Cochlaeus gazed at him incredulously, and when the Dean and the others drew back among the trees, he stood clear out in the moonlight and waved his clenched fists, in the impotence of his disappointment.
"Come back!" the Dean exclaimed, fearful lest this man might do something yet more rash, if he had not already betrayed their presence by his mad gestures. "You do not know this robber lord. He would flout you or the Lord Cardinal, anything and anybody that belongs to the Church, as readily as he would beat down one of his own soldiers who dared to disobey him!"
The Dean stepped forward, and, with a strong grip on the Churchman's arm, drew him away forcibly among the trees.
"I pray God we were not seen," Herman heard the Dean say.
What Cochlaeus and his companions did after that Herman could not tell, but as time went on, and he heard no sound to indicate their presence, and saw no more of them, he concluded that they had gone back.
Convinced that this was so, he watched for Tyndale, wondering whether the robber lord would only concern himself with booty and let the men on board alone.
The boats went to and fro, until the Marburg's hold must have been emptied of all that was worth carrying away; and now Herman was eager to know what would follow. The man whose body had been hanging over the handrail began to revive, and he staggered over to a coil of rope on which he sat with evident pain. He was apparently waiting for the worst. The moonlight falling on the face made Herman aware that it was the captain of the ship.
Someone went to him—a tall man, clothed in the garb of a nobleman, and giving one the impression of immensity. He must have been Schouts, the predatory lord of whom the Dean had spoken. The captain lifted his face as if to answer a question, and it was crumpled and lined with pain, and ghostly in its paleness; and even while Schouts was speaking, he fell sideways, and lay on the deck like one who was dead.
The other swung round on his heel after gazing at the prostrate man for a few moments, and, tramping along the deck, moved down the ladder into the waist of the Marburg. Before many minutes had passed a man's loud voice rang out, and the soldiers on board began to search in obscure places for something.
Were they looking for Tyndale?