er in his life had he tasted bread so sweet!--and the strips of
boiled bacon in between came surely from a most unusual pig--a porker of
sorts, without a doubt, and of most extraordinary attainment in the nice
balancing of lean and fat, and the induing of both with vital juices of
the utmost strength and sweetness. Truly, a most celestial pig!--and he
was very hungry.

Had he been a pagan he would most likely have offered a portion of his
slim rations as thank-offering to his gods, for they had come to him at
risk of a girl's life. As it was, he ate them very thoughtfully to the
very last crumb, and was grateful.

They had been wrapped in a piece of white linen, and then tied tightly
in oiled cloth, and were hardly damped with sea-water. The piece of
linen and the oiled cloth and the bits of cord he folded up carefully
and put inside his coat.

They spoke of Nance. If they had drowned her she would have gone with
them tied on to her head. He took them out again, and kissed them, and
put them back.

Thank God, she had got through safely! Thank God! Thank God!

He shivered in the blaze of the sun as his eyes rested on the waves of
the Race, bristling up against the run of the tide as usual, and he
thought of what it might have meant to him this morning.

It had swallowed Bernel. In spite of his hopeful words to Nance, he
feared the brave lad was gone. And it might have swallowed Nance. And if
it had--it might as well have him, too. For it was only thought of Nance
that made life bearable to him.

The sun wheeled his silvery dance along the waters; the day wore
on;--and still no sign of the invaders. Sark looked as utterly deserted
as it must have done in the lone days after the monks left it, when, for
two hundred years, it was given over to the birds, till de Carteret and
his merry men came across from Jersey and woke it up to life again.

And then, of a sudden, his heart kicked within him as if it would climb
into his throat and choke him; for, round the distant point of the
Laches, a boat had stolen out, and, as he watched it anxiously, there
came another, and another, and another. They were coming!

Four boat-loads! That ought to be enough to make full sure of him. He
wondered why they had not come sooner, for the tide was on the rise, and
the landing-places did not look tempting.

His gun was under his hand, and his powder-flask and his little bag of
shot. He had no more preparations to make, and he had no