The cheer that followed was stirring and wonderfully harmonious, for it
was given in a deep bass, and a shrill treble, with an intermediate
baritone "Ho!" from Jakolu.

"I know it, Mary, I know it;" said Gascoyne, and there was a slight
tremor in his deep voice as he drew his wife towards him, and laid her
head upon his breast. "You have never done me an evil turn--you have
done me nothing but good--since you were a little child. Heaven bless
you, Mary!"

"Now, father," said Henry, "I suppose you have no objection to make your
escape?"

"No need to raise that question, lad," said Gascoyne, with a perplexed
smile. "I am not quite clear as to what my duty is now that I am free
to go back and again give myself up."

"Go back!--free!" exclaimed John Bumpus in a tone of withering sarcasm.
"So, Mister Gascoyne, ye've got sich an oncommon cargo o' conceit in ye
yet, that you actually think ye could go back without so much as `By
your leave!'"

While Jo was speaking he bared to the shoulder an arm that was the
reverse of infantine, and, holding it up, said slowly--

"I've often had a sort o' desire, d'ye see, to try whether this bit of a
limb or the one that's round Mrs Stuart's waist is the strongest. Now
if _you_ have any desire to settle this question, just try to shove this
boat's head up into the wind--that's all!"

This was said so emphatically by the pugnacious Bumpus that his
companions laughed, and Corrie cheered in admiration.

"You see," observed Henry, "you need not give yourself any concern as to
this point, you have no option in the matter."

"No, not a bit o' poption in it wotiver--though wot that means I ain't
rightly sure," said Dick Price.

"Perhaps I ought to exercise my parental authority over you, Henry,"
said Gascoyne, "and _command_ you to steer back to Sandy Cove."

"But we wouldn't let him, mister pirate," said Dick Price, who, now that
his difficult duties were over, was preparing to solace himself with a
pipe; an example that was immediately followed by Bumpus, who backed his
friend by adding--

"No more we would."

"Nay, then, if Henry joins me," said Gascoyne, "I think that we two will
not have a bad chance against you three."

"Come, that's good! so _I_ count for nothing," exclaimed Corrie.

"Ha! stick up, lad," observed Bumpus. "The niggers wot you pitched into
at the mouth o' yon cave didn't think that--eh! didn't they not?"

"Well, well, if Corrie sides with you I feel