"Skipper may not come. He is busy," answered the seaman. "But I can show thee. Thou wilt see all?"
"Yea, all."
Then the seaman very obligingly began to do as he was bid. There was very little to see in the close quarters; but he, being loquacious, was a long time in showing it, and more than half an hour had elapsed before Richard Wood was thoroughly persuaded that there was nobody secreted on board. And all this time, in his eagerness, he had not noticed that the ship was moving. He now turned to the companionway.
"What motion is this?" he asked, turning pale. "Hath the ship gone adrift from her moorings?"
"Nay," answered the seaman; "the ship is not gone adrift."
Laying fast hold on the rail, the spy managed to climb up to the deck. He looked about him, but no row-boat was alongside. He then turned to the skipper.
"Surely we be gone adrift from our moorings," he said.
"Nay," answered the skipper, calmly. "I did forbid thee to come aboard, but thou wouldst come. Now are we under sail."
CHAPTER XX
The priest of the parish at Oundle had Hugo and Humphrey up and off betimes the next morning, as he had said. "It must be he liketh not our company over well," observed Humphrey, as they jogged on after a very brief and hasty leave-taking.