"And why not go on to the knoll?" said Tamar. The man replied, that the
place was known to be uncanny, and that not only strange noises, but
strange sights had been seen there.
"Lately?" asked Tamar, "have they been seen and heard lately?"
The poor man could not assert that they had, and Tamar was not going to
tell him what she had seen and heard. No! this mystery was to be left
for the consideration of Dymock and Shanty, and she was anxious to know
if their thoughts agreed with hers.
When she arrived at the cottage, and the labourer had brought back
Brindle, and fastened the gate, and Tamar had milked her cow, and done
her usual services, she went to Dymock who was just awake, and brought
him out to breakfast with Mrs. Margaret, "You shall not say any thing
about posterity, and the benefits which you are doing to them by
recording your thoughts, this morning, sir," she said, "but you shall
hear what I have to tell you, and I will not tell you, but in the
presence of Mrs. Margaret." When Dymock heard what Tamar had to say, he
was at first quite amazed, for it seems, that if he had ever heard of
the secret passage he had forgotten it, and Mrs. Margaret had had her
reasons, for not stirring up his recollections; but when he was made
acquainted with this fact, and had put together all that Tamar had
related, he made the same reflections which she had done, and said that
he had no doubt, but that these ruins had been the rendezvous of
vagrants for years, and that there was now a plan to rob Mr.
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