ered his men to the right about, and made for the
landing-place again.

But the sailors were not so unselfish in their motives as their
captain. They had come ashore expecting to plunder the castle of the
earl, and they now murmured loudly over the abandonment of the
adventure. They saw the way clear before them. No guards protected the
house. The massive ancestral plate, with which all English landed
families are well provided, was unprotected by bolts or bars. They
felt that, in retreating, they were throwing away a chance to despoil
their enemy, and enrich themselves.

Jones felt the justice of the complaint of the sailors; but only after
a fierce struggle with his personal scruples could he yield the point.
The grounds of the Earl of Selkirk had been his early playground. A
lodge on the vast estate had been his childhood's home. Lady Selkirk
had shown his family many kindnesses. To now come to her house as a
robber and pillager, seemed the blackest ingratitude; but, on the
other hand, he had no right to permit his personal feelings to
interfere with his duty to the crew. The sailors had followed him into
danger many a time, and this was their first opportunity for financial
reward. And, even if it was fair to deny them this chance to make a
little prize-money, it would hardly be safe to sow the seeds of
discontent among the crew while on a cruise in waters infested with
the enemy's ships. With a sigh Jones abandoned his intention of
protecting the property of Lady Selkirk, and ordered his lieutenant to
proceed to the castle, and capture the family plate. Jones himself
returned to the ship, resolved to purchase the spoils at open sale,
and return them to their former owner.

The blue-jackets continued their way up the highway, and, turning
aside where a heavy gate opened into a stately grove, demanded of an
old man who came, wondering, out of the lodge, that he give them
instant admittance. Then, swinging into a trot, they ran along the
winding carriage-drive until they came out on the broad lawn that
extended in front of the castle. Here for the first time they were
seen by the inmates of the castle; and faint screams of fear, and
shouts of astonishment, came from the open windows of the stately
pile. The men-servants came rushing out to discover who the lawless
crowd that so violated the sanctity of an English earl's private park
could be; but their curiosity soon abated when a few stout
blue-jackets, cutlass a