e been out fishing among the
islands, and have neither seen nor heard of this redoubted pirate."

"That is possible enough, boy; but I have seen him, nevertheless, and I
shall be much surprised if you do not see and hear more of him than you
desire before many days are out. That villain does not sail the seas for
pastime, you may depend on it."

As Gascoyne said this, the outer door of the house was burst violently
open, and the loud voice of a boy was heard in the porch or short
passage that intervened between it and the principal apartment of the
cottage shouting wildly--"Ho! hallo! hurrah! I says Widow Stuart! Henry!
here's a business--sich fun! only think, the pirate's turned up at last,
and murdered half the niggers in--"

There was an abrupt stoppage both of the voice and the muscular action
of this juvenile tornado as he threw open the door with a crash, and,
instead of the widow or her son, met the gaze of so many strangers. The
boy stood for a few seconds on the threshold, with his curly brown hair
disheveled, and his dark eyes staring in surprise, first at one, then at
another of the party, until at length they alighted on John Bumpus. The
mouth which up to that moment had formed a round O of astonishment,
relaxed into a broad grin, and, with sudden energy, exclaimed: "_What_ a
grampus!"

Having uttered this complimentary remark, the urchin was about to
retreat, when Henry made a sudden dart at him, and caught him by the
collar.

"Where got you the news, Will Corrie?" said Henry giving the boy a
squeeze with his strong hand.

"Oh, please, be merciful, Henry, and I'll tell you all about it. But,
pray, don't give me over to that grampus," cried the lad, pretending to
whimper. "I got the news from a feller, that said he'd got it from a
feller, that saw a feller, who said he'd heard a feller tell another
feller, that he saw a _black_ feller in the bush, somewhere or other
'tween this and the other end o' the island, with a shot-hole in his
right arm, running like a cogolampus, with ten pirates in full chase.
Ah! oh! have mercy, Henry; really, my constitution will break down if
you--"

"Silence, you chatter-box! and give me a reasonable account of what you
have heard or seen, if you can."

The volatile urchin, who might have been about thirteen years of age,
became preternaturally grave all of a sudden, and, looking up earnestly
in his questioner's face, said, "Really, Henry, you are becoming
unreasonabl