want to go all over it just to show you that I understand. You were
within a mile of Mablethorpe, when you saw a little fishing smack come
riding in, and you made straight for it. Who should be in the smack but
Solby, the canting Baptist, who was no friend to you or my uncle, or any
of us. You had no time for bargaining or coaxing, and so, at the musket's
mouth, you drove him from the boat, and pushed it out just as Lancy and
his men came riding up. Your sail was up, and you turned the lugger to
the wind in as little time as could be, but the coast-guardsmen rode
after you, calling you to give in. No man will ever know the bitter
trouble in Laney's heart when he gave the order to fire on you, though he
did not fire himself. And you--do I not know, Cousin Dick, what you did?
Tom Doane was not the man to fire at the three dark figures riding you
down, not knowing which was his brother. But you, you understood that;
and you were in, you said to yourself, and you'd play the game out, come
what would. You raised your musket and drew upon a figure. At that moment
a coast-guard's musket blazed, and you saw the man you had drawn on was
Lancy Doane. You lowered your musket, and as you did a ball struck you on
the wrist.

"Oh, I have thanked God a hundred times, dear Cousin Dick, that you fired
no shot that night, but only helped a hunted, miserable man away, for you
did get free. Just in the nick of time your sail caught the wind, and you
steered for the open sea. Three days from that, Tom Doane was safe in the
Low Country, and you were on your way back to Lincolnshire. You came by a
fishing boat to Saltfleet Haven, and made your way down the coast towards
Mablethorpe. Passing Theddlethorpe, you went up to Faddo's house, and,
looking through the window, you saw Faddo, not dead, but being cared for
by his wife. Then you came on to Mablethorpe, and standing under my
window, at the very moment when I was on my knees praying for the safety
of those who travelled by sea, you whistled like a quail from the garden