"Nor I of myself. But of others slain through his cursed machinations. And to-day, this very day, when I would have let all sink into oblivion, when I would have buried the past, he was again scheming to ruin me once and for all. My girl, we will not fail. Come, Anne." As they went along she told him, however, that what they had to do must be accomplished as early in the evening as possible, so that she should get back to the frigate to be with Ariadne. "For," she said, "I do think--nay, am very positive, that my mistress will be alone this night. Granger," she continued, "Sir Geoffrey means to take a boarding-party down to that schooner and capture some of her live cargo. The sailors heard him say that it would be at midnight." "That," Granger answered, "would ruin all. Yet I doubt his being in time. The boat will be ashore for the 'victims'--for you, Anne, and for your mistress, and for the 'man'--for me, it seems now"--and he smiled wanly--"as soon after nightfall as may be. Yet," he asked, "why this sudden determination?" "A tender came from the Admiralty this morning. The fleet is to sail almost at once, in a few days, for Minorca, and Sir Edward Hawke requires more men. If Sir Geoffrey boards the schooner, or catches her, he will take all the able-bodied men he can obtain." "Some--_I_, for instance, if I get knocked on the head--will not be very able-bodied," he said, with a quick glance at the girl. "_Not if the blow should kill_," she replied, with another glance equally as significant. They reached the house now, and, since time was pressing, he took her into a room, and, when there, bade her cast her eyes around and see if she could find that which was necessary. While the girl, glancing into the cupboards and at pegs on which hung various garments, put her hand first on a long cloak--a boat-cloak, much frayed and worn--and then on a slouching, sombrero hat, that would, hang well over the features of the wearer; a hat vastly different from the stiff, felt, three-cornered ones of the day. "I have seen you wear these," she said, looking at him. "Ay, you have. And so have others, too." Whereon, with a hurried reiteration of some directions which he had already given her, he went away, telling the old woman that the lady above was not to be disturbed, and was to be provided with a meal when she required it. Two or three hours later, he burst into the room where Bufton sat--he having passed the interval in a visit to the _Nederland_, and in warning the captain that he was to be ready to depart the moment his victim was on board, and in telling him, too, that there would be no female captives since his plot had fallen through--burst in, and, without any premeditation, said-- "Bufton, we are undone. I doubt much if the women can come. The _Mignonne_ is back, she has passed up the river in this accursed fog." "Not come!" Bufton exclaimed. "Not come. What, then, is to be done?"