h he, grasping Adam's hand, "I'm man o' few words, an'
thanks t' you I'm snug enough here wi' my wife and darter as is away
till this cargo's run, but, say the word, and I'll sail along o' you
come battle, murder or shipwreck--"

"Or a hook, Joel?" says Penfeather softly, whereat Joel clawed at his
beard and blinked into the lanthorn; finally he gives a great tug to
his beard and nods:

"Aye, Cap'n," says he, "for you--even that, by cock!"

"Good lad," says Penfeather, clapping him on brawny shoulder. "Bide
where you are, Jo, and Fortune with you and yours. This way, Martin."

So having taken our leave of Bym, Godby and I followed Adam along the
passage, guided by the Bo's'n's lanthorn until, turning a sudden, sharp
corner, we plunged into pitchy gloom wherein I groped my way until
Penfeather's voice stayed me:

"Easy all!" says he, softly. "Have your pistols ready and heed how you
come." Creeping cautiously I found myself amid leaves that yielded
before me, and stepping through this natural screen, I stumbled into a
bush and presently found myself standing in a small copse dim-lighted
by a waning moon; and never a sound to be heard save the soft whisper
of leaves about us and the faint, far cry of some night-bird.

"Ha!" says Adam at last, gazing away to the sinking moon, "So our
journey begins, and from the look o' things, Martin, from the look o'
things here's going to be need of all your resolution and all my
caution ere we can see the end. Come!"

CHAPTER XIV

HOW I CAME ABOARD THE "FAITHFUL FRIEND"

We followed a roundabout course, now across broad meadows, now treading
green cart-tracks, now climbing some grassy upland, anon plunging into
the shadow of lonely wood or coppice until the moon was down, until was
a glimmer of dawn with low-lying mists brimming every grassy hollow and
creeping phantom-like in leafy boskages; until in the east was a glory,
warming the grey mist to pink and amber and gold, and the sun,
uprising, darted his level beams athwart our way and it was day.

And now from coppice and hedgerow, near and far, was stir and flutter,
a whistling and a piping that rose ever louder and swelled to a
trilling ecstasy of gladness.

"Hark to 'em--O pal, hark to 'em!" quoth Godby, lifting head to watch a
lark that soared aloft. "Here's music, Martin, here's cure for the
megrims, hope for the downcast and promise o' joys to come. O hark to
'em!"

All the day Penfeather led us on by l