een looking back over her
stern. One of them waved a white kerchief in derision, and Cock Badding
swore a bitter oath at the sight.

"By Saint Leonard of Winchelsea," he cried, "I will rub my side up
against her yet! Out with the skiff, lads, and two of you to the oars.
Make fast the line to the mast, Will. Do you go in the boat, Hugh, and
I'll make the second. Now if we bend our backs to it we may have them
yet ere night cover them."

The little skiff was swiftly lowered over the side and the slack end of
the cable fastened to the after thwart. Cock Badding and his comrades
pulled as if they would snap their oars, and the little vessel began
slowly to lurch forward over the rollers. But the next moment a larger
skiff had splashed over the side of the Frenchman, and no less than four
seamen were hard at work under her bows. If the Marie Rose advanced a
yard the Frenchman was going two. Again Cock Badding raved and shook his
fist. He clambered aboard, his face wet with sweat and dark with anger.

"Curse them! they have had the best of us!" he cried. "I can do no more.
Sir John has lost his papers, for indeed now that night is at hand I can
see no way in which we can gain them."

Nigel had leaned against the bulwark during these events, watching with
keen attention the doings of the sailors, and praying alternately to
Saint Paul, Saint George, and Saint Thomas for a slant of wind which
would put them along side their enemy. He was silent; but his hot heart
was simmering within him. His spirit had risen even above the discomfort
of the sea, and his mind was too absorbed in his mission to have a
thought for that which had laid Aylward flat upon the deck. He had never
doubted that Cock Badding in one way or another would accomplish his
end, but when he heard his speech of despair he bounded off the bulwark
and stood before the seaman with his face flushed and all his soul
afire.

"By Saint Paul! master-shipman," he cried, "we should never hold up our
heads in honor if we did not go further into the matter! Let us do some
small deed this night upon the water, or let us never see land again,
for indeed we could not wish fairer prospect of winning honorable
advancement."

"With your leave, little master, you speak like a fool," said the gruff
seaman. "You and all your kind are as children when once the blue water
is beneath you. Can you not see that there is no wind, and that the
Frenchman can warp her as swiftly as we?