"But cannot we sail the day after to-morrow," said the knight, "if one day will be sufficient to complete his freight?"
"Oh, that he can!" answered the merchant; "but what will you do till then?" he added, with a melancholy shake of the head; "you will never like to lie in warehouse like a parcel of dry goods."
"Why, it must be so, I suppose," said the knight, "if you have any place capable of concealing me."
"Oh, dear life, yes!" cried William Hans; "a place that would conceal a dozen. I had it made on purpose after that evil May-day, when the wild rabblement of London rose, and nearly murdered all the strangers they could find. I thought what had happened once might happen again; and so I had in some of my own country people, and caused it to be made very securely."
The matter was now soon arranged. It was agreed that the knight and Longpole should lie concealed at the merchant's till the ship was ready to sail, and that then Master Skippenhausen was to provide them a safe passage to some town in Flanders; which being finally settled between all parties, it only remained to fix the price of their conveyance with the Dutchman. "I am an honest man," said he, on the subject being mentioned, "and will not rob you. If you were in no hurry to go, and could go quietly, I would charge you ten marks a ton; but as you are in distress, I will only charge you fifteen."
"Faith!" burst forth Longpole, "you are very liberal! Why, do you charge us more, not less, because we are in distress?"
"Certainly," answered the Dutchman, with imperturbable tranquillity; "nine men out of ten would charge you five times as much when they found you wanted to go very bad, now I only charge you one-half more."
"I believe you are right," said Sir Osborne. "However, I do not object to your price; but tell me, what do you mean by fifteen marks a ton? Do you intend to weigh us?"
"To be sure," answered the Dutchman; "why not? All my freight is weighed, and why not you, too? No, no. I'll have nothing on board that is not weighed: it's all put in the book."
"Well," said the knight, with a smile, "it does not much matter. Can you take my horses too by weight?"