borrow; so an old negro blacksmith took a gold ring
Edouard gave me, one found years ago by a Cajun treasure hunter in
some one of the few successful hunts for the treasure of Jean Lafitte;
and into this, in place of the gem long since missing, he clasped my
pearl, the one we got on the river far in the north; the great pearl
later known as the largest and most brilliant ever found in fresh
water. It was I who named it the "_Belle Helene_". So that our ring
pleased all but L'Olonnois and Jean Lafitte. These two pirates had set
at work that very afternoon, with 'Polyte (by Edouard's consent) and
dug behind the smoke-house. Wonderful enough, they did find old
bricks, enclosing a sort of hollow cavity, bricks of an ancient day;
and though they got nothing else ('Polyte said he knew who had beaten
them to this treasure--it was Achilles Dufrayne of Calcasieu, curse
him!) they both explained how easy it would be to deceive the fair
captive into thinking we really had found the ring's setting as well
as the ring itself, in a pirate treasure-box. I would not do that, on
the ground that already I had deceived the fair captive quite
enough.... But, though yon varlet, my friend dear old Cal Davidson,
spoke rather freely about his honeymoon, and all that, I can not do so
of mine with Helena.... I did not know that I could again be so happy.
Often I have wished I were a romantic man, like dear old Cal.... I
fear my book on the mosquitoes of North America never will be written
now.--H. F. D.)

THE END

Transcriber's Note

Minor typographic errors in spelling and punctuation have been
corrected without note.

The Table of Contents has been made consistent with the chapter
headers, as follows--"In Which I Have a Polite Conversation" amended
to "In Which I Have Polite Conversation"; "In Which Is Certain
Conversation" amended to "In Which Is Certain Polite Conversation".

This book contains some archaic spelling, and some dialect; this is
all reproduced here as in the original.

Illustrations have been moved slightly so that they are not in the
middle of a paragraph. The frontispiece illustration has been moved to
follow the title page.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Lady and the Pirate, by Emerson Hough

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