leave of me after a visit, I escort them to
the dock. Pray take my arm."

She started back. For the second time she was on the point of crying for
help, and for the second time she kept that last desperate alternative
in reserve.

"I haven't seen your cabin yet," she said, her eyes wild with fear, a
forced smile on her lips, as she spoke. "There are several little things
here that interest me. Give me another minute or two to look at them."

She turned away to get nearer to the child, under pretense of looking
round the cabin. I stood on guard before the open door, watching her.
She made a second pretense: she noisily overthrew a chair as if by
accident, and then waited to discover whether her trick had succeeded in
waking the men.

The heavy snoring went on; not a sound of a person moving was audible on
either side of us.

"My men are heavy sleepers," I said, smiling significantly. "Don't be
alarmed; you have not disturbed them. Nothing wakes these Dutch sailors
when they are once safe in port."

She made no reply. My patience was exhausted. I left the door and
advanced toward her. She retreated in speechless terror, passing behind
the table to the other end of the cabin. I followed her until she had
reached the extremity of the room and could get no further. She met the
look I fixed on her; she shrunk into a corner, and called for help. In
the deadly terror that possessed her, she lost the use of her voice. A
low moaning, hardly louder than a whisper, was all that passed her lips.
Already, in imagination, I stood with her on the gunwale, already I felt
the cold contact of the water--when I was startled by a cry behind me.
I turned round. The cry had come from Elfie. She had apparently just
discovered some new object in the bag, and she was holding it up in
admiration, high above her head. "Mamma! mamma!" the child cried,
excitedly, "look at this pretty thing! Oh, do, do ask him if I may have
it!"

Her mother ran to her, eager to seize the poorest excuse for getting
away from me. I followed; I stretched out my hands to seize her. She
suddenly turned round on me, a woman transformed. A bright flush was
on her face, an eager wonder sparkled in her eyes. Snatching Elfie's
coveted object out of the child's hand, she held it up before me. I saw
it under the lamp-light. It was my little forgotten keepsake--the Green
Flag!

"How came you by this?" she asked, in breathless anticipation of my
reply. Not the slightes