his momentary glitter Dick could see a couple of men hauling the
skiff alongside.

"There, sir," said Lawless, "mark ye it well! There is the ship for
to-night."

Presently the skiff put out from the vessel's side, and the two men,
keeping her head well to the wind, pulled lustily for shore. Lawless
turned to a loiterer.

"How call ye her?" he asked, pointing to the little vessel.

"They call her the _Good Hope_, of Dartmouth," replied the loiterer.
"Her captain, Arblaster by name. He pulleth the bow oar in yon skiff."

This was all that Lawless wanted. Hurriedly thanking the man, he moved
round the shore to a certain sandy creek, for which the skiff was
heading. There he took up his position, and as soon as they were within
earshot, opened fire on the sailors of the _Good Hope_.

"What! Gossip Arblaster!" he cried. "Why, ye be well met; nay, gossip,
ye be right well met, upon the rood! And is that the _Good Hope_? Ay, I
would know her among ten thousand!--a sweet shear, a sweet boat! But
marry, come up, my gossip, will ye drink? I have come into mine estate,
which doubtless ye remember to have heard on. I am now rich; I have left
to sail upon the sea; I do sail now, for the most part, upon spiced ale.
Come, fellow; thy hand upon 't! Come, drink with an old ship-fellow!"

Skipper Arblaster, a long-faced, elderly, weather-beaten man, with a
knife hanging about his neck by a plaited cord, and for all the world
like any modern seaman in his gait and bearing, had hung back in obvious
amazement and distrust. But the name of an estate, and a certain air of
tipsified simplicity and good-fellowship which Lawless very well
affected, combined to conquer his suspicious jealousy; his countenance
relaxed, and he at once extended his open hand and squeezed that of the
outlaw in a formidable grasp.

"Nay," he said, "I cannot mind you. But what o' that? I would drink with
any man, gossip, and so would my man Tom.--Man Tom," he added,
addressing his follower, "here is my gossip, whose name I cannot mind,
but no doubt a very good seaman. Let's go drink with him and his shore
friend."

Lawless led the way, and they were soon seated in an alehouse, which, as
it was very new, and stood in an exposed and solitary station, was less
crowded than those nearer to the centre of the port. It was but a shed
of timber, much like a block-house in the backwoods of to-day, and was
coarsely furnished with a press or two, a number of naked benc