I will be back anon. Drink
fair, gossip"; and, taking Dick's arm to steady his uneven steps, he
walked to the door of the alehouse.

As soon as he was over the threshold, ten strong arms had seized and
bound him; and in two minutes more, with his limbs trussed one to
another, and a good gag in his mouth, he had been tumbled neck and crop
into a neighbouring hay-barn. Presently, his man Tom, similarly secured,
was tossed beside him, and the pair were left to their uncouth
reflections for the night.

And now, as the time for concealment had gone by, Lord Foxham's
followers were summoned by a preconcerted signal, and the party, boldly
taking possession of as many boats as their numbers required, pulled in
a flotilla for the light in the rigging of the ship. Long before the
last man had climbed to the deck of the _Good Hope_, the sound of
furious shouting from the shore showed that a part, at least, of the
seamen had discovered the loss of their skiffs.

But it was now too late, whether for recovery or revenge. Out of some
forty fighting men now mustered in the stolen ship, eight had been to
sea, and could play the part of mariners. With the aid of these, a slice
of sail was got upon her. The cable was cut. Lawless, vacillating on his
feet, and still shouting the chorus of sea-ballads, took the long tiller
in his hands: and the _Good Hope_ began to flit forward into the
darkness of the night, and to face the great waves beyond the harbour
bar.

Richard took his place beside the weather rigging. Except for the ship's
own lantern, and for some lights in Shoreby town, that were already
fading to leeward, the whole world of air was as black as in a pit. Only
from 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 a
while in smooth water, and pres