Instantly the girl sat upright in the hammock.
“My lord,” she cried, “send me.”
Lord Howard and Sir Francis Drake started in astonishment. 313
“Boy, I thought thee asleep,” cried the admiral. “How long hast thou been awake?”
“But just to hear you say that you needed men for some service,” answered Francis, springing lightly out of the hammock.
“I said men, not boys,” said Drake smiling.
“Speak not so, Sir Francis,” reproved the admiral. “The lad hath borne well his part though he is so slight and maiden-like.”
“And there is this to be considered,” went on Francis eagerly. “I have escaped from the Tower. My father, as ye know, is an exile. What lies before me but imprisonment, or that worse than death, exilement from my native land. ’Twere better to send me whatever may be the hazard than others who can illy be spared.”
“Listen, boy, and thou shalt hear what the enterprise is. I trow that it will quell even thy brave spirit, burning though it be with valor. This night some of our ships covered over with rosin and pitch and filled with sulphur, gunpowder and other combustibles, are to be sent into the midst of the Spanish, fired and set adrift amongst them. ’Tis fraught 314 with great danger and peril to the lives of those who adventure it.”
“Still let me be one of them,” pleaded the girl earnestly.