k-outs to
the utmost, and causing young Saint Leger to frequently quit his cabin
to personally assure himself that his instructions were being carried
out in their entirety. But nothing in the slightest degree suspicious
was observed until shortly after three o'clock in the morning, when
Dyer, the pilot, whose watch it then was, suddenly presented himself at
the door of George's cabin with the startling intimation that two of the
plate ships, if not three, seemed to have slipped their cables and were
getting under way. "There baint a light to be seed aboard any of 'em,"
he reported, "and it's so dark as Tophet, but I be certain sure that two
of they ships is settin' their canvas, and there be another that, to my
mind, be adrift."

"But how can that be, when we have the officers of the ships aboard
here?" demanded George as he sprang from his cot and followed Dyer out
on deck.

"Don't know, I'm sure," answered Dyer; "but it's a fact that some of 'em
be gettin' under way."

As the pair emerged from the poop cabin, they were met by Drew, the
boatswain, who reported:

"There be four of 'em on the move now, Cap'n; and I baint at all sure
but where there's one or two more of 'em makin' ready for a start,
though the light be that bad--"

"Mr Dyer," interrupted George crisply, "let our cable be buoyed, ready
for slipping, and call all hands, if you please, to fighting stations.
Also, let the sail-trimmers be sent aloft to loose the canvas. We will
get under way at once. It is too dark for me to see anything just now,
coming directly from the lighted cabin, but I'll take your word for it
that things are as you say. Evidently, there is treachery afoot again,
somewhere; and it will never do to allow any of those plate ships to
escape. Rather than permit that to happen, I'll sink them!"

Thereupon there ensued on board the _Nonsuch_ a brief period of intense
but almost silent activity, during which the severely strict discipline
which Saint Leger had imposed upon his crew amply justified itself, for
every man exactly knew his station and the duty which the exigencies of
the moment demanded of him, and did it without the need of a single
superfluous order. A few cries there were, of course, demanding that
this or that rope should be let go, or intimating that such and such a
sail was ready for setting, for the darkness was so intense that it was
impossible to see exactly everything that was happening even aboard
their