"

He paused, and then in a softer voice, humbly almost, "It is my prayer,"
he added, "that hereafter in a happy future these last few weeks shall
come to seem no more than an evil dream to you."

To that prayer she offered no response. She sat bemused, her brow
wrinkled.

"I would it might be done without fighting," she said presently, and
sighed wearily.

"You need have no fear," he assured her. "I shall take all precautions
for you. You shall remain here until all is over and the entrance will
be guarded by a few whom I can trust."

"You mistake me," she replied, and looked up at him suddenly. "Do you
suppose my fears are for myself?" She paused again, and then abruptly
asked him, "What will befall you?"

"I thank you for the thought," he replied gravely. "No doubt I shall
meet with my deserts. Let it but come swiftly when it comes."

"Ah, no, no!" she cried. "Not that!" And rose in her sudden agitation.

"What else remains?" he asked, and smiled. "What better fate could
anyone desire me?"

"You shall live to return to England," she surprised him by exclaiming.
"The truth must prevail, and justice be done you."

He looked at her with so fierce and searching a gaze that she averted
her eyes. Then he laughed shortly.

"There's but one form of justice I can look for in England," said he.
"It is a justice administered in hemp. Believe me, mistress, I am grown
too notorious for mercy. Best end it here to-night. Besides," he added,
and his mockery fell from him, his tone became gloomy, "bethink you of
my present act of treachery to these men of mine, who, whatever they may
be, have followed me into a score of perils and but to-day have shown
their love and loyalty to me to be greater than their devotion to the
Basha himself. I shall have delivered them to the sword. Could I survive
with honour? They may be but poor heathens to you and yours, but to me
they are my sea-hawks, my warriors, my faithful gallant followers, and I
were a dog indeed did I survive the death to which I have doomed them."

As she listened and gathered from his words the apprehension of a thing
that had hitherto escaped her, her eyes grew wide in sudden horror.

"Is that to be the cost of my deliverance?" she asked him fearfully.

"I trust not," he replied. "I have something in mind that will perhaps
avoid it."

"And save your own life as well?" she asked him quickly.

"Why waste a thought upon so poor a thing? My life was forfeit al