the risks?"

"I know that, of course, there is a certain amount of danger, sir, but do
not consider it to be excessive. At any rate I am ready to try it."

"I am very much obliged to you," the captain said, "for we are all anxious
to get away from this place; but mind, I cannot but consider that the risk
is considerable. With our glasses we constantly see bodies of horsemen
riding along the sands, and have sometimes noticed solitary men, no doubt
sentinels; and it is probably because of them that the messenger we
expected has not been able to put out. I will give you his address. He
lives within half a mile of Amsterdam, in a house near the shore of the
Texel. When are you prepared to start?"

"This evening if you wish it, sir."

"Well, I think the sooner you go the better. If you land to-night I will
send the boat ashore to the same spot to-morrow night. They will lie off
two or three hundred yards, and come to your whistle."

"Very well, sir."

Will had no preparations to make for his journey. He received a letter
from the captain authorizing the man to give every information in his
power to the bearer, and with this in his pocket he took his place in the
boat after dark and was rowed towards the shore. The _Artemis_ was four
miles from the land when he embarked in the gig, the oars were muffled,
and the men were enjoined to row with the greatest care when they
approached the land. An officer went in charge, and the _Artemis_ was to
show a light an hour after they started, so that they could find their way
back to her. Will chatted in a whisper to the officer till they were, he
judged, within half a mile of the land. Then they rowed on in perfect
silence till the keel grated on the sands. At that moment a musket shot
was heard from a sand-hill a couple of hundred yards away. Will leapt out
and ran at full speed for some little distance, and then threw himself
down. The shots were repeated from point to point, and men ran down to the
water's edge and fired after the retiring boat.

Presently the noise ceased. Whether he had been seen or not he could not
say, but he hoped that, although the sentinel had made out the boat
against the slight surf that broke on the beach, he had not been able to
see him leave it. He got up cautiously, and, stooping low, moved off until
he was quite certain that he was well beyond the line of sentries. Once or
twice he heard the galloping of parties of men, evidently attracted by the