ded to Crawford a paper he had
brought from Belfast. It was typewritten; it bore no address and no
signature; it was no doubt a duplicate of what Spender had taken to the
Highlands, for its purport, as given by Crawford from memory, was to the
following effect: "Owing to great changes since you left, and altered
circumstances, the Committee think it would be unwise to bring the
cargo here at present, and instruct you to proceed to the Baltic and
cruise there for three months, keeping in touch with the Committee, or
else to store the goods at Hamburg till required."

The "great changes" referred to were the operations that led to the
Curragh incident, the story of which Crawford now learnt from Agnew. The
presence of the fleet at Lamlash, and of destroyers off Carrickfergus,
was enough to make the Committee deem it an inopportune moment for
Crawford to bring his goods to Belfast Lough. But the latter was hardly
in a condition to appreciate the gravity of the situation, and the
indignation which the missive aroused in him is intelligible. After all
he had come through, the ups and downs, dangers and escapes--far more
varied than have been here recorded--the disappointment at being ordered
back was cruel; and in his eyes such instructions were despicably
pusillanimous. The caution that had prompted his instructors to leave
the order unsigned moved him to contempt, and in his wrath he was
confident that "the Chief at any rate had nothing to do with it." He
told the messenger that he did not know who had sent the paper, and did
not want to know, and instructed him to take it back and inform the
senders that, as it bore no signature, no date, no address, and no
official stamp, he declined to recognise it and refused to obey it; and,
further, that unless he received within six days properly authenticated
instructions for delivering his cargo, he would run his ship ashore at
high water in the County Down, and let the Ulstermen salve as much as
they could when the tide ebbed.

But Crawford determined to make another effort first to accomplish his
task by less desperate methods. He therefore decided to accompany the
messenger back to Belfast. The _Doreen_, late _Fanny_, was too
foreign-looking to pass unchallenged up Belfast Lough, but he believed
that if the cargo could be transhipped to a vessel known to all watchers
on the North Irish coast, a policy of audacity would have a good chance
of success. The s.s. _Balmerino_, which