his
contract completed, to collect his payments, and to clear off out of
harm's way, with his steamer still in his own hands. For she was his
own property, and to lose her would mean ruin for her owner.

Arrangements had long since been made between Drake and Frobisher as to
the method of procedure upon arrival at their destination, and the mere
fact that at the last moment the point of disembarkation of the cargo
had been changed to Sam-riek made no difference in the plans.

It had been agreed between Drake and the official negotiating for the
rebels that the latter should not put in an appearance at the point of
debarkation, because of the possibility that things might at the
critical moment go wrong, but that the Englishman should land the arms
in his own boats, and convey them up-country at his own risk, to a place
which, it now transpired, was called Yong-wol, in the department of
Kang-won, and situated on the river Han. Here they were to be handed
over to the rebel representative and his escort; after which they could
be conveyed by water to the environs of Seoul itself, where, in all
probability, they would in the first instance be used. This arrangement
would necessitate a journey across the entire peninsula of Korea; but to
land the arms on the west coast, where the Government troops were mostly
posted, would have been simply courting disaster. On the east coast
there were only a _few_ scattered outposts of troops; the inhabitants
were hand-in-glove with the rebels--although none of them had as yet
actually implicated themselves; and the inhabitants of Sam-riek, in
particular, could be relied upon not to offer any opposition to the
landing, or to inform the Government authorities of what was in the
wind.

When, therefore, about nine o'clock that night--at which time the decks
were packed with cases that had been got up from below in readiness to
be sent ashore in the boats--there came from the look-out whom Drake, as
a precautionary measure, had posted in the foretop a hail of "Ho! boat
ahoy! What do you want?" every man on deck jumped as though he had been
shot, so little was any interruption of any sort expected.

Drake and Frobisher darted to the side together, as though moved by the
same impulse, and leant over the bulwarks, peering into the darkness and
listening intently for any sound of oars that should enable them to
discover the whereabouts of the approaching craft.

Whoever the occupant of