s shouting from the shore showed that a part, at least, of the
seamen had discovered the loss of their skiffs.

But it was now too late, whether for recovery or revenge. Out of some
forty fighting men now mustered in the stolen ship, eight had been to
sea, and could play the part of mariners. With the aid of these, a slice
of sail was got upon her. The cable was cut. Lawless, vacillating on his
feet, and still shouting the chorus of sea-ballads, took the long tiller
in his hands: and the _Good Hope_ began to flit forward into the
darkness of the night, and to face the great waves beyond the harbour
bar.

Richard took his place beside the weather rigging. Except for the ship's
own lantern, and for some lights in Shoreby town, that were already
fading to leeward, the whole world of air was as black as in a pit. Only
from time to time, as the _Good Hope_ swooped dizzily down into the
valley of the rollers, a crest would break--a great cataract of snowy
foam would leap in one instant into being--and, in an instant more,
would stream into the wake and vanish.

Many of the men lay holding on and praying aloud; many more were sick,
and had crept into the bottom, where they sprawled among the cargo. And
what with the extreme violence of the motion, and the continued drunken
bravado of Lawless, still shouting and singing at the helm, the stoutest
heart on board may have nourished a shrewd misgiving as to the result.

But Lawless, as if guided by an instinct, steered the ship across the
breakers, struck the lee of a great sand-bank, where they sailed for
awhile in smooth water, and presently after laid her alongside a rude
stone pier, where she was hastily made fast, and lay ducking and
grinding in the dark.

CHAPTER V

THE "GOOD HOPE"

(CONTINUED)

The pier was not far distant from the house in which Joanna lay; it now
only remained to get the men on shore, to surround the house with a
strong party, burst in the door and carry off the captive. They might
then regard themselves as done with the _Good Hope_; it had placed them
on the rear of their enemies; and the retreat, whether they should
succeed or fail in the main enterprise, would be directed with a greater
measure of hope in the direction of the forest and my Lord Foxham's
reserve.

To get the men on shore, however, was no easy task; many had been sick,
all were pierced with cold; the promiscuity and disorder on board had
shaken their discipline; the mo