ted spikes the lower part of the sash gave by an inch or
two. He devoted another minute to listening, then applied the hatchet to
the left side of the window. He worked all round the sash in this way
and at last pushed it inward with both hands until it hung below the
sill by a couple of bent spikes. He thrust the hatchet in his belt and
entered the room. He put up his hand to the rafter that crossed the low
ceiling and so felt his way along to the middle of the room. Halting
there, he removed the fur mitten from his right hand and felt about
until his chilled fingers discovered a thin crack in the whitewash of
the rafter. The little square of dry wood came away in his fingers. Next
moment he held the leather-bound casket in his hand. He opened it and
felt the cold jewels which he could not see. Then he closed it, slipped
it into a pocket, replaced the square of wood in the beam and made his
cautious way back to the window. He crawled over the sill, turned and
tried to lift the sash upward and outward to its place. The sash came
up easily enough but the bent spikes would not hold. After a few minutes
of fruitless effort he turned away, leaving the window wide open. The
sky was black as the throat of a chimney. A breath of wind came from the
northwest. Foxey Jack Quinn was not weatherwise, however. He climbed the
path to the edge of the barrens and turned to the north.

"Diamonds white an' red," he muttered. "I seen 'em, and I knowed what
they was. Every little stone bes worth more nor all the fore-and-afters
on the coast. I bes a rich man now--richer nor the governor, richer nor
any marchant in St. John's--richer nor the king o' England, maybe. Holy
saints be praised! Never agin will I wet a line at the fishin' nor feel
the ache o' hunger in my belly. Denny Nolan will soon be cursin' the day
he batted me about like a swile."

His plans for the immediate future were clear in his mind but for the
more distant future they were vague, though rosy. He would make the ten
miles to Brig Tickle in less than three hours, and from there turn a
point or two westward from the coast and strike across country to the
head of Witless Bay. He had a cousin in Witless Bay and could afford to
rest in that cousin's house for a few hours. There he would hire a team
of dogs and make the next stage in quick time. Dennis Nolan, who would
not discover the theft of the diamonds until after sun-up, would be left
hopelessly astern by that time. So Q