nute Abner gazed in utter amazement at the sight of this vessel,
for no ships, large or small, came to this little lonely bay. There was
a harbor two or three miles farther up the coast to which all trading
craft repaired. What could the strange ship want here?

This unusual visitor to the little bay was a very low and very long,
black schooner, with tall masts which raked forward, and with something
which looked very much like a black flag fluttering in its rigging. Now
the truth struck into the soul of Abner. "Hide yourself, Mary," he
whispered. "It is a pirate ship!" And almost at the same instant the
young man and his wife laid themselves flat on the ground among the
bushes, but they were very careful, each of them, to take a position
which would allow them to peep out through the twigs and leaves upon the
scene before them.

There seemed to be a good deal of commotion on board the black schooner,
and very soon a large boat pushed off from her side, and the men in it
began rowing rapidly toward the shore, apparently making for a spot on
the beach, not far from the bluff on which Abner and Mary were
concealed. "Let us get up and run," whispered Mary, trembling from head
to toe. "They are pirates, and they are coming here!"

"Lie still! Lie still!" said Abner. "If we get up and leave these
bushes, we shall be seen, and then they will be after us! Lie still, and
do not move a finger!"

The trembling Mary obeyed her husband, and they both lay quite still,
scarcely breathing, with eyes wide open. The boat rapidly approached the
shore. Abner counted ten men rowing and one man sitting in the stern.
The boat seemed to be heavily loaded, and the oarsmen rowed hard.

Now the boat was run through the surf to the beach, and its eleven
occupants jumped out. There was no mistaking their character. They were
true pirates. They had great cutlasses and pistols, and one of them was
very tall and broad shouldered, and wore an old-fashioned cocked hat.

"That's Captain Kidd," whispered Abner to his wife, and she pressed his
hand to let him know that she thought he must be right.

Now the men came up high upon the beach, and began looking about here
and there as if they were searching for something. Mary was filled with
horror for fear they should come to that bluff to search, but Abner knew
there was no danger of that. They had probably come to those shores to
bury treasure, as if they were great sea-turtles coming up upon the
b