o inform Triggs of his decision, and to do this
he must get back to Plymouth, a distance from Looe of some fifteen or
sixteen miles.

In going through Looe that morning he had stopped for a few minutes at
a small inn which stood not far from the beach; and having now crossed
the river which divides West from East Looe, he began looking about for
this house, intending to get some refreshments, to rest for an hour or
so, and then proceed on his journey.

Already the town-clock was striking six, and Reuben calculated that if
he started between nine and ten he should have time to take another
good rest on the road--which he had already once that day
traversed--and reach Plymouth Barbican, where the Mary Jane lay, by
daybreak.

The inn found, he ordered his meal and informed the landlady of his
intention.

"Why, do 'ee stop here till mornin', then," exclaimed the large-hearted
Cornish woman. "If 'tis the matter o' the money," she added, eying him
critically, "that's hinderin' 'ee from it, it needn't to, for I'll see
us don't have no quarrel 'bout the price o' the bed."

Reuben assured her that choice, not necessity, impelled his onward
footsteps; and, thus satisfied, she bade him "Take and lie down on the
settle there inside the bar-parlor; for," she added, "'less 'tis the
sergeant over fra Liskeard 'tain't likely you'll be disturbed no ways;
and I shall be in and out to see you'm all right."

Reuben stretched himself out, and, overcome by the excitement and
fatigue of the day, was soon asleep and dreaming of those happier times
when he and Eve had walked as friends together. Suddenly some one
seemed to speak her name, and though the name at once wove itself into
the movement of the dream, the external sound had aroused the sleeper,
and he opened his eyes to see three men sitting near talking over their
grog.

With just enough consciousness to allow of his noticing that one was a
soldier and the other two were sailors, Reuben looked for a minute,
then closed his eyes, and was again sinking back into sleep when the
name of Eve was repeated, and this time with such effect that all
Reuben's senses seemed to quicken into life, and, cautiously opening
his eyes, so as to look without being observed, he saw that it was the
soldier who was speaking.

"Young chap, thinks I," he was saying, "you little fancy there's one so
near who's got your sweetheart's seal dangling to his fob;" and with an
air of self-satisfied vanity h