long enough at sea, the salt getteth me into the clay upon his bones; and

let him drink a draw-well, he will never be quenched."

Thus encouraged upon all hands, Dick rose, saluted his company, and going

forth again into the gusty afternoon, got him as speedily as he might to

the Goat and Bagpipes. Thence he sent word to my Lord Foxham that, so

soon as ever the evening closed, they would have a stout boat to keep the

sea in. And then leading along with him a couple of outlaws who had some

experience of the sea, he returned himself to the harbour and the little

sandy creek.

The skiff of the Good Hope lay among many others, from which it was

easily distinguished by its extreme smallness and fragility. Indeed,

when Dick and his two men had taken their places, and begun to put forth

out of the creek into the open harbour, the little cockle dipped into the

swell and staggered under every gust of wind, like a thing upon the point

of sinking.

The Good Hope, as we have said, was anchored far out, where the swell was

heaviest. No other vessel lay nearer than several cables' length; those

that were the nearest were themselves entirely deserted; and as the skiff

approached, a thick flurry of snow and a sudden darkening of the weather

further concealed the movements of the outlaws from all possible espial.

In a trice they had leaped upon the heaving deck, and the skiff was

dancing at the stern. The Good Hope was captured.

She was a good stout boat, decked in the bows and amidships, but open in

The Black Arrow