should soon become a general, so
that I might return to my uncle, very splendidly dressed, to show him
how well I had managed my own life for myself. I thought that life was
always like that to the adventurous man. Besides I hoped that I should
escape school, the very thought of which I hated. Looking at the matter
in that secret council-room, it seemed so very attractive. It seemed to
give me a pathway of escape, whichever way I looked at it, from all that
I most disliked.

"Yes, your Majesty," I said, "I should very much like to enter your
service."

"You understand, Hyde," said Mr. Jermyn, "that we are engaged in a very
dangerous work. It is so dangerous that we should not be justified in
allowing you to go free after what you have heard tonight. But its very
danger makes it necessary that we should tell you something of what your
work under his Majesty will be, before you decide finally to throw in
your lot with us. It is one thing to be a prisoner among us, Hyde;
but quite another to be what is called a rebel, engaged in treasonable
practices against a ruling King."

"Still," said Lane, "don't think that your imprisonment with us would be
unpleasant. If you would rather not join us, you have only to say so.
We shall then send you over to Holland, where you will, no doubt,
find plenty of boats with which to amuse yourself. You will be kept in
Holland till a certain much-wished event takes place, about the middle
of June. After that you will be brought back here to your uncle who, by
that time, will have forgiven you."

"That's a very pretty ladder you made," said the Duke. "You've evidently
lived among sailors."

"Among fishermen mostly, your Majesty," I said "My father was rector in
the Broads country." I knew from his remark that someone had been across
to my uncle's house to remove all traces of my bridge. My ladder, I
knew, would now be dangling from my window, to show by which way I had
escaped.

"We want you, Hyde," Mr. Jermyn said. "That is--we shall want you in
the event of your joining us, to be our messenger to the West. You will
travel continually from Holland to the West of England, generally to the
country near Taunton, but sometimes to Exeter, sometimes still further
to the West. You will carry letters sewn into the flap of your leather
travelling satchel. You will travel alone by your own name, giving out,
in case any one should ask you, that you are going to one of certain
people, whose name