garments!"

I laughed. "Thou art a tardy bridegroom. I thought that the
bachelors of this quarter of the globe slept last night in
Jamestown."

His face fell. "I know it," he said ruefully; "but my doublet had
more rents than slashes in it, and Martin Tailor kept it until
cockcrow. That fellow rolls in tobacco; he hath grown rich off our
impoverished wardrobes since the ship down yonder passed the
capes. After all," he brightened, "the bargaining takes not place
until toward midday, after solemn service and thanksgiving.
There's time enough!" He waved me a farewell, as his great sail
and narrow craft carried him past me.

I looked at the sun, which truly was not very high, with a secret
disquietude; for I had had a scurvy hope that after all I should be
too late, and so the noose which I felt tightening about my neck
might unknot itself. Wind and tide were against me, and an hour
later saw me nearing the peninsula and marveling at the shipping
which crowded its waters. It was as if every sloop, barge, canoe,
and dugout between Point Comfort and Henricus were anchored
off its shores, while above them towered the masts of the
Marmaduke and Furtherance, then in port, and of the tall ship
which had brought in those doves for sale. The river with its
dancing freight, the blue heavens and bright sunshine, the green
trees waving in the wind, the stir and bustle in the street and
market place thronged with gayly dressed gallants, made a fair
and pleasant scene. As I drove my boat in between the sloop of the
commander of Shirley Hundred and the canoe of the Nansemond