jules varlin held the lantern above his head, and took a good look at his visitors.

"you will pass very well for young fishermen, messieurs," he said, "when you have dirtied your faces and hands a bit, and rubbed your hair the wrong way, all over your head. well, come in here. my wife is waiting up to welcome you. it is her doing that you are here. i should not have agreed, but what can one do when a woman once sets her mind upon a thing?"

he opened a door. a woman rose from her seat. she was some years younger than her husband.

"welcome, messieurs," she said. "we are pleased, indeed, to be able to return the kindness you showed to my brother."

the fisherman grunted.

"no, jules," she said, "i won't have you say that you haven't gone willingly into this. you pretended not to, but i know very well that it was only because you like to be coaxed, and that you would have done it for jacques' sake."

"jacques is a good fellow," her husband replied, "and i say nothing against him; but i don't know that i should have consented, if it had not been for you and your bothering me."

"don't you believe him, monsieur. jules has a good heart, though he likes pretending that he is a bear.

"now, monsieur, i have some coffee ready for you."

"i need not say, madam," terence said, "how truly thankful we both are for your and your husband's kindness, shown to us strangers; and i sincerely hope that you will have no cause to regret it. you may be sure of one thing: that if we are recaptured, we shall never say how our escape was effected, nor where we were sheltered afterwards; and if, after the war is over, we can find an opportunity of showing how grateful we are for your kindness, we shall not miss the chance."

"we are but paying the service you rendered to jacques, monsieur. he tells me that, if it had not been for the aid the british prisoners gave them, that probably those spanish bandits would have captured the church during the night; and we know that they never show mercy to prisoners."

the coffee was placed on the table and, after drinking it, the fisherman led them to a low shed in the yard.

"we could have done better for you," he said apologetically, "but it is likely that they may begin a search for you, early in the morning. this yard can be seen from many houses round about, so that, were you to sleep upstairs, you might be noticed entering here in the morning; and it is better to run no risks. we have piled the nets on the top of other things. you will find two blankets for covering yourselves there. in the morning i will come in and shift things, so as to hide you up snugly."

"we shall do just as well on the nets as if we were in bed," terence laughed. "we are pretty well accustomed to sleep on the hard ground."

"i think we are going to have some bad weather," the man remarked, as they settled themselves on the nets. "i hope it will be so, for then none of the boats will put out; and there will be no comments on my staying at home, instead of going out as usual.

"and now, good night, and good sleep to you!"

"he is an honest-looking fellow," terence said, when he had gone out, "and i have no doubt what his wife says of him is true; but it is not surprising that he held back at first. it is not everyone that is prepared to run the risk of heavy punishment for the sake of his wife's relations.

"this is not by any means bad; these nets make a very comfortable bed."

the next morning, at daybreak, the fisherman came in with a can containing hot coffee, two great slices of bread, and tin cups.

"now, messieurs, when you have drank that i will stow you away. we shifted most of the things yesterday, so as to make as comfortable a bed for you as may be."

the nets were pulled off; and a mass of sails, ropes, and other gear appeared underneath. one of the sails in the corner was pulled away, and showed a vacant space, some six feet long and four feet wide, extending down to the ground, which was covered by old nets.

"now, messieurs, if you will get down there, i shall pile a couple of sacks over and throw the nets on the top, and there is no fear of your being disturbed. i will bring your meals in to you, and let you know what is doing in the town; but i shall not come in oftener than i can help. i shall leave the doors open, as usual."

they took their places in the hole, and the fisherman piled sails and nets over the opening. there was no occasion to leave any apertures for air, for the shed was roughly built, and there were plenty of openings between the planks of which it was constructed. they had, before he came in, divested themselves of their uniforms; and these the fisherman put into a kit bag and carried indoors; where his wife at once proceeded to cut them up, and thrust the pieces into the fire.

"it is a pity," she said regretfully, "but it would never do to leave them about. think what a waistcoat i could have made for you, jules, out of this scarlet cloth. with the gold buttons it would have been superb, and it would have been the envy of the quarter; but it would never do."

"i should think not, marie. burn the clothes up, and give me the buttons and gold lace. i will put them in a bag with some stones, and drop them into the river. the sooner we get rid of them, the better."

as soon as the things were put into a bag, he went out with with them. the wind was blowing strongly and, as he had predicted the night before, the clouds were flying fast, and there were many signs of dirty weather. he returned a couple of hours later.

"there is quite an excitement in the town, marie," he said. "everyone is talking about it. two rascally english prisoners have escaped, and the soldiers say that they must be somewhere in the town, for that they could never have passed through the lines. some gendarmes have been along the quays, inquiring if a boat has been missed during the night; but they all seem to be safe. written notices have been stuck up warning everyone, on pain of the severest punishment, not to give shelter to two young men, in whatever guise they may present themselves. the gendarmes say that the military authorities are convinced that they must have received assistance from without."

for the next three days, indeed, an active search was kept up. every house was visited by the gendarmes but, as there was no reason for suspecting one person more than another, there was no absolute search made of the houses; which indeed, in so large a town as bayonne, would have been almost impossible to carry out effectually.

the fisherman reported each day what was going on.

"the soldiers are giving it up," he said, at the end of the third day. "i saw jacques today for the first time. he tells me there was a tremendous row when your escape was discovered. the warder, and every soldier who had been on duty that night, were arrested and questioned. the warder was the one first suspected, on the ground that you must have had assistance from without. he said that if you had, he knew nothing about it; and that, as you knew all the soldiers of the prison guard, and as he had heard many of them say it was very hard, after fighting as you did on their behalf, that you should be kept prisoner, any of them might have furnished you with tools for cutting the door and filing the bars. this was so clear that he was released at once. the soldiers were kept for two days under arrest. this morning the governor himself came down to the prison, and the men under arrest were drawn up. he spoke to them very sharply, to begin with.

"'one or more of you is assuredly concerned in this matter. a breach of trust of this kind is punishable with death.'

"then he stopped, and looked fiercely up and down the line, and went on in a different tone:

"'at the same time, i admit that some allowance is to be made for the crime, and i can understand that as soldiers you felt sympathy with soldiers who, although prisoners at the time, did not hesitate to cast in their lot with you, and to fight side by side with you. still, a soldier should never allow private sentiments to interfere with his duty. i myself should have been glad, when you arrived here and i heard of what had happened, to have been able to place these british officers and soldiers in a ship, and to have sent them back to their own country; but that would have been a breach of my duty, and i was forced to detain them here as prisoners. of course, if i could find out which among you have been concerned in this affair, it would be my duty to punish them--for there must have been more than one--severely. however, although i have done my best to discover this, i am not sorry, men, that i have been unable to do so; for although these men may have failed in their duties as soldiers, they have shown themselves true-hearted fellows to run that risk--not, i am sure, from any thought of reward, but to help those who had helped them.

"'you can all return to your duty, and i hope that you will, in future, remember that duty is the first thing with a soldier, and that he should allow no other feeling to interfere with it.'

"jacques and his comrades are all satisfied that, although the general felt it was his duty to reprimand them, he was at heart by no means sorry that you had got off.

"the gendarmes are still making inquiries, but of course they have learned nothing. nobody was about on the wharves at that time of night, and i don't think that they will trouble themselves much longer about it. they will come to believe that you must, somehow, have managed to get through the line of fortifications, and that you will be caught trying to make your way across the country.

"in another three or four days it will be quite safe for you to go down the river. for the first two days every boat that went down was stopped and examined, and some of the vessels were searched by a gunboat, and the hatches taken off; but i hear that no boats have been stopped today, so i fancy you will soon be able to go down without fear."

although at night terence and ryan were able to emerge from their place of concealment, and walk up and down the little yard for two or three hours, they were heartily glad when, a week after their confinement, jules told them that he thought they might start at daybreak, the next morning.

"now, messieurs, if you will tell me what you want, i will buy the things for you."

they had already made out a list. it consisted of a nine-gallon breaker for water, a dozen bottles of cheap wine, thirty pounds of biscuits, and fifteen pounds of salt meat, which jules's wife was to cook. they calculated that this would be sufficient to last them, easily, until they had passed along the spanish coast to a point well beyond the towns garrisoned by the french, if not to corunna itself.

"but how about the boat?" terence asked, after all the other arrangements had been decided upon. "as i told you, we don't wish to take a boat belonging to anyone who would feel its loss; and therefore it must be a ship's boat, and not one of the fishermen's. if we had money to pay for it, it would be another matter; but we have scarcely enough now to maintain us on our way through spain, and there are no means of sending money here when we rejoin our army."

"i understand that, monsieur; and i have been along the quay this morning taking a look at the boats. there are at least a dozen we could choose from; i mean ships' boats. of course, many of the craft keep their boats hauled up at the davits or on deck, but most of them keep one in the water, so that they can row off to another ship or to the stairs. some simply leave them in the water, because they are too lazy to hoist them up. that is the case, i think, with one boat that belongs to a vessel that came in, four days since, from the west indies. it's a good-sized ship's dinghy, such as is used for running out warps, or putting a sailor ashore to bring off anything required. the other boats are better suited for a voyage, but they are for the most part too large and heavy to be rowed by two oars and, moreover, they have not a mast and sail on board, as this has. therefore that is the one that i fixed my eye on.

"the ship is lying alongside, and there is not another craft outside her. the boat is fastened to her bowsprit, and i can take off my boots and get on board and drop into her, without difficulty; and push her along to the foot of some stairs which are but ten yards away. of course, we will have the water and food and that bundle of old nets ready, at the top of the stairs, and we can be out into the stream five minutes after i have cut her loose. we must start just before daylight is breaking, so as to be off before the fishermen put out for, if any of these were about, they would at once notice that i have not got my own boat. at the same time i don't want to be far ahead of them, or to pass the gunboats at the mouth of the river in the dark, for that would look suspicious."

"and now, jules, about yourself. of course, i know well that no money could repay you for the kindness you have shown us, and your risking so much for strangers; and you know that we have not with us the means of making any return, whatever, for your services."

"i don't want any return, monsieur," the fisherman said. "i went into the matter a good deal against my will, because my wife had set her mind upon it; but since you came here i have got to have just as much interest in the matter as she has. i would not take a sou from you, now; but if, some day, when these wars are over, you will send a letter to marie with some little present to her, just to show her that you have not forgotten us, it would be a great pleasure to us."

"that i will certainly do, jules. it may be some time before there will be an opportunity of doing it, but you may be sure that we shall not forget you and your wife, or cease to be grateful for your kindnesses; and that, directly peace is made, or there is a chance in any other way of sending a letter to you, we will do so."

that evening jacques paid a visit to his sister. he had abstained from doing so before, because he thought that the soldiers who were suspected of being concerned in the escape might all be watched; and that if any of them were seen to enter a house, a visit might be paid to it by the gendarmes. he did not come until it was quite dark, and made a long detour in the town before venturing to approach it. before he entered the lane he took good care that no one was in sight.

when, after chatting for an hour, he rose to leave, terence told him that when he wrote to his sister he should inclose a letter to him; as it would be impossible to write to him direct, for there would be no saying where he might be stationed. he begged him to convey the heartiest thanks of himself and ryan to his comrades for the share they had taken in the matter.

on saying good night, terence insisted on marie accepting, as a parting gift, his watch and chain. these were handsome ones, and of french manufacture, terence having bought them from a soldier who had taken them from the body of a french officer, killed during soult's retreat from portugal. they could, therefore, be shown by her to her friends without exciting any suspicion that they had been obtained from an english source. marie accepted them very unwillingly, and only after terence declaring that he should feel very grieved if she would not take the one present he was capable of making.

"besides," he added, "no one can tell what fortune may bring about. your husband might lose his boat, or have a long illness; and it is well to have something that you can part with, without discomfort, in such a time of need."

jules, although desiring no pay for his services and risks, was very much gratified at the present.

"i for my part do not say no, monsieur," he said. "what you say is right. we are careful people, and i have laid by a little money; but as you say, one cannot tell what may happen. and if the weather were bad and there was a risk of never getting back home again, it would be a consolation to me to know that, in addition to the few hundred francs we have laid by since we were married, two years ago, there is something that would bring marie, i should say, seven or eight hundred francs more, at least. that would enable her to set up a shop or laundry, and to earn her own living. i thank you from my heart, monsieur, for her and for myself."

terence and ryan slept as soundly as usual until aroused by jules. then they put on their sea boots again, loaded themselves with the nets and the bags with the provisions and wine, while jules took the water barrel and after saying goodbye to marie, started. there was not a soul on the wharf and, putting the stores down at the top of the steps, they watched jules who, after taking off his boots, went across a plank to the ship, made his way noiselessly out on to the bow, swinging himself down into the boat, loosening the head rope before he did so. a push with the oar against the ship's bow sent the boat alongside the quay, and he then worked her along, with his hands against the wall, until he reached the steps.

the stores were at once transferred to the boat, and they pushed it out into the stream. the tide had but just turned to run out and, for half a mile, they allowed her to drift down the river. by this time the light was broadening out in the sky. jules stepped the mast and hoisted the sail, and then seated himself in the stern and put an oar out in the hole cut for it to steer with. terence watched the operation carefully. the wind was nearly due aft, and the boat ran rapidly through the water.

"we are just right as to time," jules said, as he looked back where the river made a bend. "there are two others coming down half a mile behind us, so that we shall only seem to be rather earlier birds than the rest."

near the mouth of the river two gunboats were anchored. they passed within a short distance of one of these, and a solitary sailor, keeping anchor watch on deck, remarked:

"you are going to have a fine day for your fishing, comrade."

"yes, i think so, but maybe there will be more wind presently."

some time before reaching the gunboat, ryan had lain down and the nets were thrown loosely over him, as it would be better that there should not seem to be more than the two hands that were generally carried in the small fishing boats. once out of the river they steered south, laying a course parallel to the shore and about a mile out. after an hour's sail jules directed her head into a little bay, took out an empty basket that he had brought with him, and stepped ashore, after a cordial shake of the hand. he had already advised them to bear very gradually to the southwest, and had left a small compass on board for their guidance.

"they are things we don't often carry," he said, "in boats of this size; but it will be well for you to take it. if you were blown out of sight of land you would find it useful. keep well out from the spanish coast, at any rate until you are well past bilbao; after that you can keep close in, if you like, for you will be taken for a fishing boat from one of the small villages.

"i shall walk straight back now to the town. no questions are asked at the gates and, if anyone did happen to take notice of me, they would suppose i had been round peddling fish at the farmhouses."

coming along, he had given instructions to terence as to sailing the boat. when running before the wind the sheet was to be loose, while it was to be tightened as much as might be necessary to make the sail stand just full, when the wind was on the beam or forward of it.

"you will understand," he said, "that when the wind is right ahead you cannot sail against it. you must then get the sail in as flat as you can, and sail as near as you can to the wind. then when you have gone some distance you must bring her head round, till the sail goes over on the other side; and sail on that tack, and so make a zigzag course: but if the wind should come dead ahead, i think your best course would be to lower the sail and row against it. however, at present, with the wind from the east, you will be able to sail free on your proper course."

then he pushed the boat off.

"you had better put an oar out and get her head round," he said, "before hoisting the sail again. goodbye; bon voyage!"

since leaving the river, terence had been sailing under his instructions and, as soon as the boat was under way again he said to his companion:

"here we are, free men again, dicky."

"i call it splendid, terence. she goes along well. i only hope she will keep on like this till we get to corunna or, better still, to the mouth of the douro."

"we must not count our chickens before they are hatched, dicky. there are storms and french privateers to be reckoned with. we are not out of the wood yet, by a long way. however, we need not bother about them, at present. it is quite enough that we have got a stout boat and a favouring wind."

"and plenty to eat and drink, terence; don't forget that."

"no, that is a very important item, especially as we dare not land to buy anything, for some days."

"what rate are we going through the water, do you think?"

"jules said we were sailing about four knots an hour when we were going down the river, and about three when we had turned south and pulled the sail in. i suppose we are about halfway between the two now, so we can count it as three knots and a half."

"that would make," ryan said, after making the calculation, "eighty-four miles in twenty-four hours."

"bravo, dicky! i doubted whether your mental powers were equal to so difficult a calculation. well, jules said that it was about four hundred miles to corunna, and about a hundred and fifty to santander, beyond which he thought we could land safely at any village."

"oh, let us stick to the boat as long as we can!" ryan exclaimed.

"certainly. i have no more desire to be tramping among those mountains and taking our chance with the peasants than you have, and if the wind keeps as it is now we should be at corunna in something like five days. but that would be almost too much to hope for. so that it does but keep in its present direction till we are past santander, i shall be very well satisfied."

the mountains of navarre and biscay were within sight from the time they had left the river, and it did not need the compass to show them which way they should steer. there were many fishing boats from nivelle, urumia, and saint sebastian to be seen, dotted over the sea on their left. they kept farther out than the majority of these, and did not pass any of them nearer than half a mile.

after steering for a couple of hours, terence relinquished the oar to his companion.

"you must get accustomed to it, as well as i," he said, "for we must take it in turns, at night."

by twelve o'clock they were abreast of a town; which was, they had no doubt, san sebastian. they were now some four miles from the spanish coast. they were travelling at about the same rate as that at which they had started, but the wind came off the high land, and sometimes in such strong puffs that they had to loosen the sheet. the fisherman had shown them how to shorten sail by tying down the reef points and shifting the tack and, in the afternoon, the squalls came so heavily that they thought it best to lower the sail and reef it. towards nightfall the wind had risen so much that they made for the land, and when darkness came on threw out the little grapnel the boat carried, a hundred yards or so from the shore, at a point where no village was visible. here they were sheltered from the wind and, spreading out the nets to form a bed, they laid themselves down in the bottom of the boat, pulling the sail partly over them.

"this is jolly enough," ryan said. "it is certainly pleasanter to lie here and look at the stars than to be shut up in that hiding place of jules's."

"it is a great nuisance having to stop, though," terence replied. "it is a loss of some forty miles."

"i don't mind how long this lasts," ryan said cheerfully. "i could go on for a month at this work, providing the provisions would hold out."

"i don't much like the look of the weather, dicky. there were clouds on the top of some of the hills and, though we can manage the boat well enough in such weather as we have had today, it will be a different thing altogether if bad weather sets in. i should not mind if i could talk spanish as well as i can portuguese. then we could land fearlessly, if the weather was too bad to hold on. but you see, the spanish hate the portuguese as much as they do the french; and would, as likely as not, hand us over at once at the nearest french post."

they slept fairly and, at daybreak, got up the grapnel and hoisted the sail again. inshore they scarcely felt the wind but, as soon as they made out a couple of miles from the land, they felt that it was blowing hard.

"we won't go any farther out. dick, lay the boat's head to the west again. i will hold the sheet while you steer, and then i can let the sail fly, if a stronger gust than usual strikes us. sit well over this side."

illustration: 'she is walking along now.'

"she is walking along now," ryan said joyously. "i had no idea that sailing was as jolly as it is."

they sped along all day and, before noon, had passed bilbao. as the afternoon wore on the wind increased in force, and the clouds began to pass rapidly overhead, from the southeast.

"we had better get her in to the shore," terence said. "even with this scrap of sail, we keep on taking the water in on that lower side. i expect santander lies beyond that point that runs out ahead of us, and we will land somewhere this side of it."

but as soon as they turned the boat's head towards the shore, and hauled in the sheet as tightly as they could, they found that, try as they would, they could not get her to lie her course.

"we sha'n't make the point at all," terence said, half an hour after they had changed the course. "besides, we have been nearly over, two or three times. i dare say fellows who understood a boat well could manage it but, if we hold on like this, we shall end by drowning ourselves. i think the best plan will be to lower the sail and mast, and row straight to shore."

"i quite agree with you," ryan said. "sailing is pleasant enough in a fair wind, but i cannot say i care for it, as it is now."

with some difficulty, for the sea was getting up, they lowered the sail and mast and, getting out the oars, turned her head straight for the shore. both were accustomed to rowing in still water, but they found that this was very different work. after struggling at the oars for a couple of hours, they both agreed that they were a good deal farther away from the land than when they began.

"it is of no use, dick," terence said. "if we cannot make against the wind while we are fresh, we certainly cannot do so when we are tired; and my arms feel as if they would come out of their sockets."

"so do mine," ryan said, with a groan. "i am aching all over, and both my hands are raw with this rough handle. what are we to do, then, terence?"

"there is nothing to do that i can see, but to get her head round and run before the wind. it is a nuisance, but perhaps the gale won't last long and, when it is over, we can get up sail and make for the northwestern point of spain. we have got provisions enough to last for a week.

"that is more comfortable," he added, as they got the boat in the required direction. "now, you take the steering oar, dick, and see that you keep her as straight as you can before the wind; while i set to and bale. she is nearly half full of water."

it took half an hour's work, with the little bowl they found in the boat, before she was completely cleared of water. the relief given to her was very apparent, for she rose much more lightly on the waves.

"we will sit down at the bottom of the boat, and take it by turns to hold the steering oar."

they had brought with them a lantern in which a lighted candle was kept burning, in order to be able to light their pipes. this was stowed away in a locker in the stern, with their store of biscuit and, after eating some of these, dividing a bottle of wine, and lighting their pipes, they felt comparatively comfortable. they were, of course, drenched to the skin and, as the wind was cold, they pulled the sail partly over them.

"she does not ship any water now, terence. if she goes on like this, it will be all right."

"i expect it will be all right, dick, though it is sure to be very much rougher than this when we get farther out. still, i fancy an open boat will live through almost anything, providing she is light in the water. i don't suppose she would have much chance if she had a dozen men on board, but with only us two i think there is every hope that she will get through it.

"it would be a different thing if the wind was from the west, and we had the great waves coming in from the atlantic, as we had in that heavy gale when we came out from ireland. as it is, nothing but a big wave breaking right over her stern could damage us very seriously. there is not the least fear of her capsizing, with us lying in the bottom."

they did not attempt to keep alternate watches that night, only changing occasionally at the steering oar, the one not occupied dozing off occasionally. the boat required but little steering for, as both were lying in the stern, the tendency was to run straight before the wind. as the waves, however, became higher, she needed keeping straight when she was in a hollow between two seas. it seemed sometimes that the waves following behind the boat must break on to her, and swamp her but, as time after time she rose over them, their anxiety on this score lessened, and they grew more and more confident that she would go safely through it.

occasionally the baler was used, to keep her clear of the water which came in in the shape of spray. at times they chatted cheerfully, for both were blessed with good spirits and the faculty of looking on the best side of things. they smoked their pipes in turns, getting fire from each other, so as to avoid the necessity of resorting to the lantern, which might very well blow out, in spite of the care they had at first exercised by getting under the sail with it when they wanted a light.

they were heartily glad when morning broke. the scene was a wild one. they seemed to be in the centre of a circle of mist, which closed in at a distance of half a mile or so, all round them. at times the rain fell, sweeping along with stinging force but, wet as they were, this mattered little to them.

"i would give something for a big glass of hot punch," ryan said, as he munched a piece of biscuit.

"yes, it would not be bad," terence agreed; "but i would rather have a big bowl of hot coffee."

"i have changed my opinion of a seafaring life," ryan said, after a pause. "it seemed delightful the morning we started, but it has its drawbacks; and to be at sea in an open boat, during a strong gale in the bay of biscay, is distinctly an unpleasant position."

"i fancy it is our own fault, dicky. if we had known how to manage the boat, i have no doubt that we should have been able to get to shore. when the wind first began to freshen, we ought not to have waited so long as we did, before we made for shelter."

"well, we shall know better next time, terence. i think that, now that it is light, we had better get some sleep, by turns. do you lie down for four hours, and then i will take a turn."

"all right! but be sure you wake me up, and mind you don't go to sleep; for if you did we might get broadside on to these waves, and i have no doubt they would roll us over and over. so mind, if before the four hours are up you feel you cannot keep your eyes open, wake me at once. half an hour will do wonders for me, and i shall be perfectly ready to take the oar again."