ty, and occasionally their lives when we found that
necessary to our own safety."

I felt my flesh creep, and yet the fascination of it was stronger than
the dread.

"You mean you killed them?" I asked, gazing into his face as if I had
never seen it before.

"We had to, sometimes, lest they should tell tales against us. Off
Mauritius we were chased more than once by a sloop of war, and it
would have gone hard with us if we had been captured. The French there
have got a devil of a governor, La Bourdonnais, and he has vessels
perpetually prowling up and down in those seas, and as far as
Pondicherry and Chandernagore. But what do you say, cousin? Are you
man enough to join us? You have the right stuff in you, I warrant--all
the Fords have. Our great-grandfather fought at Naseby, and though he
was a scurvy Roundhead, I'll swear he gave a good account of himself."

I hesitated, my whole heart on fire to accept, and yet held back by a
subtle distrust for which I could in no way account.

"Come, boy, you have only to slip away to-morrow night, after I have
gone, and join me privately in Yarmouth, at the sign of the
'Three-decker.' I will tell my worthy uncle in the morning that I am
on my way to East Dereham and Lynn, so it will be long enough before
they suspect where you are gone. And by the time the hue and cry
reaches Yarmouth you shall be safely stowed in the hold of the _Fair
Maid_, or maybe in a snug attic of the tavern, where only a bird could
find you out."

I made little more ado, but gave my consent, whereupon my cousin,
reaching down to the pocket of his breeches which he had cast on the
foot of the bed, drew out a golden guinea, which he pressed into my
hand.

"Here is handsel for your engagement," he said. And that settled, he
turned over and betook himself to sleep, leaving me to get out of bed
and extinguish the light.

But I could not sleep so easily, and lay there tossing and turning far
into the night, while I speculated on the new life that lay before me
and all the great deeds I would do.

CHAPTER II

_THE TAVERN OF THE "THREE-DECKER"_

Early in the morning after breakfast Cousin Rupert left us, giving
out, as he had promised, that he was on the way to see his father at
Lynn. And as he told me afterwards, he kept his horse on that road
till he had passed through the village, when he turned, and skirting
the river as far as Raynham ferry, crossed it there, and so rode into
Yarmouth.