door locked--"

"I doubt not that you did your duty, Ambrose Wynch," spoke the Admiral.
"But the man escaped--"

"At the nooning he was safe enough," pursued the other, with agitation.
"I, going the rounds, looked in and saw him sitting on his bed, smiling
at me like a woman--Satan take his soul! I left Ralph Walter in the hall
without, and you know him for a stanch man.... When we heard the _Mere
Honour's_ guns, and the town rose against us who were left within it,
and I and my handful were cutting our way out to join you, Walter got to
my side for a moment. 'He's gone!' says he. 'When I heard the alarum I
went to fetch him forth to the square with me--and he was not there!
When he went and how, except the devil aided him, I know no more
than you!'"

"Where is Ralph Walter?" said the Admiral.

"Dead on the plain yonder!" groaned his lieutenant, and sitting down,
covered his face with his hands.

From the main-deck arose a long, shrill cry. Arden drew a shuddering
breath.

"It's that boy Robin! Had they not bound him he would have thrown
himself overboard. I doubt you'll have to flog his senses back to him."

Robin-a-dale's voice again, this time from the break of the
poop;--Robin-a-dale himself upon them, his bonds broken, his eyeballs
starting, a wild blue-jerkined Ariel filled with tidings. In this moment