came on board, asked what the cargo comprised, and demanded to see the ship’s papers.  According to the manifest the Fanny was bound for Iceland with a general cargo, part of which was to be shipped at Bergen.  The Danish officer then spent half an hour examining the bales, and, although he did not open any of them, Crawford felt no doubt he knew perfectly the nature of their contents.  Finally he insisted on carrying off the papers, both of the Fanny and the tug-boat, saying that all the information must be forwarded to Copenhagen to be dealt with by the Government authorities, but that the papers would be returned early next morning.

One can well believe Crawford when he says that he suffered “mental agony” that night.  After all that he had planned, and all that he had accomplished by many months of personal energy and resource, he saw complete and ignominious failure staring him in the face.  He realised the heavy financial loss to the Ulster Loyalists, for his cargo represented about L70,000 of their money; and he realised the bitter disappointment of their hopes, which was far worse than any loss of money.  He pictured to himself what must happen in the morning—­“to have to follow a torpedo-boat into the naval base and lie there till the whole Ulster scheme was unravelled and known to the world as a ghastly failure, and the Province and Sir Edward and all the leaders the laughing stock of the world”—­and the thought of it all plunged him almost into despair.

Almost, but not quite.  He was not the man to give way to despair.  If it came to the worst he would “put all the foreign crew and their belongings into the boats and send them off; Agnew and I would arm ourselves with a bundle of rifles, and cut it open and have 500 rounds to fight any attempt to board us, and if we slipped this by any chance, he and I would bring her to England together, he on deck and I in the engine-room.  He knew all about navigation and I knew all about engines, having been a marine engineer in my youth.”

But a less desperate job called for immediate attention.  The men engaged in transferring the cargo from the barges to the steamer wanted to knock off work for the night; but the offer of double pay persuaded them to stick to it, and they worked with such good will that by midnight every bale was safely below hatches in the Fanny.  Crawford then instructed the shipping agent to be off in the tug at break of day, giving him letters to post which would apprise the Committee in Belfast of what had happened, and give them the means of communicating with himself according to previously concerted plans.