whom I love, and who should these be that lie about her secretly by

night? Unfriends, for sure!"

"Well," returned Greensheve, "an John come speedily, we shall give

a good account of them. They are not two score at the outside--I

judge so by the spacing of their sentries--and, taken where they

are, lying so widely, one score would scatter them like sparrows.

And yet, Master Dick, an she be in Sir Daniel's power already, it

will little hurt that she should change into another's. Who should

these be?"

"I do suspect the Lord of Shoreby," Dick replied. "When came

they?"

"They began to come, Master Dick," said Greensheve, "about the time

ye crossed the wall. I had not lain there the space of a minute

ere I marked the first of the knaves crawling round the corner."

The last light had been already extinguished in the little house

when they were wading in the wash of the breakers, and it was

impossible to predict at what moment the lurking men about the

garden wall might make their onslaught. Of two evils, Dick

preferred the least. He preferred that Joanna should remain under

the guardianship of Sir Daniel rather than pass into the clutches

of Lord Shoreby; and his mind was made up, if the house should be

assaulted, to come at once to the relief of the besieged.

But the time passed, and still there was no movement. From quarter

of an hour to quarter of an hour the same signal passed about the

garden wall, as if the leader desired to assure himself of the

vigilance of his scattered followers; but in every other particular

the neighbourhood of the little house lay undisturbed.

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