They locked the door on the inside, clambered through the window and scaled the wall. They sped through the deserted streets with all haste. They came to the landing-place and found the skiff tugging at her painter with her sails all unfurled. Presently they were under way for the Heavenly Home, and, having come safely aboard, hauled up the mainsail, set the jib and were about to slip the anchor. Then they heard the clang, clang, clang of a bell––a warning clang, clang, clang, which could mean but one thing: discovery.
“Fetch up that Frenchman,” the skipper roared.
The watchman was loosed and brought on deck.
“Put un in his dory and cast off,” the skipper ordered.
This done the anchor was slipped and the sheets hauled taut. The rest of the canvas was shaken out and the Heavenly Home gathered way and fairly flew for the open sea.
If there was pursuit it did not come within 171 sight. The old schooner came safely to Ruddy Cove, where Bill o’ Burnt Bay, Josiah Cove and Archie Armstrong lived for a time in sickening fear of discovery and arrest. But nothing was ever heard from Saint Pierre. The Heavenly Home had been unlawfully seized by the French; perhaps that is why the Ruddy Cove pirates heard no more of the Miquelon escapade. There was hardly good ground in the circumstances for complaint to the Newfoundland government. At any rate, Archie wrote a full and true statement of the adventure to his father in St. John’s; and his father replied that his letter had been received and “contents noted.”
There was no chiding; and Archie breathed easier after he had read the letter.