a lusty banging at the door.

"Plague take 'em!" exclaimed the contemplative youth; "I'll not go."

A little, dark-haired maiden, who, with her mother, formed the whole of
the farmer's domestic establishment, came into the room.

"The admiral's man would speak with you, master," she said.

Johnnie's feet were on the floor in an instant. "Show him in," he
cried.

A weather-beaten Devon man, sailor to his finger-tips, rolled into the
room. The two men gripped hands.

"At last?" asked Johnnie in a low tone.

"At last!" was the reply. "Gatcombe jetty at nightfall, and well
armed."

"I'll be there."

Without further words the messenger turned about and went elsewhere on
his errand. Morgan at once got out his sword, put on a thick leathern
doublet and boots reaching to his thighs. Then, well knowing that he
might be setting out on an all-night expedition, he proceeded to eat a
hasty but hearty supper.

At the appointed time he stood with about a dozen others on the
river-bank. The tide was about at half-flow and running strongly;
moreover, a breeze was coming up behind it from the south-west. There
was no moon, clouds were packing, and there was every sign of a
pitch-dark night. The admiral's roomy boat, with its mast stepped and
sail ready for hoisting, bobbed up and down on the water. Drake
himself was there to receive his men.

"A rare night on the river for fish poachers, smugglers, and other
nefarious rascals," said he.

"True, admiral," answered a Gatcombe pilot; "and I trow we shall find
it trying work looking for black men on a black night."

"Well spoken, master pilot; but if thou canst keep our lives free of
danger from shoal and sandbank, we'll e'en try to do the rest."

"I'll warrant ye safe passage anywhere 'twixt Chepstow and Gloucester,
Sir Francis."

"I ask no more.--Now, gentlemen, aboard!"

In silence the chosen band seated themselves. "Take the tiller, pilot;
I myself will attend to the sail. Do thou, Master Morgan, seat thyself
in the bow and maintain a sharp lookout; thine eyes are younger than
mine, and more used to the lights of the river." The anchor was lifted
in, and immediately the boat swung round into the path of the racing
waters. "Make for the other side," ordered Drake, "and lay to in the
backwater under the bank."

A few deft strokes of the oars carried the boat into the rush of the
tide; for an instant it hung wavering, and then shot off like an arrow
up a