d two or three blankets were placed in
it, and here the captives were left to do as they pleased until such
time as Manton chose to send for them. The only piece of advice that
was given to them by their surly jailer was, that they should not on any
pretence whatever cross the island to the bay in which the schooner lay
at anchor.

"If ye do," said the man who was the last of the party to quit them,
"ye'll wish ye hadn't--that's all. Take my advice and keep yer
kooriosity in yer breeches' pockets."

With this caution they were left to their own devices and meditations.

It was a lovely calm evening at sunset when our four unfortunate friends
were thus left alone in these strange circumstances. The effect of
their forlorn condition was very different on each. Poopy flung herself
down on the ground, inside the tent, and began to sob; Alice sat down
beside her, and wept silently; whilst Montague, forgetting his own
sorrows in his pity for the poor young creatures who had been thus
strangely linked to him in affliction, sat down opposite to Alice, and
sought to comfort her.

Will Corrie, feeling that he could do nothing to cheer his companions in
the circumstances, and being unable to sit still, rose, and going out at
the end of the tent, both sides of which were open, stood leaning on a
pole, and contemplated the scene before him.

In a small creek, or indentation of the shore, close to the knoll on
which the tent stood, two of the pirates were working at a boat which
lay there. Corrie could not at first understand what they were about,
but he was soon enlightened, for, after hauling the boat as far out of
the water as they could, they left her there, and followed their
comrades to the other side of the island, carrying the oars along with
them.

The spirit that dwelt in Corrie's breast was a very peculiar one. Up to
this point in his misfortunes the poor boy had been subdued--overwhelmed
by the suddenness and the terrible nature of the calamity that had
befallen him--or rather, that had befallen Alice, for, to do him
justice, he only thought of her. Indeed, he carried this feeling so far
that he had honestly confessed to himself, in a mental soliloquy, the
night on which he had been captured, that he did not care one straw for
himself, or Poopy, or Captain Montague--that his whole and sole distress
of mind and body was owing to the grief into which Alice had been
plunged. He had made an attempt to comfort h