a-dozen swift
needle-points of light chasing one another as quickly as the eye could
register them.

"_There is danger ... to the north--keep farther away!_" Captain Penman
read off the coded message. "That's one of our folk. At any rate they
are not all hanged!"

When they reached the next bay to the south the whale-boat was manned,
and Miss Aline first, and then Patsy, were carefully handed down. After
them came Kennedy McClure, cursing his own weight and the rope which had
scorched his hands, last of all old huntsman Wolf scrambled down, bags
of ammunition and all, as alert as a monkey, his rifle slung over his
shoulder and his jaeger's feather stuck rakishly in his green Tyrolean
hat.

The men hardly dipped their oars into the water. The mate, Rob Blair
from Garlieston, a dark, hook-nosed springald as strong as a horse, sat
in the stern and steered, directing the men in whispers. Presently they
entered into a purple gloom, and the stars were shut out over a full
half of the heavens. On shore and quite near, the lantern flickered six
times as swiftly as before.

"Still further to the south!" it said. "Hang the fellow, he will bring
us up among the Port Patrick fishing-boats! Ah, there!"

Out of the loom of the land as the current swept them under the cliffs,
came one long, steady flare--then a pause, which was followed by a
second.

"Head in, men," said Rob Blair, laying his weight on the tiller, "the
fellow on shore says that all is safe, which may be and again it may
not! There is that devil of a nephew of yours, Spy McClure from
Stonykirk. They say he is still at large. If he has sold us to the
land-sharks, it is the last Judas-money he will touch. I know ten men in
Garlieston who will see to that!"

"Attend to your own business, mate," growled Kennedy McClure. "I will be
answerable for my nephew."

"That's more than I should care to undertake," said the black-browed,
free-tongued Garliestonian. "'Tis no sort of a hearty welcome ye will
get at the Last Day when ye face the Throne, if ye have such a wastrel's
sins to answer for."

"Silence!" said Kennedy. "We are close in and we shall see in a minute.
You, foreigner, if I tell you to shoot--_shoot_--but not before!"

Patsy could just see the jaeger's teeth bared in a permanent grin.

"Steady there, men! Back-water! Now, you with the lantern, let us have
your name."

"Francis Airie," a voice called out of the darkness.

"Francis Airie--don't know h