ced that Captain Manuel
Nunez was a thorough-paced scoundrel, and well fitted to undertake all
manner of villainy, despite his polished manners and fine words. Also, I
was certain that there was in store for me some unpleasant and possibly
terrible fate, which I was powerless to avoid and which was certain to
come. Therefore I had resigned myself to my conditions, and only hoped
to show myself a true Englishman when my time of trouble came.

Nevertheless, many a sad hour and day did I spend, looking across the
great wild waste of gray water and wondering what they were doing at
Beechcot. In my sad thoughts and in my dreams I could see the little
hamlet nestling against the purple Wold; the brown leaves piled high
about the shivering hedgerows; the autumn sunlight shining over the
close-cropped fields; and in the manor-house the good knight, my uncle,
seated by his wood-fire, wondering what had become of me. Also I could
see the old vicarage and the vicar, good Master Timotheus, thumbing his
well-loved folios, and occasionally pushing his spectacles from his nose
to look round and inquire whether there was yet news of the boy
Humphrey. But more than these, I saw my sweetheart's face, sad and weary
with fear, and her eyes seemed as if they looked for something and were
unsatisfied. And then would come worse thoughts--thoughts of Jasper and
his villainy, and of what it might have prompted him to in the way of
lies. He would carry home a straight and an ingenious tale--I was very
sure of that. He would tell them I was drowned or kidnaped, and nobody
would doubt his story. That was the worst thought of all--that my dear
ones should be thinking of me as one dead while I was simply a prisoner,
being carried I knew not where, nor to what fate.

On the evening of the second day after the Cornish sailor came aboard,
the weather having moderated and the ship making good progress, I was
leaning over the port bulwarks moodily gazing at the sea, when I felt a
touch on my hand. Looking round, I saw the Englishman engaged in coiling
a rope close to me. He continued his task and spoke in a low voice.

"I recognized you, master," said he. "I looked through the skylight last
night as you talked with the captain, and I knew you again. I know not
how you came here, nor why, but it is strange company for a young
English gentleman."

"I was trapped on board," I said.

"I thought so," he responded. "But speak low, master, and take no heed