"Ill with _you_, fair sir?" inquired the other. "Nay, then, if ye be not
of Sir Daniel's party, I profess I comprehend no longer. Wherefore,
then, fell ye upon mine ambush? in what quarrel, my young and very fiery
friend? to what earthly purpose? and to make a clear end of
questioning, to what good gentleman have I surrendered?"

But before Dick could answer, a voice spoke in the darkness from close
by. Dick could see the speaker's black and white badge, and the
respectful salute which he addressed to his superior.

"My lord," said he, "if these gentlemen be unfriends to Sir Daniel, it
is a pity, indeed, we should have been at blows with them; but it were
tenfold greater that either they or we should linger here. The watchers
in the house--unless they be all dead or deaf--have heard our hammering
this quarter-hour agone; instantly they will have signalled to the town;
and unless we be the livelier in our departure, we are like to be taken,
both of us, by a fresh foe."

"Hawksley is in the right," added the lord. "How please ye, sir? Whither
shall we march?"

"Nay, my lord," said Dick, "go where you will for me. I do begin to
suspect we have some ground of friendship, and if, indeed, I began our
acquaintance somewhat ruggedly, I would not churlishly continue. Let us
then, separate, my lord, you laying your right hand in mine; and at the
hour and place that ye shall name, let us encounter and agree."

"Y' are too trustful, boy," said the other; "but this time your trust is
not misplaced. I will meet you at the point of day at St. Bride's
Cross.--Come, lads, follow!"

The strangers disappeared from the scene with a rapidity that seemed
suspicious; and, while the outlaws fell to the congenial task of rifling
the dead bodies, Dick made once more the circuit of the garden wall to
examine the front of the house. In a little upper loophole of the roof
he beheld a light set; and as it would certainly be visible in town from
the back windows of Sir Daniel's mansion, he doubted not that this was
the signal feared by Hawksley, and that ere long the lances of the
Knight of Tunstall would arrive upon the scene.

He put his ear to the ground, and it seemed to him as if he heard a
jarring and hollow noise from townward. Back to the beach he went
hurrying. But the work was already done; the last body was disarmed and
stripped to the skin, and four fellows were already wading seaward to
commit it to the mercies of the deep.