other quickly.

Hubert put out his hand to her.

"No, no," he said, "I have written to tell him I cannot. I must take my
father's place here. He will understand"; and he gave one swift glance at
Isabel, and her eyes fell.

Anthony was obliged to return to Lambeth after a day or two, and he
carried with him a heart full of admiration and enthusiasm for his
friend. He had wondered once or twice, too, as his eyes fell on Isabel,
whether there was anything in what Mistress Corbet had said; but he dared
not speak to her, and still less to Hubert, unless his confidence was
first sought.

The visit to Deptford, which took place a week or two later, gave an
additional spurt to Anthony's nationalism. London was all on fire at the
return of the buccaneers, and as Anthony rode down the south bank of the
river from Lambeth to join the others at the inn, the three miles of
river beyond London Bridge were an inspiriting sight in the bright winter
sunshine, crowded with craft of all kinds, bright with bunting, that were
making their way down to the naval triumph. The road, too, was thick with
vehicles and pedestrians.

It was still early when he met his party at the inn, and Hubert took them
immediately to see the _Pelican_ that was drawn up in a little creek on
the south bank. Mistress Margaret had not come, so the four went together
all over the ship that had been for these years the perilous home of this
sunburnt lad they all loved so well. Hubert pointed out Drake's own cabin
at the poop, with its stern-windows, where the last sacrament of the two
friends had been celebrated; and where Drake himself had eaten in royal
fashion to the sound of trumpets and slept with all-night sentries at his
door. He showed them too his own cabin, where he had lived with three
more officers, and the upper poop-deck where Drake would sit hour after
hour with his spy-glass, ranging the horizons for treasure-ships. And he
showed them, too, the high forecastle, and the men's quarters; and Isabel
fingered delicately the touch-holes of the very guns that had roared and
snapped so fiercely at the Dons; and they peered down into the dark empty
hold where the treasure-chests had lain, and up at the three masts and
the rigging that had borne so long the swift wings of the _Pelican_. And
they heard the hiss and rattle of the ropes as Hubert ordered a man to
run up a flag to show them how it was done; and they smelled the strange
tarry briny smell of a se