the great
snake, whom it seemed impossible to destroy. This accounted for our
never seeing any vessels all this time; and the pirates would not have
ventured there had it not been for the storm we had thought so unlucky,
and which now seemed to be the crowning providence of our eventful
lives.

In the meantime, Smart was never tired in listening to the children's
tales, and whatever he was doing, he had the whole five clinging about
him.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Madame fulfilled her promise, and in a few days we had the inexpressible
satisfaction of sitting by the rude couch of the captain, and hearing
his broken exclamations of happiness and delight. It seemed sufficient
pleasure to him to watch us as we went about our various duties, and
smiles mixed with tears often covered his poor thin face as the little
ones vied with each other in nursing him. But he was too weak yet to
enter into much conversation, and his nurse was very careful not to let
him over-exert himself, for fear of a relapse. In fact, nature seemed to
speak for him, as in reply to our anxious queries whether we could do
anything for him, he would reply, "Nothing, nothing, but let me look at
you, God be praised."

In these few days of exquisite happiness we forgot all about the
pirates. Nobody watched them, nobody thought of them, though we have
reason to suppose that they made a diligent search for their prisoners,
and even persevered in it to the top of the large cavern. This we had
deserted for some time on account of the dead body, and we now lived in
the smaller ones lower down, one of which was so near the waterfall we
had nearly as much light as above, and also heard the murmuring sound of
the water in a very pleasing and cooling manner. Here, close by the
waterfall, the little ones led their dear captain, that he might inhale
as much of the fresh sea air as we could get, and from thence we, of
course, watched our enemies. They seemed very busy indeed, and it was no
small satisfaction to the children to watch them working so hard, and
pointing them out to Smart, saying, "See, dear Smart, you would have
been doing that if our great army had not come and saved you."

By degrees the captain told us a more coherent story than Smart had been
able to give us, and said within a fortnight of their leaving us they
were made prisoners by the pirates; that they dragged out lengthened
days of misery, want, and ill-usage, only held up by the knowledge t