t that she had been little used since
then. The paint was peeling from her cracked and weathered side, her
gear was frayed and bleached with frost and rain, and only very
hardpressed men would have faced the thought of going to sea in her.
Wyllard and his companions were, however, very hardpressed indeed, and
they preferred the hazards of a voyage in the crazy vessel to falling
into the Russians' hands. It was also clear that they had no choice. It
must be either one thing or the other.

Some little distance up stream a low hill cut against the dingy sky. It
shut off all of the upper part of the inlet which wound in behind it,
but Wyllard and his companions had cautiously climbed the slope earlier
in the afternoon, and, lying flat upon the summit, had looked down upon
the little wooden houses that clustered above the beach. He had then
decided that this part of the inlet would dry out at about half-ebb, and
as the schooner's boat, which he meant to seize lay upon the shingle, it
was evident that he must carry out his plans within the next three
hours.

These plans were very simple. There was nobody on board the schooner,
which lay in deeper water, and he believed that it would be possible to
swim off to her and slip the cable; but they must have provisions, and
there was, so far as he could see, only one way of obtaining them. A
building which stood by itself close beside the beach was evidently a
store, for he had seen two men carrying bags and cases out of it under
the superintendence of a third in some kind of uniform, and it appeared
to be unguarded. Wyllard had reasons for surmising that the store
contained Government supplies, and had arranged that Charly and Lewson
should break into it as soon as darkness fell. They were to pull off to
the schooner with anything they could find inside. Whether they would
succeed in doing this he did not know, and he admitted to himself that
it scarcely seemed probable, but he could think of no other plan, and
the attempt must be made.

A thin haze drove across the crest of the hill, the breeze freshened
slightly, and the little ripples lapped more noisily along the shingle.
There was evidently a great deal of fresh water coming down the inlet,
and it was in a fever of impatience he watched the schooner strain at
her cable. That evening had already seemed the longest he had ever spent
in his life. By and by it began to rain, and little streams of chilly
water trickled about the