y say what you please as to the manner in which we
work, but you know as well as I do that our services are _ample_ payment
for the food and lodging which we and the ladies get; and as to _their_
working--why, it is simply preposterous; what can they do?"

"What can they do?" repeated Ralli. "Ha, ha! I will tell you, my very
dear sair, what they can do, and what they _shall_ do. There are three
of them and the shild. One shall do the cooking for the men; one shall
clean out the sleeping-room, repair the men's clothes, and make their
hammocks; and one--the prettiest one--shall cook for me and keep my
cabin in order, make and mend my clothes, and attend to me generally.
As for the shild, she shall gather firewood and--ah! there she is. Come
and kees me, you little girl."

May had, in fact, at that moment entered the room with a happy laugh;
but catching sight of Ralli, the laugh was broken off short, and she
sought shelter and safety by her mother's side, from which she
manifested a very decided disinclination to move at Ralli's invitation.

"Come here and kees me, little girl," repeated the Greek, his anger
rapidly rising as he saw how unmistakably the child shrank from him.

"You must please excuse her," said Mrs Staunton, with difficulty
restraining the expression of her resentment; "the child has not been
accustomed to kiss strangers."

"Come and kees me, little girl," repeated Ralli for the third time,
holding out his arms to May, and entirely ignoring Mrs Staunton's
remark. But his sardonic smile and his glittering eyes were the reverse
of attractive to the child. Besides, she knew him.

"No," said she resolutely, "I will not kiss you. I don't love you. You
are the naughty wicked cruel man that locked up my dear papa and Mr
Evelin, and won't let them come home to me."

"Hush, May, darling!" began Mrs Staunton. But her warning came too
late; the unlucky words had been spoken; and Ralli, smarting under a
sense of humiliation from the scorn and loathing of him so freely
displayed by this pretty child--scarcely more than a baby yet--sprang to
his feet, and, seizing May roughly by the arm, dragged her with brutal
force away from her mother's side, and before anyone could interfere,
drew out his colt and struck her savagely with it twice across her poor
little lightly-clad shoulders.

The little creature shrieked aloud with the cruel pain as she writhed in
the ruffianly grasp of the pirate; yet the fiend