s easy to get out of the
Mersey.

At twelve o'clock nothing had yet been received. Dr. Clawbonny marched
up and down in agitation, looking through his telescope,
gesticulating, impatient for the sea, as he said. He felt moved,
though he struggled against it. Shandon bit his lips till the blood
came. Johnson came up to him and said--

"Commander, if we want to profit by the tide, there is no time to
be lost; we shall not be clear of the docks for at least an hour."

Shandon looked round him once more and consulted his watch. The twelve
o'clock letters had been distributed. In despair he told Johnson to
start. The boatswain ordered the deck to be cleared of spectators,
and the crowd made a general movement to regain the wharves while
the last moorings were unloosed. Amidst the confusion a dog's bark
was distinctly heard, and all at once the animal broke through the
compact mass, jumped on to the poop, and, as a thousand spectators
can testify, dropped a letter at Shandon's feet.

"A letter!" cried Shandon. "_He_ is on board, then?"

"He was, that's certain, but he isn't now," said Johnson, pointing
to the deserted deck.

Shandon held the letter without opening it in his astonishment.

"But read it, read it, I say," said the doctor.

Shandon looked at it. The envelope had no postmark or date; it was
addressed simply to:

"RICHARD SHANDON,

"Commander on board the brig

"_Forward_."

Shandon opened the letter and read as follows:--

"Sail for Cape Farewell. You will reach it by the 20th of April. If
the captain does not appear on board, cross Davis's Straits, and sail
up Baffin's Sea to Melville Bay.

"THE CAPTAIN OF THE 'FORWARD,'

"K. Z."

Shandon carefully folded this laconic epistle, put it in his pocket,
and gave the order for departure. His voice, which rang above the
east wind, had something solemn in it.

Soon the _Forward_ had passed the docks, and directed by a Liverpool
pilot whose little cutter followed, went down the Mersey with the
current. The crowd precipitated itself on to the exterior wharf along
the Victoria Docks in order to get a last glimpse of the strange brig.
The two topsails, the foresail and the brigantine sail were rapidly
set up, and the _Forward_, worthy of its name, after having rounded
Birkenhead Point,