d have been none other than Captain
Keitt's Portuguese sailing master, who must have been spying upon
Hunt! Tell me what happened next!"

"He would have taken my life," said Jonathan, "but in the struggle
that followed he shot himself accidentally with his own pistol, and
died at my very feet. I do not know what would have happened to me if
a sea captain had not come and proffered his assistance."

"A sea captain!" she exclaimed; "and had he a flat face and a broken
nose?"

"Indeed he had," replied Jonathan.

"That," said the lady, "must have been Captain Keitt's pirate
partner--Captain Willitts, of _The Bloody Hand_. He was doubtless
spying upon the Portuguese."

"He induced me," said Jonathan, "to carry the two bodies down to the
wharf. Having inveigled me there--where, I suppose, he thought no one
could interfere--he assaulted me, and endeavored to take the ivory
ball away from me. In my efforts to escape we both fell into the
water, and he, striking his head upon the edge of the wharf, was first
stunned and then drowned."

"Thank God!" cried the lady, with a transport of fervor, and clasping
her jeweled hands together. "At last I am free of those who have
heretofore persecuted me and threatened my very life itself! You have
asked to behold my face; I will now show it to you! Heretofore I have
been obliged to keep it concealed lest, recognizing me, my enemies
should have slain me." As she spoke she drew aside her veil, and
disclosed to the vision of our hero a countenance of the most
extraordinary and striking beauty. Her luminous eyes were like those
of a Jawa, and set beneath exquisitely arched and penciled brows. Her
forehead was like lustrous ivory and her lips like rose leaves. Her
hair, which was as soft as the finest silk, was fastened up in masses
of ravishing abundance. "I am," said she, "the daughter of that
unfortunate Captain Keitt, who, though weak and a pirate, was not so
wicked, I would have you know, as he has been painted. He would,
doubtless, have been an honest man had he not been led astray by the
villain Hunt, who so nearly compassed your destruction. He returned to
this island before his death, and made me the sole heir of all that
great fortune which he had gathered--perhaps not by the most honest
means--in the waters of the Indian Ocean. But the greatest
treasure of all that fortune bequeathed to me was a single jewel which
you yourself have just now defended with a courage and a fidel