"Maybe, maybe not. I’m going to try. I shall begin in quite a small way. I shan’t fling my money into the earth as my cousin did. But I mean to try my luck, and within a week or two I shall have a few men at work." "’Twill be good for the parish," said Doubledick. "The miners are drouthy souls, and have a proper taste for good sperits. Ay, sure, ’twill do us all good." "You won’t give up the trade, sir?" enquired Tonkin. "Not I. The Polkerran men will do more than ever before. A fig for your Mildmays and Polwheles—Polwhele is still riding-officer, isn’t he? My wits against them any day. We’ll double our trade with Roscoff this winter." "If Delarousse bean’t nabbed," said Tonkin. "His game of privateerin’ will souse him in hot water one o’ these days." "Oh! we can do without Delarousse. There’s a man in Roscoff, no friend of his, who will deal with us better than he." "It do maze me, Maister Trevanion," said Doubledick, "that arter bein’ away all these years ye know so much about the trade." "I keep my eyes open, that’s all," replied Trevanion, with a laugh. "Well, I must be off. You can tell the neighbours about the mines. I’m glad to do something for the old village." He rode away, giving smiling greetings to the people, men and women, whom he passed on the road. "A fine feller!" said Doubledick, enthusiastically. "’Twill be heyday in village, Zacky; stirring life, and not so much of a tomb as ’tis since Squire became a pauper." "But I’m sorry he do want us to break with Delarousse. He be a good trader, for a Frenchman. Howsomever, if there be a better, all the better for we, to be sure." The men parted, to retail to their friends and neighbours the pleasing news of the great things John Trevanion was about to do for the village. Roscoff, the place mentioned in the course of their conversation, was a little port in Brittany which had become the chief seat of the contraband trade with the south-west of England since a restrictive Act of Parliament had put a stop to it in the Channel Islands. The French Government had made it a free port to smugglers, and in a few years it had grown from a tiny fishing village to a thriving town. There were three classes of people engaged in the contraband trade. The freighters consigned or received the goods, and paid the expenses of their shipment. The boatmen conveyed them from port to port, always on moonless nights, and usually when a strong wind was blowing. The tub-carriers bore them to their destination. The boatmen received a fixed sum for each trip, the tub-carriers for each cargo run, and frequently in addition a portion of the goods, or a small share in the proceeds.