able hanger, each; and last, but not least, the splendid sword
which Dick had taken from the Spanish cavalier during the fight in the
square. These, the clothes which they stood up in, and the boat in
which they had made their escape, were all that they possessed in the
world; and thus scantily provided these two young men were calmly about
to plunge into the very heart of a hostile country, of which they knew
nothing, in search of fortune! Truly was it said of these men and their
contemporaries that "they feared God and naught else!" and it was they
who laid the foundations of that greatness among the nations of the
world which Britain enjoys to-day. May she have the wisdom to retain
it!

All day the two fugitives lay in their place of concealment, resting and
otherwise preparing for a wakeful and busy night; and when at length the
sun plunged down into the western sea in a transient blaze of glory, and
the sea breeze began to die away, they cautiously pushed out from
underneath their leafy screen and proceeded to paddle quietly down the
little cove toward the south bay, which they reached just as the last of
the daylight was fading out of the sky and the stars were beginning to
twinkle out, one after the other, in swift succession, in the great
purple dome of heaven above. The evanescent twilight now shrouded
everything in mystery; a few boats could be seen moving about here and
there, but only by the lingering golden light in the western sky
reflected gleamingly from the ripple of bow or paddle, and the fugitives
passed across the bay and entered the narrow channel between the island
of Baru and the main, just as the first soft breathings of the land wind
began to make themselves felt. To these they gladly spread their sail--
for paddling was rather too warm work to be agreeable--and went gliding
easily and pleasantly along, closely hugging the weather shore, for the
sake of the smooth water and the deep shadow afforded by the mangroves
that thickly lined the beach.

They had reached thus along the shore for about an hour and a half when
a sudden brightening of the sky to the eastward heralded the rising of
the moon; and presently the orb, now nearly at the full, sailed up over
the tops of the trees which lined the shore, and flooded the entire
scene with her soft orange radiance. And the first thing upon which the
eyes of the fugitives fell was a large galley lying at anchor right in
the middle of the fairway