lock had passed--the hour by which
the return of the ship's papers had been promised--Crawford weighed
anchor, and crept out of the narrow channel under cover of the fog, only
narrowly escaping going aground on the way among the banks and shallows
that made it impossible to sail before daylight, but eventually the open
sea was safely reached. But the _Fanny_ was now without papers, and in
law was a pirate ship. It was therefore desirable for her to change her
costume. As many hands as possible were turned to the task of giving a
new colour to the funnel and making some other effective alterations in
her appearance, including a new name on her bows and stern. Thus
renovated, and after a delay of some days, caused by trifling mishaps,
she left the Cattegat behind and steered a course for British waters.

The original plan had been to set a course for Iceland, and, when north
of the Shetlands, to turn to the southward to Lough Laxford, the agreed
rendezvous with Spender. But the incident at Langeland, which had made
the Danish authorities suspect illegal traffic with Iceland, made a
change of plan imperative. Before leaving Danish waters Crawford tried
to communicate this change to Belfast. But, meantime, information had
reached Belfast of certain measures being taken by the Government, and
Spender, hoping to catch Crawford before he left Kiel, went to Dublin to
telegraph from there. In Dublin he was dismayed to read in the
newspapers that a mysterious vessel called the _Fanny_, said to be
carrying arms for Ulster, had been captured by the Danish authorities in
the Baltic. For several days no further news reached Belfast, where it
was assumed that the whole enterprise had failed; and then a code
message informed the Committee that Crawford was in London.

Spender at once went over to see him, in order to warn him not to bring
the arms to Ireland for the present. He was to take them back to
Hamburg, or throw them overboard, or sink the _Fanny_ and take to her
boats, according to circumstances. But in London, instead of Crawford,
Spender found the Hamburg skipper and packer, who told him of Crawford's
escape from Langeland with the loss of the ship's papers. Spender,
knowing nothing of Crawford's change of plan, and anxious to convey to
him the latest instructions, went off on a wild-goose chase to the
Highlands of Scotland, where he spent the best part of an unhappy week
watching the waves tumbling in Lough Laxford, and loo