out, I allowed myself to look into yours. Lying alone, forgotten
and overlooked, I saw a peculiar jet hair-pin which I think I have
observed in the coils of your tresses. May I venture to keep this gentle
instrument as a reminder of the superior intellect it has so often
crowned? Adieu, my friend.

"Ever yours, LEONIDAS BOLIVAR PERKINS."

"Well?" said Mrs. Markham impatiently, as Miss Keene remained motionless
with the letter in her hand.

"It seems like a ridiculous nightmare! I can't understand it at all. The
man that wrote this letter may be mad--but he is neither a pirate nor a
thief--and yet"--

"He a pirate?" echoed Mrs. Markham indignantly; "He's nothing of the
kind! It's not even his FAULT!"

"Not his fault?" repeated Miss Keene; "are you mad, too?"

"No--nor a fool, my dear! Don't you see? It's all the fault of Banks and
Brimmer for compromising the vessel: of that stupid, drunken captain for
permitting it. Senor Perkins is a liberator, a patriot, who has periled
himself and his country to treat us magnanimously. Don't you see it?
It's like that Banks and that Mrs. Brimmer to call HIM a pirate! I've a
good mind to give the Commander my opinion of THEM."

"Hush!" said Miss Keene, with a sudden recollection of the Commander's
suspicions, "for Heaven's sake; you do not know what you are saying.
Look! they were talking with that strange man, and now they are coming
this way."

The Commander and his secretary approached them. They were both more
than usually grave; but the look of inquiry and suspicion with which
they regarded the two women was gone from their eyes.

"The Senor Comandante says you are free, Senoras, and begs you will only
decide whether you will remain his guests or the guests of the Alcalde.
But for the present he cannot allow you any communication with the
prisoners of San Antonio."

"There is further news?" said Miss Keene faintly, with a presentiment of
worse complications.

"There is! A body from the Excelsior has been washed on shore."

The two women turned pale.

"In the pocket of the murdered man is an accusation against one Senor
Hurlstone, who was concealed on the ship; who came not ashore openly
with the other passengers, but who escaped in secret, and is now hiding
somewhere in Todos Santos."

"And you suspect him of this infamous act?" said Eleanor, forgetting
all prudence in her indignation. "You are deceiving yourself. He is as
innocent as I am!"

The Commander a