will
also take some of the negroes down to the Rackbirds' camp, and bring
away more stores."

"Oh, let me go!" cried Ralph. "It is the cruellest thing in the world to
keep me cooped up here. I never go anywhere, and never do anything."

But the captain shook his head. "I am sorry, my boy," said he, "to keep
you back so much, but it cannot be helped. When I go away, I shall make
it a positive condition that you do not leave your sister and Mrs.
Cliff, and I do not want you to begin now." A half-hour afterwards, when
the captain and his party had set out, Ralph came to his sister and sat
down by her.

"Do you know," said he, "what I think of Captain Horn? I think he is a
brave man, and a man who knows what to do when things turn up suddenly,
but, for all that, I think he is a tyrant. He does what he pleases, and
he makes other people do what he pleases, and consults nobody."

"My dear Ralph," said Edna, "if you knew how glad I am we have such a man
to manage things, you would not think in that way. A tyrant is just what
we want in our situation, provided he knows what ought to be done, and I
think that Captain Horn does know."

"That's just like a woman," said Ralph. "I might have expected it."

During the rest of that day and the morning of the next, everybody in
the camp worked hard and did what could be done to help the captain
prepare for his voyage, and even Ralph, figuratively speaking, put his
hand to the oar.

The boat was provisioned for a long voyage, though the captain hoped to
make a short one, and at noon he announced that he would set out late
that afternoon.

"It will be flood-tide, and I can get away from the coast better then
than if the tide were coming in."

"How glad I should be to hear you speak in that way," said Mrs. Cliff,
"if we were only going with you! But to be left here seems like a death
sentence all around. You may be lost at sea while we perish on shore."

"I do not expect anything of the sort!" exclaimed Edna. "With Ralph and
two men to defend us, we can stay here a long time. As for the captain's
being lost, I do not think of it for a moment. He knows how to manage a
boat too well for that."

"I don't like it at all! I don't like it at all!" exclaimed Mrs. Cliff.
"I don't expect misfortunes any more than other people do, but our
common sense tells us they may come, and we ought to be prepared for
them. Of course, you are a good sailor, captain, but if it should happen
that