"We know how to manage our boat," said Jennen, sulkily; but he seized the rope, one of the others followed his example, and the second sail rose, caught the wind, and the lugger lay over and began to surge through the wares. "Stop that boat! Murder!" shouted old Prawle, gesticulating furiously, while those who were with him waved their hands and shouted as well. "Why, there's old Master Vorlea, the constable," said one of the men; "and he seems to have gone off his head, too. What's the matter ashore, Master Tregenna?" "Matter? I don't know," cried Tregenna, hoarsely. "Keep on, and get me to Plymouth as quickly as you can." "We'll try," said Tom Jennen; "but with this gashly storm a-coming on we'll never get out of the bay to-day." "But you must," cried Tregenna, excitedly. "A man does not pay fifty pounds unless his business is urgent." "Or he wants to get away," said Tom Jennen, surlily, as he looked back at the pier, now getting indistinct in the haze formed by the spray. For the sea was rising fast, and as the fishers, who had made fast their boats within the harbour, joined the crowd staring after the lugger that had just put off, they shook their heads, and wondered what could have tempted Tom Jennen and his mates to go. They were not long in learning that old Prawle had been after John Tregenna, charging him with the murder of the child, and the attempt to kill her he supposed to be its mother; but Tregenna seemed to have been seized by a horror of encountering Prawle, and he had fled as if for his life, while, with all the pertinacity of a bloodhound, the old man had tried to hunt him down, following him from place to place, where he sought for refuge, till, with the dread increasing in force, the guilty man had fled to the harbour, and, as the coach would not leave again till the next day, he had bribed the crew of the lugger to take him within reach of the railway. As Prawle saw the boat get beyond his reach, he looked round for one to go in pursuit; and he turned to hurry back home, with the intent of putting off in his own, but as he did so his eyes swept the horizon, his life of experience told him what would follow, and he sat down upon one of the mooring posts with a low, hoarse laugh. "Does Tom Jennen think he's going to get out of the bay to-day?" he said. "He'll have hard work," shouted the man nearest to him. "Hard work? He'll be running for home ere two hours are gone, if his boat don't sink, for they've got Jonah on board yonder, and the sea's a-rising fast." CHAPTER SIXTY. THE LUGGER ASHORE. By this time half the town was out to watch the lugger in which John Tregenna was trying to make his escape, and, the story of his wrong-doing having passed from lip to lip, the crowd upon the harbour wall and the cliff began rapidly to increase.