anything, I knew that I had been tricked. My clothes had been removed
and were lying on a chair near me. My watch and money were
undisturbed. I had a severe pain in my head. I dressed and went up on
deck. The Captain was there.

"'You must have had a night of it in Gravesend,' he said. 'You were
like a dead man when they brought you aboard.'

"'Where am I going?' I asked.

"'To New York,' he answered with a laugh. 'You must have had a time!'

"How much is the fare?"

"'Young man, that need not concern you,' said the Captain. 'Your fare
has been paid in full. I saw them put a letter in your pocket. Have
you read it?'"

Jack found the letter and read:

"DEAR SIR--When you see this you will be well out of danger and, it is
hoped, none the worse for your dissipation. This from one who admires
your skill and courage and who advises you to keep out of England for
at least a year.

"A WELL WISHER."

He looked back over the stern of the ship. The shore had fallen out of
sight. The sky was clear. The sun shining. The wind was blowing from
the east.

He stood for a long time looking toward the land he had left.

"Oh, ye wings of the wind! take my love to her and give her news of me
and bid her to be steadfast in her faith and hope," he whispered.

He leaned against the bulwark and tried to think.

"Sir Benjamin has seen to it," he said to himself. "I shall have no
opportunity to meet her again."

He reviewed the events of the day and their under-current of intrigue.
The King himself might have been concerned in that and Preston also.
It had been on the whole a rather decent performance, he mused, and
perhaps it had kept him out of worse trouble than he was now in. But
what had happened to Margaret?

He reread her note.

"My father has learned of our meeting and of how it came about," he
quoted.

"More bribery," he thought. "The intrigante naturally sold her
services to the highest bidder."

He recalled the violent haste with which the coach had rolled away from
the place of meeting. Had that been due to a fear that Margaret would
defeat their plans?

All these speculations and regrets were soon put away. But for a long
time one cause of worry was barking at his heels. It slept beside him
and often touched and awoke him at night. He had been responsible for
the death of a human being. What an unlucky hour he had had at Sir
John Pringle's! Yet he found a degree of comf