Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/117

Rh “Just that! just that!” cried her brother, “Is it not wonderful? The Prince is calling the ocean to his aid, since he cannot raise  an army. The Spaniards will drown like rats in a tank!” Jacqueline looked doubtful, and not quite convinced.

“But the land!” she said. “It will ruin all the farms and crops between here and the  ocean. And think of all the labor that has been spent on the dykes to shut out the sea. When will they ever be able to rebuild these barriers and shut out the waters?”

“That will all come in good time,” he replied. “First, it is most important to get rid of this Spanish pest. Did I not hear Mynheer Van der Werf himself mutter, ‘Better a drowned land than a lost one!’ It  was this exclamation that put me on the  track.”

“Dost say that the Prince sends word that the scheme is already begun?” asked Jacqueline.

“Yes, and I think I know what he has done.