his men, Shard bade them all turn in except those on watch. Long
before dawn he woke them and by the very first gleam of light they got
their ship under way, so that when those two fleets that had made so
sure of Shard closed in like a great crescent on the Algerian coast
there was no sign to see of the Desperate Lark either on sea or land;
and the flags of the Admiral's ship broke out into a hearty English
oath.

The gale blew for three days and, Shard using more sail by daylight,
they scudded over the sands at little less than ten knots, though on
the report of rough water ahead (as the lookout man called rocks, low
hills or uneven surface before he adapted himself to his new
surroundings) the rate was much decreased. Those were long summer days
and Shard who was anxious while the wind held good to outpace the
rumour of his own appearance sailed for nineteen hours a day, lying to
at ten in the evening and hoisting sail again at three a.m. when it
first began to be light.

In those three days he did five hundred miles; then the wind dropped
to a breeze though it still blew from the North, and for a week they
did no more than two knots an hour. The merry men began to murmur
then. Luck had distinctly favoured Shard at first for it sent him at
ten knots through the only populous districts well ahead of crowds
except those who chose to run, and the cavalry were away on a local
raid. As for the runners they soon dropped off when Shard pointed his
cannon though he did not dare to fire, up there near the coast; for
much as he jeered at the intelligence of the English and Spanish
Admirals in not suspecting his manoeuvre, the only one as he said that
was possible in the circumstances, yet he knew that cannon had an
obvious sound which would give his secret away to the weakest mind.