ured by
a pirate brig. And the pirate crew had murdered every soul on board but
himself, and only spared his life, as he thought, for the purpose of
amusement; for they had compelled him to dance--he, a minister of the
gospel--and had made him drink under torture, and recite ribald poetry,
and swear, and wash their clothes. All sorts of indignities had been
heaped upon him, but he had remembered the injunction of the Master; he
had invariably turned the other cheek when smitten, and had prayed for
their souls. He told of the flight from the English war-brig, of the
taking of the old bark in the fog and the sinking of the pirate craft,
of the transfer of guns and treasure to the bark, and the interview at
sea with the English brig, in which Captain Swarth had deceived the
other, and of Captain Swarth's reckless confidence in himself, which
had induced him to follow the brig in and careen in the same bay. He
wound up his tale with a lurid description of the drunken debauch
following the anchoring of the bark,--during which he had trembled for
his life,--of the insane firing on the brig as she passed, and the
tumbling into the boats when the brig returned the fire, of the flight
into the woods, the fighting among themselves, and his escape under
fire.

As he finished he offered an incoherent prayer of thankfulness, and the
sympathetic Mr. Shack drew forth his pocket-flask and offered it to the
agitated sufferer; but Mr. Todd, who could probably drink more whisky
and feel it less than any other man in the pirate crew, declined the
poison with a shiver of abhorrence. Then Mr. Duncan, who had listened
thoughtfully, said: "You speak of treasure; did they take it with
them?"

Mr. Todd opened wide his eyes, looked toward the dark shades of the
forest, then at the three masts of the bark rising out of the water,
and answered impressively:

"Gentlemen, they did not. They were intoxicated--mad with liquor. They
took arms and a knapsack of food to each man,--they spoke of an inland
retreat to which they were going,--but the treasure from the
passenger-ship--the bars of gold and the bags of diamonds--they forgot.
They transferred it from their sinking vessel when sober, but when
intoxicated they remembered food and left it behind. Gentlemen, there
is untold wealth in the hull out there which your fire has sunk. It is,
verily, the root of all evil; let us hope that it remains at the bottom
of the sea."

"Bars of gold--bags of di