a few
hours; and Miss Harcourt could very well pretend to be still ill
and weak, and could lie down in a corner, and I could cover her up
with a blanket till we got there.

"Once across, I don't so much mind. Even if we were detected, we
should simply be two fugitives from here, trying to make our way to
Gibraltar; and I don't think there would be any question of my
being a spy. We should probably be sent to wherever they keep the
English prisoners they have taken in ships; and there would be
nothing very dreadful in that, even for her. We should probably be
exchanged, before long. There have been several batches sent in to
the Rock, in exchange for prisoners taken in prizes brought in by
privateers."

"Well, I really think that that would be the best way, Mr. Repton.
As you say, there will be nothing very dreadful in detention for a
while, with the Spaniards; while there is no saying what may happen
here. If you like, I will send one of the consulate servants out,
the first thing in the morning, to inquire what ports the Spanish
craft are bound for, and when they are likely to sail. They seldom
stop more than two or three days, here. Most of them are taking
livestock across for the use of the Spanish army and, though
Algeciras would be an awkward place for you to land at because, if
detected there, you would be more likely to be treated as a spy;
still, in a busy place like that, no one would notice a couple of
young sailors, and it would be no great distance for you to walk
over to Tarifa, or any of the villages on the Straits.

"But how do you propose to get in from there? That is what seems to
me the great difficulty."

"Well, I got in before," Bob said, "and do not think that there
ought to be much difficulty in getting hold of a boat. If I did, I
should sail round the Point and, keeping well outside the line of
cruisers, come down on the coast the other side of Gibraltar; and
so work along at night, just as I did before. If I found it
absolutely impossible to get a boat, of course, I could not--with
the girl with me--try to swim across from the head of the bay to
the Rock; which is what I should have done, had I been alone. So I
should then go to the authorities and give myself up; and say that,
being afraid that the Moors intend to massacre all the English at
Tangiers, I had come across with this young lady, who is the
daughter of an officer of the garrison, to put her into Spanish
hands; knowing that ther