nged."

Bonnet sadly shook his head.

"Ah!" he said, "you don't know, you cannot understand what I feel.
Kate," he exclaimed with sudden energy, "I was a man among men; a chief
over many. I was powerful, I was obeyed on every side. I looked the bold
captain that I was; my brave uniform and my sword betokened the rank I
held. And, Kate, you can never know the pride and exultation with which
I stood upon my quarter-deck and scanned the sea, master of all that
might come within my vision. How my heart would swell and my blood run
wild when I beheld in the distance a proud ship, her sails all spread,
her colours flying, heavily laden, hastening onward to her port. How I
would stretch out my arm to that proud ship and say: 'Let down those
sails, drop all those flaunting flags, for you are mine; I am greater
than your captain or your king! If I give the command, down you go to
the bottom with all your people, all your goods, all your banners and
emblazonments, down to the bottom, never to be seen again!'"

[Illustration: Kate and her father in the warehouse.]

Kate shuddered and began to cry. "Oh, father!" she exclaimed, "don't
say that. Surely you never did such things as that?"

"No," said he, speaking more quietly, "not just like that, but I could
have done it all had it pleased me, and it was this sense of power that
made my heart beat so proudly. I took no life, Kate, if it could be
helped, and when I had stripped a ship of her goods, I put her people
upon shore before I burned her."

Kate bowed her head in her hands. "And of all this you are proud, my
father, you are proud of it!"

"Indeed am I, daughter," said he; "and had you seen me in my glory you
would have been proud of me. Perhaps yet--"

In an instant she had clapped her hand over his mouth. "You shall not
say it!" she exclaimed. "I have seized upon you and I shall hold you. No
more freebooter's life for you; no more blood, no more fire. I shall
take you away with me. Not to Bridgetown, for there is no happiness for
either of us there, but to Spanish Town. There, with my uncle, we shall
all be happy together. You will forget the sea and its ships; you will
again wander over your fields, and I shall be with you. You shall watch
the waving crops; you shall ride with me, as you used to ride, to view
your vast herds of cattle--those splendid creatures, their great heads
uplifted, their nostrils to the breeze."

"Truly, my Kate," said Bonnet, "that was a gr