"Ah, Mere Gounard, but your good man was fortunate to-day," one
of the women said. "My man did not go out. We heard what was doing
at Nantes, and he had not the heart to go; besides, who would buy
fish caught to-day? If he had thought of it he would have gone too,
and perhaps he would have picked up somebody, as you have done.
Poor things, what an escape for them!"

"It is wonderful that they have come round," Henriette said. "It
was lucky my husband had some brandy in the boat. He thought for a
time he would never bring the youngest round. They are only young
girls. What harm could they have done that those monsters at Nantes
should try to murder them? There is no fear, I hope, that any in
the village will say a word about it."

"What!" the woman said indignantly. "Do you think that anyone
here would betray a comrade to the Reds? Why, we would tear him to
pieces."

"No, no," Henriette said; "I never thought for a moment that anyone
would do it intentionally; but the boys might let slip a word
carelessly which might bring them down upon us."

"We will take care of that," the woman said. "Make your mind easy.
Not a soul outside the village will ever know of it."

"And," Henriette added, "one of them has some money hidden upon her,
and she told me just before I came out, when I was saying that the
village would have a bad time now the fishing was spoiled - that
as she hoped to cross to England in a few days, and would have