, "thou must ride out of
sight and sound too, I am afraid, or we shall not accomplish our plans
for the child's safety. Depart with the attendants; I fear not the
woman. Say to my lady I will return anon."

With some reluctance Sir Ralph went his way homewards, and Harrington
was left to accomplish these designs without assistance.

Immediately he walked out towards the shore; but he saw nothing of the
child, and his heart misgave him. He called her; but the sound died
with its own echo upon the waters. The timid rabbit fled to its
burrow, and the sea-gull rose from her gorge, screaming away heavily
to her mate; but the voice of his child returned no more!

Almost driven to frenzy, he ran along the margin of the lake to a
considerable distance, returning after a fruitless search to the hut,
where he threw himself on the ground. In the agony of his spirit he
lay with his face to the earth, as if to hide his anguish as he wept.

How long he remained was a matter of uncertainty. On a sudden,
instantaneously with the rush that aroused him, he felt his arms
pinioned, and that by no timid or feeble hand. At the same moment a
bandage was thrown over his eyes, and he found himself borne away
swiftly into a boat. He listened for some time to the rapid stroke of
the oars. Not a word was spoken from which he could ascertain the
meaning of this outrage. To his questions no reply was vouchsafed, and
in the end he forbore inquiry--the mind wearied into apathy by
excitement and its consequent exhaustion.

The boat again touched the shore, and he was carried out. The roar of
the sea had for some time been rapidly growing louder as they neared
the land. He was now borne along over hillocks of loose sand to the
sea-beach, when he felt himself fairly launched upon the high seas. He
heard the whistling of the cordage, the wide sail flap to the wind,
with the groan of the blast as it rushed into the swelling canvas;
then he felt the billows prancing under him, and the foam and spray
from their huge necks as they swept by. It was not long ere he heard
the sails lowered; and presently they were brought up alongside a
vessel of no ordinary bulk. Harrington was conducted with little
ceremony into the cabin; the bandage was removed from his eyes, and he
found himself in the presence of a weather-beaten tar, who was sitting
by a table, on which lay a cutlass and a pair of richly-embossed
pistols.

"We have had a long tug to bring thee to,"