"No! I start for the coast to-morrow; business keeps me to-day. I came to ask if Mellon may be fully depended on?"
"Ay, honest to the back-bone."
"And you are sure that in spite of my late delays he will not have left the village?"
"Sure! What else can I be? Don't I know Jack Mellon these twenty years! He would lie like a log in a calm for ten months together, without moving a hair's-breadth, if he was under orders."
"And his vessel is swift and well manned, in case of an officer's chase?"
"The 'Black Molly' swift? Ask your grandmother. The 'Black Molly' would outstrip a shark."
"Then good-by, Janseen; there is something to keep your pipe alight. We shall not meet within the three seas again, I think. England is as much too hot for me as Holland for you!"
"You are a capital fellow!" cried mine host, shaking Clifford by the hand; "and when the lads come to know their loss, they will know they have lost the bravest and truest gill that ever took to the toby; so good-by, and be d—-d to you!"
With this valedictory benediction mine host released Clifford; and the robber hastened to his appointment at the Three Feathers.
He found all prepared. He hastily put on his disguise; and his follower led out his horse,—a noble animal of the grand Irish breed, of remarkable strength and bone, and save only that it was somewhat sharp in the quarters (a fault which they who look for speed as well as grace will easily forgive), of most unequalled beauty in its symmetry and proportions.