pection wading, now to the ankles, and now as deep
as to the knees, in the salt and icy waters of the German Ocean.

Suddenly, against the comparative whiteness of the garden wall, the
figure of a man was seen, like a faint Chinese shadow, violently
signalling with both arms. As he dropped again to the earth, another
arose a little farther on and repeated the same performance. And so,
like a silent watch-word, these gesticulations made the round of the
beleaguered garden.

"They keep good watch," Dick whispered.

"Let us back to land, good master," answered Greensheve. "We stand here
too open; for, look ye, when the seas break heavy and white out there
behind us, they shall see us plainly against the foam."

"Ye speak sooth," returned Dick. "Ashore with us, right speedily."

CHAPTER II

A SKIRMISH IN THE DARK

Thoroughly drenched and chilled, the two adventurers returned to their
position in the gorse.

"I pray Heaven that Capper make good speed!" said Dick. "I vow a candle
to St. Mary of Shoreby if he come before the hour!"

"Y' are in a hurry, Master Dick?" asked Greensheve.

"Ay, good fellow," answered Dick; "for in that house lieth my lady, whom
I love, and who should these be that lie about her secretly by night?
Unfriends for sure!"

"Well," returned Greensheve, "an John come speedily, we shall give a
good account of them. They are not two score at the outside--I judge so
by the spacing of their sentries--and, taken where they are, lying so
widely, one score would scatter them like sparrows. And yet, Master
Dick, an she be in Sir Daniel's power already, it will little hurt that
she should change into another's. Who should these be?"

"I do suspect the Lord of Shoreby," Dick replied. "When came they?"

"They began to come, Master Dick," said Greensheve, "about the time ye
crossed the wall. I had not lain there the space of a minute ere I
marked the first of the knaves crawling round the corner."

The last light had been already extinguished in the little house when
they were wading in the wash of the breakers, and it was impossible to
predict at what moment the lurking men about the garden wall might make
their onslaught. Of two evils, Dick preferred the least. He preferred
that Joanna should remain under the guardianship of Sir Daniel rather
than pass into the clutches of Lord Shoreby; and his mind was made up,
if the house should be assaulted, to come at once to the relief of the
besieged