brace, and again when I picked them
up they were a pair. The head of one was green, the other brown. "Male
and female made He them!" said I. "If I had not killed these birds, in
the spring they would have gone northward, to the edge of the world in
their own love-making, thousands of miles from here." I looked at my
quarry with remorse, and not caring to shoot more, at length picked up
the birds and slowly started back to camp, not looking forward with
any too great pleasure, it may be imagined, to further meetings with
the woman whom, of all the world, I most cared to meet.

I found all the others of the party amiably engaged in camp affairs.
The tent now was up, the fire was arranged in more practical fashion,
and John was busy with his pans. Lafitte, ever resourceful and ever
busy, was out with Willy after more oysters. L'Olonnois, his partner,
seemed engaged in some sort of argument with his Auntie Helena.

"Jimmy, I can't!" I heard her say. "There isn't any sugar."

"Aw!" said he, "there's plenty of sugar, ain't there, John?" And that
worthy smiled as he pointed toward an open canister of that dainty.

"But I haven't any pan."

"Yes, you have, too, got a pan. Here's one a-settin' right here in
front of you. Come on now, Auntie. We're goin' to have duck and
terrapin and oysters and everything--all a fellow would want, besides
that, is just fudges."

Helena stood preoccupied and hesitant, hardly hearing what he said, as
I fancy. At once L'Olonnois' attitude changed. Folding his arms, he
turned toward her sternly.

"Woman!" said he, "are you not a captive to our band? Then who gives
orders here? Either you make fudges, or your life's blood stains these
sands!"

"Oh, all right, Jimmy," she said listlessly. "I'll make them, if you
like."

"You'd better," remarked that worthy sententiously. "Of course," he
added, seeking to mollify his victim, over whom he thus domineered,
"it ain't just like it is back home on the stove, but you'll have to
get used to that, because we're going to live here forever. And," he
added, casting a glance of his stern blue eyes upon her, "it is the
part of the captive maid ever to live happily with the chief of the
pirate band."

Whereupon Helena and Jimmy both looked up and saw me standing,
unwilling listener to all that had been said. Helena moved away and
pretended to be busy with the material for her confections.

"Aw, shucks, Black Bart," said Jimmy, turning to me--"ain't th