answered Lawless, "if ever a man had an ill crew to come
to port with, it is I--a renegade friar, a thief, and all the rest on't.
Well, ye may wonder, but I keep a good hope in my wallet; and if that I
be to drown, I will drown with a bright eye, Master Shelton, and a
steady hand."

Dick returned no answer; but he was surprised to find the old vagabond
of so resolute a temper, and, fearing some fresh violence or treachery,
set forth upon his quest for three sure men. The great bulk of the men
had now deserted the deck, which was continually wetted with the flying
sprays, and where they lay exposed to the shrewdness of the winter wind.
They had gathered, instead, into the hold of the merchandise, among the
butts of wine, and lighted by two swinging lanterns.

Here a few kept up the form of revelry, and toasted each other deep in
Arblaster's Gascony wine. But as the _Good Hope_ continued to tear
through the smoking waves, and toss her stem and stern alternately high
in air and deep into white foam, the number of these jolly companions
diminished with every moment and with every lurch. Many sat apart,
tending their hurts, but the majority were already prostrated with
sickness, and lay moaning in the bilge.

Greensheve, Cuckow, and a young fellow of Lord Foxham's whom Dick had
already remarked for his intelligence and spirit, were still, however,
both fit to understand and willing to obey. These Dick set as a
bodyguard about the person of the steersman, and then, with a last look
at the black sky and sea, he turned and went below into the cabin,
whither Lord Foxham had been carried by his servants.

CHAPTER VI

THE "GOOD HOPE" (_concluded_)

The moans of the wounded baron blended with the wailing of the ship's
dog. The poor animal, whether he was merely sick at heart to be
separated from his friends, or whether he indeed recognised some peril
in the labouring of the ship, raised his cries, like minute-guns, above
the roar of wave and weather; and the more superstitious of the men
heard, in these sounds, the knell of the _Good Hope_.

Lord Foxham had been laid in a berth, upon a fur cloak. A little lamp
burned dim before the Virgin in the bulkhead, and by its glimmer Dick
could see the pale countenance and hollow eyes of the hurt man.

"I am sore hurt," said he. "Come near to my side, young Shelton; let
there be one by me who, at least, is gentle born; for after having lived
nobly and richly all the days of