," said the other. "My brother will assuredly hang
as you have said if he bides him here. He is lost if they bring him to
trial. And in that case, faith, I am lost too. It dishonours a man's
family to have a member of it hanged. 'Tis a horrible thing to have
happen."

"Indeed, indeed!" the sailor agreed encouragingly.

"I would abstract him from this," pursued Lionel, and at the same time
cursed the foul fiend that prompted him such specious words to cloak
his villainy. "I would abstract him from it, and yet 'tis against my
conscience that he should go unpunished for I swear to you, Master
Leigh, that I abhor the deed--a cowardly, murderous deed!"

"Ah!" said the captain. And lest that grim ejaculation should check his
gentleman he made haste to add--"To be sure! To be sure!"

Master Lionel stopped and faced the other squarely, his shoulders to
his horse. They were quite alone in as lonely a spot as any conspirator
could desire. Behind him stretched the empty beach, ahead of him the
ruddy cliffs that rise gently to the wooded heights of Arwenack.

"I'll be quite plain and open with you, Master Leigh. Peter Godolphin
was my friend. Sir Oliver is no more than my half-brother. I would give
a deal to the man who would abstract Sir Oliver secretly from the doom
that hangs over him, and yet do the thing in such a way that Sir Oliver
should not thereby escape the punishment he deserves."

It was strange, he thought, even as he said it, that he could bring his
lips so glibly to utter words that his heart detested.

The captain looked grim. He laid a finger upon Master Lionel's velvet
doublet in line with that false heart of his.

"I am your man," said he. "But the risk is great. Yet ye say that ye'ld
give a deal...."

"Yourself shall name the price," said Lionel quickly, his eyes burning
feverishly, his cheeks white.

"Oh I can contrive it, never fear," said the captain. "I know to a
nicety what you require. How say you now: if I was to carry him overseas
to the plantations where they lack toilers of just such thews as his?"
He lowered his voice and spoke with some slight hesitation, fearing
that he proposed perhaps more than his prospective employer might
desire.

"He might return," was the answer that dispelled all doubts on that
score.

"Ah!" said the skipper. "What o' the Barbary rovers, then! They lack
slaves and are ever ready to trade, though they be niggardly payers. I
never heard of none that returned on