e suspicion of these two speechless figures;
and, being soberer than his captain, stepped suddenly before him, took
Lawless roughly by the shoulder, and asked him, with an oath, what ailed
him that he held his tongue. To this the outlaw, thinking all was over,
made answer by a wrestling feint that stretched the sailor on the sand,
and, calling upon Dick to follow him, took to his heels among the
lumber.

The affair passed in a second. Before Dick could run at all, Arblaster
had him in his arms; Tom, crawling on his face, had caught him by one
foot, and the third man had a drawn cutlass brandishing above his head.

It was not so much the danger, it was not so much the annoyance that now
bowed down the spirits of young Shelton; it was the profound humiliation
to have escaped Sir Daniel, convinced Lord Risingham, and now fall
helpless into the hands of this old drunken sailor; and not merely
helpless, but, as his conscience loudly told him when it was too late,
actually guilty--actually the bankrupt debtor of the man whose ship he
had stolen and lost.

"Bring me him back into the alehouse, till I see his face," said
Arblaster.

"Nay, nay," returned Tom; "but let us first unload his wallet, lest the
other lads cry share."

But though he was searched from head to foot not a penny was found upon
him; nothing but Lord Foxham's signet, which they plucked savagely from
his finger.

"Turn me him to the moon," said the skipper; and taking Dick by the
chin, he cruelly jerked his head into the air. "Blessed Virgin!" he
cried, "it is the pirate."

"Hey!" cried Tom.

"By the Virgin of Bordeaux, it is the man himself!" repeated
Arblaster.--"What, sea-thief, do I hold you?" he cried. "Where is my
ship? Where is my wine? Hey! have I you in my hands?--Tom, give me one
end of a cord here; I will so truss me this sea-thief, hand and foot
together, like a basting turkey--marry, I will so bind him up--and
thereafter I will so beat--so beat him!"

And so he ran on, winding the cord meanwhile about Dick's limbs with the
dexterity peculiar to seamen, and at every turn and cross securing it
with a knot, and tightening the whole fabric with a savage pull.

When he had done, the lad was a mere package in his hands--as helpless
as the dead. The skipper held him at arm's-length, and laughed aloud.
Then he fetched him a stunning buffet on the ear; and then turned him
about, and furiously kicked and kicked him. Anger rose up in Dick's
bos