om Barbadoes
and Margarita, all along the coast of the Main right up to San Juan de
Ulua there ain't a port or a harbour that I haven't been into. I do
believe as I knows more about that coast than the Spaniards
theirselves."

"Very well, Dyer," returned George. "In that case you will no doubt be
a very useful man to have, and you may rest assured that, should I
succeed in organising an expedition, I will afford you the opportunity
to go with me. Ah! here comes your supper at last--" as the maid Lucy
appeared with a well-stocked tray--"Draw up, man, and fall to. You must
stay with us to-night--is not that so mother?" And upon receiving an
affirmative nod from his mother the young man continued--"and to-morrow
I will send you over to Cawsand in our own boat."

Whereupon, Dyer, pious seaman that he was, having first given God thanks
for the good food so bountifully set before him, fell upon the viands
with the appetite of a man who has been two months at sea upon less than
half rations, and made such a meal as caused Mrs Saint Leger to open
her eyes wide with astonishment, despite the terrible anxiety on behalf
of her first-born that was tugging at her heart-strings and setting
every nerve in her delicate, sensitive frame a-jangle. And, between
mouthfuls, the seaman did his best to reply to the questions with which
George Saint Leger plied him; for it may as well be set down here at
once that no sooner did the youngster learn the fact of his capture by
the Spaniards than he came to the resolution to rescue Hubert, if rescue
were possible; and, if not, to make the Spaniards pay very dearly for
his death. But to resolve was one thing, and to carry out that
resolution quite another, as George Saint Leger discovered immediately
that he took the first steps toward the realisation of his plan--which
was on the following morning. For he was confronted at the very outset
with the difficulty of finance. He was a lad of rapid ideas, and his
knowledge of seafaring matters, and the Spaniards, had enabled him to
formulate the outlines of a scheme, even while listening to Dyer's
relation of the incidents of Hawkins' and Drake's disastrous voyage.
But he fully recognised, even while planning his scheme, that to
translate it into action would necessitate an expenditure far beyond his
own unaided resources. True, his mother was very comfortably off,
possessing an income amply sufficient for all her needs derived from the
well-