l into the hands of the Spaniards, especially if they happen to
be Protestants--and I greatly fear me that some of those who were taken
with Hu may be in grave peril of those dangers of which Dyer has spoken.
But not Hubert. Hubert was an officer, and it is very rare for even
Spaniards to treat captive officers with anything short of courtesy. I
fear that our dear lad may have to endure a long term of perhaps
rigorous imprisonment; he may be condemned to solitary confinement, and
be obliged to put up with coarse food; but they will scarcely dare to
torture him, still less to condemn him to the _auto-da-fe_. Oh, no,
they will not do that! But while Dyer has been talking, I have been
thinking, and my mind is already made up. Hubert must not be permitted
to languish a day longer in prison than we can help. Therefore I shall
at once set to work to organise an expedition for his rescue, and trust
me, if he does not contrive to escape meanwhile--as he is like enough to
do--I will have him out of the Spaniards' hands in six months from the
time of my departure from Plymouth."

At the outset Dyer had listened to George's speech in open-mouthed
amazement, and some little contempt for what he regarded as the young
man's ignorance; but even his dense intellect could not at last fail to
grasp the inward meaning and intention of the speaker; a lightning flash
of intelligence revealed to him that it was not ignorance but a desire
to spare his mother the anguish of long-drawn-out anxiety and the agony
resulting from the mental pictures drawn by a woman's too vivid
imagination; and forthwith he rose nobly to the exigencies of the
occasion by chiming in with:

"Ay, ay, Mr Garge, you'm right, sir. Trust your brother to get away
from they bloody-minded Spaniards if they gives him half a chance. For
all that we knows he may ha' done it a'ready. And if he haven't, and
you makes up your mind to fit out an expedition to go in search of mun,
take me with ye, sir. I'll sarve ye well as pilot, Mr Garge, none
better, sir. I've been twice to the Indies wi' Cap'n Drake, once under
Cap'n Lovell and now again under Cap'n Hawkins. And I've a grudge to
pay off again' the Spaniards; for at La Hacha they played pretty much
the same trick upon Cap'n Lovell as they did this time upon Cap'n
Hawkins."

"Aha! is that the case?" said George. "Then of course you know the
Indies well?"

"Ay, that do I, sir," answered Dyer, "every inch of 'em; fr