pay ten per
cent. for the convenience."

"So he wants fourteen per cent.!" cried Asher. "Shoo! Lord save us!
Oh, the grasping miser. It's outrageous. I'll not pay it--the
Nightman fly away with me if I do."

"You need be under no uneasiness about that," said Marky the Lord,
"for I've three other borrowers ready to take the money the moment
you say you won't."

"Hand it out," said Asher, and away he went, fuming.

Then Stean, Ross, and Thurstan followed, one by one, and each
behaved as Asher had done before him. When the transaction was
complete, and the time had come to set sail for Iceland, many and
wonderful were the shifts of the four who had formed the secret
design to conceal their busy preparations. But when all was complete,
and berths taken, all six in the same vessel, Jacob and Gentleman
John rode round the farms of Lague to bid a touching farewell to
their brethren.

"Good-bye, Thurstan," said Jacob, sitting on the cross-board of the
cart. "We've had arguments in our time, and fallen on some rough harm
in the course of them, but we'll meet for peace and quietness in
heaven some day."

"We'll meet before that," thought Thurstan.

And when Jacob and John were gone on towards Ramsey, Thurstan mounted
the till-board of his own cart, and followed. Meantime Asher, Stean,
and Ross were on their journey, and because they did not cross on the
road they came face to face for the first time, all six together,
each lugging his kit of clothes behind him, on the deck of the ship
that was to take them to Iceland. Then Jacob's pale face grew livid.

"What does this mean?" he cried.

"It means that we can't trust you," said Thurstan.

"None of you?" said Jacob.

"None of us, seemingly," said Thurstan, glancing round into the
confused faces about him.

"What! Not your own brother?" said Jacob.

"'Near is my shirt, but nearer is my skin,' as the saying is," said
Thurstan, with a sneer.

"'Poor once, poor forever,' as the saying is," mocked Jacob. "Last
week you hadn't twenty pound to buy your viol-bass to play in the
gallery loft."

Stean laughed at that, and Jacob turned hotly upon him. "And _you_
hadn't thirty pound to buy your yoke of oxen that Ross was sneaking
after."

Then Ross made a loud guffaw, and Jacob faced about to him. "And
maybe _you've_ paid back your dirty five-and-twenty pound that Stean
threatened to sell you up for?"

Then Stean glowered hard at Ross, and Ross looked black at Stean, a