o, with a decisive nod.

Mark took no notice of this speech, but silently continued his supper.
For a few moments the guide did not speak or look up. Then, laying down
his knife and clasping his hands over one of his knees, he looked
earnestly into the seaman's face.

"You tell me you are loyal," he said.

Hockins nodded.

"If your queen," continued Ravonino, "were to tell you to give up the
service of God and worship idols, would you do it?"

"Cer'nly not," replied the seaman, promptly, "for she has no right to
rule over my soul. My duty to the King of Kings stands before my duty
to the Queen of England."

Again the guide was silent for a few minutes. Then he said:--

"Hockins, by God's blessing you have saved the lives of all our party
this day--at least it seemed so, for, another step, and that soldier
would have discovered us if your little pipe had not stopped him. You
are therefore entitled to expect some gratitude, and, from what I have
seen of you and your comrades, I have reason to believe you will not
betray us, even if you get the chance."

"Right you are, friend, I will never betray an honest man; an' I may
speak for my comrades as well as self, for they're true-blue to the
back-bone--"

"Furder nor dat," interposed Ebony, "troo-bloo to de marrow!"

"Don't you shove in your oar till you're ordered, you nigger! Well, as
I was a-sayin', we'll never betray honest men, but I give you fair
warnin' if you're _not_ honest, we'll have nothin' to do wi' your
secrets, an' if our duty to God an' man requires us to go against you,
we'll do it without flinchin'."

"So be it. I am satisfied," returned Ravonino, calmly. "I will tell
you as much as I think you are entitled to know. It may have reached
your ears, perhaps, that there has been terrible persecution in this
island for many years."

Here Mark Breezy took up the conversation.

"No," said he, with something of a deprecatory air, "we did not know it.
For my part I am ashamed to say so; but I will say in excuse that the
British empire is widely extended in every quarter of the globe, and her
missions are so numerous that average men can scarcely hope to keep up
with the details of all of the persecutions that occur. Rumours,
indeed, I have heard of doings in Madagascar that vie with the
persecutions of the Scottish Covenanters; but more than this I know not,
though of course there are men connected with our Missionary Societies--
and many pe