r father returned, and
she could tell him all her wishes. He would be quite sure to do all she
desired; he never refused any reasonable request, and all her requests
were reasonable. Jack smiled. He let her ramble on in her dreams of how
they were to meet again, and how he must have a boat of his own, and a
comfortable home in England for dear Goody to live in.

Then the talk would revert to other and sadder matters. These were never
mentioned except when they were quite alone, which could not be often.
Once or twice, however, they did get such a quiet hour when the
night-watches had been set, and it was Jack's turn on duty. Estelle
would not go to bed; she preferred to come on deck to talk to him. How
often afterwards did she look back upon those nights! Fine, clear
moonlight; the sky full of stars, stretched like a dark curtain over
them; all around the equally dark water, through which they cut with
almost uncanny smoothness; the silence about them broken only by the
soft lapping of the waves, and the occasional creak of the spars, or the
flap of the sails.

Fargis, who had some knowledge of the coast, made for Tyre-cum-Widcombe,
where, he declared, all the information required could be obtained. And
so it proved. Jack, leaving Estelle on board, went to the biggest inn in
the place. There he had his questions answered, with the additional
assurance that he could have any carriage he liked to take the little
lady home. The Earl himself was now staying at the Moat House.

As soon as it became generally known that little Lady Estelle de Bohun
had been found, and was at that moment aboard the French smack in the
harbour, a crowd began rapidly to get together on the little quay. The
cheering, the pressing forward to get a glimpse of her, astonished the
French crew quite as much as it did Estelle. Neither she nor they had
any idea of her importance. They listened with keen interest as Jack
translated to them what he had been told of the lost child, and how Lord
Lynwood had routed the whole country upside down in his determination
not to leave a stone unturned to find her. Jack became a hero to all who
knew how he had saved the child; and there were a few who, pressing up
to Fargis, made out the story of the rescue from his broken English.

Time, however, was of importance. Jack wanted, if possible, to get back
to the boat before nightfall. Fargis would wait for him, in any case,
but the matter had best be got over at on