ances could permit. Your patience in adversity, and that of your
wife, have compelled my reverence. You were but the scapegoat of a
nation. This country can never afford to be careless of its defences and
of the treasures which they protect. People of America! You regard me as
the chief malefactor of your times. The day may come when you will call
me its greatest benefactor. To-day you execrate me. To-morrow you may
bless me. I have taught you a solemn and a costly lesson, but the price
of such wisdom is cheap. Good-morning!"

There was no opening, but the hawsers were suddenly cut. There was a
rush and billows of foam. As a cat plays here and there in her pretty
antics the "_Lightning_" (for a blow of the hammer on the stern had
annihilated the _Mary Jane_) wound in and out at an unequal rate. When
she turned, she careened far over on her side. The water lapped the
Colonel's feet. Who could stop her? Who could overtake her? At the first
shock the gunners stood motionless, then sprang to their guns. The
President, Commander-in-chief of the army and navy, raised his hand and
shook his head.

The faith of the nation was pledged, and the pirate escaped without a
shot. The incredible speed of the _Lightning_ increased. It became
terrific. Nothing like it had ever been witnessed in maritime history.
Spectators stood with held breath.

A lieutenant in his excitement shouted: "For God's sake, overtake her!"

The crowd yelled: "Run them down! See where they go!"

But the navy of the United States might as well have chased a cannon
ball. The mental pressure became tremendous. Spectators had hardly drawn
a breath when the miracle was hull down. The American love of audacity
and speed struggled mightily for the moment with American patriotism.
The moral sense of the people could not prevent a murmur of admiration
when the _Lightning_, with eight millions of national gold aboard, in
less than nine minutes was but a speck. A bend of the river, and the
mysterious, courtly and successful pirate was gone.

THE LOST CITY.

I.

"Great guns!" The ejaculator tipped his straw hat off with his left
hand, let it roll upon the office floor, made a dab for a damp pocket
handkerchief in his right pistol pocket, and stared at the yellow paper
again. "Whew! I don't believe it!" he muttered. Then, aware that the
keen eyes of the three-and-a-half-foot messenger boy were upon him, as
if sizing him up for news, he stared at the