“They are searching the house,” he answered, still in the same dazed manner.
“Then recall your wits, man,” I replied. “There is not a moment to lose. Help me to lift him into the boat.”
Mechanically he stooped to obey me, and together we raised the unconscious figure at our feet and laid him carefully in the stern of the boat. This done, I ran to where we had left our clothes preparatory to the encounter, and returning, flung the earl’s riding coat, together with my own hat, coat and sword, into the boat, which the first incoming waves were already rocking. Then I signed to the steward to enter.
“Now,” I said briefly, “play the man if you would save your master’s life. Do not delay to attend his wound—a little bloodletting will do him no harm; and it were better he should remain unconscious, since of his own free will he would not escape. Pull straight for the village. Once there, spare not your gold, man. Remember, he must be well on his way to France to-night.”
“But you?—you are not coming too?” he cried.
“No,” I answered somewhat sadly; “I have other work to do. You can handle an oar?”
“In my youth,” he answered doubtfully. “But of what use is it? Such craft as are in the harbour will not float until high tide, and that will not be for another hour. They will ride back to the village and will search the vessels there.”
I remembered then that he spoke the truth. The stone jetty all but enclosed a small harbour, inside which, save at high tide, the fishing craft lay high and dry. Well, ’twas but another danger to be met in the part that I was about to play. “Have no fear of that,” I replied. “They will not continue their search. I will answer for it.”
“Not for such a prize as that?” he said doubtingly, nodding towards the unconscious figure in the stern.
“Man, man,” I cried impatiently, “you are wasting precious moments! I tell you they will not search further because—the earl will be here.”