an to move through the water.

"Look there, Dick!" Mark exclaimed. "Do you see that boat lying on its
oars in the middle of the stream? That man sitting in the stern is a
foreigner, either from Southern Europe or from India."

"He is certainly a dark man, Mark. Still, that may be only a
coincidence."

"It is rather a curious one," Mark said. "We are too far off to see
his features, but he is apparently watching us off. There, the oars are
dipping into the water, now he sees that we are fairly under way."

"Well, Mark, I shall begin to think that you are right. I am bound to
say that hitherto I thought that it was ridiculous to suppose that
you could have been watched as you thought, and that you had got these
diamonds on your brain till you had really become fanciful. However, it
certainly looks as if you were right; but even if you were, how on earth
could they have found out that we were going by this ship?"

"That is more than I can tell; if they have been watching me they must
have known that I was intimate with you; they have seen me come out of
Cotter's Bank, and afterwards enter your lodgings; they would feel sure
that I had heard that there would be danger connected with the diamonds,
and might suppose that I should get some friend to take them from the
bank, and may have followed your movements as well as mine. In that case
they would have found out that you also went to Cotter's Bank; may have
followed you to Tower Street, and found out that you had taken a passage
for two to Amsterdam. They may again have seen you go to the bank this
morning and have guessed that you had the diamonds about you, and then
seeing us together on the wharf would feel pretty certain that it was
so. One of them may have hired that boat and watched the Essex to see
that neither of us went on shore again."

"Now they see that we are off they will know that their game is up,"
Chetwynd said.

"I am not so sure of that, Dick; there are craft going every day to
Antwerp and Flushing, and for anything we know some of them may be on
board a craft already dropping down like ourselves by this tide. But
even if we had twelve hours' start, by landing, say at Flushing, they
would have time to cross by land to Amsterdam and get there before us."

"Yes, I suppose they would; anyhow, it is pretty certain that we shall
not be troubled on the voyage."

"Yes, I never thought there was much danger of that, because even if
they were on board th