"But what if they are storm-beaten?" demanded Roger. "I even think that I see a form aboard. Wait till I have climbed the mast, for from there I shall get a finer view."
He ran along the deck, and clambered up to the trees, where he remained for a few minutes.
"As I thought," he said. "There is one solitary figure aboard, and he lies across the thwarts as if he were dead. We must succour him. Go you to Sir Thomas with the news."
An hour later, when the brigantine came up with the boat, those aboard the former saw that the derelict was of Spanish manufacture, and that a Spaniard lay in a heap, half on the thwarts and half in the bottom. His head was sunk on his breast, and he took no notice of the strangers.
"Lost at sea, and dead perhaps," said Sir Thomas. "It shall not be said of us that we treated Spaniards badly; for did we not feed our prisoners in Cuba and release them ere we sailed? We will succour this poor fellow. Run us closer, master, and let two of the men be prepared to drop down into her."
A few minutes later they were running gently alongside the tiny boat, and, thanks to the care of the steersman, two of the sailors were able to drop into her. A rope was heaved to them, and in a little while the stranger was towing at the stern.
"Not dead, but far gone, it seems," was the report of one of the men. "There is not a scrap of food aboard, and only a wooden bowl to show that he had water, but now it is as dry as a bone."
"Then we will fashion a sling and pull him up," said Sir Thomas; "or, better, do you, Roger de Luce, lean well over the side, and others shall hold you; then those aboard the boat can pull alongside and hand the fellow up. Now, let us not bungle the matter; we will take the greater pains because he is a Spaniard."
It required but a little time to carry out the operation, and very soon the stranger lay under an awning on the deck, while Peter Tamworth knelt beside him.
"I warrant he has not been overlong at sea," he said, eyeing the man critically, "for his clothes are not oversoiled, and he is not so thin. Then, too, his lips are not swollen, as I have seen before in other cases. 'Twere well to be sure that he were no spy."