between the dykes.



CHAPTER II. VIVE LE ROI



"The Last Hope" had been expected for some days. It was known in
Farlingford that she was foul, and that Captain Clubbe had decided
to put her on the slip-way at the end of the next voyage. Captain
Clubbe was a Farlingford man. "The Last Hope" was a Farlingford
built ship, and Seth Clubbe was not the captain to go past his own
port for the sake of saving a few pounds.

"Farlingford's his nation," they said of him down at the quay.
"Born and bred here, man and boy. He's not likely to put her into a
Thames dry-dock while the slip-way's standing empty."

All the village gossips naturally connected the arrival of the two
gentlemen from London with the expected return of "The Last Hope."
Captain Clubbe was known to have commercial relations with France.
It was currently reported that he could speak the language. No one
could tell the number of his voyages backward and forward from the
Bay to Bristol, to Yarmouth, and even to Bergen, carrying salt-fish
to those countries where their religion bids them eat that which
they cannot supply from their own waters, and bringing back wine
from Bordeaux and brandy from Charente.

It is not etiquette, however, on these wind-swept coasts to inquire