I have
to give you is not to leave the house until you hear from me. A tackle
hangs from the beam overhead. Let your men get your chest and their
bags up at once; so that, should any one come to pay Mammy a visit, it
will not be suspected that you are here. You see, I took precautions
for your safety, and they were not unnecessary. Some of the gentry who
inhabit this island would not scruple to stick a knife into you, if they
thought that you were prying into their proceedings."

"I will follow your directions," answered Owen, telling Dan to go up the
ladder and lower the tackle.

They at once hoisted the chest and bags to the floor above. A second
lamp, which the old woman supplied, showed them a large room which
extended the whole length of the building. At one end was a cabin
table, with some chairs and a cot; at the other several bunks and
seamen's chests. There were numerous bales and boxes placed against the
walls, on which also hung a variety of arms: firelocks, blunderbusses,
and pistols, cutlasses and sabres, apparently the spoils of various
captured vessels.

"You see that I am not afraid of trusting you with weapons," said
O'Harrall who had followed his prisoners into the place, and he pointed
to the arms. "If by chance you are attacked you are welcome to defend
yourselves, but I do not expect that that will happen. This building is
my property; no one will come here, if you keep yourselves quiet. I
have directed Mammy to get some supper for you, and the black will bring
it up shortly. Now, good night. I have matters to attend to on board
the _Eagle_, and it may be some days before I again visit you."

"I have to thank you for the care you take of us," answered Owen. He
could not bring himself to offer his hand to the pirate, nor did the
latter apparently expect him to do so.

Without further remark O'Harrall descended the ladder, and, after
exchanging a few words with the old negress, took his departure.

Owen paced up and down the room, meditating on the strange position in
which he was placed; while Dan and Tim sat on two chests at the further
end, feeling very disconsolate. Pompey, meantime, could be heard below,
chattering away to the old woman while he assisted her in preparing
supper. In a short time he appeared, with a tray on his head, up the
ladder.

"Cheer up, cappen," he said. "She not so bad ole woman, me tink, and
p'raps tings go better dan we suppose. At all events, she