ly was burning above. Some half-dozen of the crew
stood armed on the quarter-deck behind their chief; their hard,
forbidding faces looked without emotion upon this scene of unpitying,
deliberate murder.

To some question from the pirate Harrington replied by accusing the
Indian woman of treachery.

"As soon yonder star, which at midnight marks our meridian, would
prove untrue in its course."

Harrington shuddered at this ominous reference.

"I cannot prove mine innocence," said he; "but I take yon orb to
witness that I never wronged you or yours. The child is in her
keeping."

"Call her hither, if she be returned," said the captain, "and see if
he dare repeat this in her presence. He thinks to haul in our canvas
until the enemy are under weigh, and then, Yoh ho, boys, for the
rescue. But we shall be dancing over the bright Solway ere the morning
watch, and thy carcase in the de'il's locker."

"If not for mine, for your own safety!"

"My safety! and what care I, though ten thousand teeth were grinning
at me, through as many port-holes. My will alone bounds my power. Who
shall question my sentence, which is death?"

He gnashed his teeth as he went on. "And your halls shall be too hot
to hold your well-fed drones. Thy hearth, proud man, shall be
desolate. I'll lay waste thy domain. Thy race, root and branch, will I
extinguish; for thou hast made me childless!"

The messenger returned with the intelligence that Oneida was not in
the ship.

"On shore again, the ----! If I were to bind her with the main-chains,
and an anchor at each leg, she would escape me to go ashore. No heed;
we will just settle the affair without her, and he shall drop quietly
into a grave ready made, and older than Adam. I would we had some more
of his kin; they should swing from the bowsprit, like sharks and
porpoises, who devour even when they have had enough, and waste what
they can't devour."

"Thou wilt not murder me thus, defenceless, and in cold blood."

"My child was more helpless, and had not injured _thee_! Ye give no
quarter to the prowling beast, and yet, like me, he only robs and
murders to preserve his life. How far is it from midnight?"

"Five minutes, and yon star comes to his southing," said the person he
addressed.

"Then prepare; that moment marks thy death!"

The men looked significantly towards their rifles.

"Nay," cried this bloodthirsty freebooter, "my arm alone shall avenge
my child."

He drew a pistol fr