to the darkness. "No one must know our destination. We'll pick
up Migg's ship, the _Black Eagle_, in the Downs. She was to have gone
down the Thames to-day, and to lie at Gravesend, and then to work round
to the Downs, where she will be to-morrow. It will be a Sunday, so no
news can get about. If we get away with him they will lose all trace of
us. We'll get him to land up upon the Spanish coast. I think it will
fairly puzzle the police. No doubt they are watching every station on
the line by this time. I wonder what has become of Burt?"

"I trust that they will hang him," John Girdlestone cried, with a gleam
of his old energy. "If he had taken the ordinary precaution of making
sure who the girl was, this would never have occurred."

"Don't throw the blame on him," said Ezra bitterly. "Who was it who
kept us all up to it whenever we wished to back out? If it had not been
for you, who would have thought of it?"

"I acted for the best," cried the old man, throwing his hands up with a
piteous gesture. "You should be the last to upbraid me. It was the
dream of leaving you rich and honoured which drove me on. I was
prepared to do anything for that end."

"You have always excellent intentions," his son said callously.
"They have a queer way of showing themselves, however. Look out, here's
Sampson!"

As he spoke they heard the crunching of the fisherman's heavy boots on
the shingle, and he looked in, with his ruddy face all shining with the
salt water.

"We're all ready now, sirs," he said. "Jarge and I will get into our
oil duds, and then we can lock up the shop. It'll have to take care of
itself until we come back."

The two gentlemen walked down to the edge of the sea. There was a
little dinghy there, and the boat was anchored a couple of hundred yards
off. They could just make out the loom of her through the darkness, and
see her shadowy spars, dipping, rising, and falling with the wash of the
waves. To right and left spread the long white line of thundering foam,
as though the ocean were some great beast of prey which was gnashing its
glistening teeth at them. The gale had partially died away, but there
still came fitful gusts from the south-west, and the thick clouds
overhead were sweeping in a majestic procession across the sky, and
falling like a dark cataract over the horizon, showing that up there at
least there was no lull in the tempest. It was bitterly cold, and both
men buttoned up