And Lawless having no better suggestion to offer, they
made a straight push for the granary at a run, and con-
cealed themselves behind the door among some straw.
The daylight rapidly departed; and presently the moon
was silvering the frozen snow. Now or never was their
opportunity to gain the Goat and Bagpipes unobserved
and change their tell-tale garments. Yet even then it
was advisable to go round by the outskirts, and not run
the gauntlet of the market-place, where, in the concourse
of people, they stood the more imminent peril to be
recognized and slain.

This course was a long one. It took them not far
from the house by the beach, now lying dark and silent,
and brought them forth at last by the margin of the har-
bour. Many of the ships, as they could see by the clear
moonshine, had weighed anchor, and, profiting by the
calm sky, proceeded for more distant parts; answerably to
this, the rude alehouses along the beach (although in de-
fiance of the curfew law, they still shone with fire and
candle) were no longer thronged with customers, and no
longer echoed to the chorus of sea-songs.

Hastily, half-running, with their monkish raiment
kilted to the knee, they plunged through the deep snow
and threaded the labyrinth of marine lumber; and they
were already more than half way round the harbour when,
as they were passing close before an alehouse, the door
suddenly opened and let out a gush of light upon their
fleeting figures.

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