on the big musquash's tail and the old musquash
roared with pain.

"What was that?" cried little Bessie.

Mary Matilda had heard the strange cry. She paused to listen. Then
she saw the pack of musquashes in the snow on the farthest bank of
the Nashwaak. Oh, how frightened she was! but with a shrill cry she
seized Bessie in her arms, and, turning swiftly about, fled in the
direction of McLeod hill. The musquashes saw her retreating, and with
a howl of commingled rage and disappointment they started in hot
pursuit. They ran like mad, as only starving musquashes can run.
Every moment they gained on the maiden and her human charge until at
last they were at her very heels. Mary Matilda remembered she had
some beechnuts in her pocket. She reached down, grasped a handful of
the succulent fruit and cast it to her insatiate pursuers. It stayed
their pursuit for a moment, but in another moment they were on her
track again, howling demoniacally. Another handful of the beechnuts
went to the ravenous horde, and still another. By this time Mary
Matilda had reached McLeod hill and was crossing the Nashwaaksis. Her
imagination pictured a scuttled brigantine lying in the frozen
stream. On its slippery deck stood a pirate, waving a gory cutlass.

[Illustration: THE PRINCE'S COAT-OF-ARMS--FLIGHT OF THE FAIR MARY
MATILDA--THE AGGRAVATING MIRAGE.]

"Ha, ha, ho, ho!" laughed the gory and bearded pirate.

"Save me!" cried Mary Matilda. "My beechnuts are all gone!"

"Throw them the baby!" answered the bearded pirate, "and save
yourself! Ha, ha, ho, ho!"

Should she do it? Should she throw little Bessie to the devouring
musquashes? No, she could not stoop to that ungenerous deed.

"No, base pirate!" she cried. "I would not so demean myself!"

But the scuttled brigantine had disappeared. Mary Matilda saw it was
a mirage. Meanwhile the musquashes gained on her. The beechnuts had
whetted their appetite. It seemed as if they were sure of their prey.
But all at once they stopped, and Mary Matilda stopped, too. They
were confronted by a haggard but manly form. It was the mysterious
young stranger, and he had a saw which Eddie Martin had lent him. His
aspect was so terrible that the musquashes turned to flee, but they
were too late. The mysterious stranger laid about him so vigorously
with his saw that the musquashes soon were in bits. Here was a tail,
there a leg; her