on a shoal. Before dawn it will turn, and, if I read the
sky aright, blow hard off land."

"What have the bargemen to say?" asked Foy.

"Only that for these four days they have been lying here forbidden to
move, and that their craft are to be searched to-morrow by a party of
soldiers, and the cargo taken out of them piecemeal."

"So," said Foy, "well, I hope that by then what they seek will be far
away. Now show us this ship."

Then Hans took them down the hatchway, for the little vessel was decked,
being in shape and size not unlike a modern Norfolk herring boat, though
somewhat more slightly built. Then having lit a lantern, he showed them
the cargo. On the top were bags of salt. Dragging one or two of these
aside, Hans uncovered the heads of five barrels, each of them marked
with the initial _B_ in white paint.

"That is what men will die for before to-morrow night," he said.

"The treasure?" asked Foy.

He nodded. "These five, none of the others." Then still lower down
he pointed out other barrels, eight of them, filled with the best
gunpowder, and showed them too where the slow matches ran to the little
cabin, the cook's galley, the tiller and the prow, by means of any one
of which it could be fired. After this and such inspection of the ropes
and sails as the light would allow, they sat in the cabin waiting till
the wind should change, while the two watching men unmoored the vessel
and made her sails ready for hoisting. An hour passed, and still the
breeze blew from the sea, but in uncertain chopping gusts. Then it fell
altogether.

"Pray God it comes soon," said Martin, "for the owner of that finger
in your pocket will have laid the hounds on to our slot long ago, and,
look! the east grows red."

The silent, hard-faced Hans leant forward and stared up the darkling
water, his hand behind his ear.

"I hear them," he said presently.

"Who?" asked Foy.

"The Spaniards and the wind--both," he answered. "Come, up with the
mainsail and pole her out to midstream."

So the three of them took hold of the tackle and ran aft with it, while
the rings and booms creaked and rattled as the great canvas climbed the
mast. Presently it was set, and after it the jib. Then, assisted by
the two watchmen thrusting from another of the boats, they pushed the
_Swallow_ from her place in the line out into mid-stream. But all this
made noise and took time, and now men appeared upon the bank, calling to
know who dared to mov