"Come in, Maaster Jasper," said the old woman; "supper es zet fur three. I knawed you wos a-comin', and zo ded Eli." So I entered the hut, and there surely I saw three plates placed on the little table. The old woman seemed to regard my coming as a matter of course, and made no more ado than if I had left her cottage that morning. Eli, on the other hand, made much of me. He caught my hands and fondled them, he rubbed them against his poor distorted face, and looked up into my eyes as though he were overjoyed at my coming. "Jasper, I love 'ee--love 'ee!" he cried. "Eli zo glad you'm back. Eli do knaw, Eli got a lot to tell 'ee!" "I think we'll shut the door," crooned Betsey as she looked anxiously around the cottage. "Nobody do knaw who's 'bout. Ah, Maaster Jasper, you ded a bad thing when you made an enemy of Jack Fraddam. But ther, you be 'ungry, and you aan't 'ad nothin' to ait for a long time. When I knawed you wos a-comin' I maade a conger pie. I knaw you like that. Conger, baaked in milk and parsley, Jasper, my deear. That ed'n bad fur a witches' supper, es et?" "How did you know I was coming?" I asked. "I had not made up my mind to come here to-night until I landed in Falmouth. And no one knew I was coming to Falmouth. How did you know?" "How ded I knaw?" asked Betsey, scornfully. "How do I knaw everything? Ef you'd a traited me vitty, Jasper, I'd a done more fur 'ee. You'd be in Pennington now ef you'd come and axed me; but you wudden. 'Ow ded 'ee git on at Jack Fraddam's then?" "Who's Jack Fraddam?" "Oa, Cap'n Jack Truscott, seein' you're so partikler. The Fraddam family es a big wawn, my deear." "What relation is Cap'n Jack to the Fraddams and to you?" I asked. "Ef I was to tell 'ee you'd knaw, wudden 'ee. But I bean't a-goin' to tell 'ee, cheeldrean. No, I bean't, but zet up to supper. Then I've got sum things to tell 'ee 'bout somebody at Penninton, and arterwards I'll tell yer fortin, my deear. I bean't a gipsy, but I c'n do that." As I sat at the table with Eli opposite me on the little window-seat, and Betsey near me, it seemed as though I had not been away at all. Neither did the old woman show any interest in what I had been doing. "Why 'ave 'ee come back, Jasper?" she asked, presently, looking at me with her light, piercing eyes, while she kept on munching with her toothless gums, until the white stiff hairs which grew on the tip of her nose almost touched those on her chin. I did not speak. "No, you caan't tell," said she; "you dunnaw why yerzelf. You've cum 'cause you caan't 'elp et, my deear. Yer 'art kipt achin' and longin' so that you cudden stay away." I continued silent, for I knew she told the truth. "But 'tes no use, Jasper, my deear. You aa'nt a got the money to buy back Penninton, and besides the job's done." "What job's done?" I asked, eagerly. "Neck Trezidder, and thicky purty maid." "How? What do you mean? Tell me?" I cried, starting from the seat.