"Well, ma'am," resumed the commander, "I came to myself again at last, but when, how, or where, I really did not know, nor even what had been the matter with me; except that I lay on my back upon something or other softer than the planks, my head aching like to split, and so stupid, I couldn't take the trouble to choose amongst the strange notions that came creeping over me. 'Twas pitch-dark, too, and choking hot. The sole wish I had was for a drop of water; but there I stuck in the same helpless plight, more like a nightmare than aught else; and as for time, if it went by what I felt, why, I might have lain, then and before, long enough for one of the Seven Sleepers. First one fancy, and then another, came looming up from over my brain, like a sail on the horizon, till my head was full of it. That ugly rascal's story got hold of me, and I thought I was stowed away below in some abominable slaver; then I was the sick captain lying in my cot dreaming, with all as still and dark as death. As my wits cleared, however, I began to hear plenty of sounds, as it were, buzzing and rustling and booming in my very ears, then far away again. Confused though I was, a horrid idea struck me as I tried to listen—that Finch and his understrappers had put me ashore in the woods or handed me over to some of those villainous blacks with the filed teeth; and the Seringapatam must be gone, Heaven knew how long!

"Suddenly, as if to clinch my notion, I started for a moment at the loud cry of a bell-bird, as I thought at first; but, the next instant, a sort of a thick crust seemed to clear off my hearing, and I knew it was 'two bells' going on deck, so that I was still on board; after which a regular bustle got up of a sudden overhead. I heard people running up the nearest ladder from below; cadets shouting and clattering, apparently with muskets and cutlasses; the creak of the davit-blocks letting down the boats, and the chief officer's voice alongside. What with my broken head, though, and the want of air and water, I felt too sick to give them a thought. It wasn't long, either, before the whole Indiaman seemed to be as quiet as a church, except one heavy pair of feet on the quarter-deck above; then that stopped as well, and I heard nothing but the dull sound of the tide through her thick outer-timbers, gurgling up and poppling along, like to make me mad for thirst. I put up my hand to my head, and found my hair on one side all sticky, and covered with cockroaches; but though the very touch of their bristly feelers made my blood creep, and the wretches began to dig with their pincers into the wound, I was too weak to keep brushing them away as fast as they swarmed about it.

"It must have been rather some sort of swoon than a doze that I woke out of again, when I heard a man's voice not far off, through the stillness of the 'tween-decks, reading aloud, which I soon made out to be Mr Knowles's, the missionary's; and, from the key of it, it was evidently the Bible he was reading. In a little while he gave up, and another voice came in, that I knew still better. It was Violet Hyde's—low enough, but so clear at times, that it seemed to come into the dark where I lay half-senseless, and afterwards I could even call back some of the very words; then it came to a stand, and I heard her two or three times apparently answering someone I couldn't hear. All at once, the missionary struck up the first note of a psalm-tune, and her lovely voice slid into it, till there was nothing in the whole ship, as it were, but that—singing the old Evening Hymn—alone—such music, I thought, never was on sea or land—when down from some opening above, out of heaven, you might have fancied, fell a chorus like the sound of angels and cherubs joining in at the end, once and again; catching up the air out of her sweet tongue, and drowning it in a way to ravish one's soul, till it sank into a hush in which you could hear the missionary's voice rise, as he prayed aloud, over the whispers of the ladies and children stealing away from round the skylight—with the slight creak of the rudder, now and then, in its case abaft, and the tide bumping and tapping outside, from the deadwood at her counter to the hollow planking amidships.

"As for me, at first blush I thought it all part of my queer visions, till somehow or other I began to revive a bit, and felt for the door of the place they had boxed me up into. However, it was fast enough, and as soon as I tried to stand upright, something over my head gave me a shove down again—it being evidently one of the steward's store-rooms abaft of the cuddy, full of bags and such like lumber, where the best I could do was to stretch myself on the heap of old canvas again, groaning from sheer weakness and desperation. Just then I heard a light step coming close past the door, out of the large cabin, and I gave another groan. A dress rustled, and the foot started to the other side of the passage.

"'For God's sake open the door!' said I, in a faint voice. 'What—who—is there?' exclaimed Miss Hyde, anxiously; but my mouth was so dry I couldn't answer her. Next moment she was trying the handle, though to no purpose; for a little after I caught the sound of her footsteps hastening off, and once more my senses left me. It couldn't have been more than a minute or two, however, for I heard the missionary's voice still praying beside Captain Williamson's cot, when a gush of air suddenly revived me, and I sat up winking at a glare of light, in which Violet Hyde's face seemed to be hovering brighter than the lamp she had in her two hands, as she stood and gazed at me between wonder and dismay; while the steward held the door only half open behind her, peeping in at me with one eye like a fellow watching a hyena in a cage. 'Miss!—miss!' said he, trying to shove the door to again, 'take care—he's a pirate, ma'am, he is! The chief officer'll blow me up for it, your ladyship!' 'Mr Westwood!' exclaimed she, pushing it wide in spite of him, 'what—what is this!—you are all over blood, Mr Westwood! Oh, are you wounded?—what can be—run, run for something,' said she to the steward—'where is the surgeon?' 'The doctor's gone with the rest of 'em, miss,' said he. With this I took hold of something to scramble up, bringing down a bag of cabin-biscuit over me, and got on my legs in the midst of the dust; but grim enough I must have looked, with my face like a North American Indian's, and the cockroaches sticking in my hair, as I stumbled out of the corner. The little Cockney of a steward seemed to think me dangerous, for all I saw of him next moment was his striped gingham jacket vanishing round a bulkhead aft. 'Oh,' stammered I, leaning against the doorpost, 'it's—it's nothing, after all—only—a little water!' The truth was, my brain felt so confused still, that I really was not quite sure how the case stood—whether I hadn't in fact bowsed up my jib too taut that night, and tumbled on my head, or kicked up some row or other; so I suppose I must have looked rather ashamed, which the young lady appeared to notice, by the expression of her face as she moved towards the cuddy, and slipped quietly through one of the folding-doors. 'Hush!' said she, gravely, holding up her finger, as she came out again and closed it, carrying a couple of decanters and a glass; 'poor Captain Williamson seems asleep—he was removed there this evening for air.' As I drank one tumbler of water after another, I fancied the young lady watched me curiously; however, I had scarce quenched my thirst when my own ideas got clear enough, as well as my tongue, to give an offhand account of what had happened. Violet Hyde started, and her voice faltered, as she said, 'Then—then you must have been shut up here all day—oh, how cruel of them! so hot, too! Oh, what a wonder you were not actually——' 'All day!' said I—'what day is it, then, Miss Hyde?' 'It is Sunday evening!' answered she, the tears rushing somehow or other into her eyes. 'Oh, how glad I am that I happened to pass! But your head—what a dreadful wound you must have got, Mr Westwood!' continued she; 'something must be done to it, indeed!'

"What the sweet young creature hesitated and blushed about for the first time, I never guessed; but I can't help thinking that anything short of an angel would have laughed at the ridiculous figure I must have cut, with powdered biscuit added to the blood, the hair, and the cockroaches—although my worthy friend's handspike from behind the foremast had laid the bone bare, so that the bleeding saved it from a lump. I hardly know how it came about, but, five minutes after, there I was sitting on the planks of the 'tween-decks, while the charming girl herself stooped over me with a basin in one hand and a sponge in the other—the muslin sleeves tucked half up off her two round white arms, as she began to wash the blood carefully off the place. I couldn't stand it a minute, however. To feel her fairy fingers soiling themselves in such dirty work, for such a fellow as me, Ned Collins, made me shiver all over; so bolt upright I started, carrying away the sponge in the neck of my coat, and squeezing a teacupful of water down my back at every wriggle—while my lovely sick-nurse stood with one pretty little wrist out, betwixt alarm lest she had hurt me, and surprise at my life-like condition. After giving my face a wipe, however, and swallowing a glass or two of wine, with some of the biscuit I had knocked down, I felt wonderfully well, except for an ache at the top of my head. The next thing that occurred to me, of course, was to have my friend the mate made aware of his mistake; but as for the curious quietness of the Indiaman at that hour, even of a Sunday evening, I couldn't understand it, and I looked for a cap to go on deck with immediately. The young lady seemed to be looking up the after-hatchway, and listening, I thought, and the lady passengers could be heard talking about the poop; but when Violet Hyde turned round, and our eyes met again, I caught an anxious expression in them that puzzled me. 'Do you think it will be long before we shall hear them?' said she, next moment. 'Who?—whom?' asked I, hastily. 'Oh!' said she, starting,'you could not have known they had gone, Mr Westwood. Tell me, Mr Westwood,' said she, coming nearer to me, putting her hand lightly on my arm, and glancing into my face, 'tell me, did you not know that that vessel was in the river?' 'Vessel, Miss Hyde?' I said, looking at her steadily in turn. 'It's all one riddle to me—what vessel do you mean, madam?' 'The—the pirate!' exclaimed she, breathlessly; and turning towards the hatchway again, while I stood eyeing her stupidly, all abroad, so to speak. 'For heaven's sake, tell me what you mean, Miss Hyde!' said I, putting my hand to my head. 'Ah, but you look so white—you are not well yet, sir,' said she, softly. 'To think how all the passengers were amused, and even papa too, when they heard this morning of your being arrested as a—a——But nobody could know you were so hurt, Mr Westwood. Then when some of the sailors came back, and said they had seen the French ship in disguise——' 'By Jupiter! the brig they meant?' I broke out. 'Then, good heavens! they must have painted her lead-colour, and turned her back into a schooner! That was she, for a thousand!' 'And, you know, yesterday morning, sir,' continued the young lady, 'you told me you knew our friends were there, instead of being lost, as we thought!'

"'Yes, yes!' said I, 'there must be some bad scheme at the bottom; but by morning we'll have a slap at them, for certain. For my part I feel——' 'Why,' said Miss Hyde, turning anxiously to me, 'almost everybody in the ship has gone already. Whenever the truth was discovered, there was such a confusion amongst the gentlemen and the officers that they could not think of anything else; and, as soon as the sun had set, they all crowded into the boats and went away together, to surprise the pirates in the dark.' 'Good God!' exclaimed I, in sheer amazement, and making toward the hatchway. 'Miss Hyde! do you say so!—How many were there then, ma'am?' I asked. 'Oh,' said she, quickly, 'I am so glad there was such a number—five boats quite full, I believe. Not a single gentleman would stay, except little Tommy's father, who is upstairs—and papa was one of the first to get down into a boat with his rifle. But do you not think,' added she, with somewhat of a tremble in her voice, 'do you not think the people in the French ship will yield, or at least give our friends up?'

"'I hope to goodness they may!' said I, turning away from the eagerness those soft eyes of hers glittered with, as she leant out before the faint glimmer through the cuddy-door, the light of the lamp in her hand shining bright over her hair and her shoulders; while the gloomy stillness of the whole ship, below, made me think of the voice that had hailed us through the lagoon, and the same man's face—as I had no doubt now it was—when I saw it aboard the brig at sea, before the thunder-squall came on. I almost fancied I saw Finch and him meeting at the present moment, with the mate's awkward look as the Frenchman's sword flashed across him—my fingers gripped together for the handle of a cutlass, to go tumbling up amongst the men over the schooner's bulwarks in the creek—when all at once another notion darted into my head, to remind me where we were in the meantime; I ran to the companion and sprang up the stair on to the quarter-deck.

"It was a hot, still night; but the change from the closeness below to the deck seemed to make quite a new man of one in an instant. I jumped on the nearest carronade-slide, and looked round to see how the land lay, which at first was difficult enough to do. They had got the Indiaman fair afloat again, I found, a little more off the shore, and farther down—the starboard gun I stood upon being, as I guessed by the shape of the trees, about opposite the mud fort, which Finch had probably been peppering at as he threatened, since the port was open, and two or three shot lying in the scuppers beside it. 'Twas somewhere nigh-hand eight o'clock of the evening, I think, and quite black on the nearest bank—you couldn't even make out the top of the woods against the sky; but another cable-length would have served to open the lower reach of the river, where it came brimming up full round the point with the night flow, sending a floating sort of a glimmer along in the dusk over against us. One could even pitch upon a line where it ran side by side with the heavy shadow that took in the ship, going across to the swampy-looking shore off our larboard side, and blackening away up-stream, while the dim bubbles and eddies swept out of the one into the other. I could just catch the low, deep roar of the sea more than a mile off, muffled by the trees and mangroves on both sides between it and us; and, the tide having come almost to a standstill, you heard the ripple against her bows get gentler and gentler, with a weak plash here and there in the dark among the grass and sedge alongshore, which seemed to wake up a chirping mutter in the bushes—and at times you'd have thought something came wading out from the edge; till in a few minutes both river and forest had sunk, as it were, into a sleep. The quieter they got, however, the more uneasy I began to feel at the state I saw things in upon deck; absolutely not a soul to be seen from wheel to bowsprit, except one man walking back and forward by himself on the forecastle, and giving a look now and then carefully enough over at the cable; Mr Brown being on the poop with his family and the knot of ladies, talking under their breath; while the old Scotch mate could be seen through the cabin skylight, leaning his bald crown over his two hands, under the lamp near the captain's cot, to listen to the missionary, as he sat gravely whispering and looking at him through his spectacles.

"For my part, I hadn't a doubt but the ship had been watched from shore all along; and there was no saying at present who might be keeping an eye upon her, even if this affair of the French brig weren't to catch us in some deep trick or other. If it were really she, and lying where we caught a glimpse of her the day before, 'twould take three or four hours, at night, even to pull there and back again; but as for her being an ordinary pirate, I had a strong notion she was no such thing, and the stranger I thought the whole matter throughout.

"As I peered over the bulwarks into the thick of the tall jungle, the showers of fireflies came here and there flickering out from under the big leaves, lighting up the green of them for a moment, and dancing across a black mouth in the bank nearest us, like emerald sparks. By this time, too, the starlight was growing large out over the dusk, till the whole height of the sky had heaved itself above our upper spars, clear as crystal, and sprinkled full of soft silver points, that gathered and got brighter as you looked. One could see the whole breadth of the river floating slowly between, with lazy brown swirls of current twisting and curling round the point, and the eddies rising in the middle, to where the water glistened among the dark wet mangrove stems, or some oily swell near the edge went lipping in with the gleam of a star lengthened upon it. Hot and close though the night still was, while the rank smell of the mud came at times into our nostrils from one side, and of growing leaves from the other, yet it was pleasant enough after being shut up for ever so many hours in a dark hole below.

"Neither did I think there was any fear of trouble from the natives while this lasted; but the haze that seemed to be oozing out over the mass of woods, with now and then a cool breath of air from up-river, showed what a fog we might expect as soon as the land-wind began to blow strong from inland. Sometimes I fancied I heard cries in the distance among the woods, over the croaking of the frogs which seemed to get up as one listened; then again I could make out the hollow booming of the African tree-drum, with a chorus of horns and savage-like shouts, apparently filling up every break in the hum that rose off the ground—far enough away, however, to satisfy me the blacks were only making merry before turning in.

"As for Tom Westwood, he had plainly gone with the boats, clerical though he was, which didn't go to set my mind greatly at rest, knowing him to be one of your slap-dash fellows when roused; and, either way, it couldn't do much good to a man hailing for a parson to be particularly active on boat-service. But you may easily conceive what a pitch one's anxiety for the upshot rose to, at every whisper and hush of the woods, and every glimmer of the water far astern, where the upper reach could just be seen brimming pale out of the shadow, against a thick fringe of misty cane-clumps, topped with tall palms and cocoas—their stems wavering in the thin haze, and their dark crowns seemingly floating off above it like heads coming away from the bodies, as the heavy blue land-fog began to gather like smoke away behind.

"The flow of tide having of course set the Indiaman's stern up-stream, the ladies on the poop could be seen clustered across the taffrail, with the careful married gentleman in the middle of them, more dignified than ordinary, as they one and all strained their eyes into the dusk before them; when one of the men came down the poop-stairs behind me, and, on turning, I saw to my surprise that it was Jacobs, he being still more astonished to see me on deck. I soon found, to my great relief too, that, what with the anchor-watch and some lads, there were still seven or eight of the crew aboard, whom I advised him to get on deck and make them keep a bright look-out—more especially as he was one of the boatswain's mates, and had charge of the watch at the moment; for, to tell the truth, seriously speaking, I had more real fear, all along, of some attack from the negroes and Don JosÉ, than of the French craft they would fancy a pirate, whatever might be her reason for stowing away Rollock and his companions—although I told Jacobs I had no doubt now but it was actually she. 'Ay, ay, sir,' said Jacobs in a low voice, giving his trousers an uneasy hitch up, 'not a doubt on it, Mr Collins. Black Harry and his mates clapped eyes on her this forenoon, when they went up for water—so they said, anyway!' 'What, Bob?' said I, starting—'was it that scoundrel? Did they not see her then?' 'Well, sir,' replied Jacobs, 'as I gather, 'twas rather one of her boats they fell ath'art of. You'll mind Harry was in the cutter that time you boarded the brig at sea, Mr Collins, a week or two 'gone—so, you see, he knowed one or two o' the crew at once; and in course, sir, comin' across one another hereaway, they'd make shift to have a talk, but none on 'em ever guessed about our passengers bein' aboard of her, till——' 'Did the fellow himself think they were pirates, then?' asked I, more anxiously than before—a shivering dread of I didn't know what beginning to creep on me, as I turned suddenly round to eye the river glooming away up from the starlight, through into the blue heaps of hazy forest.

'Why, sir,' answered Jacobs hastily, 'he's a desperate sort, is that 'ere Foster, if it was only what I've heard him say, swinging sound asleep in 's hammock. I wouldn't tell as much otherways; but I tell ye what it is, sir, my mind misgived me o' this here overnight boat-business! It's my sober notion, Leftenant Collins,' gravely added he, seeing I still looked anxiously to him—'it's my notion, if that craft's aught of a pirate, Harry Foster and more nor half of his watch 'ud think no more o' joining her, on a chance, than one on 'em did o' taking you that clip with a handspike this morning, sir! As for this here brig, Master Ned, your honour,' continued he, 'what did she do, but, to my fancy, she's keeped a eye on us ever since we first fell foul of her?'

"'Jacobs! Jacobs!' I broke out directly, 'get every hand up on the foc'sle at once, with everything like arms you can find—for God's sake look sharp, and then bear a hand here to have the carronades fore and aft run in, and stuffed full of some old iron or other, as we can't have grape!' Hurried as it was, I saw the whole thing—a regular deep-laid plot it seemed, too—and the first time I had seen light as to what the strange brig could be after. Here had she dodged us, no doubt, for weeks; got hold of our friends by accident, which would give her a clue how to find us anywhere during the rest of our voyage, as we were too strong-handed for her then. 'Twas very likely they thought we should suspect something, and follow wherever they could manage to lure the Indiaman—or else possibly they had run into the river the very same day we did, and perhaps seen us out of the haze which hid the land from us that morning; and now, if they had studied it for years, they couldn't have contrived a cleverer trap than this that Finch and the passengers had run their heads into, with more than a dozen mutinous dogs, at least, in their company. A prize like an East-Indiaman was worth taking some trouble about, of course; while such villains as Foster and his messmates, I knew, would fancy a Bengal nabob carried untold treasures with him, and it was plain to me they had something like an understanding with the stranger's crew. 'Ay, ay, sir,' said Jacobs, in answer to me; 'hows'ever, the first mate left word with Mr Macleod he'd send up a rocket and a blue-light in case o' a good success, or else come back with the boats.' 'Heaven help them, Jacobs!' said I, taking a hasty turn or two, 'for we can't. But there is something more horrid in the matter than I fancied—only all we can do is to look to ourselves and the ship! Harkye, though, Bob,' added I, following him; 'bring up the beef-kid, will ye? I feel terribly sharp-set, notwithstanding.'

"I came back and looked from the quarter-deck down the skylight, where the second mate still sat with his elbows on the table, apparently listening to the missionary; when the good man suddenly took off his spectacles and peered under Macleod's broad fists, as an undeniable snore broke out between them; then he glanced toward the captain, who seemed dozing in his cot, raised his mild eyes for a moment through the opening up to the blue starry sky swimming out above, put on his spectacles again, and taking up the Bible, he leant back in his chair to read, as if there were neither pirates, savages, nor aught a man need dread, in the world.

"'Strange!' I thought. 'Yet, after all isn't there a soul below there, ere a few hours, will go higher aloft than the smallest star that twinkles over the main-truck yonder? And who knows how many of us may——' However, I saw Jacobs hurrying aft again, and the rest coming up out of the fore-peak; so hard to work we set for the best part of an hour, which it took us to get the guns on deck made serviceable, and to find powder enough. Not a cutlass or pistol was left on board, so we had only two or three axes and pikes, with a rusty musket or two, and handspikes, certainly, to spare.

"As soon as we had taken breath, 'Now, Jacobs, my man,' said I, 'send out the boys to loose the jibs and fore-topsail—let's hoist the yard, too, with the sail clued up—all ready for slipping her cable at five minutes' warning! It can't do any harm—and I've no more doubt,' said I, 'than if I saw it, we shall have that schooner coming down with the ebb upon us!' 'Tide'll turn in little better nor an hour, sir,' said Jacobs, when we had got this quietly done. 'And by that time the breeze will be blowing with it,' said I, 'bringing down the fog too, however—but keep a bright look-out aloft for the signal, Jacobs! If you see it, or the boats, good and well. But I tell you what it is, Jacobs,' added I, firmly, 'should it be the schooner instead, that instant we must cut and run for it! I shall carry the ship out to sea, if I can, as I brought her in—where we may have a better chance with her in the morning, or get clear off, perhaps!'

"There being no more we could do, and having instructed Jacobs to go down and rouse Mr Macleod himself if he saw the signal, I kept stealing back and forward on one side of the quarter-deck alone. The river was still as a mill-pond, except where it trembled in long streaky gleams from the sky, else I should at once have slipped cable and begun to go down, leaving the boats to come after us, if they did come, as they best could. There wasn't a breath of air yet, either, save what seemed now and then to waft out of the thick woods, and to bring the whole whispering buzz of them stifled together along the face of the water, with the heavy scent of the aloes and trailers on the bank, meeting the warm steam that crept across from the mangroves on the opposite shore. A hundred notions ran through my head, as I walked, of what might happen: whether the boats would miss the schooner altogether, and she drop down upon us in the meantime, either by the creek or the river—or whether Foster and his crew of Wapping blackguards would carry out what I'd no doubt they had at heart.

"But at any rate, as for a set of passengers and merchant sailors catching an armed schooner asleep, with one like that Frenchman in her, I had his fierce dark face too much before me whenever I thought of him to fancy the thing for a moment. That that man was in command of the stranger craft, and had some scheme in hand he would stir heaven and earth to carry out, unless you ground his head to powder, was an idea that came shivering sharp into me as I kept watching the dark mouth of the creek astern, and the glimmering reach beyond—looking almost to see the schooner's bowsprit shoot out of one of them, tide or wind though there was none. Frigate to frigate in a breeze, in fact, I should have minded my weather-gage pretty cautiously with him, if a seaman he was; but if he were bent on having the old Seringapatam at present, by heaven! what I feared was worse than either plunder or walking the plank—seeing there was a prize the judge had left on board, for which I felt a free-cruising captain would give all the treasures that fellows like Foster might think an Indian nabob had in his portmanteau.

"In fact, I saw Violet Hyde moving restlessly, two or three times, near the break of the poop, as she watched the dim opening astern, while her lady's maid kept close behind her, afraid to stay below; and waiting, idle as I was, I almost began for the time to forget everything else that might be going on, at thought of her being only a few feet off, with no one by but the servant-maid. The touch of her soft hand about my head an hour ago came back on me, and the drowsy creeping kind of hush of the tropical night seemed to bewilder my senses at every rustle of her dress—I shan't even deny that the notion seized me for half-a-minute, were the schooner to make prisoners of the boats' crews, how I might carry the Indiaman out to sea, and go Lord knows where with her. Then the idea of defending her, and saving her, made one wild with excitement—I felt as if I had the strength of twenty in me, almost longing to see the pirates' faces, especially the dark Frenchman's, and to wait till they came close on, when we could let drive into them, expecting to find us helpless. I made up my mind that Mr Brown there, and the missionary too, should work at a gun as soon as they were wanted—when, trip, trip, I heard her footstep coming down the poop-stair behind me, and stood trembling and tingling to my very finger-ends.

"'Mr Westwood,' said her low sweet voice, and I turned round. 'Yes, madam,' I answered, gulping down my breath. 'Have you heard—do you see anything?' 'They've scarce had time yet,' said I; 'of course the more cautious they are the better!' 'Oh!' continued she, her hands clasping together, and the shawl falling half off her head to one shoulder—'oh, if there should really be bloodshed at this moment—the river looks so fearfully gloomy and silent! How is it possible to bear this suspense any longer, sir? If we could only think they were not pirates after all!' 'Miss Hyde,' replied I seriously, as she seemed to wish me to speak, 'I can't have any doubt in my own mind what they are!' 'How! what? for mercy's sake!' exclaimed she, gazing earnestly at me. 'You musn't suppose all pirates to be bloody murdering ruffians, Miss Hyde,' said I hastily. 'There's one man belonging to that craft yonder, I'm sure, if he saw—if he stood where I stand just now, so near an angel——' The young lady shrank back with a startled look; but I wasn't master of myself longer, and out I broke: 'For God's sake forgive me, but I—I'd serve you like a slave—dearest Miss Hyde. I'll stand up to the last drop of my blood before——' 'Mr West—wood!' was the answer, hanging betwixt surprise and terror. But I burst out with, 'Confound that name!—my name is not Westwood, madam, and I'm no relation at all to the gentleman in India. I never said so, but your father mistook——' 'Who then—what are you—what design have you?' was her broken question; and she put one hand on the bulwarks as if for support, looking round from me to the woods, the river, and back to the ship and me again, so pale and terrified-like, that I could have cursed myself for my stupidity.

"'Good heaven, Miss Hyde!' said I, lowering my voice, 'I do believe you take me for one of the stranger's crew?' 'No—no!' faltered Violet; 'I—I—but the suspicions I heard to-day—you—you frightened me, sir!' 'Surely,' said I, ready to kneel at her feet, 'you must have known the truth of the matter, Miss Hyde. Why, here have I come afloat at a day's warning, bound for the East Indies—and all because I saw you that evening at the garden-door! Oh, for kindness' sake, Miss Hyde, pardon my boldness—but I couldn't let slip the only chance of telling you—it took me unawares, in fact! I'm not such a fool as to fancy that such a fellow as I can have the least hope in the world; but—but——' She stood quite still, not uttering a word, with her face turned from me, but I could notice the colour was all come back to her cheek, and more—and saw the shining falls of her loose hair heaving on the bosom of her white muslin dress, as it rose and fell gently. I leant over the bulwarks and ventured to look half-round; when, oh heavens! how did my heart quicken in me to see the least bit of a smile come over her lips, though her eyes were dropped toward the gun close by. I can't say what I might have been bold enough to do, in the whirl of the moment—when suddenly she started, drew the shawl up from her shoulders again, and seemed to recollect the whole case of the boats with a shudder, as she glanced wildly again up the reach astern of us, bringing me to myself, too, at the same time; and I stood looking with her, intent to mark the first turn of the tide.