'You!'――the woman turned and faced him, in a flame of scorn. Her eyes sparkled, she breathed passionately through her rigid nostrils, her bosom heaved. 'You――you dare propose this to me?' He stood up. 'Why not? I speak for your advantage.' 'For my advantage――to be with you――head to head, hand to hand――with you!' She quivered with fury, her very hair bristled. 'You? If I had you between tongs, I would throw you into the ashpit. Leave this house!' Olver's face turned plum colour. 'Jane! Will you dare try it on without me?' 'Leave this house,' she cried, pointing to the door with her hand covered with strings of dough. 'Jane,' said he, 'I have said and let you know more than I ought. But I warn you to beware lest you take a step in this matter independent of me. Take care how you hunt and beat the thickets without me. I am not a man to be trifled with. If I find that you are going behind my back, I will tread you and your brat into the earth, as though you were snails.' CHAPTER XII BY NIGHT On her return to Rattenbury's cottage, Winefred was thrown into a dubious condition of mind. She had purposed to confide everything to her mother, to tell her about the present of the watch and of what she had overheard. But on coming into her mother's presence she saw that the time was unpropitious. She knew her mother so intimately that she was aware that the communication must be deferred. Mrs. Marley was one of those persons who, when possessed by an idea, and that one of an exciting nature, are incapable of attending to any other, or on whom the communication of another of agitating nature completely unhinges the reasoning faculties and produces an irrational explosion of feeling. Winefred saw at a glance that something must have occurred during her absence which had upset her mother. She therefore merely inquired where Captain Rattenbury was, and was told curtly that he was out――a fact sufficiently obvious. Job had informed her mother that he would not be home till the morrow, but Jane Marley did not think to give this information to Winefred. Not knowing this, the girl said no more, determined to caution the captain on his return. She went into the back kitchen and to the larder cupboard and provided herself with food, her mother saying nothing nor noticing what she was about, nor did the ticking of her watch attract attention. Thus the hours of the short November afternoon slipped away, and Mrs. Marley seated herself at the side of the fire knitting, with her gown turned up over her knees lest it should scorch and with her arms still bare, glancing in the firelight. Winefred occupied a stool, and fell to studying her mother's countenance and listening for the footfall of the captain or his hand on the latch. She was in no little anxiety. The day was Thursday, and the attempt to disperse the goods to their several destinations would be made that night, and a few hours must determine the fate of the smugglers.