om time to time, as the Good Hope swooped dizzily down into the valley
of the rollers, a crest would break--a great cataract of snowy foam would
leap in one instant into being--and, in an instant more, would stream
into the wake and vanish.

Many of the men lay holding on and praying aloud; many more were sick,
and had crept into the bottom, where they sprawled among the cargo. And
what with the extreme violence of the motion, and the continued drunken
bravado of Lawless, still shouting and singing at the helm, the stoutest
heart on board may have nourished a shrewd misgiving as to the result.

But Lawless, as if guided by an instinct, steered the ship across the
breakers, struck the lee of a great sandbank, where they sailed for
awhile in smooth water, and presently after laid her alongside a rude,
stone pier, where she was hastily made fast, and lay ducking and grinding
in the dark.

CHAPTER V--THE GOOD HOPE (continued)

The pier was not far distant from the house in which Joanna lay; it now
only remained to get the men on shore, to surround the house with a
strong party, burst in the door and carry off the captive. They might
then regard themselves as done with the Good Hope; it had placed them on
the rear of their enemies; and the retreat, whether they should succeed
or fail in the main enterprise, would be directed with a greater measure
of hope in the direction of the forest and my Lord Foxham's reserve.

To get the men on shore, however, was no easy task; many had been sick,
all were pierced with cold; the promiscuity and disorder on board had
shaken their discipline; the movement of the ship and the darkness of the
night had cowed their spirits. They made a rush upon the pier; my lord,
with his sword drawn on his own retainers, must throw himself in front;
and this impulse of rabblement was not restrained without a certain
clamour of voices, highly to be regretted in the case.

When some degree of order had been restored, Dick, with a few chosen men,
set forth in advance. The darkness on shore, by contrast with the
flashing of the surf, appeared before him like a solid body; and the
howling and whistling of the gale drowned any lesser noise.

He had scarce reached the end of the pier, however, when there fell a
lull of the wind; and in this he seemed to hear on shore the hollow
footing of horses and the clash of arms. Checking his immediate
followers, he passed forward a step or two alone, even