“If those soldiers want us, should not we put back?” asked Joe.
“The very reason we should not,” said Stephen. “We should do no good, and should certainly have our voyage delayed.”
Just as he was speaking the sail gave a flap; the boat was becalmed under the high ground.
“Get out the oars, lads; we must make the best of our way from the shore.”
Joe and the lads got out the oars, and Andrew and Simon assisted them to pull. They had not made many strokes before several shot came whistling over their heads.
“Pull away,” cried Stephen; “we shall soon be out of range, and in a few minutes will catch the breeze again.”
The soldiers once more fired; two bullets struck the boat, but did no damage; the third went through the main-sail. The soldiers shouted and gesticulated more vehemently than before. The party in the boat, at Stephen’s suggestion, took not the slightest notice of them, though they pulled on with might and main till the breeze once more filled the sails and rapidly freshened. The boat now stood away to the southward, and was soon out of range of the soldiers’ muskets.
“Perhaps after all we shall be followed,” remarked Andrew.
“No fear of that,” said Joe. “There is not a man left in the harbour to take out a boat; the chances are the soldiers are not able to pull themselves or they would have been after us by this time. See, the breeze is freshening, and by nightfall we shall be well away from the land.”
This information greatly relieved the minds of the fugitives; they had now every hope of getting free, and, should the fine weather continue, be able to land in Holland. Stephen’s chief anxiety was for the old pilot; the horses would very likely be taken from him, and he might too probably be carried off as a prisoner for having enabled rebels to escape. Though they had not witnessed the cruelties practised by Colonel Kirk and his lambs, Simon had told him of what he had heard, and of the hundreds who had been hung up on the Bussex oak directly after the action. They were justly afraid that Mr Headland might be treated in the same cruel manner; and “if we had gone back we could have done no good,” Stephen said to himself over and over again. For some hours the weather continued fine, and the boat made fair progress, but towards midnight a dark bank of clouds rose to the eastward, threatening a gale.