"To be sure. Make haste, then, and fetch your hat, or we shall be too late to save the boy."
Captain Runacles waited at the foot of the garden, while his friend hurried into the house and returned in something like glee.
"We are lucky. Narcissus tells me his Majesty is sleeping ashore at Thomas Langley's house in Church Street. It seems that his cabin was not put rightly in order aboard the Mary yacht, and he won't embark until he has broken his fast."
"Come along, then!" said Captain Jemmy, opening the gate. "We may catch him before he goes on board."
But scarcely had the pair set foot in the road outside when a voice commanded them to halt.
In front of them, barring the highway towards Harwich, stood a sergeant, with half a dozen soldiers at his back. They seemed to have sprung out of the hedge.
"Pardon, gentlemen; but you are walking towards Harwich."
"We are."
"My orders are to forbid it."
"Who gave you that order?"