he other,
but found Vaughan more ready to talk than was Roger, who had ears only
for what Mistress Lettice might please to say. Thus they proceeded till
they reached Dartmouth, close to which lay the pinnace Roger had hired.
The goods were placed on board that evening, that they might sail
without hindrance at dawn on the following morning.

The calm harbour lay in deepest shade, although the summits of the rocks
on the western side were already tinged with the rays of the rising sun,
as the pinnace, propelled by eight stout rowers, glided out towards the
blue sea, rippled over by a gentle breeze from the eastward. The
pinnace coasted along the rocky shore till the long, low point of the
Start was rounded, when, altering her course, she steered for Plymouth
Sound, keeping well inside that fearful rock, the Eddystone, on which
many a bark has left her shattered ribs. Roger talked much to Lettice
as he sat by her side. He told her of the voyages he had made, of his
last ship, when their brave pilot, that renowned navigator, John Davis,
with many of his followers, was treacherously slain by the crew of a
Chinese ship they had captured,--Roger himself, with a few fighting
desperately, having alone regained their boat as the Chinaman, bursting
into flame, blew up, all on board perishing. Lettice gasped for breath
as she listened to the tale; then Roger changed the subject and told her
of the wonderful islands of the East, with their spice-groves and
fragrant flowers; of the curious tea-plant; of the rich dresses of the
natives; of the beautiful carved work and ornaments of all sorts which
he had brought home.

"I have had them placed in my father's house, and they will please you
to look at, Mistress Lettice," he observed; "for it may be some days
before the fleet sails, and as my father could not bring himself to part
with his house, it will afford you a home while you remain at Plymouth."

Gilbert and Oliver Dane were interested listeners to Roger's tales,
though the descriptions of battles fought and hair-breadth escapes
produced a very different effect in them; while she trembled and turned
pale, they only longed to have been with Roger, and looked forward to
the opportunity some day of imitating him.

Both wind and tide had favoured the voyagers, and before sunset the
pinnace lay at anchor directly in front of Captain Layton's house. The
captain had seen them coming, and with Cicely beside him was on the
shore