I could go about the country in my ordinary way of trade without exciting suspicion, and my house was to be the rendezvous of every man on the list who wanted news or guidance.
"Can ye trust your men ?" Mercer asked, and I replied that Faulkner was as staunch as cold steel, and that he had picked the others.
"Well, let's see your accommodation," and the old fellow hopped to his feet, and was out of doors before I could get the lantern.
Mercer on a matter of this sort was a different being from the decayed landlord of the water-side tavern.

His spectacled eyes peered everywhere, and his shrewd sense judged instantly of a thing's value.
He approved of the tobacco-shed as a store for arms, for he could reach it from the river by a little-used road through the woods.

It was easy so to arrange, the contents that a passing visitor could guess nothing, and no one ever penetrated to its recesses but Faulkner and myself.

I summoned Faulkner to the conference, and told him his duties, which, he undertook with sober interest.

He was a dry stick from Fife, who spoke seldom and wrought mightily.
Faulkner attended to Mercer's consignments, and I took once more to the road.