telegraph from there. In Dublin he was dismayed to read in the
newspapers that a mysterious vessel called the _Fanny_, said to be
carrying arms for Ulster, had been captured by the Danish authorities in
the Baltic. For several days no further news reached Belfast, where it
was assumed that the whole enterprise had failed; and then a code
message informed the Committee that Crawford was in London.

Spender at once went over to see him, in order to warn him not to bring
the arms to Ireland for the present. He was to take them back to
Hamburg, or throw them overboard, or sink the _Fanny_ and take to her
boats, according to circumstances. But in London, instead of Crawford,
Spender found the Hamburg skipper and packer, who told him of Crawford's
escape from Langeland with the loss of the ship's papers. Spender,
knowing nothing of Crawford's change of plan, and anxious to convey to
him the latest instructions, went off on a wild-goose chase to the
Highlands of Scotland, where he spent the best part of an unhappy week
watching the waves tumbling in Lough Laxford, and looking as anxiously
as Tristan for the expected ship.

Meantime the _Fanny_ had crossed the North Sea, and Crawford sent Agnew
ashore at Yarmouth on the 7th of April with orders to hurry to Belfast,
where he was to procure another steamer and bring it to a rendezvous at
Lundy Island, in the Bristol Channel. Crawford himself, having
rechristened the _Fanny_ for the second time (this time the _Doreen_),
proceeded down the English Channel, where he had a rather adventurous
cruise in a gale of wind. He kept close to the French coast, to avoid
any unwelcome attentions in British waters, but on the way had an attack
of malaria, which the Captain thought so grave that, no doubt with the
most humane motives, he declared his intention of putting Crawford
ashore at Dunkirk to save his life, a design which no persuasion short