Not that they would conquer the country--all brag--but still it would be a nasty predicament, and scare the poor cockneys like the very devil." "But remember the distance from Boulogne, Hurry.

If they cannot cross twenty-five miles of channel in the teeth of our ships, what chance would they have when the distance is nearer eighty ?" "A much better chance, if they knew how to do it.

All our cruisers would be to the eastward.

One afternoon perhaps, when a haze is on, they make a feint with light craft toward the Scheldt--every British ship crowds sail after them.

Then, at dusk, the main body of the expedition slips with the first of the ebb to the westward; they meet the flood tide in mid-channel, and using their long sweeps are in Springhaven, or at any rate the lightest of them, by the top of that tide, just when you are shaving.