Under Wellington's Command: A Tale of the Peninsular War. Henty George Alfred

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      Ryan shook the soldier's hand heartily, took hold of the rope, slung himself over the parapet, and began the descent. Terence and the soldier leaned over, and watched him until they could no longer make out the figure with certainty. As soon as the tension on the rope slackened, Terence grasped Jacques' hand, said a few more words of thanks, and then followed his companion. As soon as he reached the ground he shook the rope and, a minute later, it fell on the ground beside him.

      He coiled it up, and then they started down the street. Following the instructions that they had received, in ten minutes they reached the end of the lane.

      "We were to throw away the rope, were we not?" Ryan said.

      "Yes, but now we are here, there can be no use in our doing so. If a length of rope were found lying in the road, people would wonder who had thrown it away; besides, it is a good stout piece of new rope, and may be of use to the fisherman."

      Counting the doors carefully as they went along, they came to the twelfth where, before they reached it, the red glow from a pipe showed that a man was standing outside.

      "It is a dark night, mate," Terence said in a low tone, as he came up to him.

      "That is right," the man replied; "come in."

      He stood aside as they entered, closed the door behind them, and then lifted a piece of old canvas thrown over a lighted lantern.

      Chapter 6: Afloat

      Jules Varlin held the lantern above his head, and took a good look at his visitors.

      "You will pass very well for young fishermen, messieurs," he said, "when you have dirtied your faces and hands a bit, and rubbed your hair the wrong way, all over your head. Well, come in here. My wife is waiting up to welcome you. It is her doing that you are here. I should not have agreed, but what can one do when a woman once sets her mind upon a thing?"

      He opened a door. A woman rose from her seat. She was some years younger than her husband.

      "Welcome, messieurs," she said. "We are pleased, indeed, to be able to return the kindness you showed to my brother."

      The fisherman grunted.

      "No, Jules," she said, "I won't have you say that you haven't gone willingly into this. You pretended not to, but I know very well that it was only because you like to be coaxed, and that you would have done it for Jacques' sake."

      "Jacques is a good fellow," her husband replied, "and I say nothing against him; but I don't know that I should have consented, if it had not been for you and your bothering me."

      "Don't you believe him, monsieur. Jules has a good heart, though he likes pretending that he is a bear.

      "Now, monsieur, I have some coffee ready for you."

      "I need not say, madam," Terence said, "how truly thankful we both are for your and your husband's kindness, shown to us strangers; and I sincerely hope that you will have no cause to regret it. You may be sure of one thing: that if we are recaptured, we shall never say how our escape was effected, nor where we were sheltered afterwards; and if, after the war is over, we can find an opportunity of showing how grateful we are for your kindness, we shall not miss the chance."

      "We are but paying the service you rendered to Jacques, monsieur. He tells me that, if it had not been for the aid the British prisoners gave them, that probably those Spanish bandits would have captured the church during the night; and we know that they never show mercy to prisoners."

      The coffee was placed on the table and, after drinking it, the fisherman led them to a low shed in the yard.

      "We could have done better for you," he said apologetically, "but it is likely that they may begin a search for you, early in the morning. This yard can be seen from many houses round about, so that, were you to sleep upstairs, you might be noticed entering here in the morning; and it is better to run no risks. We have piled the nets on the top of other things. You will find two blankets for covering yourselves there. In the morning I will come in and shift things, so as to hide you up snugly."

      "We shall do just as well on the nets as if we were in bed," Terence laughed. "We are pretty well accustomed to sleep on the hard ground."