Maister John be in a gashly passion!" said Simon Mail. "He had more nor you in it, Zacky, I b’lieve!" "Iss, fay, he did. Neighbour Doubledick loses least; ’tis a mercy for ’ee, neighbour." "So ’tis, Zacky," said Doubledick. "Ah! I was right to bide quiet a while arter that journey to France. But name it all, I bean’t goin’ to bide quiet for ever; I’ll take a share in the next, be-jowned if I don’t, and I hope them above will gie us better luck." "Ay, Maister John will be in a rare passion," repeated Simon Mail. "He be spendin’ money so free that ’twill be a blow to him, to be sure." "True," said Pendry, "and spendin’ for the country, too. Do ’ee think, now, as Boney will come to these parts, neighbour Tonkin?" "I wouldn’ think so myself, but you never can tell," replied Tonkin. "’Tis a little small place, wi’ no great riches to tempt un; but that may be a reason for ’t. We’ve no forts nor cannons nor sojers to defend us, and Boney may choose the place according; ’t ’ud be easier to land here than at Weymouth, where the King and all his high generals sometimes be." "What I say is, Maister John be a fine feller," said Mail. "’Tidn’ every gentleman as ’ud do what he be doin’. Why, he’ve had a dozen men from Trura riggin’ up iron shetters to his winders, and a cart come t’other day wi’ firelocks and pikes, and I seed him only yesterday marchin’ his miners up and down in front o’ the house, every man of ’em wi’ a terrible weapon o’ some sort; and when he shouted, up went firelock or pike, and seein’ the guns all pointin’ at me, I run off as hard as my poor legs ’ud move, for I didn’ want to be hurted, not I." "Ay, and I seed Petherick goin’ up to Dower House wi’ a noble bell under his arm," said Pendry, "and when I axed un about it, ’a telled me ’twas to rig up in the roof, to gie the word o’ warnin’ to the whole village if Boney was spied wi’ all his horses and men."