table, the third plunged in thought, and looking the beau ideal
of a pirate chief meditating over some dark and deadly project.

It was not until the _Osprey_ had passed the Hoobes, and was being
swiftly rowed to Noostigard, that Yaspard broke the eerie silence which
he had maintained in a most unusual manner. "It all works in!--works
in beautiful!" he remarked. Now, that was not at all the kind of
speech the others had expected, and their amazement was so great that
they paused in their rowing and gazed at him in speechless astonishment.

He laughed then, his own hearty laugh, which somehow had the effect of
dissipating all the fears with which they had been beset, but did not
diminish their surprise and curiosity.

"Ye might tell us _now_!" they begged, in coaxing tones; and Yaspard
answered, "I just believe Mr. Neeven is a wizard, and Tammy a sort of
trow. Anyway, they are as bad as Vikings, for they have captured a
poor lady and shut her up in the haunted room, with her baby too--all
just the way people did ages ago! And now, don't you see, we've got to
rescue them; we are the noble warriors who defend the weak and rescue
them from thraldom!"

"Has he gone stark mad?" Gibbie asked of Lowrie.

"Not he," retorted Yaspard. "He is telling you the exact
truth--believe it or not, as you please. I saw the mother, and I saw
the baby; and I saw the back--I am glad he wasn't looking _my_ way--of
their tyrant and jailer, Mr. Neeven. So there!"

"A mother and baby in the haunted room! But how did they get there,
can anybody imagine?"

"They _are_ there, and that is enough for us."

"It's the strangest thing I ever heard tell o'," ejaculated Lowrie;
"and yet," he added, "we must allow we did hear something uncommonly
like a bairn greetin'."

"Of course we did," retorted Yaspard.

"But what kind of a critter was it came to the window?" Gibbie asked.
"That was surely no human critter."

"The prettiest lady in creation would cast an ugly shadow from that
hole," was the ready reply, which satisfied the brothers, who believed
that their imaginations, and the dread they were in, as well as the
uncertain light, had caused them to fancy they saw something peculiar.
They were then quite ready to denounce Mr. Neeven for his inhuman
conduct, and eager to devise some plan by which the poor prisoners
might be rescued.

Yaspard had no difficulty in winning their approval of his next plan;
and indeed, so ardently did the