will buy me back.  If I surrender myself,
he promises to spare the rest.  Just run and see what your mother says:
my old bones don't take kindly to those stairs."

Before Dick returned Delarousse lost patience and shouted for an answer.
The Squire kept out of sight.

"Mother says you must not think of it for a moment," said Dick, running
up again.  "I knew she would."

"To tell the truth, so did I," replied his father. "But we have gained
two or three minutes.  Now to decline as civilly as possible--though he
might at least Mounseer me, I think."

As soon as his head reappeared above the parapet, Delarousse shouted:

"Eh bien!  You render Jean Trevanion?"

Father and son looked at each other.  Dick's face expressed surprise
mingled with relief; a strange smilehis bonds.  The
Frenchmen had done their work of trussing capably enough, and, in the
case of ninety-nine men out of a hundred, no doubt there would have been
no danger of its being undone.  But Tonkin's muscles were hard as iron;
he had the strength of a horse.  After a few minutes' straining, the
rope about his wrists gave way; to release his legs was then easy.
Delarousse having gone through his pockets before trussing him, he was
without a knife, and had to loosen with his hands the ropes wherewith
his comrades were tied.  As soon as the first man was liberated, he set
to work on the bonds of another, and within a few minutes after Tonkin
had released himself, all the men were free.

Until the lugger reached the harbour, a