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k Bart now. And desperate, indeed, must be the man would dispute his right to tread these decks." "I hope you are enjoying yourself," said Helena scornfully. "Don't be silly." "Will you have tea, Helena?" I asked. "Poor, dear Mr. Davidson!" sniffed Aunt Lucinda, taking a glance out the port into the black night. "I wonder where he is, and what he will say." "I can tell you what he will say, my dear Mrs. Daniver," said I; "but I would rather not." "Well, I'll tell you what _I_ say," snorted Aunt Lucinda. "I think this joke has gone far enough." "It is no joke, madam. I was never so desperately in earnest in all my life." "Then put us ashore at Baton Rouge." "I can not. I shall not." "What do you mean? Do you know what this looks like, the way you are acting, running off with Mr. Davidson's yacht, and this----" "Yes, madam?" "Why, it's robbery, and it's, it's, why it's abduction, too. You ought to know the law." "I do know the law. It is piracy. Have we not told you that resistance would be worse than useless? Haven't I told you I've captured this ship? Little do you know the fate that lies before you, madam, at the hands of my ruthless men if I should prove unable to restrain them! And have a care not to offend Black Bart the Avenger, himself! If you do, Aunt Lucinda, he may cut off your evening champagne." I heard a sudden suppressed sound, wondrous like a giggle; but when I turned, Helena was sitting there as sober as Portia, albeit I thought her eyes suspiciously bright. "Well," said she, at length, "we can't sit here all night and talk about it, and I've used up all my note-paper and bottles. I'll tell you what I suggest, since you have seen fit to intrude on two women in this way. We will hold a parley." "When?" "To-morrow." "At what hour?" "After breakfast." "Why not at breakfast?" "Because we shall eat alone, here,--auntie and I--in our cabin." "Very well then, if it seems you are so bitter against the new commander of the ship that you will not sit at the captain's table--as we did the second time we went to Europe together, we three--don't you remember, Helena?" "Never--at your table, sir!" said Helena Emory, her voice like a stab. And when I bethought me what that had meant before now, what it would mean all my life, if this woman might never sit at board of mine, never eat the fruit of my bow and spear, never share with me the bread of life, for one instan
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