ly guarded.

"What want ye?" asked Dick.

"The house is watched, Master Shelton," returned the outlaw. "We are not
alone to watch it; for even as I lay on my belly on the wall I saw men
prowling in the dark, and heard them whistle softly one to the other."

"By my sooth," said Dick, "but this is passing strange! Were they not
men of Sir Daniel's?"

"Nay, sir, that they were not," returned Greensheve; "for if I have eyes
in my head, every man-Jack of them weareth me a white badge in his
bonnet, something chequered with dark."

"White, chequered with dark?" repeated Dick. "Faith, 'tis a badge I know
not. It is none of this country's badges.--Well, an that be so, let us
slip as quietly forth from this garden as we may; for here we are in an
evil posture for defence. Beyond all question there are men of Sir
Daniel's in that house, and to be taken between two shots is a
beggarman's position. Take me this ladder; I must leave it where I
found it."

They returned the ladder to the stable, and groped their way to the
place where they had entered.

Capper had taken Greensheve's position on the cope, and now he leaned
down his hand, and, first one and then the other, pulled them up.

Cautiously and silently they dropped again upon the other side; nor did
they dare to speak until they had returned to their old ambush in the
gorse.

"Now, John Capper," said Dick, "back with you to Shoreby, even as for
your life. Bring me instantly what men ye can collect. Here shall be the
rendezvous; or if the men be scattered and the day be near at hand
before they muster, let the place be something farther back, and by the
entering in of the town. Greensheve and I lie here to watch. Speed ye,
John Capper, and the saints aid you to despatch!--And now, Greensheve,"
he continued, as soon as Capper had departed, "let thou and I go round
about the garden in a wide circuit. I would fain see whether thine eyes
betrayed thee."

Keeping well outwards from the wall, and profiting by every height and
hollow, they passed about two sides, beholding nothing. On the third
side the garden wall was built close upon the beach, and to preserve the
distance necessary to their purpose, they had to go some way down upon
the sands. Although the tide was still pretty far out, the surf was so
high, and the sands so flat, that at each breaker a great sheet of froth
and water came careering over the expanse, and Dick and Greensheve made
this part of their ins