could not raise a finger to help
himself.

Gaydon came round a clump of bushes and approached the entrance to the
pavilion. As he raised his foot to mount the steps the four sailors
sprang upon him, bore him backwards to the ground, and had gagged him,
securely bound him hand and foot, and bandaged his eyes before he
began to realize what had happened.

Two of the men then kept guard over him, while Captain Spade and the
others entered the house.

As the captain had surmised, Thomas Roch had sunk into such a torpor
that he could have heard nothing of what had been going on outside.
Reclining at full length, with his eyes closed, he might have been
taken for a dead man but for his heavy breathing. There was no need
either to bind or gag him. One man took him by the head and another by
the feet and started off with him to the schooner.

Captain Spade was the last to quit the house after extinguishing the
lamp and closing the door behind him. In this way there was no reason
to suppose that the inmates would be missed before morning.

Gaydon was carried off in the same way as Thomas Roch had been. The
two remaining sailors lifted him and bore him quietly but rapidly down
the path to the door in the wall. The park was pitch dark. Not even a
glimmer of the lights in the windows of Healthful House could be seen
through the thick foliage.

Arrived at the wall, Spade, who had led the way, stepped aside to
allow the sailors with their burdens to pass through, then followed
and closed and locked the door. He put the key in his pocket,
intending to throw it into the Neuse as soon as they were safely on
board the schooner.

There was no one on the road, nor on the bank of the river.

The party made for the boat, and found that Effrondat, the boatswain,
had made all ready to receive them.

Thomas Roch and Gaydon were laid in the bottom of the boat, and the
sailors again took their places at the oars.

"Hurry up, Effrondat, and cast off the painter," ordered the captain.

The boatswain obeyed, and pushed the boat off with his foot as he
scrambled in.

The men bent to their oars and rowed rapidly to the schooner, which
was easily distinguishable, having hung out a light at her mizzenmast
head.

In two minutes they were alongside.

The Count d'Artigas was leaning on the bulwarks by the gangway.

"All right, Spade?" he questioned.

"Yes, sir, all right!"

"Both of them?"

"Both the madman and his keeper."

"Do