he might be right. I
felt my heart leap at the thought of being in another adventure with the
lady.

"Yes," he said, "I'm quite sure. Now we must be quick, so as to give
her no time in the town." When I had mounted, we forced the horse to a
gallop till we were within a quarter of a mile of the walls, where we
pulled up at a cross-roads.

"Get down, Martin," he said. "We must enter the town by different roads.
Turn off here to the right. Then take the next two turns to the left,
which will bring you into the square. I shall meet you there. Take your
time. There's no hurry."

About ten minutes later, I was stopped in a dark quiet alley by a hand
on the back of my neck. I saw no one. I heard no noise of breathing. In
the pitch blackness of the night the hand arrested me. It was like my
spine suddenly stiffening to a rod of ice. "Quiet," said a strange voice
before I could scream. "Off with those Dutch clothes. Put on these. Off
with those sabots." I was in a suit of English clothes in less than a
minute. "Boots," the voice said in my ear. "Pull them on." They were
long leather knee-boots, supple from careful greasing. In one of them I
felt something hard. My heart leapt as I felt it.

It was a long Italian stiletto. I felt myself a seaman indeed, nay,
more than a seaman, a secret agent, with a pair of such boots upon me,
"heeled," as the sailors call it, with such a weapon. "Go straight on,"
said the voice.

As I started to go straight on, there was a sort of rustling behind me.
Some black figure seemed to vanish from me. Whoever the man was that had
brought me the clothes, he had vanished, just as an Indian will vanish
into grass six inches high. Thinking over my strange adventures, I
think that that changing of my clothes in the night was almost the most
strange of all. It was so eerie, that he should be there at all, a part
of Mr. Jermyn's plan, fitting into it exactly, though undreamed of by
me. Would indeed that all Mr. Jermyn's plans had carried through so
well. But it was not to be. One ought not to grumble.

A few steps farther on, I came to a public square, on one side of which
(quite close to where I stood) was a wharf, crowded with shipping. I had
hardly expected the sea to be so near, somehow, but seeing it like that
I naturally stopped to look for the ship which was to carry me. The only
barquentine among the ships lay apart from the others, pointing towards
the harbour entrance. She seemed to be a fin