D'you
think, now, that your father is right, and John Trevanion is the man
behind?"

"I don't want to say what I think, Mr. Polwhele," replied Dick.
"Whether he is or not, we must put a stop to it.  I can't do much, but
what I can do I will."

"I'm glad to hear it.  The curious thing is that John Trevanion has but
lately been here.  One of the fishers had told him of the strange
vessel, and he came for the same purpose as you, to ask me to signal to
Mr. Mildmay.  He said it was scandalous that the Frenchman should be
allowed to cruise at large."

"Do you think she came to ship Penwarden away, sir?  That is my father's
idea."

"'Tis a notion, now, but not likely, unless John Trevanion camehad not only been rain in the night which would help
to obliterate any traces that the kidnappers might have left on the
ground, but the neighbourhood had been visited by inquisitive boys,
dairymaids, farm-hands, and idle folk from the village, who tramped
round the cottage, gazed at the door, and peered in at the windows,
leaving innumerable footprints on the soil.

Dick was puzzled to think how Joe's captors had obtained entrance to the
cottage.  It was not by the front door, unless Penwarden had carelessly
left it open; its timbers were sound and the lock unbroken; not by the
chimney, which was too narrow to admit anything larger than a pigeon.
They might have gone through the garden and forced the back door; though
they would surely have tried to effect an entrance quietly, while the
old