This she placed on the table, and then in answer to the
"You need not wait," of the lady, again retired.

Now was the time for the boys, who had watched these operations
with keen interest, and anxiety. It was uncertain whether she would
keep the black attendant by her side, and all depended upon that.

As soon as she was alone, Ned advanced from their hiding place. The
boys had agreed that it was better, at first, that he should
approach alone; lest the sudden appearance of the two, especially
as Gerald was nearly as tall as a man, might have caused alarm; and
she might have flown away, before she had identified Ned as the lad
who had jumped into the water to save her.

Ned approached the arbor with hesitating steps, and felt that his
appearance was, indeed, sorely against him. He had no covering to
his head, had nothing on, indeed, but a pair of trousers. He was
shoeless and stockingless, and presented the appearance of a beggar
boy, rather than the smart young sailor whom she had seen on board
the ship.

The lady started up, with a short exclamation, on seeing a white,
ragged boy standing before her.

"Who are you?" she exclaimed, "and by what right do you enter these
gardens? A white boy, and in rags, how comes this?"

"Our ship has been wrecked," Ned said, using his best Spanish. "Do
you not remember me? I am the boy who picked you up when you fell
overboard, on the day when the English captured the ship you came
out in, some four months ago."

"Are you, indeed?" the young lady said, in surprise. "Yes, and now
that I look close at you, I recognize your face. Poor boy, how have
you got into a strait like this?"

Ned understood but little of what she said, as he only knew a few
words in Spanish. It was with difficulty that he could understand
it, even when spoken slowly; while, spoken as a native would do, he
scarce gathered a word. He saw, however, from her attitude, that
her meaning was kind, and that she was disposed to do what she
could for him.

He therefore, in his broken Spanish, told her how a ship, on which
he and five of his comrades were embarked, had been driven ashore
in the hurricane; and all lost, with the exception of another boy,
and himself.

"It is lucky, indeed," the girl said to herself, when he had
finished, "that I found that my father had left Nombre de Dios, and
had come down to his house here; for, assuredly, the people would
have made short work of these poor lads, had I not b