GEORGE ROIHWELL
 
 BEYOND THE SUNSET
 
 "Look, there he is now !" 
 
 See page 242.
 
 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 A TALE OF LOVE AND PIRATE GOLD 
 
 BY 
 GEORGE ROTHWELL BROWN 
 
 Author of "My Country" 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 REGINALD F. BOLLES 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 Copyright, 1919, 
 BY SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY 
 
 (1KCOBPOBAIED)
 
 TO 
 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 
 ALFRED HENRY LEWIS 
 
 2134508
 
 " Push off, and sitting well in order smite 
 
 The sounding furrows ; for my purpose holds 
 To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths 
 Of all the western stars until I die." 
 
 ULYSSES
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I "MONSIEUR LURONNE" i 
 
 II YELLOW EYES ......... 17 
 
 III THE SHIP OF BRIDES 35 
 
 IV THREE-LEGS 49 
 
 V BRAS-DE-MORT 59 
 
 VI THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 78 
 
 VII SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 93 
 
 VIII A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 120 
 
 IX A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 142 
 
 X ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 178 
 
 XI THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND CROWNS . 195 
 
 XII THE PIRATES' ISLAND 219 
 
 XIII CAPTAIN MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE . . . 244 
 
 XIV CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET TAKES COMMAND 259 
 XV YVONNE . . . . , .... . 277 
 
 XVI JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 296
 
 BEYOND THE SUNSET
 
 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 'MONSIEUR LURONNE" 
 
 "Truly, thou art my very son, dear child," 
 said Colonel Chillingworth, resting the point of 
 his blade upon the floor, and panting from his 
 exertions. "Thou hast fair winded me, what 
 with the vigor of thy arm and the cleverness of 
 thy wrist. I have reared up a pupil who is 
 better than her master." 
 
 His daughter laughed, and, fondling her 
 rapier, nodded gaily when she saw that he was 
 rested and ready to begin again. And so the 
 shining blades flashed and sparkled once more, 
 and made merry music which so entranced 
 them that they did not hear the door when it 
 opened, nor Algernon Sidney when he came 
 softly into the room and stood quietly in the 
 corner, watching them at play.
 
 2 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Presently, the man's slender steel was 
 plucked from his grasp and went spinning 
 through the air. The visitor dodged, just in 
 time, for the point buried itself in the floor 
 where he had stood ; and Nancy, looking away 
 from her father's deep, steady eyes for the first 
 time, saw him, and holding out her hand, bade 
 him welcome, saying that they had been but 
 waiting for him, and so amused themselves, to 
 kill the time till he should come, in their favor- 
 ite manner. 
 
 "Aye, 'tis a great delight to me, Sidney," said 
 Colonel Chillingworth, "for now the lass hath 
 more skill than ever I boasted in my youth, and 
 a better hold upon the pummel of her sword 
 than I have taught her, so that I know not how 
 she came on it." 
 
 "Thou wast never a great student of the laws 
 of heredity," said his friend, drily. 
 
 "Nay, I am no bookworm," replied Colonel 
 Chillingworth, half banteringly. "Not that I 
 would neglect the mind, but I have ever believed 
 that a clean soul must have a healthy house in 
 which to live. It gives me joy to see upon my 
 daughter's face, and to feel in the muscles of
 
 "MONSIEUR LURONNE" 3 
 
 her arm, the glowing health this exercise has 
 brought to her. Why, an' she were a boy " 
 
 Algernon Sidney threw back his head, and 
 laughed. "Ah ! Chillingworth," he said, "thou 
 knowest well thou lovest this sport for its own 
 sake, and the maid, too, so have done with all 
 this preaching of Puritanism, save in your 
 politics, and give some bridle to the Cavalier 
 strain in thy blood that has made thee the 
 soldier that thou art. As for this lass of thine 
 not having been a boy it is not kind to her 
 always to speak thy heedless thought, nor 
 honest, neither, unless I read thee wrong, for I 
 do think the wound of that regret is long since 
 healed." 
 
 "That is true," replied Colonel Chilling- 
 worth quickly, "and yet," casting upon his 
 daughter a look of deep affection, "I wish that 
 for this task that now confronts her she had 
 the roughness of a man." 
 
 "Nonsense!" said Sidney, briskly. "I war- 
 rant you the maid hath more wit than any lad 
 of her years. You will unnerve her for her 
 work before she makes a fair start, with your 
 doubts of her ability to do it well, which I am
 
 4 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 sure she will, and in good time, too. I have no 
 fears for her, not one." 
 
 "Aye, but she is my daughter, Sidney," an- 
 swered Colonel Chillingworth in a low tone, 
 and drawing within the circle of his arm 'he 
 slender, blue-eyed stripling who stood upon die 
 hearth rug before the fire in front of them. 
 "My daughter! My only child; and the 
 journey before her is a long one, bad enough 
 in times of peace ; one fraught with many dan- 
 gers in times like these. I am almost of a 
 mind to abandon the plan, and go myself, in her 
 stead." 
 
 " 'Twere madness, Chillingworth. Your 
 neck would pay the forfeit, and Mistress Nancy 
 would lose her only parent, and the Cause an 
 arm and brain we cannot spare. We have 
 threshed it all out there is no other way." 
 
 Colonel Chillingworth threw himself into a 
 low settle by the fire, and buried his head in 
 his hands. There was a moment of silence, 
 and then a girl's voice, laughing silverly. 
 
 "I am all ready, General Sidney," Nancy 
 said, running her hand caressingly through
 
 her father's thick gray hair. "I think the plan 
 we have made is perfect. It cannot fail." 
 
 "She hath more spunk than thou didst show 
 at Marston Moor, I do believe, Chillingworth," 
 chuckled his companion. "Upon my honor, I 
 feel quite sure that Mistress Nancy will be in 
 no more danger upon the road than if she re- 
 mained here in France, with a cloud of gallants 
 trapesing at her petticoats." 
 
 "Much I care for them," said the girl, 
 tossing her head, while her father's face dark- 
 ened. 
 
 "That is one reason," he said slowly, "why 
 I am glad to have her go back to England, 
 where a woman is a woman and not a play- 
 thing." 
 
 "Moreover," went on Sidney, "since the mes- 
 sage she is to carry is a verbal one, and she 
 will have no papers, I cannot see how she can 
 be compromised. Upon my soul, in that garb 
 she makes as brave-looking a lad as ever I 
 hope to see and doesn't look a day over nine- 
 teen." 
 
 "And why should I, pray," cried Nancy,
 
 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "'/he lady it seems, will have naught of me." 
 
 A srmh beamed in the eyes of Godfrey Stil- 
 ]'iig-;'.ect. 1 hen they darkened quickly as the 
 ; r.itv cidJed with genuine feeling in his voice. 
 
 ' Hie hath promised herself to another. 
 \:icath" he finished savagely, and putting his 
 hand a^ain upon the hilt of his pistol, "per- 
 chance thou art the man." 
 
 "Nay," answered Captain Stillingfleet, while 
 Nancy hung her head and would not look at 
 him. "That is not my good fortune." 
 
 " 'Sblood ! Since we are both in the same 
 boat, it should be easy for us to come to terms. 
 Go away with me on this adventure and you 
 shall fare as I do, forty shares between us, and 
 as for the girl, an' you please, we will let the 
 dice decide that issue between us two." 
 
 Captain Stillingfleet took a step forward. 
 "Get out of my round-house," he said. There 
 was no sound for a long instant but the shuf- 
 fling of the men's feet and the lapping of the 
 tide along the side. Nancy looked up, her 
 eyes smiling, a great contentment in her heart, 
 her mind at rest. 
 
 "You refuse me?" demanded the buccaneer.
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 263 
 
 "When we go pirating, we go on our own ac- 
 count," replied Godfrey Stillingfleet, "asking 
 favors of none, sharing our booty only amonj 
 ourselves." 
 
 There was a murmur of approval behind 
 him, and Barney's shrill voice chortling as h" 
 capered about the deck outside. 
 
 "As for the girl," added Captain Stillinrr- 
 fleet, "though she be not master here, she is 
 mistress. We are guided not by her com- 
 mands, but by her wishes. If she declines to 
 marry you or have aught to do with your 
 schemes, Captain Morgan, rest assured she will 
 not lack for arms to back up those refusals." 
 
 The satisfaction of the crew of the Snap- 
 dragon, that is to say, of the Englishmen who 
 had escaped from Tortuga, increased at this, 
 and Barney's countenance thrust between Jim 
 Rimble's knotty legs bore a smile so incredibly 
 vast that one would have sworn he did not have 
 a freckle to his name. 
 
 "Aye!" boomed Jim Rimble, rolling his eyes 
 at his mates as he spoke. "She will not lack 
 for arms." 
 
 "Since that is your decision," replied Cap-
 
 8 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 graceful movement that brought into relief her 
 dainty limbs, encased in crimson stockings and 
 fawn-colored loose breeches. 
 
 She also wore a short coat, in the new fash- 
 ion, slashed in the sleeves to show her white 
 linen, and ribbons everywhere, at the knees, 
 in loops at her waist, and tying the periwig at 
 the ends. 
 
 On the back of the settle was a brown rid- 
 ing cloak, and on the table in the middle of the 
 room a broad-brimmed Cavalier's hat, with a 
 sweeping red plume. The latter she adjusted 
 with careless grace. 
 
 A rather tall, lank, long-limbed creature, 
 Mistress Nancy had scarcely yet reached the 
 threshold of womanhood. Hers were the deli- 
 cate and elusive charms of girlish beauty. 
 Smiles lurked in the corners of her wide blue 
 eyes, as if they were half afraid to brave the 
 displeasure of her firm, strong mouth, a mouth 
 so like that of her father, that Sidney, struck 
 by the resemblance, and remembering that 
 eventful day on Marston Moor, when Chil- 
 lingworth had fought his way to where he lay 
 wounded, and had saved his life, felt steal into
 
 "MONSIEUR LURONNE" 9 
 
 his soul an abiding confidence and faith in her, 
 and in the success of the mission upon which 
 they were about to send her. 
 
 Absent from England at the Restoration, 
 Algernon Sidney had gone in 1659 to Holland 
 to negotiate a treaty between Sweden and Den- 
 mark, nor had he been back home since then. 
 In the Low Countries he had vainly sought aid 
 for the movement to establish a republican gov- 
 ernment in England, a movement into which 
 he had thrown himself with a fervor that was 
 more intellectual than religious, and, failing, 
 he had come to France, where he was one of 
 the leaders in a continuous conspiracy for the 
 overthrow of the Stuarts and the monarchy, 
 from which he had gained nothing but his own 
 banishment. 
 
 In Paris he had been joined by Colonel Chil : 
 lingworth, who had served with him in Ire- 
 land, had gone over to Cromwell, and had been 
 compelled to fly for his life when Charles, com- 
 ing back to London as the King, had begun to 
 inflict upon his former enemies those open and 
 covert punishments which were making him 
 detested throughout the free-thinking world,
 
 266 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 The buccaneer made no move to return to 
 his own ship when the first boat-load of lead 
 went over the side and was pulled off, nor did 
 any of the victuals and provisions he had prom- 
 ised in return make an appearance. Two of 
 his men he dispatched to the island with orders 
 which he whispered to them, and then fell to 
 pacing the deck again moodily, as the Snap- 
 dragon's crew toiled over their task in the broil- 
 ing sun. 
 
 Now and then the pirate turned upon Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet his searching eyes, but there 
 was something in the young fellow's Saxon 
 face tliat evidently did not wholly please him. 
 For after such scrutinies he would scowl and 
 grind his jaws and turn his attention to the 
 men, as if mentally taking stock of them. And 
 Stillingfleet, quite well aware that the buc- 
 caneer had sailed with some of them in the 
 past, was not easy in his mind. 
 
 Casting an eye ashore, he observed that the 
 buccaneers were flocking down to the beach 
 in large numbers and putting off in small boats. 
 
 Convincing himself of this, he turned from 
 the rail to find Morgan deep in converse with
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 267 
 
 Jim Rimble, and stepping quickly up to them, 
 not liking the look he saw in the sailor's eyes, 
 he heard the pirate captain say something 
 about "Maracaibo," and saw Jim Rimble go 
 off amon^ the men forward. Stillingfleet 
 pulled out a pistol. 
 
 "Hark ye, Captain Morgan," he said. "I 
 am not the man to stand for anybody stirring 
 up mutiny on my ship." And with this he 
 presented his piece at the pirate's head, and 
 cocked it. 
 
 Morgan laughed in his face, the coarse, 
 reckless, self-confident laugh of a strong man 
 who felt sure of his ground. 
 
 "What if I did speak with these men?" he 
 returned. "Will they hold it against me that 
 I offer them a chance for gold?" 
 
 Some of the men nearest them, seeing what 
 was going on, stopped their work, now almost 
 done, for the lead was all on deck, and slouched 
 up. Captain Morgan caught Jim Rimble's 
 eye and smiled at him. 
 
 Jim Rimble grinned back, pulling at his fore- 
 lock and shifting uneasily on his feet. He 
 had chipped off from some of the pigs of lead
 
 12 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 than really known, that her stern soldier- 
 father had always cherished in his heart a deep 
 regret that his only child had not been a boy, 
 and now that an opportunity offered, she was 
 willing and eager to prove that a woman could 
 serve her country and her cause as boldly and 
 sagaciously as a man. 
 
 A Devon girl, reared in the very hotbed of 
 Puritanism, at a time when all England was 
 torn by civil wars, could not very well escape 
 those influences which make for ruggedness of 
 character, and Nancy Chillingworth was a De- 
 vonshire girl to the tips of her fingers. She 
 had spent much of her childhood in Plymouth, 
 while her father was at the wars in Scotland, 
 with her maiden aunt, Mistress Faith Crul- 
 ler, who proved so inadequate to the task of 
 rearing a high-spirited girl that Nancy grew 
 up as little spoiled by the gloom of Puritanism 
 as any girl in England. She spent her time 
 in the shipyards, in a nest of chips and shav- 
 ings, watching the men lay down the keel of 
 some vessel, or fashioning with plank and spar 
 a great ship, that she was later to see float
 
 "MONSIEUR LURONNE" 13 
 
 down the Catwater, and so sail away to the 
 distant seas. 
 
 On the docks, when barks dropped anchor, 
 battered by storm, or showing the scars of 
 the fights they had been in, she would listen 
 with shining eyes to the stories the mariners 
 told of their adventures. She loved to go into 
 the deep-bellied merchantmen, or the men-of- 
 war, lying in the harbor, until she came to be 
 as much at home on shipboard as in her aunt's 
 front yard. 
 
 Sometimes she would spend hours sprawled 
 upon the deck, absorbed in "Master Tapp's 
 Sea-man's Kalender," for books, in her home, 
 were scarce; and her eager mind drank up all 
 the knowledge of the sea thus spread before 
 her how ships are built and rigged and vic- 
 tualed and sailed, so that she might have got 
 a berth on any vessel out of Devon had she not 
 been a girl. 
 
 Boys were her companions, and she entered 
 into all their sports and games, and by the 
 time she was fifteen could sail a boat with any 
 of them. As these sturdy lads grew up and
 
 270 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 like a madman, as if suddenly bereft of his 
 senses. 
 
 With the bit of metal clutched in his fingers 
 he rushed among the men, forcing them to look 
 upon it, pointing to it, making the most horrible 
 grimaces in his hopeless efforts to speak. 
 Catching sight of a long-boat loaded with the 
 lead and made fast at the side, he threw himself 
 into her and groveled among the pigs, covering 
 them with his slobbery kisses, caressing them, 
 endeavoring to carry one in his arms. This 
 being too much for even his great strength, 
 he scrambled back over the bulwarks and ran 
 about again among the men, grunting and 
 groaning. 
 
 "Curse the fellow!" cried Captain Morgan, 
 backing away from him, and all but stumbling 
 overboard in his haste. "He must be 
 possessed of the devil. I w r ould not have him 
 on my ship for all the gold in Peru. Speak, 
 fcol, and have done with thy gibberish. 
 What art thou trying to say? The sight of so 
 imr 1 ! lead hath befuddled thee. When I cast 
 it, T shall have a care to make a bullet that will 
 fit thv skull."
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 271 
 
 Yellow Eyes, who had stopped his frenzy 
 to listen to this speech, went fairly beside him- 
 self, his tongueless gullet filled with froth, his 
 great arms moving convulsively. Little Co- 
 chinillo, crossing himself piously, as if he had 
 been a real monk, scurried for the side, shout- 
 ing at the top of his voice : 
 
 "He's a witch! He's a witch!" and dived 
 into the sea. 
 
 The pirates waited for no more. With 
 blanched faces they made a rush for their 
 boats and tumbled into them, shaking and 
 trembling. 
 
 "Come back, you fools!" roared Captain 
 Morgan. "How can a man be a witch?" 
 
 But they paid no heed, and took themselves 
 off to a safe distance. 
 
 Stopping for a moment the dumb man 
 paused as if thinking, then made a rush for the 
 companionway. 
 
 "Don't let him go below, men!" cried Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet impulsively. "He'll turn the 
 prisoners loose or else disclose the treasure to 
 these pirates. Shoot him down !" 
 
 With the snarl of a wild animal, Yellow Eyes
 
 16 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 arms, kissed him and the door had swung to 
 softly behind her, and the two men were stand- 
 ing there alone in the little room, looking at 
 each other searchingly in the gathering dusk, 
 and straining their ears for the sound of her 
 footsteps on the stairs.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 YELLOW EYES 
 
 It was with a brave show of more courage 
 than she really felt that Monsieur Luronne left 
 her father and General Sidney and set forth 
 upon her mission. Now, as she stood in the 
 narrow street in the gathering gloom, she was 
 half-minded to fly back up the stairs; but the 
 importance of the task that lay before her, and 
 the thought that the Calais coach must be even 
 then standing at the Golden Rabbit, with its 
 six horses slobbering at their bits, and the pos- 
 tilions taking their farewell drinks at the tap- 
 room, and that it would soon be off into the 
 night, leaving her behind if she did not bestir 
 herself, spurred her into action. 
 
 With a quick glance up and down the dim 
 street, streaked here and there with little paths 
 of light that streamed through shop windows 
 and half-opened doors, she drew her cloak 
 about her, and fell in behind a couple of sol- 
 
 17
 
 274 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 burnished eye along the barrel, just as Barney 
 McGiggen and Three-le^s came racing down 
 the deck together. 
 
 The lad threw himself in front of the girl as 
 the tongueless one fired. Then he pitched 
 headlong to the deck without a moan, while 
 Nancy, at his back, clasped her breast with 
 both hands and sank beside him, for the same 
 bullet had pierced them both. 
 
 There was the flash of a tawny body, and 
 with a deep-chested roar the three-legged dog 
 for the second time in its short life hurled him- 
 self straight at the throat of Yellow Eyes, and 
 his teeth met in the man's corded neck. Had 
 he been a full-grown dog, he would have killed 
 him, but even so the force of his weight and the 
 snap of those jaws bore the dumb man back- 
 ward, and he went down with a crash, just as 
 Captain Stillingfleet rolled over in the scup- 
 pers and pulled himself to his feet. He took 
 the situation in at a glance, and, observing 
 Captain Morgan leaning over the rail, cursing 
 his men and ordering them to come back, and 
 catching him unawares, suddenly lifted him 
 bodily in his arms and hurled him overboard.
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 275 
 
 "Heave ahead, men in the tops, men upon 
 the yards!" he commanded. "Get the sails to 
 the yards, men, and step lively. Who is at the 
 wheel there?" 
 
 As Pierre took the helm and put it over, he 
 cut the anchor cables with his own hand, and 
 the Snapdragon swung around and drifted 
 down the cove on the tide. Fired by his zeal, 
 and catching the meaning of his hurried or- 
 ders, the men flew to obey. Then Captain 
 Stillingfleet gathered Nancy into his arms. 
 Standing over Yellow Eyes for a moment he 
 said: 
 
 "Now, lads, take the dog off that human 
 devil. We will attend to him later." 
 
 And then he bore the girl into the shade of 
 the round-house where he laid her down again 
 upon the deck, her head in Cherie's lap. 
 
 Bras-de-Mort and Jim Rimble, manning the 
 gun on the poop, trained it upon the pirates 
 and warned them that if they fired with their 
 muskets or tried to come aboard they would 
 sink them. Loaded down as they were with 
 the pigs of lead, they dared not adventure, but 
 picked up Captain Morgan and pulled off for
 
 20 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 his importance in every crease of his shiny 
 face, that looked as if it had been freshly 
 larded, held in his hand a small bit of board 
 upon which he kept a record of the passages 
 engaged, written in a sprawling hand with a 
 chunk of red chalk, so that betwixt the clumsi- 
 ness of his fingers and the awkwardness of his 
 materials, he was frequently at as great a loss 
 to read what he had written as he had been at 
 first to write it ; the more so since he was being 
 well-nigh jostled off his feet by a crowd of 
 drovers, teamsters, wool-buyers, soldiers, torn 
 and ragged, and limping from their wounds, 
 and tipsy sea-men, on their way back to the fleet 
 from a spree, and most of them, in consequence 
 of the good times they had had, without the 
 price of the fare, and all the more clamorous, 
 and noisy, and profane, for that reason. 
 
 Nancy waited impatiently at first for a 
 chance to claim her seat in the coach for the 
 north, and then, observing that she could not 
 hope to accomplish her purpose by such mod- 
 est tactics, she placed herself behind a rotund 
 little French monk, who was worming his way 
 toward the landlord, butting those about him
 
 YELLOW EYES 21 
 
 with his head, clawing and scratching at 
 others who stood in his way, or shoving them 
 aside with a pair of enormous shoulders which 
 made him seem almost as broad as he was 
 long. Soon Nancy had the satisfaction of 
 perceiving that she was slowly but surely ap- 
 proaching the center of the landlord's magic 
 circle. 
 
 She was just congratulating herself on her 
 shrewdness when a gigantic Norman pikeman 
 hurled her aside, that he might take her place 
 in the wake of the energetic little friar, so that 
 she reeled backward and would have gone 
 sprawling if a strong hand had not grasped her 
 by the cravat and whirled her, spinning, back 
 upon her feet. 
 
 "Merci, monsieur," she gasped, and looked 
 into a pair of merry blue eyes that twinkled in 
 the face of a red-haired lad whose countenance 
 proclaimed his nationality as unmistakably as 
 if a map of Donegal had been printed upon it. 
 
 It was so full of freckles that it would have 
 been difficult to say whether there were a mil- 
 lion of them, or just one large one. His nose 
 turned up at an angle ; but it was his mouth that
 
 22 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 made Nancy feel that she had known him all 
 her life; such a laughing, whimsical mouth it 
 was, with red lips parted to show two rows of 
 glistening teeth, and a carmine rag of a tongue 
 that curled out of the corners on the slightest 
 provocation. 
 
 "Faith, monsieur!" he said with the rich 
 brogue of a North-of-Irelander, "you could 
 better dance a minuet than the step you need 
 to fight your way in there. Are you by the 
 Brussels coach ?" 
 
 "For Calais/' answered Mistress Nancy in 
 English, and pulling her hat down further over 
 her eyes. "My seat has been engaged these 
 two days gone, but I wish to see that no mis- 
 take has been made, and claim my place." 
 
 "English you are? Faith, and I took you 
 for a Pollyvooer, I did. Heed a word of wis- 
 dom, sir, and claim your seat yourself, while 
 the pickings good. It's filling up inside, and 
 you'll have to be quick to get a place. And 
 get inside it'll be airish toward the coast to- 
 night, I'm thinking." 
 
 "Are you by the Calais coach?" she asked 
 him, hesitating.
 
 YELLOW EYES 23 
 
 "If I can work my way, I am. They usually 
 need a hand with the horses at the last minute, 
 and it's my meat this night if I have to com- 
 mit a murther to get it." 
 
 "Should I get in at once, then?" demanded 
 the girl, moving toward the coach, and then 
 stopping, in doubt. 
 
 "Sure, and I would," and with this he pulled 
 open the door of the coach and gave her a "leg 
 up," hurling her bodily within, just in time 
 to rob a portly sheep-dealer, who otherwise 
 would have secured the last of the coveted 
 places, but who proved no match for Nancy's 
 enforced agility. 
 
 Wedged in between the little monk, whose 
 energy had rewarded him, and who snored al- 
 ready, like a trooper, on the one side, and a 
 wheezy tradesman on the other, who coughed, 
 and choked, and spluttered and blew until he 
 shook the whole coach, Nancy settled herself as 
 comfortably as possible, and tried to turn a deaf 
 ear to the sheep-dealer, who complained bit- 
 terly of the effect the night air on the top of 
 the coach would have upon his rheumatism. 
 She was almost ready, to be rid of him, to sur-
 
 24 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 render him her seat, when he discovered that it 
 was the Brussels coach that he wanted, and 
 went plunging away into the crowd, cursing 
 and groaning. 
 
 It was long past the hour of departure al- 
 ready, but not until both of Nancy's feet had 
 gone to sleep, and she felt as if a million needles 
 were pricking holes in them, and her spine 
 seemed to have been driven clear through the 
 hard wooden seat, from which most of the stuff- 
 ing and leather had been rubbed and scraped 
 by a generation of restless travelers, did the 
 coach finally get away, heaving and lurching 
 over the cobble-stones. 
 
 As it rumbled through the dim street, past 
 the pastry-cook's, under whose dark eaves she 
 knew two anxious men watched for her signal, 
 she contrived, by leaning over the fat paunch 
 of the snoring monk, to hang her hat from the 
 window, waving it as long as she thought they 
 were in sight. But whether her father and 
 General Sidney were able to see it in the dark- 
 ness of the poorly lighted street she had no 
 way of discovering, and was compelled to trust 
 to their eagerness to sharpen their eyes.
 
 YELLOW EYES 25 
 
 Soon they were through the city gates, the 
 fortifications were left behind, and the horses 
 strained in their harnesses over the muddy ruts 
 of the road which stretched away ahead of 
 them through the gloom. 
 
 The excitement and the novelty of her 
 strange position kept her awake for a time, but 
 even these wore off, and before long she fell 
 into a sleep which not even the snores and 
 wheezes of her two neighbors could disturb. 
 
 She did not awaken until near midnight. 
 The coach had stopped at a roadside inn, a 
 wretched place on the edge of a thick woods. 
 Peering out, and observing that the postilions 
 were changing horses, Nanc}^, bent upon 
 stretching her cramped legs, climbed softly 
 over the monk, who was still gurgling and 
 snoring, his head upon his breast, as if each 
 discordant gasp would be his last. 
 
 She found herself in a small, bare stable- 
 yard, lighted only by the smoking torches of 
 the hostlers, who were kicking and bullying the 
 fresh horses into their places. 
 
 The tired moon had wrapped herself for 
 the night in a coverlet of clouds and only a lone
 
 26 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 star shone low down on the horizon. The 
 whole world seemed soggy and clammy, like a 
 moist pudding laid away in a damp cloth. 
 
 Seeing that the stable-boys, what with the 
 darkness and the restlessness of the horses, and 
 the cold, which made all their fingers thumbs, 
 were likely to be some time about their task, 
 Nancy turned to the inn and, observing the 
 gleam of a candle through the window, went in 
 and stood before the fire which smoked and 
 smoldered on the hearth and threatened at any 
 minute to give up the unequal and discouraging 
 fight against wet wood. Looking about, she 
 found herself in a low room, and, when her 
 eyes had grown used to the shadows which en- 
 gulfed it, she made out in the center of the 
 floor a heavy hewn table, on which were the 
 remains of a repast, which a frowsy scullion- 
 boy was clearing away, and which she thought 
 likely had been served to three rough, un- 
 kempt men, mud-covered from beard to bro- 
 gans, who had drawn their bench into a recess 
 at a casement window opening upon the stable- 
 yard, where they sat, heads together, talking 
 in whispers.
 
 YELLOW EYES 27 
 
 There was no particular reason why Nancy 
 should have supposed that they were talking 
 about her, save that they did, truly enough, 
 steal a glance at her from time to time. But 
 the conviction that they were discussing her, 
 and very earnestly, too, came upon her with a 
 little sense of apprehension, of what she knew 
 not. Only she was glad when the door opened 
 and the red-headed Irish lad, whom she had 
 seen in the market-square at Lille, came into 
 the room, and beckoned to her with a motion 
 as if to say that the coach was ready to re- 
 sume its journey. She had a better opportun- 
 ity to observe him then, as he stood beneath 
 one of the lights thrust into a hole in the wall by 
 the door, a clean-cut, good-looking lad, despite 
 his ragged clothes and freckles, and the general 
 air of indifference to fate and fortune which 
 sat upon him ; nor did she fail to note, even in 
 that brief second, as she started for the door, 
 that he, too, had suddenly become an object of 
 the scrutiny of the three men in the corner by 
 the casement. 
 
 She knew that the country they were in was 
 overrun with soldiers of fortune, temporarily
 
 28 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 out of employment because of the cessation of 
 the wars the king had waged in the Low Coun- 
 tries and turned adrift to shift for themselves, 
 like hungry wolves let loose in a sheepfold. 
 
 One of the men, a great high-shouldered fel- 
 low, in the dress of a soldier of Flanders, 
 though he looked more the Spaniard, quit his 
 companions, and, leaving the room by a small 
 door at the back, which opened long enough 
 to show the corner of a smoke-grimed kitchen 
 beyond, with a pot steaming on the grate, came 
 back again on the instant, with the landlord 
 at his heels. The landlord nodded at some- 
 thing the fellow said to him all this in a 
 twinkling and when Nancy turned to join 
 the Irish lad, one of the others crossed the 
 room at a bound and shut her off from the 
 door. And then, as there came to her from 
 the frosty court-yard the crack of the postil- 
 ion's whip and the crunch of wheels, and she 
 realized that the coach had gone, she saw him 
 leap toward her, with a billet of w r ood in his 
 hand, saw the freckle-faced boy spring at his 
 neck from behind and go down with a blow on 
 his head, saw the landlord bar the door and pull
 
 YELLOW EYES 29 
 
 the candles from the wall, saw the other two 
 men, as the light faded out, hurl themselves 
 upon her, and then nothing. 
 
 How long a time had passed before she put 
 forth her hand in the darkness she did not 
 know. But she did know, vaguely, that the 
 effort cost her pain, and she seemed to float off 
 again on a sea of unconsciousness. Again, 
 after a long, long while, she stretched forth 
 her hand and this time she clutched something 
 a handful of straw. The discovery sur- 
 prised her. She pondered upon it, minutes 
 hours weeks time meant nothing. She 
 tried again. More straw. She was on her 
 back, lying upon a bed of straw and rushes. 
 It was certainly not the coach. In a cart, then, 
 for it was moving, and roughly, too. If it 
 were not for the pain in her head, she thought, 
 she could tell whether it was a cart or not. 
 Yes, it was certainly a cart. There was no 
 room in the coach for one to lie upon the floor. 
 
 Then where was the coach ? Where was the 
 landlord of the inn and where were the three 
 men in the corner by the casement and the 
 red-haired Irish boy? A groan at her side
 
 30 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 answered this question. He was there beside 
 her, in the straw. Moreover, his wrist was 
 tied to hers with a knotted rope. This discov- 
 ery prompted her to still another: their feet 
 were lashed together. No matter! It was 
 only the pain in the head that counted, after 
 all. 
 
 As for the Irish lad, he no doubt was dead. 
 Had she not seen him struck down? No, he 
 had groaned. Well, he had groaned, and then 
 died. Yes, she had seen him struck down 
 by a blow on his head. And then they had 
 come upon her, in a rush across the room, and 
 had taken her off her guard. Her mission 
 was a failure at the start. She had been spied 
 upon, followed, half killed, and carted away 
 like a sack of meal. And back in Lille two 
 men waited anxiously for her to deliver the 
 tidings they were sending to England. Too 
 bad! Too bad, indeed, for they had put such 
 faith in her ! 
 
 She opened her mouth, and the scream that 
 poured forth in an angry, inarticulate wail of 
 rage brought the front flap of the cart open 
 with a jerk, and she saw framed in the opening,
 
 YELLOW EYES 31 
 
 against a cold gray sky-line, the thick-lipped 
 face of a man, with toothless gums, and a pair 
 of yellow eyes, eyes the color of burnished gold, 
 that looked as though they would scorch and 
 burn and wither ; eyes that blazed up and then 
 grew dull, that flashed again, and sparkled like 
 fire; eyes that seared her, that bored into the 
 very soul of her, that she knew she would never 
 forget again as long as she might live, and 
 that she never did forget. Not a word did 
 he speak. Not a sound came from between 
 those thick, purpled lips. But his eyes were 
 eloquent. She looked into them, and obeyed 
 their silent command. 
 
 The flap of thick cloth that covered the cart 
 dropped back into place. She was in darkness, 
 with only the image of that pasty head, hair- 
 less, with not a bristle upon it from nape to 
 chin, bald as a turnip, and colorless but for the 
 purple, swollen lips, and a great patch of red 
 that showed when the lips were opened, to 
 haunt her memory. And so she dropped off 
 into nothingness again. 
 
 When next Nancy raised herself to look 
 about her it was broad day. The man with
 
 32 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 the yellow eyes was leaning into the cart, hack- 
 ing with a knife at the ropes that bound her 
 to her comrade. He turned those two twin 
 coals upon her, and, answering their mute ques- 
 tion, as to whether she could walk, she nodded 
 her head, crawled weakly to her feet, and with 
 his assistance gained the ground. 
 
 She was weak, and grasped the wheel of 
 the cart to steady herself. She saw by the 
 sun that it must be on toward evening. At 
 her side a tangled thicket, stunted trees, bent 
 by the wind, as dark, wild, and forbidding a 
 place as any spot she had ever seen ; in front of 
 her a rocky beach, along which the calm sea 
 lapped and gurgled. Close in, a small boat, 
 with two men at the oars, and, in the distance, 
 half a mile ofT-shore, a brigantine, on which 
 the sails were breaking out; and she could see 
 the seamen in her shrouds, and hear the ropes 
 slipping in the falls. 
 
 The man with the yellow eyes emerged from 
 the cart with the Irish lad, his head dangling 
 between his shoulders, the face covered with 
 clotted blood. He put the boy down, picked 
 her up, and strode down to the beach, where
 
 YELLOW EYES 33 
 
 he waded out to his hips in the water and threw 
 her in the bottom of the boat. 
 
 "Lie still and hold your tongue," growled 
 one of the men at the oars. 
 
 Yellow Eyes scrambled back over the rocks, 
 and came down again with the Irish lad over 
 his shoulders. He dropped the boy into the 
 boat beside Nancy and, looking meaningly at 
 the seaman at the bow oars, held out his hand. 
 The sailor shook his head and pointed toward 
 the ship. 
 
 Yellow Eyes nodded at this, and, shoving 
 off into deep water, waded out to his middle 
 and swung himself into the stern sheets. The 
 sailors fell to their oars. 
 
 Presently, Nancy, on her back in the bot- 
 tom of the boat, saw the shadow of the ship 
 fall across them. She was jerked to her feet 
 and thrust up the ladder in the waist, followed 
 by the two sailors, with the Irish lad between 
 them, and Yellow Eyes, who vanished into the 
 big cabin. The boat was swung up at the bits, 
 the yards were squared away, and, the sails fill- 
 ing, the brigantine dropped down the bay on the 
 ebbing tide, her nose turned to the open sea.
 
 34 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 The ship had scarce got a bone in her teeth 
 in the freshening breeze when there was a 
 commotion behind her, and Nancy, who had 
 sunk down in the scuppers, turned to see the 
 man with the yellow eyes throw off two seamen 
 who were clinging to him, and rush to the rail 
 with a look on his face so full of astonishment 
 that it would have been ludicrous but for the 
 rage and hate in the eyes that burned like blaz- 
 ing fagots, the purple lips, now almost black 
 and twisted with passion, and the empty red 
 gullet which the girl observed now plainly for 
 the first time, with a shudder, for the tongue 
 had been cut out. 
 
 She turned her head to shut out the wretched 
 sight, and her glances swept the roughening 
 waters of the little cove as it broadened into 
 the channel and over which the whitecaps 
 danced with crests that rose and fell, and broke 
 into glistening sprays of foam. She saw the 
 dimming shore-line, the rocks and scrub oaks, 
 and against their background the cart, with the 
 shaggy horse standing there patiently, waiting 
 for its master to come back.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE SHIP OF BRIDES 
 
 A moan at her side made Nancy turn, and 
 then she sank on one knee to the deck beside 
 the Irish lad, who, lying still where he had 
 been thrown, now opened his eyes. A wave 
 of tenderness swept over her. 
 
 "Forgive me," she said, and gently smoothed 
 back the matted hair, disclosing a long, jagged 
 cut, that laid open the scalp to the skull. No 
 one paid the slightest attention to them as she 
 looked about her for a friendly face. 
 
 The ship was in the utmost confusion. The 
 waist, as far as the forecastle, was a litter of 
 bales, and chests of goods, and a great number 
 of casks in a heap, which a dozen tatterdemal- 
 ions, haggard of face, and wretched-looking 
 beyond belief, were passing below and stow- 
 ing away in the hold under the direction of the 
 cape-merchant, or purser. Abaft the main- 
 mast, at the capstan, stood Yellow Eyes, head 
 
 35
 
 36 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 sunk between his shoulders, in an attitude of 
 utter dejection. The deck swarmed with men, 
 and women, too; some in rags, others in finery 
 that looked oddly out of place amid such sur- 
 roundings. They lounged along the gunwales, 
 gazing off toward the shore, now a dim line of 
 haze astern, or else sprawled full length, or 
 sat where they could find a place, on chest or 
 crate, as if worn out and exhausted. 
 
 One among them she recognized with a 
 start, the little monk who had been her travel- 
 ing companion in the Calais coach. He was 
 seated on a box, contentedly gnawing the nub 
 of a ham bone, and sucking out the marrow 
 with every evidence of satisfaction. At the 
 rail near her a young French girl was leaning 
 dejectedly. Nancy beckoned to her. 
 
 "Can you not find a basin of water and a 
 cloth for me?" she asked, with a gesture to- 
 ward the wounded boy on the deck. 
 
 The girl shrugged her shoulders as if in re- 
 fusal and then, thinking the better of it, went 
 off without a word. She emerged presently 
 from the cook-room in the forecastle with a 
 bowl of steaming water and a bit of a rag.
 
 THE SHIP OF BRIDES 37 
 
 Mistress Chillingworth took them eagerly, 
 smiling her thanks, and began bathing the head 
 of the Irish boy. The girl, watching these pro- 
 ceedings in silence, went off again, and, com- 
 ing back with a tankard of water, raised the 
 boy's head in the hollow of her arm and poured 
 a few drops down his throat. 
 
 "He will come around all right," she said, 
 looking at Nancy curiously. "Your brother ?" 
 
 Nancy shook her head. 
 
 "A friend," she answered. 
 
 " 'Tis an ugly wound." 
 
 "For my sake, too! A brave lad. Come, 
 rouse up, sir." This to the Irish boy. "Let 
 us get you once upon your feet, and I feel sure 
 you will be better speedily." 
 
 Thus encouraged, the boy climbed to the rail 
 and stood there, swaying about. The two girls 
 held him up, and, the salt of the sea getting 
 into his head braced him wonderfully. Now 
 they observed crew and passengers gulping 
 down soup, which was being passed out to them 
 in bowls, and eating great chunks of bread. 
 
 Nancy, joining the rush to the cook-room, 
 returned with food which all three fell upon
 
 38 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 greedily, their backs to the bulwarks, the bowls 
 of soup in their laps, the bread serving them 
 for spoons. The meal put strength and cour- 
 age into them. 
 
 Even the French girl showed in her eyes that 
 she had plucked up heart. Of an unmistakable 
 type, she was pretty, chic, bedecked in cheap 
 finery, with a pale face, deep circles beneath 
 her eyes, cheeks rouged, a girl who had 
 crowded thirty years into her twenty years of 
 life, and showed every one of them. Nancy, 
 with that quick and true intuition which young 
 girls sometimes feel, knew her for what she 
 was, for she had lived too long in Paris not 
 to have seen many like her. 
 
 "What may your name be, my friend?" she 
 asked. 
 
 The French girl shrugged her shoulders and 
 smiled a wan, ghostly smile. Tears stood in 
 her eyes. 
 
 "My name ? What matters that. They call 
 me 'Cherie.' Let that do for you. And yours, 
 monsieur ?" 
 
 Nancy blushed. 
 
 "My name? Oh, Monsieur Luronne."
 
 THE SHIP OF BRIDES 39 
 
 The French girl looked at her keenly, as if 
 she would speak. Then she shrugged her 
 shoulders. 
 
 "And yours, monsieur?" This to the Irish 
 lad. "Since fate has thrown us together we 
 may as well be friends." 
 
 "Barney McGiggen, mademoiselle, at your 
 service. At least, I will 'be at your service 
 when I can rid myself of this pain in my head. 
 Faith ! What a blow that fellow gave me ! I 
 am stunned by it yet." 
 
 "What blow?" demanded Cherie, who 
 looked inquiringly at Nancy. "I saw no one 
 strike you. How came you by this frightful 
 wound? And you, Monsieur Luronne. 
 There is blood upon your face, and in your 
 hair. I fear you need assistance, too." 
 
 " 'Tis nothing. I am all right now. We 
 were beaten and brought on board, as you have 
 seen. What ship I know not." 
 
 "The Saint Jean Baptiste" she said. "We 
 sailed from Calais under charter of the French 
 West India Company for Tortuga, with a 
 mixed cargo, and fifty women to be the wives 
 of the colonists there,"
 
 40 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Tortuga!" cried Nancy. "The name is 
 new to me. I know not where that city is." 
 
 "I do not know rightly myself, monsieur, 
 only that it is in the Western Indies, and it is 
 not a city at all but an island, as near as I 
 can make it out." 
 
 "The Spanish Indies! Then are we not 
 bound for England?" 
 
 "Ah, no, monsieur. Were you for Eng- 
 land?" 
 
 "Faith! And it'll be a long day before we 
 see England again, I'm thinking," said Barney, 
 a broad grin stretching his lips almost from 
 ear to ear. "I saw by the looks of her she's a 
 ship for foreign parts, and sure, it suits me 
 well enough. I'd as soon go to the New World 
 as anywhere else, and a bit sooner. There's 
 gold there, to be picked up in the streams. 
 Faith, monsieur, we'll all be rich." 
 
 Nancy had sprung to her feet, and tears 
 which she could not keep back flooded her eyes, 
 and rolled down her cheeks. But tears had 
 been too common a sight upon that ship that 
 day to cause any comment. Cherie buried her 
 face in her arm upon the rail and wept, and
 
 THE SHIP OF BRIDES 41 
 
 Barney's blue eyes began to blink rapidly. He 
 choked back any pangs of homesickness he 
 might have felt with a merry whistle, and 
 slapped Nancy upon the shoulder. 
 
 "Have done with tears, monsieur," he 
 laughed. "Save them for another time. 
 Sure, and I guess we'll need them soon enough 
 at best." 
 
 Nancy dried her eyes. She did not care 
 for herself, for the love of adventure ran warm 
 and red in her veins. But the picture her im- 
 agination drew of the two men in a shabby 
 lodging in Lille, waiting for her to come back 
 from a mission from which she would not re- 
 turn, and of the long days of anxiety and grief 
 her father would feel until she could contrive 
 to get to him some word of her plight, was more 
 than she could bear with unconcern. 
 
 " 'Tis a long journey these women are taking 
 to marry their men in the New World," she 
 said after a while. "But women have ever 
 dared all dangers for the sake of the men they 
 love." 
 
 Cherie smiled, but a smile in which there was 
 no mirth.
 
 42 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Love and romance, I fear, have no place 
 in the hearts of such as we. We are going 
 out to marry men whom we have never seen. 
 For myself, I shall take the first who offers. 
 Yes, the first man who speaks me when I land, 
 him will I have for husband." 
 
 "I do not understand." Nancy's eyes were 
 wide now. "I thought women, and men, too, 
 married but for love. I would wed for love, 
 and love alone." 
 
 "The world has been good to you, monsieur, 
 but with us it. is not so. It is a world of mis- 
 ery and sorrow, of wretchedness and unhappi- 
 ness." She pointed to a group of bedraggled 
 women leaning listlessly over the rail at the 
 stern, as if straining their tired eyes to catch 
 one last glimpse of the land they were leaving. 
 "Human beings, though, like the rest of us," 
 she added significantly. "God have mercy on 
 their souls and on mine. Derelicts all, mon- 
 sieur." 
 
 "Who are they ?" asked Barney. 
 
 "Who knows?" answered Cherie, with an- 
 other shrug of her shapely shoulders. "Pick-
 
 THE SHIP OF BRIDES 43 
 
 pockets, thieves, murderers worse. The 
 scum of the alleys of Paris. Fine ladies of 
 quality! I warrant you there are no greater 
 rogues in all Europe, nor any in Christendom 
 more steeped in misery and despair." 
 
 "And so they are going out to what is the 
 name of the place?" 
 
 "Tortuga, in the Spanish Indies. I know 
 nothing of it save what I have learned from 
 one of the mariners who is lately from that 
 place. A small island off the coast of His- 
 paniola, or Domingo, as some call it now. A 
 rendezvous, it is, for all the riff-raff of those 
 seas, but a pleasant enough island, and very 
 fertile, so that the French West India Company 
 has a mind to hold it permanently for France. 
 
 "But there are no women there, this sea- 
 man tells me, and Monsieur the Governor, 
 thinking to make his fierce sea-rovers settle 
 down contentedly as colonists, hit upon the idea 
 of fetching out a shipload of women to be their 
 wives. Well, I am one of the sheep bought in 
 the market-place and now being delivered." 
 
 "Do none go willingly?"
 
 44 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Ah! out, some among us do those who 
 would save their necks, or their carcasses from 
 rotting in the hulks." 
 
 "And the men among you?" 
 
 "The same save that they are men. They 
 will be sold when we reach Tortuga. Well, I 
 hope to get an honest master and you, too. 
 If I don't I would kill the man who put the 
 lash to my back !" 
 
 "Sold!" cried Nancy. 
 
 "Oui, the women for wives, the men for 
 servants. You will be knocked down to the 
 highest bidder, for six, eight, mayhap twelve, 
 years. That is why you were kidnaped. But 
 didn't they turn the tables on that evil-visaged 
 scoundrel who brought you aboard! The 
 whole ship is laughing at the way they served 
 him." 
 
 "Yellow Eyes, you mean." 
 
 "True, his eyes are yellow, the evilest ever 
 I saw, too. It makes my flesh creep to see him. 
 And what a rage he is in. He came aboard 
 to get his pay for kidnaping you two boys, and 
 the quota of indentured servants we are taking 
 out not being full, Captain Jean calmly car-
 
 THE SHIP OF BRIDES .45 
 
 ries him off, too. ' Many's the poor devil he 
 has sent to die in the plantations. Now he 
 knows what it is to be paid in the same coin." 
 
 The ship was now well out of sight of land, 
 and night coming on. They made their way 
 into the forecastle to choose their bunks, and a 
 poor choice it was, seeing that nearly all the 
 places had been taken by those more prudent 
 than themselves. A stuffy, stinking hole it 
 was, lighted by a smoking lamp or two, overrun 
 with vermin, crowded and packed with a noisy, 
 blasphemous throng of men, herded together 
 like cattle. Into this fetid cavern Nancy and 
 Barney crept. The girl found an empty bunk 
 too small and undesirable for anybody else to 
 have claimed it, and curling up in it, lay down, 
 and soon was fast asleep, with the cursing and 
 laughing crowd of derelicts gambling and 
 drinking all about her, and the lapping of the 
 sea against the side of the ship in her ears. 
 
 How long a time she had slept she did not 
 know. A low whining sound, as if of a child in 
 pain, aroused her, and raising herself on her 
 elbow and looking about she made out on the 
 cabin floor the figure of a man lying upon his
 
 46 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 back, with a half-grown mastiff puppy licking 
 his face. 
 
 The forecastle was shrouded in darkness. 
 A few faint flickers yet remained in one of 
 the tallow lamps. The merrymakers who had 
 been gathered about the rough table, playing at 
 ombre, or lanterloo, and drinking and feast- 
 ing, had vanished. The whole place was 
 choked with the sound as of many men hard 
 asleep. Their snores and moans and throat- 
 rattlings floated out from every bunk, and 
 blended in a chorus in which each man seemed 
 to be trying to outdo his neighbor. The one 
 upon the floor was not disturbed. 
 
 Nancy leaned from her bunk, the better to 
 observe him and the dog that pawed at his 
 breast, whining and uttering yelps of distress. 
 As she did so she saw in a little patch of light 
 from the hatchway the shadowy figure of a 
 man. She drew back and lay still. It was 
 Yellow Eyes. 
 
 He crept to the man upon the floor and 
 turned him partly over, and Nancy saw then 
 what she had not observed before, the shaft of 
 a knife in the fellow's neck under the ear.
 
 THE SHIP OF BRIDES 47 
 
 Yellow Eyes drew it out and wiped the blade 
 upon the dead man's shirt. Then, kicking the 
 puppy out of his way, he lifted the corpse upon 
 his back, and, with a quick look around him, 
 staggered up the companionway with his bur- 
 den. 
 
 Nancy strained her ears then for the sound 
 she knew would follow, but she could not be 
 sure that she heard the splash as the body went 
 overboard, as she knew it did go, as well as if 
 she had seen it, out there on deck, with the fog 
 settled down all around the ship, enshrouding 
 ijt in a ghostly mist. She lay still, scarcely dar- 
 ing to breathe, for she knew, too, what Yellow 
 Eyes would do next. And presently he came 
 back with something in his hand that looked 
 like a coat, and kicking again at the dog that 
 was smelling at a spot upon the floor, dropped 
 to his knees and began swabbing at the great 
 red stain that Nancy knew was there. Then 
 he disappeared up the hatchway again, leaving 
 the puppy whimpering in the middle of the 
 forecastle floor. 
 
 He was back again, more quickly this time, 
 on his toes, starting at every creak and groan
 
 48 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 of the straining timbers, listening intently, 
 turning his head first this way and then that. 
 Once Nancy saw his yellow eyes, glowing in 
 the darknesrs like coals, full upon her. She 
 closed her own. She scarcely breathed. Her 
 heart stopped beating in her breast, and a roar- 
 ing filled her ears. 
 
 But he passed her and went forward softly, 
 and -by and by she heard his heavy body settle 
 down in a bunk some distance from where she 
 lay. 
 
 The orchestra of slumbering men continued 
 its discordant music, and presently she heard a 
 new note join in the refrain, and knew that 
 Yellow Eyes had gone happily to sleep, with 
 the dead man's wallet in his shirt, and peace in 
 his soul. In all that company she and the 
 puppy alone were ill at ease. The dog's whines 
 filled her with pity. 
 
 Impulsively she slipped down past the sleep- 
 ing men in the bunks beneath her, gathered the 
 puppy in her arms, and, climbing back with 
 him, the two lay down together, and so, at last, 
 dropped off to sleep, and slept till morning.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THREE-LEGS 
 
 Fair winds and smooth seas marked each 
 succeeding day for three weeks. Captain 
 Jean, the grizzled Breton master of the Saint 
 Jean Baptiste, steered their course for the 
 Canaries, and, after stopping there for two 
 days for wood and water, during which time no 
 shore liberty was allowed, and a strict watch 
 was kept night and day on all the wretched pas- 
 sengers, dropped down to the Cape Verdes. 
 Here they altered their course to the westward, 
 and went across on the northeast trades. 
 
 By this time Nancy and Barney had made 
 themselves favorites with the passengers and 
 crew. The only youngsters on board, they 
 were soon fetching and carrying for the whole 
 ship. They feasted on tidbits from the mas- 
 ter's cabin and stood their watches with the 
 men as if they had used the sea all their lives. 
 
 Naturally of a cheerful disposition, the girl 
 
 49
 
 50 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 accepted the new state of her fortunes with 
 Puritanical stoicism. She had satisfied her- 
 self that she had been kidnaped, not because 
 her father's secret had been discovered, but 
 because she was worth, delivered on board ship, 
 a Spanish pistole to Yellow Eyes. 
 
 Him she avoided, keeping out of his way at 
 all times, as well for her own sake as for the 
 dog's, for Yellow Eyes had taken a violent dis- 
 like to the puppy, as if it reminded him of a 
 thing he would forget. She often felt his 
 molten eyes burning into her, compelling her to 
 look at him by some strange power that they 
 held. 
 
 She would turn her face as quickly as she 
 could, to shut out the sight of him, with his 
 almost fleshless skull, his thick purple lips, in 
 which all the blood in his body seemed to have 
 settled, and his toothless gums and tongueless 
 gullet beyond. 
 
 She and Barney spent most of their time 
 with the helmsman, Pierre, the wrinkled-faced, 
 who had been twice around Africa by the Por- 
 tuguese route to India, and was commonly re- 
 puted to have obtained his uncanny skill in
 
 THREE-LEGS 51 
 
 reckoning the position of the ship by sun or 
 stars from the devil himself, with whom he was 
 generally believed to be on terms of closest 
 intimacy. A bushy beard encircled his face, so 
 that he seemed to be peering out upon a world 
 of dangers from behind a friendly ambuscade, 
 a surmise confirmed by a pair of singularly 
 alert and sharp little eyes which snapped and 
 twinkled incessantly. 
 
 In the steerage room of the ship before the 
 great cabin, he stood at the compass and kept 
 a record upon the travas of the number of 
 half-hour-glasses they steered upon every 
 point. From him they learned the lore of the 
 deep sea, of storm and calm, and Nancy, as she 
 had done in her childhood on the docks at Ply- 
 mouth, drank in the tales he told with shining 
 eyes and parted lips. 
 
 All that she had studied in Master Tapps' 
 and the books *on navigation she had read in 
 her young girlhood came back to her now, and, 
 Pierre explaining to her the intricate points, 
 so that she could put what she had learned into 
 practise, she soon became a fair navigator and 
 could observe the latitude and longitude, and
 
 52 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "prick the card" and "say the compass" with 
 the best. 
 
 And so, what with winds that failed, or blew 
 from the wrong quarter, the weeks slipped by 
 until on the sixty-second day after they had 
 quit the shores of France, when water-casks 
 were nearly empty, and crew and passengers 
 were on short allowance of half a pound of 
 biscuits and a gill of brandy a day, they sighted 
 land. This proved to be the easternmost cape 
 of Hispaniola. So, standing off to avoid a 
 Spanish ship of war that gave chase, they bore 
 away to the northwest. 
 
 "Hark ye, Barney," said Nancy, drawing 
 the Irish lad into a quiet corner. "I've been 
 working out a scheme and want your advice 
 upon it. Ever since we left France I have 
 been busy with plans to get back, but ever a 
 difficulty offered to my designs. Now, I have 
 in my shoes some gold pieces, and with them, 
 I warrant you, we shall be able to pay our pas- 
 sage back like gentlemen. What think you of 
 that for an idea ?" 
 
 Barney's million freckles blended into one 
 before his whole face seemed to disappear
 
 THREE-LEGS 53 
 
 o^er the horizon of his distended mouth, which 
 opened in a grin so vast he was like to lose him- 
 self in it entirely. His blue eyes-blinked furi- 
 ously. Then there came into them a subtle 
 craftiness. 
 
 "Faith ! I think 'tis the poorest ever I heard 
 of. You will be robbed for your pains." The 
 smile disappeared, and a look of deep concern 
 spread over his countenance. 
 
 "Robbed!" 
 
 "Aye, that you will. I have seen more of the 
 world than you have, monsieur. There are 
 a dozen men on this ship who would split your 
 wizen for a piece of silver, let alone gold. 
 Show your louis d'or to these beggars, and 
 your money will not be all that you will lose. 
 By the Saints! It makes me shiver to think 
 of it, it does." 
 
 "But Captain Jean is an honest man. He 
 has treated us kindly on the voyage." 
 
 "A lot of men are honest until you show 
 them gold." 
 
 " 'Tis true enough, Barney, and yet would 
 I trust to Captain Jean, were it " 
 
 She turned quickly, as the sound of a scuffle
 
 54 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 came to her ears, in time to see Yellow Eyes 
 kick savagely at the mastiff. The man had 
 evidently come up unawares close by to where 
 they stood, but what he had heard of their con- 
 versation they could not tell. The dog, yelp- 
 ing with pain, picked himself up from the deck, 
 and rushed upon the tongueless man, ears back, 
 white fangs gleaming wickedly in his half- 
 grown jaws. Yellow Eyes raised his foot 
 again, and Nancy, picking up a handspike, dealt 
 him a blow in the face that made him measure 
 his length on the deck. He was on his feet 
 in an instant, with a deep cut in his forehead, 
 and his yellow eyes full of blood, and with a 
 roar of rage hurled himself upon her. He 
 drew his knife as he sprang, a wicked blade 
 which was no new sight to her. 
 
 They say that, as a person drowns, his whole 
 life comes back in retrospect in that one last 
 crowded instant. Nancy found time to regret 
 that she had not denounced Yellow Eyes the 
 first day out, that she had deemed it the part 
 of prudence to keep a secret, even from Barney, 
 the things she had witnessed in the forecastle. 
 Because the man who had been missed had been
 
 THREE-LEGS 55 
 
 deemed a worthless jailbird at best, who doubt- 
 less had cast himself into the sea in a fit of 
 despondency, she had been content to remain 
 silent, lest she could not prove the crime, and 
 so would suffer herself in the end. And now, 
 for her forbearance, she was to feel the same 
 knife in her own throat. 
 
 She grasped the handspike with a firmer 
 clutch, and met the blow as it descended, and 
 parried it. Then she saw the lean body of the 
 mastiff, a dun streak across her eyes, saw him 
 leap for the corded neck of Yellow Eyes, saw 
 the knife flash in a great circle, and saw the dog 
 met in mid-air and fall backward, its right 
 foreleg cut off at the shoulder. As the dog 
 fell, Barney, the Irish lad, leaped at Yellow 
 Eyes. The freckles on his face were gone 
 now, wiped out by the rush of blood to his 
 skin, which was scarlet, as all the fighting in- 
 stinct of his race was aroused. He hurled 
 himself between Nancy and her assailant, but 
 the boy was no match for the powerful arms 
 and shoulders of the dumb man, who sent him 
 reeling back into the gunwales, where he fell 
 a crumpled heap in the scuppers, and then
 
 56 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 raised his knife and sprang at the girl with the 
 fury of a beast. 
 
 A great crowd came rushing to where they 
 struggled, shouting, "A fight! A fight!" and 
 got about them in a ring to witness the sport. 
 
 Nancy grasped her handspike with a firmer 
 grip. And then she saw something the girl 
 Cherie. A Cavalier, rather down at the heel, 
 but unmistakably of a different stamp from the 
 vagabonds and rascals who comprised the 
 human cargo of the Baptiste, came running 
 along the deck, not knowing just what was go- 
 ing on to cause so much excitement, and anx- 
 ious to see. As he passed Cherie she pulled his 
 sword from his belt, and, squirming through 
 the throng, stooped down, and sent it spinning 
 along the deck to where Nancy stood. 
 
 She reached for it quickly all this in the 
 flash of an eyelid and Yellow Eyes, although 
 he little knew it, was face to face with a pupil 
 of one of the best swordsmen in Cromwell's 
 army. A smile came over Nancy's face. Her 
 eyes danced, the rich warm blood of her suf- 
 fused her face with a rosy glow of zest for her 
 father's favorite sport. He had often told her
 
 THREE-LEGS 57 
 
 that he had taught her to fence as well as his 
 son might have done at her age. The recol- 
 lection of it gave her confidence, Yellow Eyes 
 hesitated, and in that moment of hesitation 
 was almost lost. For she had the blade at his 
 throat now, and the cheers of the crowd in her 
 ears, and in her heart a recklessness she had 
 never known before, that intoxicated her. 
 
 But fate, as if she had reserved him for an- 
 other end, came to his rescue now. Pierre the 
 navigator, Pierre the faithful friend, hearing 
 the great din and learning what it was all 
 about, for the first time left the helm without 
 a hand upon it, an act that changed the whole 
 current of Nancy Chillingworth's life and his 
 own. 
 
 As he came plunging down the slanting deck, 
 bellowing like a wild bull, and tossing out of 
 his way those who impeded his progress, a 
 great wave striking the ship on her quarter, 
 she fell off her course, and the sea broke over 
 her as she lay in the trough and deluged her 
 with a flood of water from the forecastle aft 
 to the binnacles, the shivering sails cracking 
 like thunder, just as the mastiff, on three legs,
 
 58 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 its body covered with blood, leaped again for 
 Yellow Eyes. The wave struck them full, 
 and man, girl, and dog went down in a heap 
 together. Nancy's head hit the gunwale, so 
 that she lay quite still with eyes closed, and all 
 thought she had been killed. Barney and 
 Cherie were quickly at her side and bending 
 over her: 
 
 "Mon Dieu!" cried out Cherie. "It is a 
 woman !" 
 
 The great crowd was suddenly silent, as they 
 picked her up and carried her into the cabin, 
 Barney's face gone white as chalk, and Pierre's 
 eyes blinking and snapping at a faster rate than 
 they had ever blinked and snapped before. 
 
 As for Yellow Eyes, his salt-water bath had 
 taken the fight out of him. He slunk forward, 
 his yellow eyes like molten gold, his tongueless 
 gullet distended, so that those who saw him 
 turned their heads and shuddered; and some 
 of them fondled the dog affectionately, and 
 bound up its wounds.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 
 
 Two days later they dropped anchor in a 
 little cove on the northern side of Tortuga, 
 their voyage at an end. 
 
 The night had been one of wretchedness and 
 misery for Nancy, who had recovered con- 
 sciousness to find herself among the women in 
 the cabin, where a bunk next to Cherie's had 
 been found for her. She needed no one to 
 tell her, then, that the secret she had guarded 
 had been discovered, and apprehensions on this 
 score filled her with fear, the more so, since 
 she asked in vain to see Barney. 
 
 "Captain Jean's orders," was all the explana- 
 tion she could receive from Cherie, who fretted 
 over her like a grandmother with a new baby. 
 But although she was good to her, and nursed 
 her tenderly, she dared not disobey, nor did 
 any favorable opportunity ofTer for the boy to 
 be smuggled in to her, a thing that she was 
 
 59
 
 60 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 most desirous of, in order that she might ask 
 his advice, having always found him wise be- 
 yond his years. 
 
 As for herself, no cajolery nor subterfuge 
 could induce her to disclose her identity. She 
 kept her mouth as tight as wax. 
 
 "Forgive me, my dear," said Cherie, "for 
 the exclamation which destroyed your incog- 
 nito^ but it sprang impulsively to my lips. And 
 now, I fear, I have done you a grave harm 
 put you in greater danger than you were in 
 before." 
 
 "I know you meant me no injury," replied 
 Nancy, "for you have given me assurances of 
 your friendship that I cannot doubt. But for 
 your quick wit in passing me the sword I 
 should now be overboard, I guess, by this 
 time." 
 
 She shuddered,, but smiled again. 
 
 "I dare say, though," she added, "that my 
 misfortunes will be no more in one role than 
 in another. And now that I am in my proper 
 person once more, I shall know the better how 
 to act for my protection. Perhaps as a woman 
 I shall be better off than as a boy."
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 61 
 
 "That," answered Cherie, with a shrug of 
 her shoulders, "depends a good deal, I should 
 say, upon whether you prefer to work for a 
 man as his slave or his wife. The wages, I 
 imagine, are the same in either case," she fin- 
 ished bitterly. 
 
 Nancy sat bolt upright at this. 
 
 "Wife!" 
 
 "Oui, they'll have us one way or another, 
 you may be sure." 
 
 The girl said nothing more after this, but 
 Captain Jean coming into the cabin presently, 
 she drew him aside. 
 
 "May I not have your consent to go on deck, 
 monsieur?" she asked. "Or have the boy Bar- 
 ney come here to me, that I may speak with 
 him, my friend, upon the situation in which I 
 now find myself?" 
 
 "The consent is not mine to give, made- 
 moiselle," he answered. "Monsieur d'Ogeron 
 has come aboard, and is in command. He has 
 heard your story, and is most anxious to speak 
 with you. It is to fetch you to him that I 
 have come/' 
 
 "Who is Monsieur d'Ogeron, that you, the
 
 62 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 captain, should take orders from him?" de- 
 manded Nancy. 
 
 "He is the governor and major of the island, 
 mademoiselle, and since he is supreme here 
 under the French West India Company, his 
 word is final." 
 
 "Then I fear 'twill be but a waste of time to 
 make of you a request that lies even nearer yet 
 to my heart," the girl answered. "I had hoped 
 you might grant it me." 
 
 "Right willingly I would if it were within 
 my power." 
 
 "Is it, then, not within your power to carry 
 me back to France with you, and the boy Bar- 
 ney, too? We came not willingly, monsieur." 
 
 "That I know and deeply regret. But such 
 is the system, and I must bring as safely as I 
 may the cargo that they deliver to me. They 
 would not permit me to take you back. I fear 
 another future awaits you here." 
 
 "Could you not smuggle me back then, if 
 I should hide on board? You see, monsieur, 
 I lay bare to you the secret I have nurtured, 
 and throw myself upon your honor." 
 
 "I will not betray you."
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 63 
 
 "If I should hide myself aboard, would you 
 protect me, monsieur?" 
 
 "I could not." 
 
 "Why?" 
 
 "I carry back with me, mademoiselle, thirty 
 Englishmen, as prisoners, evil fellows and 
 trouble-makers, who have refused to submit 
 to the government his Majesty has established 
 here in Tortuga. They have sought to seize 
 the island from France." 
 
 "Englishmen!" cried Nancy. "Why, mon- 
 sieur, I, too " 
 
 She stopped. Captain Jean looked at her 
 narrowly. 
 
 "Mademoiselle is English, too, hein!" She 
 raised her hand, and placed her finger on her 
 lips. "Sacre bleu! I will not betray you." 
 
 ^So you see, Captain Jean, I should be 
 among friends." 
 
 "In irons, yes, mademoiselle," he laughed. 
 
 "In irons!" 
 
 "Mon dieu! Yes, prisoners irons. What 
 is there so strange about that combination? 
 We are from Tortuga for Toulon, and were 
 you among the English prisoners you would be
 
 64 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 clapped into the bagnio with them and sent 
 thence to the galleys. You would do better in 
 the Indies, mademoiselle." 
 
 He led the way on deck, she following de- 
 jectedly, and so she saw Tortuga, its wooded 
 crest and palm-strewn sands bathed in a flood 
 of tropical sunlight which made her, coming 
 thus suddenly into the light, blink with a speed 
 that would have done credit to Pierre himself. 
 
 Captain Jean pointed upward, where a fort 
 and castle, with two guns, commanded the cove 
 in which the Baptiste lay at anchor. Perched 
 upon the side of a heavily timbered and rocky 
 mountain, it seemed in danger of slipping off 
 into the sea. 
 
 "In there," he said briefly, giving her a 
 knowing wink. 
 
 "The Englishmen?" 
 
 "Oui, the English dogs! Pardon, made- 
 moiselle, I forget myself. The English 
 women, they are beautiful, charming. The 
 English men cutthroats !" 
 
 And so they passed into the master's cabin, 
 or roundhouse. A gentleman arose as they 
 entered, and came toward them, and Nancy,
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 65 
 
 feeling his eyes upon her, lowered her own, 
 and for the first time upon that voyage, 
 blushed. 
 
 "She is here, monsieur," announced Cap- 
 tain Jean briefly, and then, something in the 
 girl's drawn face and tired eyes giving him a 
 boldness he had not assumed before, he added 
 quickly, "She has been kidnaped, and comes 
 not of her own will." 
 
 "Kidnaped!" D'Ogeron scowled and 
 shrugged his shoulders. Tis what they all 
 say." He turned to Nancy, and the girl 
 shrank beneath the admiration in his eyes. 
 "You came as a servant, mademoiselle," he 
 said. "You will remain as a wife." 
 
 "Truly, I came not at all of my own wish, but 
 was kidnaped, as Captain Jean has informed 
 you." 
 
 "Tush! Tis the story they all tell. Glad 
 enough for a chance for a free voyage to the 
 Indies, and begging off when once they land." 
 
 "I am not begging off." Her eyes flashed 
 with a look that General Sidney might have 
 recognized and loved. "I am an English 
 woman, aye, and proud of it, and not afraid
 
 66 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 to proclaim it. I claim my rights as an Eng- 
 lish woman, monsieur. My country and yours 
 are not at war." 
 
 "Below the tropic, they are, as you will find, 
 mademoiselle." 
 
 "Even so, since When have Frenchmen 
 fought women, monsieur?" 
 
 "You have me there," the governor laughed. 
 "Fight them? Mon dieu! Non! non! We 
 love them, my friend." 
 
 "Monsieur chooses to be insulting." 
 
 "Come, my pretty! A saucy jade, eh, cap- 
 tain?" The honest sailor's face darkened at 
 this, and he pulled his beard a savage jerk that 
 was like to tear it from his chin. "And of 
 the quality, too, or I am no judge of a woman's 
 fine points. What is your name, made- 
 moiselle?" 
 
 Nancy looked at Captain Jean, but finding 
 his eyes averted from hers, and seeing by his 
 attitude that he had done for her all that he 
 could, she realized that she must look now to 
 herself alone for protection. 
 
 "I cannot tell you that," she answered, "al-
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 67 
 
 though I can assure you it is one not unknown 
 in France as in England." 
 
 D'Ogeron, a handsome man a little under 
 middle age, in Rhinegrave breeches seamed all 
 over with scarlet and silver lace, sleeves 
 whipped with ribbons and cannons of the same 
 fluttering material at his knees, caressed his 
 mustache at this. Then, stepping up to her, 
 he sought to take her by the hand. She drew 
 back quickly, her face flushing a crimson color, 
 her blue eyes flashing. He laughed, a good- 
 natured laugh, and tried to slip his arm about 
 her waist, whereat she sprang across the cabin, 
 and placed the table between herself and him, 
 and so stood there, glaring, her nose quivering 
 with resentment, until, as he sought to follow, 
 she found the way clear to the companionway, 
 and springing up, gained the deck, leaving Cap- 
 tain Jean with a grin on his face, and d'Ogeron 
 wearing a flabby smile. 
 
 The nondescript crowd of passengers were 
 crowded into the waist, lining the rail. They 
 gazed with eager eyes upon the island, and 
 watched the crowd of ragged and tattered men
 
 68 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 who had flocked down to the beach, where they 
 stood about in groups, repaying all their curi- 
 ous glances with interest. ^ 
 
 Nancy, singling out Barney and Cherie, who 
 stood together at the beak-head ladder in the 
 bow, wormed her way through the mob and 
 joined them, and was received with expressions 
 of liveliest interest and delight. The first boat 
 having been lowered, and having no possessions 
 to impede them, they scrambled down, among 
 the first to leave, and soon were pulling off for 
 the shore, with Cherie perched in the bow. 
 
 As they came into shoal water, a man who 
 stood apart from the others on the beach waded 
 out, and, seizing the boat, hauled her up. He 
 offered his hand to the. girl crouching on the 
 bow like some carved figurehead, and Cherie, 
 placing her own within it, was deftly swung 
 ashore. Nancy and Barney following her, 
 they looked about them upon as strange a crew 
 of poor devils as might have been found in all 
 the world. 
 
 Nearly all of the islanders were Frenchmen, 
 with here and there a Portuguese, or a rene- 
 gade Spaniard who had fled to the French
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 69 
 
 colony to escape the penalty of his crimes 
 among people of his own kind. Dirty, un- 
 washed, unkempt, with matted hair falling to 
 their shoulders, over faces baked red by the 
 sun of the tropics, they were clad for the most 
 part in short canvas or cotton breeches, ragged 
 and torn, frayed at the knees, with coarse cot- 
 ton shirts hanging over them. Filth, smoke, 
 bloodstains, and grease had dyed them to the 
 color of a rotten sail. Their hats, fashioned 
 from the skins of goats or wild animals, were 
 brimless, little more than rude caps. Many 
 of them boasted no other covering than the 
 thatch with which nature had endowed them. 
 Around their waists were belts of untanned 
 hides, ornamented with so many knives and 
 pistols that one would have thought that 
 slaughter was their sole occupation ; nor would 
 one have been mistaken, for it was. From 
 their shoulders hung leathern pouches filled 
 with powder and shot, and nearly every one 
 carried a musket. Those who were not bare- 
 footed as well as hatless wore rough brogans 
 which had been fashioned by their own un- 
 skilful hands, from the skin of the wild pig.
 
 70 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 A roaring tide of shouts and exclamations 
 ebbed and flowed through them as, gesticulat- 
 ing and grimacing, they rushed out to meet the 
 small boats from the ship which had begun to 
 discharge their loads of human freight, in- 
 quiring as to the news from Europe, to learn, 
 perchance, by vague and adroit questioning, 
 so as not to disclose their own identities, if any 
 among the new arrivals came from parts 
 whence they themselves hailed, and knew aught 
 of friends or relatives. 
 
 With the landing of every fresh boat, as the 
 newcomers mingled with those on shore, the 
 din and confusion increased. Many of the 
 men had been in the Indies for ten or twenty 
 years, and the women were like creatures from 
 some other world. They stood around on 
 shuffling feet and with gaping mouths, only the 
 more daring among them offering to address 
 these strange beings who had come among 
 them to be their wives and share their wretch- 
 edness. 
 
 He who had assisted Cherie to land, a young 
 fellow of thirty in the threadbare dress of a 
 gentleman, escorted her gallantly into the shade
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 71 
 
 of a palm, which grew close to the water's 
 edge, but at some distance from the point where 
 the boats were landing. 
 
 "Mademoiselle," said he, taking off his hat 
 and making her a sweeping bow, "it honors me 
 to offer you the protection of my hand, and my 
 heart also," he added, with mock courtesy, and 
 yet with a note of manliness in his voice which 
 the girl, giving him a quick glance from her 
 dark eyes, was not slow to recognize. 
 
 "Monsieur is an impetuous lover," she 
 smiled, sarcasm, raillery, and pathos blended 
 in her low tones. "He wears his heart upon 
 his sleeve." 
 
 "You misjudge me, mademoiselle. No sud- 
 den fancy drives me thus to a declaration of 
 tenderness toward you. Long since, when 
 first I learned of this project of the Governor's, 
 I made up my mind to wed the first woman who 
 stepped ashore, would she but have me. I, 
 you see, am a fatalist. You were the first 
 and quite well satisfied I am, mademoiselle, 
 with the kindness of fate." 
 
 "Mercil You turn a compliment prettily. 
 You offer me your heart and hand. I accept
 
 72 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 them," and Cherie held out her hand to him, 
 and grew suddenly shy when he took it and 
 pressed it to his lips. 
 
 ''You flatter me, and raise me in my own 
 estimation. I -cannot be so low a creature as 
 I have sometimes thought myself to be, since 
 you" 
 
 "Monsieur flatters himself," she interrupted, 
 laughing. 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 "I, too, am a fatalist." 
 
 "I do not comprehend." 
 
 "I made an oath, when I turned my back 
 upon all that lies behind me, that I would take 
 for lord and master the first man who offered 
 me that honor, were he the devil himself." 
 
 "You are frank, mademoiselle." 
 
 "As you were." 
 
 "Quite true. We are well met. It is a 
 bargain, then." 
 
 "I am ready when the priest is." 
 
 "I have no name to offer you, mademoiselle." 
 
 "I understand. Nor I one to surrender. I 
 did that long, long ago, when all the world 
 was young. Thou art getting no vestal, mon-
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 73 
 
 sieur," she added faintly, turning her face, her 
 eyes upon the ground, while the blood mounted 
 to her cheeks. 
 
 "Thou can blush still, mademoiselle, and 
 so thou art not bad. I take thee without 
 knowing, or caring to know, who thou art. 
 If anybody from whence thou earnest would 
 have thee, thou wouldst not have come in 
 quest of me. I do not desire thee to give me 
 an account of thy past conduct, because I have 
 no right to be offended at it at the time when 
 thou wast at liberty to behave either well or 
 ill, according to thy own pleasure. Give me 
 only thy word for the future; I acquit thee of 
 the past." 
 
 He raised from his shoulder the musket 
 which he carried. 
 
 "This," he added, "will revenge me of thy 
 breach of faith. If thou shouldst prove false, 
 this will surely be true to my aim." 
 
 She bent her head in assent. 
 
 "And thou?" 
 
 "I will cherish thee and love thee and be 
 kind to thee until the end," he replied with 
 increasing intensity, so that she looked at him,
 
 74 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 full into the eyes, then turned her head aside. 
 
 When next he looked at her, her eyes were 
 wet. He smiled at her and took her by the 
 arm, as Nancy and Barney, who had been 
 searching for them in the crowds, came up to 
 where they stood. Cherie motioned to her 
 companion. 
 
 "We are to be married," she said simply, 
 throwing her arms around Nancy's neck and 
 weeping. "Ah, mademoiselle!" 
 
 "Mademoiselle!" exclaimed the man, look- 
 ing at -Nancy more closely. "Mon dieu! Par- 
 don, mademoiselle. I mistook you for a petit 
 garfon. I assure you your disguise is perfect. 
 Perfect! And " with a significant glance at 
 the rough crew frolicking on the beach "if 
 you will accept my advice, it is that you pre- 
 serve your incognito." 
 
 "The advice is excellent," answered Nancy, 
 "but unhappily it comes too late." 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 "The discovery was made on shipboard." 
 
 "And through me, too," said Cherie, with a 
 gesture of despair. 
 
 "Nay, my friend, do not blame thyself for
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 75 
 
 what must certainly have been disclosed in no 
 great time," said Nancy. "I could not much 
 longer have pretended to be aught save that 
 which I truly am, a very forlorn and unhappy 
 girl." 
 
 "Sacre!" cried the Frenchman. "It is too 
 bad. I greatly fear that before nightfall you 
 will find yourself wed to one of these greasy 
 cattle-hunters and buccaneers and then, may 
 God have mercy on your soul !" 
 
 Nancy looked afar off to where the ragged 
 crest of the wooded mountain cut the azure of 
 the tropic sky. 
 
 "No," she answered softly, "not while that 
 cliff is yonder." 
 
 "Don't say that," interrupted Barney. 
 "Why, it's wicked. And besides, we're all 
 here to look out for you and save you from 
 harm." 
 
 "Thank you, Barney. I know I can de- 
 pend upon you but, after all, what can any- 
 one do?" 
 
 "Oh! There'll be a way out of this. But 
 I don't blame you for being down at the 
 mouth. Why, if they tried to make me marry
 
 76 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 one of these men, I'd I'd I don't know what 
 I'd do. I'd kill him!" 
 
 Nancy threw back her head and laughed a 
 merry, ringing laugh. 
 
 "Ah, Barney boy," she said, "with you for 
 my defender I should not fear." 
 
 "Mademoiselle leaves me out!" cried the 
 Frenchman in an injured tone, thumping him- 
 self grandly upon the chest. "While Bras- 
 de-Mort has a bullet for his musket, it is at her 
 service." 
 
 "Hein! So I am to be Madame Bras-de- 
 Mort, yes ?" cried Cherie. "I thought you had 
 no name, monsieur ? I assure you 'tis a good 
 one, and satisfies me to my great content. But 
 if you had seen how well our friend defends 
 herself, maybe you would not think it neces- 
 sary to offer her your deadly arm. She will 
 marry no common cattle-hunter. No doubt 
 the governor has reserved her for his bride." 
 
 "Then do I pity her indeed," said the one 
 who had called himself "Bras-de-Mort," his 
 face very serious. "The governor has had 
 three wives, in the short time I have been here.
 
 BRAS-DE-MORT 77 
 
 Sacre! He lays a wife aside as though it 
 were his coat." 
 
 "Still," said Nancy, when they had stood in 
 silence listening to the soft murmur of the sea, 
 and the rustling of the palm leaves in the wind, 
 "I do fear the governor, for all his power here, 
 less than I do fear the dumb man." 
 
 She pointed down the beach where Yellow 
 Eyes was plowing through the sand towards 
 them.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 
 
 To escape the baneful eyes of the tongueless 
 man, and the hideous sight of his fleshless 
 skull and bloodshot lips, Mistress Nancy made 
 a wide detour through the palm-trees, followed 
 by Barney. She knew not whither she was 
 going; her sole desire was to be alone, to collect 
 her thoughts and have an opportunity to dis- 
 cuss in peace and quiet with the Irish boy plans 
 for their escape, for that she would die rather 
 than submit to the fate that awaited her here 
 in Tortuga she was firmly resolved. 
 
 The blood that had been resolute enough to 
 send an English king to the scaffold flowed in 
 the girl's veins. She felt a strengthening of 
 all the fibers of her being under the pressure 
 of her troubles, which, instead of making her 
 weary, clarified her mind and gave her un- 
 wonted energy, first, to see in what sort of 
 
 78
 
 THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 79 
 
 place she was, and to determine then what 
 avenues of escape offered. 
 
 She was hungry, and Three-legs, the mastiff 
 dog, which trotted at her side, looked up into 
 her face with eloquent eyes which proclaimed 
 in unmistakable language just what he would 
 have thought of a bone. As for Barney, he 
 had been half-starved so often that his stomach 
 gave him little trouble, seeing that it expected 
 nothing much of anything and was always as 
 grateful as astonished at any tidbit which came 
 its way. Still, they had eaten no food since the 
 night before, when they had dined on a couple 
 of biscuit and a little brandy and water in the 
 bottom of their tankard. So they turned their 
 attention to the beach where there was every 
 evidence of culinary activity, and whence was 
 wafted to them a delicious odor. 
 
 A great fire had been lighted in the open 
 space between the sea and the cluster of shacks 
 and huts which served the colonists for a town, 
 a short distance from the water's edge. Over 
 it a whole ox was roasting on an enormous spit, 
 sending forth an aroma that, as they drew near, 
 became maddening. The blaze was sur-
 
 8o BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 rounded by a noisy throng, those who had 
 landed that day from the Baptiste mingling 
 with their new-found friends and fellow-coun- 
 trymen, who paid clumsy court to the women or 
 fought among themselves for the favors of the 
 more attractive ones, who, finding themselves 
 eagerly sought after among so many men, were 
 not slow to exercise those arts of coquetry 
 best calculated to win for themselves the pick 
 of the prospective husbands. 
 
 Scarcely a damsel but was surrounded by 
 a dozen rough gallants, who proffered them 
 the choicest cuts from the barbecue, offered 
 them cups of wine from the casks which had 
 been broached under the palm-trees, shower- 
 ing them at the same time with uncouth compli- 
 ments and speeches that were as pretty as they, 
 who had been so long outside the pale of civi- 
 lization, knew, or remembered, how to make. 
 A squalid lot of wretches they were, too, the 
 scrapings of the slums and alleys of Europe, 
 vagabonds and rascals, indentured servants es- 
 caped from their masters in Jamaica when 
 Cromwell had added that island to England's 
 overseas possessions ; runaway slaves, who had
 
 THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 81 
 
 been sold for debt at Port Royal ; outcasts from 
 the settlements in Virginia and New England; 
 idlers, ne'er-do-wells, thieves, pickpockets, 
 murderers, escaped felons, jailbirds from the 
 hulks in the Mediterranean or from Newgate, 
 the very scum of society. They had drifted 
 to the Caribbean as froth collects at the center 
 of a boiling pot. Some among them were sol- 
 diers, veterans of the wars which had con- 
 vulsed Europe for a generation, whose cam- 
 paigns had taught them only lessons of idle- 
 ness and violence. 
 
 Finding Hispaniola, Spain's first great 
 possession in the New World, all but deserted 
 by the gold-mad adventurers who had pushed 
 on to the Main in quest of vaster wealth, de- 
 serted but for a few settlements on the coast, 
 the native population exterminated, and their 
 places in the mines and on the plantations filled 
 by negro slaves from the Guinea coast, and the 
 whole island over-run by wild cattle and hogs, 
 the progeny of domestic animals which had 
 been brought over by those who had followed 
 Columbus, these outcast derelicts had turned 
 hunters of the wild bulls which they slew for
 
 82 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 their meat and hides. Going off into the deep 
 forests, two together, usually, for they hunted 
 in couples, with their muskets and ammunition, 
 and a pack of dogs to aid them in the chase, 
 they would kill as many animals as sufficed for 
 their needs, curing the meat after a fashion 
 which had been learned from the Caribbee In- 
 dians. The beef, cut into long strips, was 
 smoked or barbecued over a boucan, a grating 
 of green sticks, so that the hunters became 
 known as boucaniers, or, as the word was 
 twisted by English tongues, buccaneers. 
 
 Nancy, joining the mob around the fire, 
 thought she had never seen before such evil- 
 looking fellows. Soon she and Barney, wedg- 
 ing in among them, secured a chunk of smoking 
 meat for themselves, and a juicy joint for 
 Three-legs, and withdrawing to the shade of a 
 near-by palm, with a basin of water to wash 
 down their meal, munched away with the great- 
 est contentment. 
 
 In this pleasant frame of mind Mistress 
 Chillingworth, happening to look up, saw ap- 
 proaching her the man she least wished to see, 
 Monsieur d'Ogeron, the governor himself,
 
 THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 83 
 
 grandly attired for the festivities, and smiling 
 with satisfaction at the huge success of his 
 undertaking now so happily consummated in 
 the arrival of the cargo of brides from France. 
 
 "Hist!" whispered Barney, nudging her. 
 "Here comes the major of the island. They 
 pointed him out to me a while ago. If you 
 could get on the right side of him now, he 
 could soon settle the question of going back 
 to France." 
 
 "No, Barney, he will not help me," she an- 
 swered. "He means me no good, I fear. My 
 heart tells me to expect of him nought but 
 ill. I have already craved of him the privilege 
 of returning on the Baptiste, and it has been 
 refused me." 
 
 D'Ogeron was now arrived at where they 
 sat. Barney jumped to his feet, pulling his 
 forelock and bowing. Nancy sat still and 
 turned her face away. 
 
 "I am come to offer you the hospitality of 
 the island, mademoiselle," began the governor. 
 "Tortuga bids you welcome, and hopes that 
 you will long abide with us here." 
 
 "You are kind, monsieur," she replied with
 
 8 4 
 
 a touch of bitterness in her voice, "but I fear 
 I can never be happy in this place, torn, as I 
 have been, from home and kin. I beseech you 
 to permit me to return on the ship." 
 
 D'Ogeron shook his head and cast at her a 
 look which made her blood turn hot with rage 
 within her. 
 
 She arose abruptly, and, when the Gov- 
 ernor offered her his arm, she ran away, like 
 an angry schoolgirl. Barney, with his fists 
 doubled up and his brows scowling, and Three- 
 legs, showing his white teeth over his curling 
 lip, followed her, as if to serve notice that 
 Mistress Nancy had two friends upon whom to 
 count in an emergency. 
 
 She did not see d'Ogeron, stamping his foot 
 with vexation, call up from the crowd a slouch- 
 ing fellow, and, pointing out to him the figure 
 of the girl, say something in a low tone, which 
 the man agreed to, as the shakes of his head in- 
 dicated. Nor did she observe that this fellow, 
 following her, kept her within his sight there- 
 after. But if she had noted these things, it is 
 doubtful if they would have made her feel less 
 quiet than she was.
 
 THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 85 
 
 Boy, girl and dog, were swallowed up in the 
 crowd which grew more noisy with every fresh 
 cask that, rolled up from the rough storehouses 
 lining the shores of the cove, was stove in with 
 shouts of glee and bursts of song. Singing, 
 playing, scuffling, stuffing themselves with the 
 good things from the feast which had been 
 provided for the occasion, and washing out 
 their dusty throats with great gulps of wine, 
 they raised their voices to a chorus that might 
 have been heard at the other end of the island. 
 The sailors from the ship had come among 
 them and added their merrymaking to the gen- 
 eral din. 
 
 Some of the women had already married 
 the men who had chosen them, or fought for 
 them. As Nancy approached one group, 
 which seemed more quiet than the rest, she 
 saw that the interest was centered in Cherie 
 and Bras-de-Mort who were standing hand in 
 hand beneath a palm, while the padre, the lit- 
 tle French monk she had first seen in Lille, 
 half tipsy, his round red face shining like a 
 tropic moon, was reciting the marriage serv- 
 ice, stumbling over the words by reason of hav-
 
 86 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 ing one eye on a cask that was being tapped 
 by a couple of frolicking mariners. A storm 
 of cheers greeted the conclusion of the service, 
 as every one rushed up helter-skelter to kiss 
 the bride. 
 
 Cherie caught sight of Nancy's face, and, 
 slipping away, came over to where she was 
 standing and threw her arms around the girl's 
 neck. 
 
 "I fear for you in all this madness, made- 
 moiselle," she said, a look of deep concern in 
 her dark eyes. "For myself I am used to 
 such orgies, and tired of them, too. Now, 
 thank God, I feel a greater security than I have 
 ever known. My husband is a man a real 
 man. You would scarcely believe me, made- 
 moiselle, but I am happy. And he will pro- 
 tect you, too, my friend, never fear." 
 
 "I thank you both from the depths of my 
 heart," said Nancy simply, kissing her, "but 
 in the long run I must look out for myself, and 
 that I shall do." 
 
 "You do not know what I know. I must 
 warn you. The governor has given it out that 
 you are reserved for him."
 
 87 
 
 "His eyes have told me as much." 
 
 "After all, if you could be philosophical 
 about it, perhaps it would be the best thing. 
 As the governor's lady well, there are com- 
 pensations in that station." 
 
 "The position is scarcely permanent enough," 
 replied Nancy drily. "It is one I do not crave, 
 for any length of time." 
 
 "Has he said aught to you since you came 
 ashore?" 
 
 "His actions have spoken more plainly than 
 any words." 
 
 She turned, with a feeling that some one was 
 looking at her, and saw the priest, and by his 
 side d'Ogeron again. 
 
 The governor tried to take her by the hand, 
 and securing it, sought to embrace her. But 
 she tore herself away from his grasp, kicking 
 and struggling, with such good purpose that 
 finally she was able to wrench herself free. 
 The crowd had closed in around them, shout- 
 ing and laughing. The governor's face was 
 a thunder-cloud. 
 
 "A very wildcat of a woman, monsieur," hic- 
 coughed the monk, holding his cassock up about
 
 88 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 his knees as he jumped up and down, his ro- 
 tund little body shaking with mirth. "By our 
 Lady! A wildcat! A tigress!" 
 
 "I shall tame her quickly enough," burst 
 forth the governor. "Out of my way, you 
 beggars! Are these the best manners you 
 have that you should stand about gaping at 
 me ? As for you, mademoiselle, the padre will 
 accommodate us with the ritual within the 
 hour." 
 
 He turned and strode away, nor vouchsafed 
 any further wedding announcement. 
 
 The crowd drew back respectfully before 
 Nancy at this. "The governor's lady! The 
 governor's lady!" she heard them saying, the 
 words passing from lip to lip, until it seemed 
 to have spread in a twinkling all over the island. 
 
 Scarce three hundred yards off shore, for 
 the deep water made close in under the over- 
 hanging cliffs, lay the Saint Jean Baptiste in a 
 very fair berth, anchors at bow and stern for 
 fear of her being driven ashore in a sudden 
 squall ; so close in, that it seemed as if a stone 
 might have been dropped upon her decks from 
 the castle perched upon the hillside.
 
 THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 89 
 
 Nancy, wandering down to the beach with 
 Barney and Three-legs, could come to no con- 
 clusion upon the situation in which she found 
 herself. She had been given an hour, sixty 
 minutes more of liberty, and then 
 
 She shivered at the thought of the alter- 
 native as the words she had so bravely spoken 
 that morning came rushing back upon her from 
 her memory. 
 
 "No," she had said, "not while that cliff is 
 yonder !" 
 
 Her eyes, fastened so longingly upon the 
 ship in the harbor, she raised now to the fort 
 and castle on the crest of the timbered, rocky 
 steep which overhung the cove. And as she 
 looked, there flashed into her mind what Cap- 
 tain Jean had told her on shipboard that morn- 
 ing. 
 
 "Barney," she cried, turning to the Irish 
 boy with sudden resolve in her eyes, "I am 
 going to put my life and honor in your keep- 
 ing. Do you know, lad, in that fort on the 
 hill are thirty Englishmen, prisoners, destined 
 for the hulks at Toulon." 
 
 "Thirty Englishmen !"
 
 90 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Hush! Not so loud. Aye, thirty of our 
 countrymen. For though we fight one an- 
 other, Barney, we English and the Irish are 
 of one blood when it comes to a foreign foe." 
 
 "Faith, and I guess that's so, true enough. 
 But how came the English there?" 
 
 "Prisoners they are, lad, who refused to see 
 Tortuga seized by the French, and so are go- 
 ing back in chains. It makes my blood hot 
 to think of Englishmen in such a plight, but 
 my own troubles made me forget them until 
 now, fool and ingrate that I am. If they 
 knew of my predicament I warrant they would 
 not desert me." 
 
 "I see what you're driving at," he shouted, 
 his eyes dancing. 
 
 "Shh!" she cautioned. 
 
 "It could be done!" Barney's voice sank to 
 a whisper, and his red rag of a tongue licked 
 his lips with delight. "By nightfall all these 
 people here will be drunk." 
 
 " Tis what I had counted upon." 
 
 "And the sailors from the ship, they are 
 ashore and busy at the wine-casks, too." 
 
 The boy's eyes narrowed to slits. Into the
 
 THE CASTLE ON THE HILL 91 
 
 face of Nancy flamed a new light of hope and 
 courage. The fighting blood of the Chilling- 
 worths was leaping through her veins. 
 
 "We must make it succeed, boy," she whis- 
 pered, looking upward at the castle again. 
 
 "But the keys? We cannot batter down 
 walls of masonry." 
 
 "Then we shall gain entrance some other 
 way, Barney. And take this charge upon your 
 soul : go among the men and learn what guard 
 watches at the fort and how many mariners 
 have been left upon the ship. Leave the rest 
 to me." 
 
 "Aye, that I will." 
 
 "Now, be off with you and mind you ask 
 your questions sagely, that no one may suspect 
 your motive." 
 
 She watched the boy run off and disappear 
 in the crov/d, and then, following more slowly 
 by another route, was soon in the midst of the 
 merrymakers, searching from group to group, 
 this time with no desire to conceal herself 
 from Monsieur d'Ogeron. 
 
 Glancing back, her heart stood still when she 
 saw a man creep from a thicket near where
 
 92 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 she had stood with Barney, and come slinking 
 along under the trees a powerfully built man, 
 with long arms, and a skull that shone in the 
 fierce light of the descending sun as if no shred 
 of flesh covered the naked bone, a man whose 
 yellow eyes she saw even at that distance 
 gleaming like molten gold.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 
 
 There was something so sinister and furtive 
 about Yellow Eyes' movements that for an in- 
 stant fear raised its ugly head and laid a 
 clammy hand upon Nancy's heart. Had she 
 been spied upon? Had the plot she and Bar- 
 ney had just laid so carefully and boldly been 
 disclosed? 
 
 She watched him, fascinated, to see if she 
 could discover in his actions anything to an- 
 swer the questions that concerned her now so 
 deeply. He was coming closer to her, until 
 she could see the wicked glitter in those burn- 
 ing eyes, the toothless gums, the great, red 
 throat of him, for his mouth was opened wide, 
 and he was panting from his exertions and 
 the heat, panting without a tongue. He 
 passed her, and she read in the yellow orbs 
 which glowed in his head a message as plainly 
 writ as if it had been upon the printed page 
 
 Q3
 
 94 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 of a book, as she had read his silent commands 
 when she lay in the straw in the cart, and knew 
 as well as if he had spoken that he would kill 
 her if she did not lie still. 
 
 Three-legs, who had followed her and was 
 resting himself on his haunches at her feet and 
 licking the stump of his leg which was now 
 almost healed, showed his teeth, and would 
 have sprung upon his enemy had not the girl 
 held him back by main strength, both hands 
 grasping the loose skin of his neck. 
 
 Yellow Eyes passed on with a parting leer, 
 his strange eyes, which she sought in vain to 
 avoid, now burning almost red like coals upon 
 a forge, and left her standing there in deep 
 perplexity. And thus d'Ogeron found her lost 
 in reverie. She saw that he had dressed him- 
 self in finery in the mode, which, she made no 
 doubt, had been brought to him from Paris 
 on the Baptiste. It was a scarlet riding-suit, 
 with black silk stockings, and a new short coat, 
 which was just then becoming fashionable. 
 His hat was a felt, broad of brim, and with a 
 great plume upon it which became him hand- 
 somely. There was also a sword at his side,
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 95 
 
 a slender blade, with a jeweled hilt that spar- 
 kled in the sun. 
 
 "I trust that mademoiselle has lost her 
 sulks," he smiled pleasantly enough, although 
 his eyes were cold. "I assure you, they are 
 not becoming to so charming a creature. May 
 I hope that we have made you feel at home?" 
 
 "Monsieur has been most kind," she an- 
 swered. "I am most grateful." 
 
 "Your words delight me, my dear." 
 
 He moistened his lips as if he would say 
 something more, and then, hesitating, offered 
 her his arm in silence, and this time, dropping 
 him a courtesy, she took it and fell into step 
 with him at his side. They passed among the 
 rough crew of roisterers, who winked and 
 smirked at them knowingly, until the rosy blood 
 mantled her face and she hung her head, pre- 
 tending not to hear the coarse jests and com- 
 pliments showered upon them. 
 
 "The monk," said d'Ogeron presently, 
 "awaits your pleasure. I need not tell you 
 how eager I am to hear pronounced those 
 words which will entitle me to give you that 
 protection which one so beautiful and charm-
 
 96 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 ing, so unfortunately situated as I realize you 
 are, deserves at my hands. Sacre! I hope 
 the marriage service has not been worn out. 
 Truly, it has been put to a strain this day. 
 Fifty happy couples billing and cooing in Tor- 
 tuga this evening, where only yesterday were 
 but rough men fighting and quarreling with 
 one another. 
 
 "Behold these smiling brides and happy 
 bridegrooms! And soon we shall be num- 
 bered among the lot. 'Come, mademoiselle, im- 
 patience fires my very soul. I long to make 
 you happy." 
 
 "That you can do very easily, monsieur." 
 
 "Ah! It is my one wish." 
 
 "Then bid me depart in peace, monsieur." 
 
 "Sacre bleu! Have I not said that is im- 
 possible?" 
 
 "I cannot live here in this rough place," she 
 answered. "I should die of exposure in one 
 of these huts." 
 
 "Huts! Mon Dieu! think you the governor 
 of Tortuga lives in a shack like a common cat- 
 tle-hunter? Your nest will be yonder, in the 
 castle on the hill, mademoiselle. The 'Dove-
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 97 
 
 Cote' it was called by my predecessor, Levas- 
 seur, who erected the fort there, and how ap- 
 propriately !" 
 
 "Fort?" she queried. "I thought I under- 
 stood you to say 'castle,' m'sieu." 
 
 "Oui. It is the same thing, part castle, part 
 fort, my residence and the defense of Tortuga 
 as well." 
 
 "But I should die in those stone walls." 
 
 "Diable! Die? Stone walls? In this cli- 
 mate? I will surround you with all the luxu- 
 ries of Europe and the Indies. You shall dress 
 in silks and satins, sleep in a bed a viceroy's 
 wife bemoans this very minute, have slaves 
 to wait upon you. That castle is a storehouse 
 of treasure, mademoiselle, packed with the 
 riches plundered from a dozen galleons by 
 these brave freebooters of mine, and brought 
 here for safe keeping." 
 
 "I fear you do exaggerate, monsieur, to 
 tempt me. It seems strange that so much 
 wealth should be in a place like this." 
 
 "Exaggerate! Your own eyes shall see to 
 your satisfaction." 
 
 "Aye, but then 'twill be too late."
 
 98 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Why, a hundred men could tell you that I 
 speak the truth. S acre I Come see for your- 
 self." 
 
 "Whither, monsieur?" 
 
 "To the castle." 
 
 "Now?" 
 
 "That is it. Some day there will be a road 
 up the cliff. At present you must climb." 
 
 "That I can do very easily." 
 
 "You will go, then?" 
 
 "Of course." 
 
 'Twill give you an opportunity, too, to 
 change your dress for the wedding. You shall 
 select what you wish from my chests, and 
 garb yourself befitting your station. Stupid! 
 I should have thought of it before. Shall we 
 start at once?" 
 
 "With all my heart," replied Nancy. 
 
 Her voice now was soft, low, caressing. 
 She gave him a look from her wide blue eyes 
 that dazzled him and set him to pulling at his 
 mustache with vast content. 
 
 "Then I am at your service." 
 
 "Let me first tell my comrade that I am go- 
 ing," she parried, for she now perceived Bar-
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 99 
 
 ney at a little distance off, signaling to her. 
 
 She nodded to the governor, and running 
 down the beach, with Three-legs leaping and 
 barking behind, came up with the boy, pant- 
 ing and out of breath. 
 
 "How now, Barney?" she asked iri a half- 
 whisper, and laughing in spite of herself at 
 his appearance, for his shock of red hair was 
 so brushed up around his ears and over his 
 forehead that it looked like a flaming battle- 
 flag. 
 
 "We're in luck," he chuckled gleefully. 
 "Things couldn't be better. The fprt is all but 
 deserted. Six men were left on guard when 
 the watch changed at noon, but four have 
 sneaked down for the rum and wine and 
 women, and the other two must be pretty tipsy 
 by this time, for they have had a cask sent up 
 to them." 
 
 "And how of our countrymen, lad?" 
 
 "The English prisoners are in the pit in the 
 fortified side of the castle, facing the sea. 
 And you were right about it there are thirty 
 of them. How they can be got at I know 
 not."
 
 ioo BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "I will attend to -that. But of the ship, 
 didst thou learn aught of the ship?" 
 
 "Aye, that I did. All have come ashore save 
 the middle watch, and that greatly reduced; 
 and of those aboard, most have had their turn 
 ashore and have gone back full of food and 
 drink to the ears. The first of the ebb will be 
 at eleven to-night." 
 
 "You have thought of everything, Barney !" 
 exclaimed Nancy, her eyes dancing. "Now 
 pay strict heed to what I say. Do you keep 
 Three-legs with you. Now, I am going alone 
 to the fort with the governor. Nay, look not 
 anxious, lad. I go at his request and of my 
 own free will. When we have been gone the 
 space of one-half glass canst judge the time, 
 Barney? I warrant you, you can. Well, 
 then, when I have been gone for half an hour, 
 do you and the dog follow us. Three-legs will 
 find the path by our scent." 
 
 "Then what?" 
 
 "We must be guided by circumstances, Bar- 
 ney. When you reach the castle, place your- 
 self in a secluded place as near the entrance as 
 you can safely lie. And if all goes well with
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 101 
 
 me, I will contrive to let you in or make a sig- 
 nal to you. Much depends on you, Barney 
 boy, more than you know." 
 
 "I would lay down my life for you," he an- 
 swered simply, and neither of them knew then 
 what those words were to mean to both of 
 them. 
 
 She grasped his hand at this. Not the soft 
 clasp of a woman did she give him, but the 
 hearty grip of a friend and comrade. She 
 turned away and waved her hand to him, and 
 went back to where the governor stood, and 
 there beside him was Yellow Eyes, tugging at 
 his sleeve and gesticulating vigorously. 
 
 Yellow Eyes pointed to the girl as she came 
 up, and from her leveled his bony index finger 
 at the castle on the hill. His burnished eyes 
 seemed afire, his purple lips were twisted and 
 distorted, his tongueless gullet filled with slob- 
 ber, so disgusting a sight that even d'Ogeron 
 turned away, and tried to push the fellow off. 
 
 "Mon dieu!" he cried to Nancy. "The 
 rogue is trying to tell me something, but hath 
 not the tongue for his words. What ails thee, 
 wretch? Sacre! His eyes pierce my very
 
 102 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 soul. I think he hath something to say of the 
 castle, but what I know not. Is it of the cas- 
 tle? Speak, thou rascal!" 
 
 Yellow Eyes nodded. 
 
 "Ah, I was right then. Well, what is it? 
 What is it, I say!" 
 
 He roared at him again in a voice of rage, 
 as if by the volume of the sound he could make 
 the dumb man articulate. And Yellow Eyes 
 merely grimacing at this, and shaking his head, 
 and pointing still at Nancy and the castle, the 
 governor suddenly seized him and shoved him 
 aside. 
 
 "Out of my way, rogue. Never, I swear, 
 have I seen so evil a sight. Ha! He under- 
 stands what I say, well enough. But, of 
 course, he is not dumb from birth, but only 
 because his tongue hath been clipped and so is 
 not a mute. Never mind! Some other time, 
 fellow, you may tell me what you want to say." 
 
 But Yellow Eyes, not to be put off so easily, 
 grasped Nancy's arm. She wrenched away. 
 Thinking the man was showing a persistence 
 that might endanger her project, she said:
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 103 
 
 " Tis the fellow I fought with on shipboard, 
 monsieur. I suspect he is making a complaint 
 to you against me." 
 
 Yellow Eyes quivered with passion at this. 
 
 "So that's it !" cried d'Ogeron, the impetuous 
 lover getting the better of the prudent gover- 
 nor. "Off with you, fellow, and let me hot see 
 your hideous face again!" 
 
 He offered Nancy his arm and escorted her 
 across the open space between the storehouses 
 and the rough huts which composed the set- 
 tlement. 
 
 The day had run its course, and the tropic 
 night which drops so quickly when the sun goes 
 down was all about them with its blackness, 
 shot here and there by murky glares where 
 bonfires blazed on the beach, and by the flicker- 
 ing light of torches. The rough cattle-hunt- 
 ers, who played as strenuously as they worked 
 at their trade in the forests, were still making 
 the island resound with their song and laugh- 
 ter. Now and then they were obliged to step 
 over the recumbent forms of men who had 
 stretched themselves upon the ground to rest
 
 104 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 from their mad pleasures, or else because of 
 the wine and brandy which had been drunk in 
 such vast quantities that day. 
 
 Nancy, looking about as she walked along, 
 saw neither Cherie nor Bras-de-Mort. She 
 hoped that they had withdrawn from the scene 
 of these orgies, for she had come to feel for the 
 little Parisienne a deep sympathy, and wished 
 that she would be happy with her husband, so 
 strangely found in the New World. Most of 
 the other women were keeping up the festivi- 
 ties as eagerly as their companions, nor were 
 they the less backward at the wine-casks. 
 
 At the foot of the cliff, where a well-worn 
 path led upward through the trees, the gov- 
 ernor, in his hand a torch he had taken from 
 the crotch of a cedar, went ahead, and, bidding 
 her follow, began the ascent, not without many 
 gasps and sighs, for he was a portly fellow with 
 a big paunch arid short legs, and the way was 
 steep. Never a word they said as they toiled 
 upward. After pursuing the path for some 
 little distance, they came to rough steps hewn 
 in the rock, and climbing these for about half 
 the height of the promontory, d'Ogeron came
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 105 
 
 to a halt upon a little platform, puffing from 
 his exertions. 
 
 "From here we climb," he announced briefly, 
 holding the torch aloft, and Nancy saw the 
 rungs of an iron ladder leading upward 
 through the trees and heavy undergrowth 
 which clung to the sides of the cliff. 
 
 "Very good, monsieur," she answered him; 
 and so they started once more, hand over hand, 
 foot over foot, until at last they came out into 
 a little clearing where the trees had been hacked 
 away. 
 
 The girl, straining her eyes to take in every 
 detail, noted closely the position of the rude 
 fort, or castle as the governor called it, perched 
 upon the mountainside, its gray walls of stone 
 and heavy timbers bathed in a flood of moon- 
 light. In the harbor below them she saw the 
 ghostly outlines of the ship, swinging at her 
 cables, every mast and spar outlined in the 
 soft, silvery radiance. 
 
 One part of the fort she observed all this 
 while the governor struggled to regain his 
 breath was on a lower level than the rest, 
 being flush with the precipice, which dropped
 
 io6 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 off abruptly at its foundations. For this rea- 
 son, and because there were no windows in it 
 that she could see, she concluded that in this 
 part was located the pit that Barney had spoken 
 of, by which she supposed he had meant a dun- 
 geon. Through portholes showed the muzzles 
 of two cannon, commanding the harbor. 
 
 D'Ogeron beckoned to her, and, still in si- 
 lence, for he needed his breath for other pur- 
 poses than speech, marched with a great show 
 of dignity to the heavy door of acajou wood, 
 and, pounding upon it with the hilt of his 
 sword, motioned to her when it had swung 
 open. A black man with a torch in his hand 
 stood in the gloomy aperture. He fastened 
 the door behind them, when they had entered, 
 by dropping a heavy bar into place through 
 iron hooks on either side of the frame, and 
 then showed the way down a long stone-flagged 
 passageway, and through another door, which 
 led off at one side, into a large chamber with 
 a ceiling of hewn beams, in the French style, 
 and a stone floor. At the back the room 
 opened upon a garden enclosed by the other 
 apartments of the fort, all of solid masonry,
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 107 
 
 in the center of which a fountain splashed 
 musically, the water coming from a natural 
 spring around which the castle had been built. 
 The leaves of mango trees and prickly palms, 
 whose roots were planted in the crevices of the 
 natural rock, stirred uneasily in their sleep, 
 and the heavy odor of the blossoms of the 
 manchineel and the genipa-trees made the soft 
 night air drowsy with scent. 
 
 In the middle of the room was a huge table, 
 laid with covers for three, and at the place 
 at the side sat the round-faced monk, the leg 
 of a roasted fowl in one hand and a goblet of 
 wine in the other. Beside his chair, in a defer- 
 ential attitude, stood a little chap in a dirty 
 smock, with a platter of m meat in his hands. 
 From this he was preparing to serve the guest, 
 who was clamoring loudly for more food. Op- 
 posite was a couch, made of native woods and 
 reeds, and covered with a red silk scarf beau- 
 tifully embroidered in gold ; and above it, rest- 
 ing upon two pegs that had been driven into 
 the wall, was a silver-mounted musket. 
 
 "Mon dieu! Monk, couldst not wait for the 
 wedding feast to begin before stuffing thy-
 
 io8 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 self?" exploded the governor, gasping for 
 breath, and his face purple from exertion and 
 rage. "One would think you had tasted noth- 
 ing for a week, yet I myself have seen thee 
 gorging thyself this whole day long." 
 
 The monk turned a sheepish countenance to- 
 wards them at this interruption, and hastily 
 dropped the chicken bones beneath the table. 
 
 "Wedding feast!" cried Nancy. "I under- 
 stand you not, monsieur." 
 
 "Be seated, mademoiselle." D'Ogeron 
 bowed, and motioned her to the table. "I hope 
 the viands will tickle your palate. I have 
 scoured the island for meats and fruits, and 
 drawn upon my most prized stores." 
 
 "The capon!" interrupted the monk ecstati- 
 cally, carving off another leg of the fowl as 
 he spoke, and thrusting it between the distended 
 jaws of his little red face, which shone as 
 though it had been greased. "Never have I 
 tasted such a bird. Seasoned? Fit for a 
 queen! And the sauce, mademoiselle! And 
 the fish! Such a fish! And these violet land 
 crabs! How the fragrance salutes my nos- 
 trils!"
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 109 
 
 He shook his head, as if to admit that fur- 
 ther words had failed him, and, rolling his 
 eyes at her, drained the wine glass at a gulp, 
 and motioned to the little man in the smock to 
 fill it up again. 
 
 "You have trapped me, monsieur," said Mis- 
 tress Chillingworth, drawing her slim figure 
 up very straight. "I came here not for a 
 wedding feast, but to inspect the wealth with 
 which you promised to endow me." 
 
 "The whole castle everything shall be 
 yours," replied d'Ogeron, with a grand sweep 
 of his arm. "In my chests and boxes are silks 
 and satins, and velvet goods, in which to 
 swathe your loveliness at your pleasure. You 
 shall have what an empress might seek in vain, 
 the spoil of all these seas, of all the Spanish 
 cities on the isles and Main." 
 
 "I trusted to your gallantry as a Frenchman, 
 monsieur. I look to your conscience for bet- 
 ter treatment than this you offer me." 
 
 "There is no conscience below the tropic, 
 mademoiselle." 
 
 "I have brought mine with me, sire." 
 
 "If I did deem it best to hasten the happy
 
 no BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 hour of our nuptials, it is for you, the woman, 
 to bow to my superior judgment. Be assured 
 I have not acted thus without a view to your 
 happiness and safety. I felt my heart expand 
 within me when first I saw you, mademoiselle. 
 My pity was enlisted in your behalf. You 
 are among rough men. I offer you my pro- 
 tection and my love." 
 
 "Love! You know not the meaning of the 
 word. Things have come to a pretty pass, 
 methinks, when cowards prate of love." 
 
 D'Ogeron's face darkened at this. Draw- 
 ing back a chair he curtly motioned her to be 
 seated. 
 
 "Enough, mademoiselle!" he said. "You 
 mock me for the honor I would pay you. Bet- 
 ter the governor's lady than a courtesan on the 
 streets of Paris." 
 
 Nancy's whole body quivered at this insult, 
 as if she had felt the lash of a whip across her 
 face, and, when the Frenchman threw his arm 
 around her waist and tried to draw her to him, 
 she squirmed out of his grasp, and, bending 
 suddenly, gave him so sharp a blow behind the
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP in 
 
 knees that he went sprawling, so astonished 
 that he was speechless. He lay there blinking 
 at her, the room in silence, save for Nancy's 
 heavy breathing, the monk with a chicken wing 
 half-way to his mouth. 
 
 "Sacre! What a wife you will make, when 
 I shall have tamed you," said the governor, 
 rolling over upon his back, and trying fran- 
 tically to get upon his feet. 
 
 "You should be a judge, monsieur," said 
 Nancy. 
 
 "What's that?" 
 
 "How many others have passed this way 
 before me? Three I know on. Where are 
 they now? Buried beneath the flagstones 
 where I stand, perchance." 
 
 "Curse the vixen!" cried the governor, 
 struggling to his knees. "Stop her, monk! 
 Stop her, I say!" 
 
 "Mayhap it is their spirits I hear wailing 
 in the garden," said Nancy. "Listen !" 
 
 A moaning sound, half groan, half shriek, 
 echoed dismally through the dark passageway 
 outside.
 
 ii2 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Mother of Mary ! Save me !" cried d'Oge- 
 ron, getting upon his feet, and shaking so at 
 the knees he was like to fall again. 
 
 The moaning sound floated in to them again. 
 
 "Hide me, monk," begged d'Ogeron, the 
 tremor upon his whole body. "Throw thy holy 
 water upon me. Hark! The spirits are 
 knocking upon the door." 
 
 " 'Tis some one in the flesh, then," said 
 Nancy. "See who is there," she added to the 
 blackamoor. 
 
 Now they could all hear some one knocking 
 upon the great door, and the black man going 
 to open it, came back presently, and there be- 
 hind him, upon the threshold, was Yellow Eyes, 
 rubbing his hands and leering at them with 
 eyes like molten gold. 
 
 "Diable!" cried the governor. " 'Tis the 
 dumb man. What want you here, rogue? 
 Did I not tell you upon the beach to get thee 
 gone? By the Virgin! How he gibbers! 
 Curses on your impudence, fellow, be off with 
 you before I have my servants throw you out." 
 
 Yellow Eyes stood looking from one to the
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 113 
 
 other, an inarticulate gurgle in his empty 
 throat, his toothless gums opening and shut- 
 ting spasmodically. 
 
 "Canst hear what I say, knave?" shouted 
 the governor. 
 
 Yellow Eyes nodded his fleshless skull. 
 
 "Then out with it! Out with it, I say! 
 You torture me with my inability to under- 
 stand what those great eyes of yours are say- 
 ing; though, by the Holy Virgin! I believe he 
 doth try to speak of the English dogs in the 
 dungeon." 
 
 A great wagging of Yellow Eyes' head, his 
 molten eyes turning red with a strange, new 
 light which flamed into them. 
 
 "Sacre! It is the prisoners. Is that right, 
 rogue ?" 
 
 Another nod from Yellow Eyes. 
 
 "Mother of Mary! What is it, then? 
 Speak, I tell you speak!" roared the gover- 
 nor in a fair rage by this time. 
 
 "Hein! He can not speak better for your 
 yells, though you shouted yourself as dumb as 
 he is," broke in the monk. He poured a great
 
 114 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 goblet of wine, and drained it, and smacked his 
 lips. "Mon dieu! Maybe the fellow can 
 write, if he cannot talk." 
 
 "Curse my soul, monk, but thou art the very 
 devil for ideas," cried d'Ogeron. "Canst 
 write, knave?" 
 
 Yellow Eyes shook his head that he could 
 not. 
 
 "Curse thee for the blockhead that thou 
 art!" 
 
 "Let me try him," interrupted the monk, put- 
 ting down his chicken bones and licking his 
 fingers, while Nancy threw at him a glance of 
 alarm. "It is about the Englishmen you would 
 speak ?" 
 
 A nod of assent from Yellow Eyes. 
 
 "Something the governor wants to know?" 
 
 Another nod, more vigorous than the previ- 
 ous one. 
 
 "Important?" 
 
 Still another nod. 
 
 "Ah ! We are getting at something. Now, 
 what next?" He wrinkled his forehead and 
 licked his greasy fingers reflectively. "Nice 
 Englishmen?" he queried, while a silly smile
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 115 
 
 overspread his shiny face at his own question. 
 
 "Nice grandmother !" snorted the governor, 
 but Yellow Eyes shaking his head so violently 
 in disapproval of the suggestion that the Eng- 
 lish prisoners were nice, both d'Ogeron and the 
 monk looked at him in amazement as he leveled 
 his bony finger full at Nancy. 
 
 She had been standing at the table, on the 
 side nearest the couch, and d'Ogeron, moving 
 excitedly from her toward Yellow Eyes, she 
 sprang to the wall, seized the musket, and pre- 
 sented it full at the governor's head in such a 
 way that the muzzle commanded Yellow Eyes 
 as well. 
 
 "If anybody in this room moves a step with- 
 out my permission, I will kill him!" she said. 
 "Stir, and I will blow the top of your head 
 off." 
 
 Without turning her head to look at him, 
 she addressed the little man in the dirty smock 
 who was standing behind the monk's chair. 
 
 "Are you not a Fleming?" she asked in 
 Dutch, for she had lived long in Flanders -and 
 spoke that language and Spanish, as well as 
 French and her own tongue.
 
 n6 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Yes," answered the man, his face brighten- 
 ing, but keeping a nervous eye upon d'Ogeron, 
 nevertheless. 
 
 "I made sure of it when first I saw you. 
 Can your master speak your language ?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Nor the monk?" 
 
 "No." 
 
 "Is your master kind and good to you?" 
 
 The man hesitated, a look of fear in his 
 eyes. "No," he replied faintly. 
 
 "Would you escape if chance offered you 
 the opportunity ?" 
 
 "Ja. With all my heart!" 
 
 "And the black man. Is he, too, anxious 
 to regain his liberty ?" 
 
 "He weeps all day for his wife and baby. 
 He is not happy here." 
 
 "Where are they?" 
 
 "I do not know. Somewhere on the Gold 
 Coast." 
 
 "Can you speak his language, or he yours?" 
 
 "I have taught him a few words; he has 
 taught me some of his." 
 
 "Tell him from me that if he will do as I
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 117 
 
 say this night, I will give him his liberty. Aye, 
 if I have to take him back to Africa myself, I 
 will restore him to his wife and baby, if he will 
 but obey me in everything I command." 
 
 The little Fleming spoke a few guttural 
 words to the negro, who showed his white teeth 
 in a broad grin and answered him, edging away 
 the while from his master. 
 
 "I could not explain all to him," said the 
 Flem ; "he said he would follow me in all things. 
 I can trust him." 
 
 "Tell him to unbar 'the great door and whis- 
 tle thrice." 
 
 The Fleming repeated the message. 
 
 "He says he cannot whistle. He does not 
 know how to do it; I cannot make him under- 
 stand." 
 
 "Then, do you go. Simply unbar the great 
 door and whistle thrice, as loudly as you can; 
 then leave the door unbarred, and return here." 
 
 D'Ogeron's face was purple with rage. 
 Now, as his serving man began creeping to- 
 wards the door, keeping his back always to the 
 wall, he burst forth in a perfect storm of 
 anger.
 
 n8 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Strike her down, you scullion !" he roared. 
 " 'Tis a woman, fool a chit of a girl. Throw 
 thyself upon her." 
 
 The Fleming stopped irresolute, rooted in his 
 tracks, and gave Nancy a look from his eyes in 
 which she saw fear and doubt. 
 
 "Throw thyself upon her, varlet! Do you 
 value your own wretched life above your mas- 
 ter's? To-morrow you shall swing for this." 
 
 "Do not fear him, my friend," said Nancy, 
 smiling encouragement. "To-morrow we 
 shall be far away from here, and he cannot 
 harm you." 
 
 The man moved toward the door. And now 
 he would have to pass Yellow Eyes, who stood 
 nearest to the opening. 
 
 "Hear you, dumb man," admonished the girl, 
 "if you seek to hinder him in any way, be as- 
 sured I shall kill thee if it take the only charge 
 in my musket to do it." 
 
 Yellow Eyes did not stir. The Fleming 
 reached the door, darted out and disappeared 
 in the passageway without, and she heard him 
 unbarring the great door, and, immediately
 
 SOMEBODY SETS A TRAP 119 
 
 thereafter, the sound of three long whistles 
 came faintly to her ears. 
 
 "Strike her down, monk!" cried the gov- 
 ernor. "She durst not harm a man of your 
 cloth. Perdition take you! Do something, I 
 say! Sacre! Excommunicate her, monk !" 
 
 The monk at this, with a wild look about him, 
 slid under the table with an agility that he 
 would not have been given credit for, and 
 presently, everything remaining quiet, his 
 hairy arm appeared above the board, groped 
 around among the dishes, found a bottle which 
 he tightly clutched, and that too disappeared. 
 Whereupon the silence was broken by a gur- 
 gling sound, and an instant later by footsteps in 
 the passage.
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 
 
 On the beach under the castle on the hill 
 Barney, and the three-legged dog, lay in the 
 soft sand, silence and the night heavy upon 
 them. The sea whispered to his eager soul a 
 lyric song that set his brain throbbing with 
 delight. When he judged that half a glass 
 had run its course, he arose softly to his feet, 
 skirted the crowd of merrymakers, who far- 
 ther down the beach still kept up their singing 
 and shouting, and began working his way to 
 the foot of the path that led up the side of 
 the mountain. 
 
 Under a genipa-tree a sailor lay sleeping, ex- 
 hausted by his day of debauchery, his head pil- 
 lowed upon his arm. Barney glanced about 
 him stealthily, and, observing no one near, bent 
 down, and feeling in the mariner's shirt 
 possessed himself of his knife and pistol. 
 
 Then he vanished into the shadows at the 
 
 I2O
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 121 
 
 foot of the cliff, and began to climb, Three- 
 legs sniffing the ground eagerly. Suddenly the 
 dog whined, and Barney grasped him by the 
 muzzle just in time to choke back a bark. 
 
 "What is it, boy?" he whispered. "What's 
 the matter, old fellow ?" 
 
 He seized the dog's scruff tightly in his hand 
 to keep him from bounding away, and then, 
 looking upward through the trees, saw, in a 
 clearing where a little of the moonlight sifted 
 through the branches, the furtive figure of a 
 man slinking up the stone steps, a grotesque 
 figure with the head and shoulders of a Her- 
 cules and the pendulant arms of some monster 
 ape, the sinister figure of Yellow Eyes, the 
 tongueless man, creeping noiselessly, now hid- 
 den by the gnarled trunks of palms and cedars, 
 again showing for an instant in the shimmer- 
 ing moonlight, like some uncanny beast in the 
 jungle. Boy and dog followed as closely be- 
 hind him as Barney dared to go. When they 
 reached the bottom of the ladder, they saw him 
 far above them, and by the time the Irish lad 
 had half-carried the three-legged mastiff up 
 the iron rounds, the dumb man had disap-
 
 122 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 peared, nor could he see him anywhere upon 
 the top of the precipice, at the castle door. 
 
 "Faith!" said Barney, eyeing the heavy 
 panels that confronted him, "he must have gone 
 in there, but how we shall manage it is another 
 question, Three-legs." He tried the door. It 
 was as unyielding to his hands as the solid ma- 
 sonry on either side. "What now, Three- 
 legs? Let's have a look," whispered the boy, 
 and with this went prowling through the shad- 
 ows. At the back the walls of the fort were 
 built into the rocks which towered far above 
 his head, and so thick were the trees, with 
 great roots spreading all about to trip him and 
 impede his progress, and so covered with 
 thorns, that he soon gave it over, and went back 
 the other way, pushing through the under- 
 growth until he came out on the top of the cliff, 
 overlooking the sea, bathed in silver. On this 
 side the wall of the castle was flush with the 
 face of the precipice, and he could not find a 
 place for his foot to climb out over that dizzy 
 chasm. 
 
 While he stood there in the shadows, his 
 heart beating so violently under his jacket that
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 123 
 
 he could feel it pounding against his ribs, the 
 sound of three long whistles rippled through 
 the night. His body grew rigid for an in- 
 stant, and then he sped back through the trees 
 to the castle door. It stood open, now, and be- 
 yond the opening lay only darkness. Into this 
 plunged Three-legs, and was swallowed up. 
 Feeling for the weapons he had taken from the 
 sailor on the 'beach below, Barney followed. 
 Along the passageway his feet were guided by 
 his outstretched hands, until, ahead of him, he 
 saw the gleam of a light, and, breaking into 
 a run, suddenly found himself in a great room 
 whose occupants seemed turned to stone. 
 
 The three-legged mastiff crouched, as if to 
 hurl himself at the throat of Yellow Eyes, 
 while Barney, seeing d'Ogeron held under the 
 muzzle of Nancy's musket, put his pistol at 
 the black man's head and his knife at the pit 
 of his stomach. 
 
 "How now, Barney!" cried Nancy. 
 "Would you kill our good servant? Have a 
 care, the black man is on our side. You look 
 after Yellow Eyes." 
 
 She bade the Fleming procure all the cordage
 
 124 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 he could find, and the man, disappearing and 
 coming back in a moment with an armful of 
 ropes, he and Barney first tied the feet of Yel- 
 low Eyes, helpless under the threatening jaws 
 of the mastiff, then tripped him, wound him 
 around with cords, and rolled him into a cor- 
 ner, bleeding from a cut over the ear. 
 
 ''And now, monsieur," she said, addressing 
 the governor, from whose face she had never 
 once taken her eyes, and stepping closer to him, 
 so that the muzzle of her barrel was but a foot 
 from his heart, "it is your turn." 
 
 D'Ogeron gulped down the anger that all 
 but choked him. 
 
 "The English prisoners !" he finally managed 
 to gasp out. "So that is your plot and that is 
 what the dumb man with the yellow eyes would 
 have told me. Fool ! Fool that I was ! The 
 English prisoners! Well, what if you do re- 
 lieve them? My cattle-hunters will tear them 
 limb from limb." 
 
 "That is as it may be," replied Nancy coolly. 
 "You forget that there is a ship in the harbor, 
 monsieur, and that my countrymen are the
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 125 
 
 greatest sailors in all the world. And now 
 the keys." 
 
 "What keys?" 
 
 "Those to the dungeon where the prisoners 
 are kept." 
 
 "And what if I refuse?" 
 
 "I will kill you, and then batter down the 
 walls." 
 
 "Mon dieu! I believe you would. Made- 
 moiselle, I will set the English prisoners free 
 and let them depart in peace for the colony in 
 Jamaica, if you will but remain here with me 
 and be my wife." 
 
 "Time passes swiftly, monsieur the keys, at 
 once!" 
 
 "Then let me pass, mademoiselle; they are in 
 my private apartment." 
 
 "Is that true ?" asked Nancy, in Dutch, with- 
 out looking behind her, never taking her eyes 
 from the governor's face. 
 
 "He wears them in his belt," replied the 
 Fleming, in French, so that d'Ogeron, favoring 
 him with a particularly vicious look, drew them 
 forth and hurled them to the floor.
 
 126 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Now, Barney," said the girl softly, in Eng- 
 lish, "do you slip up behind him and deal him 
 a blow with the butt of thy pistol. It grieves 
 me to have it done, but 'tis the only way, for 
 I fear the consequences did he ever come to 
 close quarters with me." 
 
 "Faith! I long for the chance," answered 
 the Irish lad. 
 
 He passed softly behind the governor, non- 
 chalantly, as if inspecting the beamed ceiling, 
 and then dealt him a blow behind the ear that 
 stretched him senseless upon the floor. 
 
 Then they fell upon him, tying his wrists and 
 feet, and winding him about with ropes, and 
 stuffed a gag in his mouth, and so left him 
 there. Nancy secured the keys, and, guided 
 by the Fleming, they started from the room. 
 
 "Hist!" cried Barney, as they reached the 
 door. "We'd better go back we forgot to 
 gag the dumb man." 
 
 "Don't be silly, Barney," laughed the girl, 
 and the Irish boy looking foolish and down- 
 cast at this sally, she threw her arms about him 
 impulsively and hugged him. "You are a 
 brave lad, Barney boy," she whispered, "and
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 127 
 
 from my heart I thank you. But we idle. 
 There is much to be done before the night is 
 over." 
 
 And so they rushed out, pell-mell, across the 
 passage, down a flight of stone steps, along an- 
 other shorter corridor, the negro going ahead 
 with a link-light to show the way. Another 
 flight of stairs led downward, and descending 
 them they came to an iron door set into the 
 solid masonry. 
 
 They had barely got this open with one of 
 the keys from the governor's bunch, when the 
 light blew out in the sudden draft which 
 greeted them. 
 
 "No time to go back for another light," com- 
 manded the girl. "We must go on in the 
 dark." 
 
 They felt their way through a chamber so 
 large that Nancy could touch no wall by 
 stretching forth her arms on either side. At 
 the far end they reached still another iron door, 
 with a grating of iron bars in the upper half. 
 
 "In there," whispered the Fleming. 
 
 Nancy, feeling for the lock, took the key he 
 indicated.
 
 128 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Holloa!" she called. "Men of England! 
 A friend to the rescue !" 
 
 "Bully for you, Devon," answered a man's 
 voice from the darkness. "A Devonshire 
 voice that, and a woman's to boot, or you can 
 keel-haul me." 
 
 The man's tones, so rich and deep and vi- 
 brant, thrilled her and set her heart to beat- 
 ing as it had never beat before. 
 
 "Aye, sir," she answered, "an English girl. 
 Follow me at once there's no time to be lost." 
 
 "Right you are," replied the voice in the 
 dark. "Ho, lads! Tumble up there, my 
 hearties ! Here's an English girl come to steer 
 us out of this beastly hole." 
 
 She had found the lock now, and, thrusting 
 the key in, threw open the door. As it swung 
 back creaking and grinding on its hinges, she 
 heard the rush of men's feet upon the stone 
 passageway, engulfed in blackness, which 
 yawned mysteriously in front of her. 
 
 "Steady, lads!" commanded the vibrant 
 voice again, while Nancy, as the sound of it 
 bathed her soul with a new and strange delight, 
 felt a sense of strength and confidence take
 
 129 
 
 possession of her whole being. "Line up, men, 
 and answer to your names." 
 
 The corridor was suddenly full of invisible 
 forms. Then the voice in the dark again 
 
 "Will Johnson?" 
 
 "Aye!" 
 
 "Trueheart Jackson?" 
 
 "Aye, sir!" 
 
 "Jim Rimble, are you there?" 
 
 "Well, I should kiss a pig!" 
 
 "Then stand in the doorway here and tally 
 the men off as they come out, lest one be asleep 
 in the dark and be left behind. Count me as 
 one." 
 
 He stepped into the dark chamber beside 
 her, and the girl felt him touch her shoulder, 
 and then grasp her hand silently with a clasp 
 of comradeship, and manliness, and vigor that 
 went straight to her heart. 
 
 "Thirty, right all accounted for, sir," said 
 another voice from the depths of the gloom. 
 
 "Very good, Jim Rimble. Now do you take 
 up the end of the line. Forward, men softly, 
 lads, softly. Lead on, Devonshire girl!" 
 
 They felt their way along the corridor, back
 
 130 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 over the route by which they had come, Nancy, 
 Barney, the black man and the Fleming going 
 ahead, with Three-legs sniffing along in front, 
 his scruff in the boy's fingers, the Englishmen 
 marching along after in single file. Up the 
 steps, down the long corridor they crept. 
 More steps to be stumbled over, the men ad- 
 monishing one another to be quiet and making 
 all the more noise for their pains. 
 
 In front of the door to the big room Nancy 
 stopped, pushed it open, and stepped quickly 
 within. The link-lights still burned as brightly 
 as before. D'Ogeron lay where she had left 
 him, bound and gagged. He had come to his 
 senses, and glared at her in impotent rage, 
 struggling frantically to free himself. The 
 feet of the monk 'Stuck out from beneath the 
 table on one side, and from the other a long, 
 hairy, red arm and a grimy hand, still clasping 
 a bottle by the neck. His snores, and grunts, 
 and groans, and rumblings filled the chamber 
 like the music of a pipe organ in a cathedral. 
 
 But where was Yellow Eyes ? Gone ! Only 
 a spatter of blood on the floor to show where 
 he had lain, and beside it the ropes from which
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 131 
 
 he had freed himself. That he had not 
 stopped to liberate the governor she attributed 
 to the fact that he had probably heard them 
 coming just as he had succeeded in working 
 loose. So she concluded he had taken but a 
 short start of them. She sprang back into the 
 corridor, as the head of the line came up. 
 
 "Quickry, men !" she shouted. " 'Tis life or 
 death now. One has escaped who will spread 
 the alarm." 
 
 The monk rolled over at the sound of her 
 voice, and sat up stupidly as she darted from 
 the room. She sped down the corridor which 
 led to the great door, the men swift in her 
 wake, and they were soon in the little clearing 
 on the crest of the mountain. The moon was 
 gone, and where she had ridden a bank of 
 clouds reared their angry thunderheads. The 
 darkness was thick around them. 
 
 "Men!" called Nancy. "There's work 
 ahead of you this night. There's a ship in the 
 harbor to be taken. She lies close in, with 
 only half a watch aboard, and they drunk." 
 
 "Drunk!" cried a husky voice at her side. 
 "Some men get all the luck in this world."
 
 132 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Silence, Jim Rimble!" The vibrant voice 
 that Nancy -had come to know so well had a 
 ring of command in it, and Jim Rimble sub- 
 sided with a parting threat to kiss a pig. 
 
 "How's the tide?" asked the vibrant voice. 
 
 "It should soon turn ebb," she answered, 
 straining her eyes for him in the deep gloom. 
 
 "Then we have luck with us all but Jim 
 Rimble." The men laughed at this sally. 
 "Now then, lads, one foot right after the other 
 now, and don't go to sleep on the path. Lead 
 on, Devon, and we will take a dozen ships, do 
 you but say the word." 
 
 "Are any of you armed?" asked the girl. 
 
 "All armed," laughed the voice. 
 
 "Good !" she cried. "For the island swarms 
 with cattle-hunters and buccaneers. Armed 
 with what?" 
 
 "British fists," laughed the voice again, while 
 the men shouted. 
 
 "Fists!" 
 
 "Aye. Don't you worry about our arms, 
 my girl." 
 
 "I have a musket, and thought you would 
 care to take it from me."
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 133 
 
 "A good idea. Pass it to me, lads." 
 
 "And the boy here hath a pistol and a knife." 
 
 "Pass 'em along, too, little 'un." 
 
 "Faith! that I won't," rebelled Barney. 
 "Damn my eyes if you get my pistol but 
 here's the knife." He handed it to the man 
 nearest him. 
 
 "All ready, Devon?" 
 
 "All ready ! And we must go straight over 
 the face of the cliff." 
 
 "Why not by the path we know it well?" 
 
 "We want no quarrel, only our freedom. 
 The whole island is gathered at the settlement 
 below, feasting and drinking." 
 
 "Feasting" it was the husky voice again 
 "and drinking ! I say, fellows, we ought to go 
 down and clean up the whole gang of 'em." 
 
 "Avast there, Jim Rimble. The maid is 
 right. Over the cliff, lads, and step lively." 
 
 So they went scrambling through the un- 
 dergrowth, clinging to the rocks and roots and 
 branches of trees, and the thick tropical vines 
 which grew in a network over the side of the 
 mountain, Nancy and Barney, with Three-legs 
 between them, helping the crippled dog who
 
 134 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 was hard put to find a grip for his toes and 
 whined and moaned continuously. 
 
 Every man for himself it was, in that mad 
 tumble through the jungle, until they came out 
 at last upon the hard sand beach at the foot of 
 the precipice, where they counted noses and 
 found they had lost not a man in the descent, 
 mad and reckless as it had been. 
 
 Nancy and Barney, undertaking to locate the 
 small boats which had been drawn up on shore, 
 went away now, and in the mouth of a little 
 creek where they had landed from the ship 
 earlier in the day, they found a longboat hauled 
 up, and so, spying out no other, Barney went 
 back for the men and brought them up. 
 
 The fires on the beach had burned themselves 
 out, so that they were in little danger of de- 
 tection as they slunk along, bending low, as 
 far from the water's edge as they could get. 
 Up above them, on the rising grassy ground 
 in the center of the settlement, a huge bonfire 
 was still blazing, and the merrymakers were 
 still at their drinking and carousing, for their 
 songs and laughter floated down to them. 
 
 Some of the men were for going up in a
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 135 
 
 body, in a sudden rush, and squaring accounts 
 with the French buccaneers, but the wiser 
 among them prevailed upon the rash. 
 
 Nancy, having located the position of the 
 longboat, ran up to it and had laid hold upon 
 the gunwale when a figure, seated in the shad- 
 ows of the bow, rose with a scream of surprise. 
 
 Nancy jumped back, her heart beating 
 wildly; and then she laughed and sprang for- 
 ward eagerly. It was Cherie, and with her, as 
 Nancy saw upon a closer look, her new-found 
 husband, Bras-de-Mort, stretched out in the 
 bottom of the boat, his head in her lap. 
 
 "Pardon me, my friends," said the girl, smil- 
 ing. "I did not know I would disturb a court- 
 ing couple here at such an hour, and right sorry 
 I am to interrupt you. But I needs must have 
 your trysting place." 
 
 "Have our trysting place!" cried Bras-de- 
 Mort. "You speak in riddles, mademoiselle." 
 
 "Aye, the boat and urgently do I need it, 
 too." 
 
 "For what, mademoiselle? You astound 
 me."
 
 136 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "To sail away in, to be sure. What else 
 should I want with a boat?" 
 
 "Sail away in ! Why, mademoiselle, the tide 
 has gone out so far now you could not budge 
 it." 
 
 "Na'theless, an' it shall be budged, never 
 fear. I have turned loose the English pris- 
 oners in the fort and here they come now." 
 And with this up they came in a rush, Bras- 
 de-Mort leaping to his feet and putting him- 
 self upon the defensive. 
 
 "Nay, friend, for my sake!" cried Cherie, 
 laying her hand upon her husband's arm. 
 "Desist, I pray you, and make no alarm. The 
 girl hath found means to escape from this 
 frightful place, even as you and I but a mo- 
 ment since were wishing we might do." 
 
 "An' that be your wish, 'tis easily enough 
 granted," said Nancy. "For we propose to 
 seize the ship and go away." 
 
 The men had hurled themselves upon the 
 longboat by now, lifting it in their strong arms, 
 and they bore it to the water and launched it, 
 Cherie in her amazement remaining still in the
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 137 
 
 bow. Bras-de-Mort had jumped upon the 
 beach. 
 
 Some among the Englishmen knew him, and 
 hailed him, and offered him passage with them 
 did he choose to go, seeing that he was a friend 
 of the English girl. 
 
 Then they scrambled into the boat and got 
 out the oars. 
 
 "Be quick, my friends," said Nancy. "You 
 have but a moment to make your choice." 
 
 "Sacre bleu! I am a fatalist," said the 
 Frenchman with a shrug, and waded out to 
 shove off, as there came from the settlement the 
 sound of a shot and the roar of men's voices. 
 
 "Yellow Eyes hath found a way to give the 
 alarm," cried Nancy, "or else a spy hath come 
 down to where we are and disclosed our pur- 
 pose to the rest. Pull, men !" 
 
 They bent to the oars, and the longboat shot 
 down the creek on the ebbing tide, Bras-de- 
 Mort in the stern where he had hurled himself 
 at the first alarm. Torches were gleaming 
 now among the palm-trees, and presently a 
 volley of musket balls whistled over their 
 heads. It was lighter over the water, away
 
 138 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 from the shadow of the thick tropical forest of 
 the island, so that they had no difficulty in mak- 
 ing out the ship's lights. By the time the cat- 
 tle-hunters on shore could load their pieces and 
 fire again, they were under her stern. Drop- 
 ping noiselessly along the ship's side, they made 
 fast at the beak-head, and so gained the deck 
 over the forecastle. 
 
 Nancy, Three-legs in her lap, felt herself 
 lifted in a pair of strong arms, so that she was 
 able to half-push, half-throw the mastiff 
 aboard, and then, clambering up by the main- 
 stay and the foretacks, followed him. The 
 men did not wait to go up by the ladder, but 
 clinging to the scupper-leathers, dragged them- 
 selves up in a twinkling. 
 
 Two of the watch came running forward, 
 aroused by all the commotion they made, 
 sleepy-eyed and wondering. They went down 
 like ninepins, and rolled into the scuppers. 
 
 Nancy, hearing at her side the husky voice 
 which she recognized as Jim Rimble's express- 
 ing to himself a doubt as to whether or not he 
 would find a bottle of brandy, turned in time 
 to see him leap forward upon a familiar figure.
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 139 
 
 It was Pierre, the bushy-bearded Pierre, and 
 although she could not see him very clearly in 
 the darkness, she fancied that his little eyes 
 were blinking and snapping with a rapidity un- 
 usual even for him. 
 
 She shouted out a warning to him, and 
 Pierre, recognizing her voice and comprehend- 
 ing at last that the ship was taken, scuttled 
 down into the forecastle, and disappeared, like 
 a frightened rat. 
 
 Another volley rang out ashore, and they 
 could see the flashes of fire from the muskets. 
 But they were too far off now to worry as to 
 this. He of the vibrant voice hurled a dozen 
 quick commands at the men, who answered him 
 with cheery, "Aye, aye, sir." 
 
 "Pass the cable along aft there, boys," he 
 called in the darkness. "Walk it along! 
 Walk it along! Lay aloft aft there, you lub- 
 bers. Take the gaskets off those sails and let 
 everything go by the board! How's your 
 wheel there, Mr. Helmsman?" 
 
 Nancy and Barney sprang for the wheel and 
 put it hard to port. Her stern came around at 
 this, and the Baptiste dropped down the cove
 
 140 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 on the ebbing tide. Outside, clear of the land, 
 a flying, light breeze laid her over. 
 
 "What's the matter with the old tub?" 
 shouted the voice again. " She's as light as an 
 empty jug." 
 
 "All her cargo has been unladed," Nancy 
 called to him. 
 
 "I thought so. Boys, look alive now, I say, 
 you've got your work cut out for you this 
 night." 
 
 The last man to come aboard, the fellow to 
 whom Barney had passed his knife on the top 
 of the hill, had cut the painter and set the long- 
 boat adrift. A man who had been swimming 
 in their wake as they had rowed out to the ship 
 came up as the barkentine got under way, and, 
 grasping the trailing rope-end, hauled himself 
 aboard. His head showed for an instant 
 against the skyline as he climbed, dripping and 
 bedraggled, over the rail, a pasty-colored, al- 
 most fleshless head, like a raw skull, in which 
 i 
 
 two eyes gleamed as brilliantly as burnished 
 gold. 
 
 "Look, Barney! See there!" whispered 
 Nancy.
 
 A FRIEND TO THE RESCUE 141 
 
 \ 
 
 "Faith! Let me go and pitch him over- 
 board," he answered softly, while the hair on 
 Three-legs' neck bristled, as he growled and 
 showed his fangs. 
 
 "Let him be, lad," advised the girl. "We 
 shall know how to attend to his case later 
 on. I would not take a human life but to save 
 my own, or my country." 
 
 She stayed the Irish boy with a hand upon 
 his sleeve, and Barney, who was neither a 
 prophet nor the son of a prophet, put his pistol 
 back into his shirt. So Yellow Eyes went in 
 peace, slinking along the deck, and dived into 
 the forward scuttle, and they stood there and 
 let him pass. And neither of them knew what 
 they had done that night.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 
 
 The clouds which had covered the moon and 
 all the stars, and screened their escape under a 
 mantle of black, now came rolling up out of 
 the northeast more thickly than ever, and with 
 incredible swiftness, hanging so low that they 
 seemed to engulf the whole ship, blotting her 
 out from all the rest of the world. And the 
 wind moaned a mournful croon in the rigging. 
 
 The maintopsail was split to ribbons almost 
 before they had it bent, and, wet with the rain 
 which now came down in a solid wall of water, 
 flapped with a deep-toned wail, tugging to get 
 clear of the groaning yard, till finally it was 
 carried away. Above the roar of the squall 
 which seemed at any moment like to send the 
 ship on her beam's end, Nancy could hear the 
 resolute voice of her countryman shouting or- 
 ders to the men, who obeyed his commands as 
 
 if they had been accustomed to do it. She 
 
 142
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 143 
 
 wondered if he was their captain, but of this 
 she could not be sure. 
 
 She and Barney clung to the helm, but she 
 felt that their strength was inadequate, and 
 was about to shout for help, when she felt a 
 strong hand close over hers, and heard a voice 
 out of the darkness saying 
 
 "Well done, Devon!" 
 
 And then the vaulted dome of night was split 
 from zenith to horizon, and in that vivid in- 
 stant, when it seemed as if the door of Heaven 
 had been opened wide to show the flaming 
 glories of eternity itself, she saw him as he 
 really was, for the first time, standing there 
 on the gale-swept deck, a big blond giant of a 
 young man, a weather-beaten, storm-soaked 
 Saxon, with a stubby growth of yellow beard 
 and a great shock of tawny hair matted upon 
 his head, and the blue eyes of a Viking. As 
 the thunder fell upon them with a concussion 
 that made the Baptiste tremble in every plank, 
 darkness again, darkness so thick it crushed 
 with its tremendous weight. 
 
 She felt the light bark stagger beneath her 
 as it was lifted upon the crest of a mighty wave,
 
 144 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 and shiver again, and sigh and groan in its 
 extremity as it slanted down into the trough 
 of the boiling -sea, rail under water and the 
 decks awash. God's mighty voice spoke again 
 across the world, and a flood of brilliance, 
 brighter than a lifetime of days, deluged them 
 with a celestial radiance. She saw the boy 
 at her side clinging to the helm with all his 
 strength, his freckled face gone pale as death 
 and glistening with the spume, only the red rag 
 of his tongue, curling out of the corner of his 
 hard-set mouth, making him look like his nat- 
 ural self. Beyond him the round-house cov- 
 ered with debris, the canvas struggling to be 
 free, and the men lying out on the yards, and 
 beyond all a waste of frantic water, moun- 
 tain high, a seething caldron of waves, their 
 tops torn off by the hurricane and flung about 
 as by a giant madman. 
 
 The awful grandeur of it brought a gasp 
 to her lips, a cry more of astonishment and 
 wonder than of fear. The Baptiste reeled, 
 throwing her off her feet, but she did not fall. 
 A strong arm encircled her waist, and she was 
 in the arms of the man she did not know, lying
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 145 
 
 against his breast with great content. She 
 felt her cheek, as he bent down to her, touch his 
 own, and suddenly, as another tear of flame 
 shot across the sky, their lips met while they 
 looked into each other's eyes. 
 
 How long she lay there upon his brawny 
 chest she did not know, nor did she ever know. 
 Hours weeks months ! It seemed to Nancy 
 as though she had been there in his arms all her 
 life, forever and ever, when, finally, she pulled 
 herself away from him, all the blood in her 
 body so hot and eager for something new that 
 had come into her life that she dared not look 
 at him again. 
 
 Two of the mariners had come to the wheel, 
 and the Devon man, in the voice that thrilled 
 her whenever he spoke, was giving orders as 
 calmly as though he had been a bargeman on 
 the Thames, on a quiet Sunday afternoon. 
 
 "Cut all her lee fore-rigging," he roared 
 against the tumult of the storm. "Cut the 
 mainto'mast and mizzen lee-rigging. Now 
 lay to windward. Look lively there, you old 
 standers ! Cut all your weather fore-rigging." 
 
 The men leaped at his bidding, with their
 
 146 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 axes, and with this the foremast went by the 
 board, and took with it the main topmast and 
 mizzen topmast. The wreckage cleared the 
 ship, with a little quick work, and was soon 
 astern. The Baptiste righted herself. Much 
 of the canvas on the main and mizzen had 
 blown itself out of the bolt-ropes. The men 
 at the wheel kept her dead before it until they 
 began to cut away, and then they let her come 
 to a couple of points. 
 
 With the coming of the first faint streaks of 
 dawn they made their way into the great cabin, 
 and the Devon man, as Nancy called him to 
 herself, went off to search for a ship's biscuit, 
 and came back empty-handed, with a face that 
 was very grave, although he tried to conceal 
 from her the alarm that he felt. The ship was 
 laboring less now, and the fury of the storm 
 abating considerably. The sun came up in an 
 almost cloudless sky, with the bosom of the 
 Caribbean undulating in long, easy swells of 
 turquoise blue. 
 
 They dried their clothes by walking on the 
 deck, with Three-legs, who had come up from 
 some retreat in the hold where he had saga-
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 147 
 
 ciously stowed himself, barking and whining at 
 their side. But especially did he whine, and 
 growl, too, when they walked forward. Then 
 he would scratch grotesquely with his one fore- 
 paw at the forward hatch, uttering sharp, ex- 
 cited yelps. 
 
 Barney gave Nancy a sidelong glance full 
 of meaning, but the girl placed her finger 
 against her lips and nodded to him to be si- 
 lent. The hatch had been battened down, and 
 she judged that Yellow Eyes would be safer 
 for a while where he was than on deck. 
 
 The ship was a derelict, her masts carried 
 away, with scarce a spar left large enough to 
 rig into a jury mast. Nancy and Barney, with 
 the dog, walked aft through the wreckage with 
 which the decks were strewn, and the girl be- 
 gan to consider the situation in which she 
 found herself. The mission upon which her 
 father and Sidney had sent her was as fresh 
 in her mind as it had been on the night she had 
 quit their lodgings in Lille ; and she still hoped, 
 with the buoyancy of youth, that she would be 
 able, somehow, some way, she did not know 
 how, to get to London in time to give, to those
 
 148 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 who could use it for the cause, the secret in- 
 formation which she had been charged to im- 
 part. 
 
 The Devon man and Jim Rimble had gone 
 below. The former now came back to where 
 she and Barney stood, and she saw by the look 
 in his eyes that he was anxious. 
 
 "What is it, my friend?" she asked. "I 
 see by your face that you are sorely troubled." 
 
 "I may as well tell you," he answered. 
 "For, although I would spare you if I could, 
 God knows 'tis not a thing that can be con- 
 cealed. We are in a bad way. The old tub 
 has strained her seams, and we are half full of 
 water. That is why we ride more easily now. 
 For another thing, there isn't a mouthful of 
 food aboard. Cleaned out, she is not a speck 
 of grub. And I warrant you we have made 
 good search. We have come to sea in our 
 coffin, I greatly fear me." 
 
 "It cannot be as bad as that." Nancy 
 smiled, and touched him lightly on the arm. 
 "I am sure you will find a way out of our 
 difficulties." 
 
 "How?" he asked, shortly.
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 149 
 
 "Why, we can sail back to Tortuga, if the 
 worst comes to the worst," interjected Barney 
 hopefully. "There's plenty of grub there 
 roast ox, and everything." 
 
 "Sail!" he cried. "What with, lad? Can 
 you hold your 'kerchief to catch a breeze? 
 No, I tell you, here we rot. Forgive me," he 
 added quickly, turning to Nancy. "I do not 
 mean to frighten you, but our condition is in- 
 deed desperate. And here come the men! I 
 fear I shall have mutiny on my hands. Have 
 you the pistol, lad? It is all the weapon we 
 have, for the musket has been broken in the 
 descent of the cliff." 
 
 Barney, with a sigh and a groan, surren- 
 dered the pistol which he took from his shirt, 
 and the Devon man put it into his pocket, an 
 act that did not escape the notice of the men, 
 who now came trooping down, menacingly, to 
 the rail of the quarterdeck, Jim Rimble at their 
 head. 
 
 The Devon man let his eye rove over them, 
 saying not a word, at first. Then 
 
 "Well, men?" 
 
 "A fine mess you have got us into, me and
 
 150 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 my mates, we're thinking, sir," said Rimble, 
 after an awkward pause. 
 
 There was a shuffling of uneasy feet and 
 the bobbing of many heads. 
 
 "I have got you into?" demanded the De- 
 von man. 
 
 "You, and the wench from Devonshire, that 
 is." 
 
 "Oh, as to that, I take the blame, if blame 
 there be. But did I drag you out of your 
 prison? Did you not come willingly enough, 
 to take the ship at the risk of your necks, if 
 need be?" 
 
 "Well, then, as to that, sir, we would have 
 been glad enough to go under in a free fight 
 but this is different." 
 
 "Different? How different? Can a man 
 die more than once? Come, men, have done 
 with complaints and keep your upper lips stiff. 
 We'll get out of this. Do you fall to now 
 and build up a longboat out of the planks of 
 the ship. I put you on a pint of water a day 
 'tis all we have in the butts, but enough to 
 last for three days. And in three days much 
 may happen."
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 151 
 
 The men brightened up a bit at this, and 
 some of them moved off as if to begin the work 
 he had set them to. But Rimble pulled at his 
 forelock and rolled his eyes. Finally he stam- 
 mered 
 
 "My belly roars for victuals." 
 
 There was a laugh at this, in which Nancy 
 joined. But it was a laugh that died away 
 quickly. 
 
 "Well, now, as to that, we're all in the 
 same boat, so to speak, Jim Rimble, and you 
 are not a whit more hungry than am I, but 
 I hope I know how to tighten my belt a notch or 
 two. It isn't as if we had been living on the 
 fat of the land for the past God knows how 
 long in d'Ogeron's cursed dungeon. As for 
 that, Jim Rimble, you have ever bragged what 
 angler thou art. Show some of these men how 
 to rig up a line or two, and perhaps we can have 
 a fish for dinner. But whether we do or not, 
 know ye, men, the first one among you who 
 attempts violence him will I pistol with my 
 own hand. Now get to work!" 
 
 The men turned away at this, sullenly 
 enough, some of them, but presently, what with
 
 152 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 the fishing operations that began, or the inter- 
 est that work arouses in even the most down- 
 cast of men, some of the lighter hearted began 
 to whistle, and in ten minutes Jim Rimble him- 
 self, his face all sunshine again, was barelegged 
 on the rail, a pipe between his teeth and the 
 end of a line in his hand, the while he sang 
 between puffs : 
 
 "I loved a lass, a fair one ! 
 
 As fair as e'er was seen; 
 She was indeed a rare one, 
 Another Sheba's Queen ! 
 But fool as then I was, 
 
 I thought she loved me too ! 
 But now, alas, she has left me. 
 Falero, lero, loo!" 
 
 Some among them were carpenters, and 
 soon the saw and the hammer were singing a 
 merry tune which all but drowned out Jim 
 Rimble's ditty. Nancy and Barney leaned 
 over the bulwarks at his side. 
 
 "What bait do you use, Master Rimble?" 
 asked the girl, smiling. 
 
 "A bit of a crab's claw, miss," replied the 
 sailor, pulling at his forelock and giving her
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 153 
 
 boys' breeches and loose canvas shirt a side- 
 long glance, as if to say that he didn't know 
 rightly whether she deserved that feminine 
 designation or not, but would follow the cap- 
 tain's example. 
 
 The gay apparel in which Mistress Chilling- 
 worth had quit Lille, the crimson stockings, the 
 new short coat, brilliant with ribbons, had long 
 since succumbed to hard usage, and she had 
 picked up on shipboard a nondescript outfit, 
 loose, rough cotton, stained and threadbare. 
 The sleeves of her jacket reached but to the 
 elbow. Her limbs were bare to the knee, and 
 her shapely legs and arms were as brown as 
 sun and wind and weather could make them. 
 Her hair was gathered beneath a brimless cap 
 which she had found upon the beach at Tor- 
 tuga. About her throat was knotted a bit of 
 scarlet silk which set off the rich color of her 
 sunburned face. 
 
 "Crab's claw, Master Rimble? Why, 'tis 
 a very proper lure to be sure." 
 
 "I wish I had known you had it," cried Bar- 
 ney. "I warrant you no fish would have been 
 smelling at my supper now."
 
 154 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Never fear, lad if it had been any good 
 I'd have gulped it myself," said Rimble, wag- 
 ging his head solemnly. "I'm hungrier than 
 any fish that ever wiggled a tail. It was a 
 dead crab, blown aboard during the storm. I 
 found it yonder in the scuppers, or rather the 
 three-legged dog did. It would have been 
 good enough for him, but I had other plans 
 for that bit of crab. Now if there's a fish in 
 these parts, why, miss, I'll have him." 
 
 "I'll warrant you will, Master Rimble. I 
 can see with half an eye that you are a fisher- 
 man." 
 
 Jim Rimble's rugged, weather-beaten face 
 glowed with the honest pride that appreciated 
 genius ever feels, and he had opened his mouth 
 to acknowledge the compliment when there 
 came a tug at the line, and he stiffened as one 
 transfixed. Into his eyes flamed the light of a 
 passion that is almost holy. Gingerly he be- 
 gan to haul away at the cord, softly, gently, 
 hand over hand. His body trembled with eag- 
 erness. Slowly, then, the expression upon his 
 face changed, apprehension, doubt, fear con- 
 viction.
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 155 
 
 "I had a bite," he said dolefully. "But he 
 got away." 
 
 The line sank down into the water again, and 
 he sat once more dejectedly, the personifica- 
 tion of sorrow. 
 
 "I think," suggested Nancy hopefully, "that 
 maybe you forgot to bless the bait." 
 
 "What, miss?" 
 
 "Bless the bait." 
 
 He rolled his eyes at her and wagged his 
 head. 
 
 "Why, to be sure, you must always anoint 
 the bait," explained Nancy. "Don't you know 
 what the saying is : 
 
 "Take gum of life, fine beat, and laid in soak 
 In oil, well drawn from that which kills the oak." 
 
 "Never heard tell on it, miss," said Jim 
 Rimble. "But then," he added, "it wouldn't 
 do any good anyhow. I ain't got any gum of 
 life, and, if I had a barrel of it, there ain't any 
 oil aboard but sperm oil, and that wouldn't kill 
 an oak, would it? No, miss, there ain't but 
 one way to catch fish, asking your pardon 
 get something they like and go where they is."
 
 156 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 With this he hauled in his line and moved 
 off to try his luck in some more likely place. 
 
 That afternoon Jim Rimble worked his way 
 around the ship. He fished from the stern 
 and from the bow, and from the waist, too. 
 He tried all the places and found each more 
 discouraging than the other. Above the noise 
 of the carpenters his plaintive voice arose all 
 day: 
 
 "In Summer time, to Medley 
 My Love and I would go; 
 The boatman there stood ready 
 
 My Love and I to row. 
 For cream there would be call, 
 For cakes and for prunes too, 
 But now, alas, she has left me. 
 Falero, lero, loo!" 
 
 Meanwhile the men, half-mad with thirst 
 and hunger, fell at the task of ship-building 
 with an energy that showed how keenly they 
 realized the position they were in. Under so 
 many hands the longboat grew as by magic. 
 The Devon man himself drew the rude plans of 
 her, and they shaped her out according to his 
 directions. She was forty feet long. One of 
 the spars that had not carried away was fitted
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 157 
 
 to be her mast, and the sailmakers busied them- 
 selves about the sails, the stay-sheet and hal- 
 yard and all the necessary rigging. 
 
 The casks containing their small supply of 
 water had been brought up by the captain's 
 orders into the round-house, which he then 
 barricaded. At noon a gill of water was doled 
 out to each man, the captain standing guard 
 over the butts with Barney's pistol in his hand. 
 
 There was grumbling, but no man sought 
 to take by force more than his proper share. 
 They went back to their work sullenly, low- 
 spirited, some of them suffering acutely, as 
 their feverish lips and eyes all too plainly 
 showed. 
 
 All next day Jim Rimble fished assiduously, 
 successfully evading the duties of ship-building 
 on the plea that he was busily engaged furnish- 
 ing food for the crew. Contemptuous remarks 
 to the effect that he was as poor a singer as he 
 was an angler failed to disturb the serenity of 
 his soul. At frequent intervals he would burst 
 into song: 
 
 "Like doves we would be billing, 
 And clip and kiss so fast !
 
 158 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Yet she would be unwilling 
 That I should kiss the last. 
 
 They're Judas kisses now ! 
 Since that they proved untrue. 
 
 For now, alas, she has left me. 
 Falero, lero, loo !" 
 
 Nancy and Barney worked with the rest, 
 fetching and carrying for the men. And the 
 captain, as she called him, was worth a dozen 
 what with the wisdom of his advice, the brawn 
 of his mighty arms, and the encouragement 
 that he gave to them. 
 
 The three of them had drawn away from 
 the others for a spell of rest in the shadow 
 of the round-house, or great cabin, when there 
 was a commotion forward, and Jim Rimble's 
 voice bellowing: 
 
 "I've got him! I've got him! He's a 
 whale!" And then, as they started down the 
 deck on the run, "Sail ho !" 
 
 "Where away?" shouted the Devon man. 
 
 "Dead ahead, sir." 
 
 "What do you make her out ?" 
 
 "Can't say yet, sir." 
 
 The men dropped their work, and rushed
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 159 
 
 pell-mell to the forecastle. Away off to the 
 west, so low down that she could scarcely be 
 seen, they made out the topsails of a ship. 
 But what manner of ship she was none could 
 tell. 
 
 The men lined the storm-shattered bulwarks, 
 their eyes alight with eagerness. Jim Rimble's 
 fish, in the excitement, made its escape. He 
 went from group to group, bemoaning his ill 
 luck and describing the size and beauty of the 
 prize which had eluded him at last. 
 
 "Now, lads," cried the captain, "don't stand 
 gaping there as if you'd never seen a to'gal- 
 lants'l before. . Is this the time to idle, with a 
 fine ship coming up and the longboat not yet 
 ready to go over the side ?" 
 
 Nancy saw a glance full of meaning pass 
 between the men, but its significance she did 
 not fathom then. The men did, however, and 
 back they went, tumbling aft so eagerly that 
 they fairly fell over each other in their haste; 
 and presently the noisy ship-building chorus 
 rose again, the clang of hammer and anvil. 
 Jim Rimble, the great angler, joined his ship-
 
 160 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 mates for the first time that day, and stepped 
 the mast himself, his husky voice rising above 
 the music of tools and timber : 
 
 " 'Twas I that paid for all things, 
 'Twas others drank the wine! 
 I cannot, now, recall things; 
 
 Live but a fool, to pine. 
 'Twas I that beat the bush; 
 
 The bird to others flew, 
 
 For she, alas, hath left me. 
 
 Falero, lero, loo !" 
 
 There was no grumbling, no lack of energy 
 now. The men worked like demons, as if their 
 lives depended upon their exertions, as, indeed, 
 they knew very well they did. Before the dark 
 night of the tropics suddenly dropped upon 
 them, they had finished her. 
 
 She was rough, but the captain, who had 
 superintended the work, was satisfied. Nancy, 
 no mean expert herself, by reason of her long 
 association with ship-builders when she was 
 a child in Plymouth, inspected it with a criti- 
 cism that won the admiration of the men. She 
 had wanted to tell the captain how she approved 
 of his design and the skilful workmanship, but 
 there was a reserve in his manner towards
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 161 
 
 her now that made her avoid him. He did 
 not return again to the incident of the night 
 they had left the island, when he had held her 
 in his arms on the storm-swept deck, but she 
 knew that never would she forget his kiss as 
 long as she might live. 
 
 To a Puritan girl, reared as she had been, 
 such a caress could mean but one thing. He 
 loved her. Therefore, she would be his wife. 
 She had decided that irrevocably when he had 
 pressed her to his breast against the fury of 
 the hurricane. As for that, she had resolved 
 it in her mind that she should wed him when 
 first she had heard his deep, vibrant voice an- 
 swering her call in the dungeon of d'Ogeron's 
 castle, before she had seen him, even faintly 
 in the darkness, before she had looked upon his 
 face in the storm in that first flood of radiance 
 from on high. 
 
 But while her heart was won, and she made 
 no concealment of it to her conscience, she had 
 determined that she herself would not be ligMy 
 taken. All the suppressed romanticism of her 
 nature, the part of her handed down from some 
 ancestor who had played his part upon the
 
 1 62 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 stage before the gloom of Puritanism had en- 
 gulfed so large a part of England, that had not 
 been crushed out by the strictness of her re- 
 ligious training and the simplicity of her life 
 among the followers of the Protector, was 
 awakening under the magic touch of love. 
 
 She was alive, for the first time in her life, 
 her blood ran faster through her veins, her 
 soft eyes had taken on a luster they had not 
 known before. She had become a woman in 
 that one great instant when Heaven itself 
 had been rent in twain by God's thunderbolt to 
 show her the glories of Paradise. 
 
 Without deliberately becoming a coquette, 
 for there was something in her soul too simple 
 and sincere for that, she had determined to keep 
 this young sea-captain at his distance until she 
 chose, when he had earned the boon, to take 
 him into her heart. She could not now be sure 
 whether he avoided her, or seemed to avoid 
 her, because she had first shown an indiffer- 
 ence to him, or whether it began with him. 
 
 Doubt as to this first found lodgment in her 
 mind late in the afternoon, but the excitement 
 incident to the sighting of the ship and the hur-
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 163 
 
 ried completion of the longboat drove what 
 resentment she might have felt away. She 
 was a girl once more, as eager for the rescue 
 now at hand, as Barney himself. 
 
 Barney was one broad grin from ear to ear 
 at the prospect of getting something to eat, 
 for he, like Nancy, made no doubt that in a few 
 hours at most they would be picked up. Cherie 
 and Bras-de-Mort, after the manner of newly 
 married folk, had kept much to themselves all 
 day long. During the storm the little Pari- 
 sienne had remained terrified in the round- 
 house, where her husband had placed her, and 
 although he had himself rendered his share of 
 service in handling the ship during the fright- 
 ful gale, or hurricane, through which they had 
 passed, he evidently considered himself above 
 ship-building, or else felt himself incompetent 
 to join in that labor, for he had spent his time 
 at Cherie's side, as attentive as any courtier. 
 
 To be sure, he had busied himself with the 
 repair of the musket which Nancy had brought 
 away from the castle, and which had been 
 broken in the confusion of the escape, but while 
 this might not have been considered a full and
 
 1 64 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 generous participation in the general work, un- 
 der the circumstances, seeing that his efforts 
 were fruitless, and the musket remained as use- 
 less when he had expended his energies upon 
 it as it had been before he began his tinkering, 
 the men good-naturedly winked at what in 
 another, with the exception of Jim Rimble, 
 the fisherman, would have been resented as 
 shirking. At the capstan, abaft the mainmast, 
 he made a little awning to protect her from the 
 sun, and here ensconced her upon a chest as if 
 she had been a queen upon her throne. Here 
 he sat by her side, or sprawled lazily at her 
 feet. 
 
 Two lovers, thrown together by the hand 
 of fate and set down, man and wife, on the 
 shattered wreckage of a ship that was like to 
 part them as suddenly as they had been made 
 one! Nancy, knowing how much these two 
 derelicts would find to talk about, the questions 
 they would ask as each probed the history of 
 the other, forebore to intrude upon their pri- 
 vacy. 
 
 The excitement over the sighting of the 
 strange sail scarcely disturbed them. They
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 165 
 
 joined the noisy, breathless throng at the rail 
 for a few minutes, and then returned to their 
 bower, arm in arm. 
 
 As the sail rose higher and higher above the 
 vast expanse of tumbling sea, the men specu- 
 lated among themselves as to what she would 
 prove to be. Now and then one of them would 
 leave the busy group gathered around the long- 
 boat and take a squint at her as she came up, 
 which she did slowly enough. 
 
 Towards evening, just before night settled 
 down around them, and the brilliant tropic 
 stars were lighted in the casements of Heaven, 
 Bras-de-Mort, tearing himself away from his 
 bride for a moment, joined the exhausted men, 
 now laying down their tools, and waving his 
 arm off towards where the last faint beams of 
 the sinking sun had shown the stranger to 
 be, shook his head dubiously. 
 
 "We shall miss her, after all, monsieurs," 
 said he. 
 
 "Why, how now, Master Bras-de-Mort?" 
 asked the captain. 
 
 "She's ca'med off, sir," interjected Jim Rim- 
 ble.
 
 166 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Bras-de-Mort shrugged his shoulders by way 
 of assent. 
 
 "And by morning, when it freshens, she'll 
 like as not be off upon another tack, and then, 
 adieu!" he finshed. 
 
 "Right you are!" cried the captain. "Men, 
 we must put some oars into the longboat. If 
 the ship can't come to us, we must go to her. 
 Fall too, you sea dogs, and turn us out some 
 oars. But first, we'll have another pull at the 
 water butts." 
 
 He doled out a dish of water to every man, 
 and they drank their scanty portions and eyed 
 the casks from which it came. But the cap- 
 tain stood guard over them, and cursing their 
 luck they went back to the new task he had laid 
 out for them. 
 
 The brilliant equatorial moon gave them all 
 the light they needed, and the heat was less 
 intense now, so that they managed well enough. 
 At the completion of the work he told off the 
 watch, and the rest threw themselves exhausted 
 to the deck, and were soon snoring. Nancy 
 lay down, but, although she was tired and real-
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 167 
 
 ized for the first time how much she had been 
 through during the preceding forty-eight 
 hours, she found it impossible to sleep. Her 
 head pillowed upon the broad back of Three- 
 legs, she lay there gazing upward at the stars 
 and dreaming, wide-eyed, such dreams as 
 young girls dream. 
 
 Not for a long time did she float off in the 
 land of real dreams; but she slept at last, and 
 the dreams continued, and he came to her, 
 down the path through the meadow back home 
 in Devon, the meadow that ran down to the 
 sea, along the road where the sailors passed 
 on their way to the ships, with their bundles on 
 their backs. And he took her by the arm, 
 gently, and said in a whisper 
 
 "Follow me." 
 
 So she got up quickly, rubbing her eyes then, 
 for they were heavy with sleep, and followed 
 him, down the deck to the waist of the ship, 
 where the men were gathered about the long- 
 boat. It was midnight. The sea lay as calm 
 as the air above it, and a great silence that was 
 almost uncanny brooded over them, a silence
 
 i68 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 so deep and solemn and mysterious, that the 
 men seemed afraid to break it, and talked in 
 whispers among themselves. 
 
 "Now, lads," said the captain, "we're down 
 to the last cask of water. There's to be a 
 swig for every soul, and the balance goes with 
 me aft in the boat here, to stand us against 
 the time we shall need it more, if we should 
 miss the Don in the dark." 
 
 There was a shuffling of feet and a grumble 
 or two. Then the water was passed out, to 
 each man a dishful, barely enough to wet their 
 dusty palates. 
 
 "I could drink," said Jim Rimble huskily, 
 "I could drink a bar'l o' it. Yea, mates, I 
 could drink all the water that there's in this 
 here barkentine down below, if 'twas fresh, 
 mind ye. I could drink, I could drink, right 
 now, if I had the chance, I say, I could drink 
 all the water that there's in the Thames at 
 Lambeth." 
 
 "If thou didst work thy tongue less, thou 
 wouldst not be so dry, Jim Rimble," interrupted 
 the Captain. "Lay ahold of the boat now, 
 lads, and walk her down. Bear a hand with
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 169 
 
 the axe there, Jim Rimble, and cut away. All 
 together now, lads. Walk her along!" 
 
 They eased the longboat to the bulwarks, 
 and, cutting a great hole there, launched her, 
 so that she slid with scarcely a ripple into the 
 sea. The men armed themselves with capstan 
 bars and axes, there being no other weapons 
 aboard the Baptiste save the cannon, and 
 tumbled into the longboat. 
 
 Nancy, with the French girl Cherie, and 
 Three-legs, stowed themselves away in the 
 stern with Barney aft, near them, at one of 
 the oars, which he insisted upon manning. 
 The captain shoved off, and the longboat had 
 black water between her and the bark, when 
 Nancy started up with a shrill cry : 
 
 "Put back! Put back, men," she called. 
 "There's a poor devil in the forecastle." 
 
 They looked at her as if they thought she 
 had become suddenly bereft of her wits. 
 
 "How now, Nancy?" asked the captain. "I 
 know of nobody else aboard. We are all here, 
 are we not, men?" 
 
 "Aye, all here, sir/' called Jim Rimble out 
 of the darkness forward.
 
 1 70 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 The captain looked at Nancy inquiringly. 
 
 It was the first time he had spoken her name, 
 and the sound of it in his deep voice made the 
 girl catch her breath, so that she was too 
 startled to answer him, but sat there, gazing 
 into his face. Then she shouted 
 
 'Tut back, men, he's in the forward hold, I 
 tell you." 
 
 "Who, in God's name?" cried the captain, 
 starting up. 
 
 "The dumb man." 
 
 "The dumb man? Art ill, child? I know 
 no dumb man nor is there one among us." 
 
 "Aye, the dumb man, I tell you. The man 
 with the yellow eyes." 
 
 "Faith ! I forgot all about him," yelled Bar- 
 ney, jumping up in his excitement. 
 
 "The man with the yellow eyes," cried the 
 captain at this, more perplexed than ever. 
 "What means this gibberish? You make my 
 head to swim withal." 
 
 "Thou wilt not fail to go back, I know," 
 pleaded Nancy, putting her hand appealingly 
 upon his arm. "The dumb man is in the for- 
 ward scuttle. I myself saw him hide himself
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 171 
 
 there when he came aboard, I and the boy 
 ney here. Is it not so, lad?" 
 
 "Aye, we saw him duck into the scuttle 
 plainly enough curse his soul!" replied Bar- 
 ney. 
 
 "And then when the storm broke, the scut- 
 tle-hatch was battened down," Nancy went on. 
 "And so he has been in the hold all this time. 
 And what with the frightful heat and lack of 
 water I fear me he hath perished." 
 
 "Aye, like enough he hath perished, who- 
 ever he may be, but, by St. Bride of Douglas ! 
 who was the fellow? I saw him not, nor 
 even dreamed such a one was aboard." 
 
 "True, I had forgotten," answered Nancy. 
 "You saw him not. He is the dumb man 
 the man with the yellow eyes. 'Tis all I know 
 of him, save that 'twas he who escaped from 
 d'Ogeron's castle, where I had him securely 
 bound with cords, and gave the alarm to the 
 buccaneers." 
 
 "Split my wizen!" cried out Jim Rimble at 
 hearing this. "Then let him rot there. 
 What, men?" 
 
 "How now, Jim Rimble," said the captain
 
 i;2 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 quietly, but with a deeper vibration in his voice. 
 "When did you take command of this craft?" 
 
 But there was an answering roar of ap- 
 proval from the men, and it was not approval 
 of what the captain had said, but of Jim Rim- 
 ble's verdict, so that Nancy, fearing that they 
 would carry the day, sprang up and appealed 
 to them to go back. 
 
 "Faith!" said Barney, breaking in impetu- 
 ously at this juncture, when the men seemed 
 inclined to listen to the girl. "Much you 
 should concern yourself with this dog of a 
 dumb man, seeing what he hath done to us." 
 
 "Why, and what's that, lad?" asked the 
 captain. 
 
 "He kidnaped us, for one thing," replied the 
 Irish lad bitterly. 
 
 "Kidnaped thee ? Where ?" 
 
 "Somewhere outside of Lille, in France. 
 'Twas thus we came here." 
 
 A roar from the men, and there was the 
 sound of oars striking the water. 
 
 "Nay, hold, I pray you!" There was win- 
 ning appeal in Nancy's voice. "I feel a pity 
 for the fellow, vile as he is. I wouldst have
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 173 
 
 thee go back and fetch him aboard. I cannot 
 bear the thought of leaving him there to die 
 like a trapped rat." . 
 
 "And he tried to kill her, too!" Barney 
 was full of animosity; besides, the sound of 
 his voice was pleasant in his ears. "Aye," 
 he went on, "he tried to kill her on the old 
 Baptiste" 
 
 "Then may God have mercy on his soul," 
 said Jim Rimble in a deep rumble, "for there 
 he stays till his bones rot, eh, mates?" 
 
 "Aye, Jim Rimble, there he stays, right 
 enough. Thou didst speak truly then as 
 truly as any fisherman can." 
 
 There was a laugh all around at this sally. 
 
 "Let him rest where he is, mademoiselle," 
 whispered Barney. 
 
 "Nay, I will save him with God's help," she 
 answered. "Now, men, wilt go back for me?" 
 
 "Well, miss," answered Jim Rimble, "we'd 
 do most anything for you that you asked us 
 to do, except this. Here's a man we're devil- 
 ish well rid of. First, he kidnaps you, then 
 he fights you, then he betrays you and us. 
 If we had him here right now, we'd cut his
 
 174 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 throat and throw him in the pickle, eh, mates ?" 
 
 "That we would, Jim Rimble!" roared the 
 men heartily. "That we would. In the pickle 
 with the fishes that you didn't catch." 
 
 The captain had kept silent, for he was in no 
 mood to waste precious time in the rescue of a 
 fellow so worthless as the dumb man, by all 
 accounts, appeared to be. Now Nancy, seeing 
 that she could expect no aid from him, sprang 
 quickly to the gunwale and poised there. 
 
 "Go back, or I shall throw myself into the 
 sea !" said she. 
 
 One of the seamen left his place and started 
 towards her in the darkness, but she saw him 
 coming. 
 
 "Nay," she said, "come no nearer. If you 
 do, I will hurl myself overboard. Wilt go 
 back, men?" 
 
 "Aye, we'll go back, Devon," said the cap- 
 tain, and gave the order. 
 
 The men pulled back to the black hulk of the 
 Baptiste. Half a dozen then went aboard. 
 Nancy, following them, waited anxiously while 
 they pried off the forward scuttle-hatch, and 
 Pierre, the Frenchman, thrusting his head into
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 175 
 
 the narrow opening, just large enough to admit 
 the body of one man, called out : 
 
 "Hein! You there with the yellow eyes. 
 Why are you loafing below when honest men 
 are at work?" 
 
 But there was no answer. 
 
 "Dumb men can't hear, can they?" asked 
 Pierre, when he had called again and again 
 with the same result. 
 
 "Aye, they can hear well enough," answered 
 Nancy. "Leastways, this fellow can. He is 
 not dumb from birth, but hath had his tongue 
 cut out." 
 
 "A galley-bird, like enough," said Jim Rim- 
 ble. "Well, what to do now. We can't wait 
 here all night. I think I'm getting ready to 
 feel a breeze now, and if that ship gets away 
 from us" he wagged his head at Nancy as if 
 to say that further words absolutely failed him 
 "I'm for shoving off. We've given him a 
 chance. What more could he ask?" 
 
 "Let me look for him," replied Nancy, and 
 lowered herself through the scuttle. 
 
 If it had been dark on deck, the blackness 
 was impenetrable in the hole in which she now
 
 176 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 found herself. The water in the hold was not 
 so deep here as she had seen it aft that day, 
 but it was above her waist as she felt her way 
 slowly forward, searching for the man she 
 knew was there somewhere, but whether dead 
 or alive she could not tell. 
 
 At last she found him, when she had all 
 but abandoned the hope of doing so. He had 
 crawled upon one of the timbers fastened into 
 one of the carling knees, and must have fainted 
 there from heat and thirst, and was still un- 
 conscious, for Nancy could detect no sign of 
 life in him. She reproached herself for hav- 
 ing let that time of storm and stress, and that 
 something new that had come into her life to 
 make her a dreamer, drive him from her 
 memory. 
 
 She pushed his great bulk into the water, 
 and, towing him back to the hatchway, called 
 up. Presently the men brought a tackle and 
 hauled him out and laid him upon the deck. 
 
 Jim Rimble, thereupon, ran off as fast as he 
 could go, and returning to the longboat and 
 stating the case to the captain, came back in no 
 great time with a bowl of water which he
 
 A BAD NIGHT'S WORK 177 
 
 poured into the empty, tongueless gullet of the 
 dumb man. This and the night air revived 
 him. 
 
 His eyelids fluttered, and presently they 
 opened, and those strange and awful yellow 
 eyes were staring up at them. And so they 
 bore him back into the longboat and laid him 
 down. The men taking their places once more, 
 they shoved off, and the l Baptiste was left to 
 herself. 
 
 No bodings of ill came to haunt the girl. 
 Her mind was at rest; but the simpler nature 
 of the boy was stirred. He came to her, when 
 he gave over his oar after a while to one of 
 the men, and bending down so that none might 
 hear, he said 
 
 "We have done a bad night's work, made- 
 moiselle." 
 
 That was all. But the words found lodg- 
 ment in her soul, and she could not rid her- 
 self of them.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 
 
 The men bent to their oars and pulled in 
 silence, with a long, easy, stroke. The cap- 
 tain at the helm held the longboat on a course 
 that should fetch her up with the ship, if the 
 air did not freshen too soon; for the dead, flat 
 calm had lasted since sundown, and the vessel 
 could not have sailed much beyond the place 
 where they had last seen her topsails in the 
 engulfing darkness. The men rowed steadily, 
 and what with the mystery of the night and 
 their exhaustion, and the torturing thirst in 
 their throats, were in no mood for talk. They 
 were as still as the dumb man who lay gasp- 
 ing in the bottom of the boat at Nancy's feet, 
 his yellow eyes staring up at the sky. 
 
 The first faint ribbons of dawn fluttered 
 above the eastern rim of the sea and the timid 
 stars slipping away, a deeper darkness than 
 that of midnight thickened around them for a 
 
 178
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 179 
 
 while, until, of a sudden, the lordly sun was 
 among them, and it was day. Out of the fleet- 
 ing mists to starboard emerged the ship, with 
 the sails already unfurling upon her spars. 
 
 "Sail ho!" softly called Pierre, the lookout 
 in the bow, but all had seen her. 
 
 As they looked, there came a ripple across 
 the placid waters. The sails filled now, catch- 
 ing the first faint breath of the morning, and 
 the Spanish Ancient fluttered in the breeze. 
 Her canvas bellied and she was off upon her 
 course. 
 
 "I knew she was a Don," chuckled Jim Rim- 
 ble, and lay back upon his oar. "Ho! Mas- 
 ter Bras-de-Mort, you were too proud to drive 
 a nail into the pinnace; perhaps there's other 
 work more suited to your taste." 
 
 "Try me and see," replied the Frenchman. 
 
 "And quickly, too," said Jim Rimble. 
 "There's a bit of sport to be done here, I'm 
 thinking." 
 
 "Aye !" chorused the men under their breath. 
 
 A flaw striking them then, Captain Stilling- 
 fleet hauled the sail up, and they went about 
 ship. They got the wind of the Spaniard, bore
 
 i8o BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 down upon her on the quarter, and so came 
 upon her out of the vapor that hung above the 
 sea, before she could get under way upon the 
 other tack. 
 
 Before the alarm was given, and the Span- 
 iard's crew came tumbling up, the longboat 
 drifted down her side and grated along her 
 chains. Twenty of the men, with Jim Rimble 
 and Pierre and Bras-de-Mort at their head, 
 were in her shrouds in a twinkling, and over 
 her forecastle, upon the deck, where they met 
 the bewildered Dons with their stout staves 
 and axes, laying about with them furiously. 
 A fusillade of shots was poured into them, 
 and some of the English went down, but by 
 now the rest had clambered over the side, and, 
 gaining the deck, came to close quarters. 
 
 They fought desperately with their capstan 
 bars and pikes, and a cutlass or two that had 
 been dropped by the wounded Spaniards, but 
 the musket fire told upon them, and they were 
 being driven back when Nancy, who had been 
 among the last to leave the longboat, burdened 
 as she was with Three-legs, finally gained the 
 deck. Covered with blood which streamed
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 181 
 
 from their wounds, gasping and panting, the 
 fierce light of battle raging in their feverish 
 eyes, the English retreated step by step. 
 
 The Spanish captain, who had been asleep 
 in his cabin, came up now in all his armor, and 
 taking in the situation, he cried 
 
 "Death to the English dogs !" 
 
 He drew his rapier and the sun sparkled and 
 flashed upon it. There surged, then, into 
 Nancy's memory the stories of her childhood. 
 Her father and all her kinsmen had fought the 
 Spaniards at home and in the Low Countries, 
 and so there flamed now in her dark blue eyes a 
 light that Algernon Sidney would have loved 
 to behold. 
 
 "Ho, men, 'tis sink or swim now, my brave 
 comrades!" she suddenly cried out in a loud 
 voice. And, leaning over the side of the ship, 
 cut with an axe the painter which held the 
 longboat at the bow, and set it adrift, and 
 then called out again, "St. George for Eng- 
 land!" The English, seeing their boat far 
 astern and knowing that there was now but one 
 thing to do, did it so lustily, and with such fresh 
 energy, that they drove the Spaniards back,
 
 1 82 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 and forcing most of them below, begging for 
 quarter, the ship presently struck. 
 
 The captain, the Devon captain, that is, for 
 so she called him, took the quarterdeck, and 
 mustering enough men to man the ship, sent 
 Pierre to the helm. Gathering way, they were 
 off before a freshening wind, in possession of 
 as fine a West-Indiaman of 170 tons and four- 
 teen guns as would gladden the hearts of any 
 shipwrecked mariners. 
 
 The men waited but to seize all the weapons 
 they could lay their hands upon, as well musk- 
 ets and pistols as cutlasses, when they made a 
 rush for the great cabin and the bread-room, 
 and threw themselves like ravenous beasts 
 upon all the food and water they could find, 
 so that they were like to gorge themselves to 
 their death, seeing that they would heed none 
 of the remonstrances of the captain. They 
 broke open the hold, too, and, bringing out 
 some casks, staved in the heads. 
 
 "Victuals and drink!" cried Jim Rimble, 
 leaping about the deck in a frenzy of joy and 
 excitement, a gobbet of meat in one hand and 
 a pewter mug of wine in the other, "Victuals
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 183 
 
 and drink!" He rolled his eyes at Nancy. 
 His weather-beaten face, seamed with a thou- 
 sand wrinkles, was redder than any sun had 
 been able to bake it. "Ah! my lady, victuals 
 and drink are the best things in all the world. 
 Yet I like not these sweet Spanish wines 
 would rather have a pottle of good old English 
 ale. Aye, that's a drink for ye !" 
 
 "Have a care, Jim Rimble," admonished 
 Nancy. "One should be prudent after a long 
 fast." 
 
 But she might as well have talked to the 
 mainmast, for all the effect her advice had. 
 Now that the ship was theirs, and they had 
 food and drink in abundance, the men were 
 not disposed to take orders from anybody, save 
 those that were required for their own safety 
 and the navigation of the ship. 
 
 Observing that Cherie and Bras-de-Mort 
 were as gluttonous as any, and that Barney 
 was making up for lost time with a rapacity 
 that threatened to burst him, Nancy turned her 
 attention to them, to such good effect that they, 
 and a few of the men, more prudent than the 
 rest, were finally wise enough to heed her
 
 184 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 warnings. The soundness of her advice was 
 apparent in no very great time, when so many 
 of the men were taken ill that had another fret 
 of wind come upon them the ship must have 
 been lost for lack of hands to trim her sails; 
 while the Spaniards might have retaken her 
 but for the precaution that was taken of bat- 
 tening down the hatches upon them. 
 
 Nancy ate but a scanty breakfast, and then, 
 returning to the deck, drew the Irish lad to one 
 side, for the question of her own fortunes, and 
 with them those of her friends in England, was 
 still uppermost in her mind, and she wished to 
 talk with the boy about her plans. 
 
 "Hark thee, Barney," she said, when they 
 were well alone. "Thou hast been a faithful 
 friend since the night we first met in the market 
 square at Lille. Now, here we are, lad, our 
 lives saved for the present, to be sure, and God 
 be praised for that, but on a course that will 
 never fetch us to England, I fear. What do 
 you counsel, lad?" 
 
 "Counsel?" 
 
 "Aye what to do next, lad. Here we are
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 185 
 
 in the Spanish Indies. Well, we can't stay 
 here, can we?" 
 
 "Why not?" demanded Barney. 
 "I have business in London urgent busi- 
 ness, that has been ^delayed already, I fear, far 
 too long." 
 
 "Then in that case I would give it over," an- 
 swered the Irish lad, his eyes sparkling. 
 "Give it over? Ah, that I cannot do." 
 "We have a fine ship," protested Barney. 
 "Faith, mademoiselle, what more could a body 
 want plenty to eat and to drink, and the whole 
 wide world ahead of us. I want to see some- 
 thing, I do." 
 
 "Ah, Barney," she smiled, "thou hast been 
 a very man, indeed, but I fear thou art a child 
 at heart. Life is made up of far more seri- 
 ous things than thou wot of." 
 "Mutiny, for one thing!" 
 Nancy wheeled at the sound of that voice 
 his voice and he was standing there, look- 
 ing at her quizzically, his blue eyes smiling, yet 
 troubled, too. 
 
 "Mutiny?" she demanded.
 
 1 86 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Aye, mutiny! The men are rapidly get- 
 ting out of hand. To hear them talk, one 
 would never imagine that they were lately in a 
 dungeon cell, with ropes around their necks, 
 and the hulks staring them in the face. They 
 will have this and they must have that. They 
 can't make up their minds as to anything, and 
 they won't let anybody else do it for them 
 the beggars !" 
 
 "I thought you were the captain," she an- 
 swered. "They have obeyed you hitherto." 
 
 "When it suited them, and then only because 
 they are lost without me. As good sea dogs 
 they are as ever sailed out of Plymouth, but 
 there isn't a navigator among them. I have 
 them there !" 
 
 "Thou shouldst have no trouble in coming 
 to terms then, methinks." 
 
 "Aye, if they didst but know it. They are 
 such fools, they have not learned yet that not 
 a man among them can take an observation or 
 lay off a course." 
 
 "Where would you take them, sir?" 
 
 "To England." 
 
 "To England!" Surprise and delight
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 187 
 
 mingled in the look that Nancy gave him then. 
 Her eyes danced with joy. " 'Tis where I, too, 
 would go." 
 
 "By St. Bride of Douglas! I cannot bend 
 them to my will, what with the Spanish crew 
 between decks that we must have an eye to. 
 They will have naught of England, nor can I 
 prevail upon them to make for Port Royal, 
 where I could find a ship for home." 
 
 "Will not go?" 
 
 "Nay. Nor do I blame them, seeing that 
 their lives and liberty are at stake." 
 
 "Their lives and liberty? But Port Royal 
 is an English city, and Jamaica an English 
 colony, thanks to Cromwell, and whatever Eng- 
 land takes she never relinquishes. I had not 
 heard we had lost this place." 
 
 "Aye, 'tis English, well enough," he smiled, 
 "but the men would rather see the devil him- 
 self just now than Governor Modyford." He 
 made a motion as if to place a noose about his 
 neck. "A dozen of them would be hanged," 
 he finished shortly, "and another dozen sold as 
 indentured servants for the debt they have 
 taken leg bail for."
 
 i88 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "And thyself, sir ?" she asked, and then low- 
 ered her eyes, for she had not meant the ques- 
 tion as he had taken it. 
 
 "I am on his Majesty's service," he an- 
 swered, his face flushing. 
 
 "Forgive me. I did not intend " 
 
 "Nay, I am as ragged and unkempt as these 
 other tatterdemalions. Your thought but does 
 justice to your intelligence." 
 
 "A queer place for the king to have business, 
 methinks," said Nancy, looking at him with 
 eyes full of innocent wonder. 
 
 "Aye," he answered, staring at the tumbling 
 sea and the distant horizon. "Such a series of 
 mishaps have brought me thither I could not 
 tell you of them in a month," and he shook his 
 great Saxon head like an angry bull. 
 
 "Mishaps," ventured Nancy, thinking of her 
 own misfortunes, "seem to be the fashion. I 
 should be in London this very moment. Long 
 since now should I have been there." 
 
 "And I, also, yet here I am, a derelict, adrift 
 with a gang' of cutthroats and a very charm- 
 ing woman " this last with a glance that 
 made her lower her eyes "and bound I know
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 189 
 
 not whither, but certainly not towards Eng- 
 land." 
 
 "Must you go thither ?" she asked, trying to 
 keep from her voice the anxiety that she felt 
 in waiting for his answer. 
 
 " Tis vital that I should," he said. "Else 
 I shall be ruined, for others whom I cannot 
 name depend upon me." 
 
 "And I " Nancy began eagerly, then 
 checked the words she had upon her tongue. 
 
 "My ship for Dover was wrecked in the 
 Channel," he went on, "and I was picked up 
 by one of the fishing fleet for Newfoundland, 
 nor could I induce them, for what store of 
 gold I had by me, to put back, and since I could 
 not disclose my identity to them, perforce I 
 had to go whither they wished. Head winds 
 and storms drove us far out of our course, and 
 running short of provisions, the sloop I was 
 aboard tried for the colony in the Virginias, but 
 being buffeted farther south, we finally made 
 a landfall in the Summer Isles, where I took 
 passage on a vessel for Port Royal." 
 
 "You have had adventures, sir," she smiled. 
 "I love them, too."
 
 190 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Call them that, an' you wish," he replied 
 bitterly. "For myself, I crave no others now." 
 
 "From Port Royal one might hope to sail for 
 England, I should think," said Nancy, after a 
 pause, her words almost a question. 
 
 "Aye, but we never reached there, for falling 
 in with the Dons, I was taken to Domingo, but 
 escaped, and finding my way with a party of 
 cattle-hunters to Tortuga, reached there just as 
 d'Ogeron was cleaning up the island of all Eng- 
 lishmen, that he might undisturbed make a 
 French colony of the place, and so was clapped 
 into his bloody fort along with the rest of 
 these old standers. And there we rotted un- 
 til you came in the night to show us the way 
 to liberty. Odsfish ! Fate hath a pranky way 
 with her, sometimes. What with rage and 
 mortification I could tear out my hair by the 
 roots !" 
 
 "His Majesty's business, methinks, rests 
 more seriously upon his courtiers than upon 
 himself," said Nancy. 
 
 "He trusted me," replied the Devon man, 
 simply. "He is the king." 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders defiantly.
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 191 
 
 "Nay," he answered, " 'tis no ordinary mat- 
 ter. His Majesty's crown, aye, his very life, 
 may be depending even now upon me in these 
 days of cursed Puritan conspiracies. Paris is 
 a hotbed of treason in these troubled times, 
 such as thou couldst not even dream of." 
 
 "Treason?" she repeated, her wide blue eyes 
 full of innocence again. 
 
 "Aye, black treason. Sidney is there, the 
 arch conspirator, and Colonel Chillingworth, a 
 very dog for plots. 'Twas on that business I 
 was sent to Paris, and when I had secured the 
 evidence I started back and " 
 
 "Evidence!" cried Nancy, for a moment off 
 her guard. "Ah, Master Courtier, how brave 
 you are, and smart." 
 
 "Aye," he said, hugely pleased with himself 
 and with her, "I had them all in one net, and 
 might have sent them to the block. But I 
 speak too freely to a stranger, though that thou 
 art a Devon maid did make me loosen my 
 tongue." 
 
 Nancy leaned over the rail, her face turned 
 from him lest he see in it something of the 
 deep concern his words had caused her.
 
 192 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "We have been thrown together strangely," 
 he continued, after a pause, taking her small 
 hand in his, "yet such has been the turmoil in 
 our lives since we have met, I have not learned 
 your name, save that the Irish lad calls thee 
 Mistress Nancy a pretty name, and one I 
 love." 
 
 She drew away from him, blushes staining 
 her cheeks, but he held her hand, nor did she 
 try to take it from him. 
 
 "I am of the Devonshire Stillingfleets ; God- 
 frey, by name, of his Majesty's Royal Navy, at 
 your service, ma'am," he said. 
 
 "The name is not new to me, sir," replied 
 Nancy. "I know it well as an honorable one 
 in my country, that has long been associated 
 with our exploits on the sea." 
 
 "My grandfather sailed with Hawkins, and 
 was with Drake at Nombre de Dios. I have 
 used the sea all my life. And you Nancy? 
 The boy said that you had been kidnaped in 
 France. How came a gentlewoman here, and 
 what, may I ask, is your name?" 
 
 "You speak of me as a gentlewoman," she 
 answered, averting her eyes once more, "yet
 
 ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND 193 
 
 you found me in company to make you think 
 naught but ill of me." 
 
 "Nay," he answered. "You wear your 
 credentials upon your face and in your eyes, 
 which do not lie." 
 
 Whereupon, for some strange reason, Nancy 
 found she could not look at him, and so gazed 
 off to sea with eyes that were blurred. 
 
 "My name I cannot tell you, sir," she an- 
 swered, after a pause, when he had taken her 
 other hand. "Call me 'Nancy.' Tis all I 
 can give you now, and I beg of you do not press 
 me further." 
 
 He bowed. 
 
 "And now," she went on briskly, stopping 
 to pull the ears of Three-legs who came up and 
 threw himself at her feet, "what say the men? 
 They will not listen to your desires to return 
 to England. Peradventure they have some- 
 thing to suggest." 
 
 "Aye, that they have," he answered, bring- 
 ing his fist down upon the rail. "They pro- 
 pose to go where they list to seek purchase." 
 
 "Purchase!" 
 
 "They needs must have more gold, and so
 
 194 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 would gain further booty from the Spaniards 
 in these seas." 
 
 "What !" she cried. "Would they then turn 
 pirate?" 
 
 "Turn pirate," said he at this, looking at 
 her wonderingly. "My God, madame, they 
 are pirates !"
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND CROWNS 
 
 Young Barney McGiggen, his red rag of a 
 tongue curling from the corners of his de- 
 lighted mouth, and his countless freckles 
 sparkling in the tropical sunlight like so many 
 specks of gold, had leaned over the rail dose 
 by them, absorbed apparently in a school of 
 flying-fish, disporting themselves in the waves. 
 But his ears had drunk in all that had been 
 said. 
 
 "Faith, then, mademoiselle!" he cried, his 
 freckles vanishing for an instant as his grin 
 deepened. "If we are pirates, praise God, we 
 have lost the best one among us, for never did 
 I see a man more fitted for the trade than 
 Yellow Eyes." 
 
 "Lost him ?" demanded Nancy, wonderingly. 
 "What mean you, lad?" 
 
 "Nothing, save that we shall never see him 
 again. He's gone!" 
 
 "Gone?" 
 
 195
 
 196 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Faith, and he was after being in the long- 
 boat when you cut her adrift." 
 
 "And good riddance, too, I say, if this be 
 true," interrupted Captain Stillingfleet. 
 
 'Tis true enough," moaned Nancy. "I re- 
 call it all. I was the last one over the side just 
 now when we took the ship. The dumb man 
 was lying there in the bottom of the longboat, 
 too weak to move, unable to cry out, and in the 
 excitement of the fight I gave him not a 
 thought." Tears sprang to her eyes. "He 
 will die, I know, of hunger and thirst, for he 
 was all but dead when I hauled him out of the 
 hold of the Baptiste" 
 
 She ran to the stern and scanned the sea, 
 then climbed into the shrouds that she might 
 have a wider view. Seeing all around her 
 naught save the boundless waste of water, she 
 called aloft to the lookout, but the sailor re- 
 plied that no sign of the longboat could he 
 see. 
 
 "We must go back, Captain Stillingfleet," 
 said she, coming down from the rigging and 
 joining him upon the quarterdeck. "I cannot 
 abandon the wretch to so horrible a fate."
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 197 
 
 "Odsfish! what is it to you?" he answered. 
 "The fellow hath been but a menace to you 
 since first he kidnaped you in France and 
 brought you thither. We are all well rid of 
 him. Never, I think, did I see so repulsive a 
 human. He had the eye of a devil, if ever I 
 saw one." 
 
 "What you say may be true, and I have no 
 cause to feel pity for him, but he is one of God's 
 creatures and I cannot abide the thought of 
 leaving him alone in all this desert with neither 
 food nor drink." 
 
 "There was some water left in the cask," 
 replied Captain Stillingfleet indifferently, 
 "enough, mayhap, to last him a day or two. 
 But I do believe he is dead by now. In all 
 events it would be a hopeless task to search for 
 him, for we have taken no observation since we 
 seized the ship, and know not where we are, nor 
 whence we came, nor how the currents set in 
 these parts, nor anything soever, save that we 
 have sailed before the wind. To look for him 
 would be a waste of time." 
 
 "But you will bring the ship about and try," 
 she pleaded, laying her hand upon his arm.
 
 198 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "I could not, if I would. The men, with half 
 of them lying in the scuppers from their glut- 
 tony, would refuse me even if they were able 
 to, and I would but force an issue that I would 
 defer until a more favorable time. So you 
 must give it over." 
 
 "Faith, he'll turn up again, mademoiselle," 
 said Barney, wagging his head knowingly. 
 "That fellow was never born to die he was 
 born to get killed." 
 
 Whereupon, Captain Stillingfleet, with a 
 great laugh, clapped him so heartily upon the 
 back that Barney was lifted from his feet and 
 went off rubbing his shoulder. 
 
 "And now," added the Devon man to Nancy, 
 "I have sent for the Spanish captain, and, if 
 you like, you may remain here by me and speak 
 with him." 
 
 The Spaniard emerged at that moment from 
 his cabin where he had retired when the ship 
 had struck, and with him was a girl about her 
 own age who was the most beautiful woman, 
 Nancy thought, that she had ever seen, a dark, 
 tigress-eyed creature, with hair like the mantle
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 199 
 
 of midnight, and the pale olive complexion of 
 her race. 
 
 "My apologies to you, sefior, for the incon- 
 veniences we have put you to," smiled Stilling- 
 fleet, with the easy grace of a courtier; but, 
 although he addressed himself to the Spanish 
 captain, Nancy observed that he had eyes only 
 for the daughter, and a new emotion surged 
 within her bosom. 
 
 "Nay," the Spaniard answered with a bow, 
 " 'tis the fortune of war, and I cannot com- 
 plain. I would have the honor of presenting 
 you to my daughter, Yvonne, did I but know 
 your name." 
 
 "I am Captain Stillingfleet," said Godfrey, 
 "of the Royal Navy of England, and at your 
 service, sefior." 
 
 The Spaniard looked at Nancy, meaningly, 
 at her bare limbs, her coarse shirt and breeches, 
 at the mop of tangled hair crowded into her 
 cap, and there was a question in his eyes, al- 
 though he did not speak. His daughter, sur- 
 veying her from unkempt crown to bare toes, 
 her own lips and nostrils curling into a con-
 
 200 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 temptuous smile, turned her back, while the 
 hot blood mounted to the English girl's cheeks. 
 
 "My name," said Nancy, quivering at the 
 insult that was more full of meaning than 
 any mere words might have expressed, "can 
 matter little to you. Therefore, I forbear to 
 mention it." 
 
 The Spaniard flushed, and would have 
 spoken had not Captain Stillingfleet interposed. 
 
 "Nay," he said, looking at his country- 
 woman, "one should be given courtesy when 
 one's ship hath been seized from under him." 
 Whereat Nancy bit her lip in vexation at the 
 position in which she found herself, and, re- 
 penting as quickly as she had offended, she 
 had an apology on her tongue when the Spanish 
 girl, with a languishing glance at Captain Stil- 
 lingfleet, shrugged her shoulders with a gesture 
 more eloquent than language. 
 
 " 'One's ship,' indeed," flared up Nancy at 
 this, stung again to the quick. "Since when 
 have Spaniards sailed in English ships and 
 called them theirs?" 
 
 "English ships !" exclaimed Captain Stilling- 
 fleet.
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 201 
 
 "Aye, this is an English ship." 
 
 "That cannot be." 
 
 "Is it not so, Sefior Captain ?" she demanded, 
 wheeling upon him. "Then how came you by 
 it ? What did you with the English crew who 
 manned her? Peradventure they are starving 
 their lives out in the galleys, or rotting in the 
 dungeon beneath the sea at San Juan d'Ulloa, 
 where that brave Plymouth man, John Hawk- 
 ins, did have a taste of your treachery, as 
 every one in Devon knows. And you, Captain 
 Stillingfleet, prate of seizing a ship! We have 
 but taken for England what is rightfully Eng- 
 land's." 
 
 "Not so fast, Mistress Nancy," broke in the 
 Devon man at this, while some of the mariners 
 lurched down to the rail of the quarterdeck at 
 hearing the girl's voice rise with excitement. 
 "It cannot be an English ship 'tis not rigged 
 as one." 
 
 "English she is, I tell you," she cried. "I 
 have seen too many of them laid down not to 
 know. Jim Rimble!" she called, and Jim, the 
 angler, stepped out of the little knot of men 
 gathered at the rail. "Say truly, Jim Rimble,
 
 202 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 whether this be an English ship or no." 
 
 Jim Rimble pulled his forelock, and rolling 
 his eyes at her said 
 
 "Aye, miss, 'tis an English ship." 
 
 "What did I tell you?" cried the girl tri- 
 umphantly. "I knew her for an English ship 
 the minute I set my eyes upon her." 
 
 "English she be, miss, from main to keel," 
 confirmed Jim Rimble again, putting an almost 
 incredible amount of deep-toned conviction into 
 his husky voice, "and built by the Petts at 
 Woolwich or I'll kiss a pig. Her rigging's 
 Spanish and her tackling, too, and her boul- 
 spret are new, but her hull's British. The 
 Madre de Dios, they call her now, miss, but 
 she's the old Snapdragon, or I will kiss a " 
 
 "How, now, Sefior Captain," said Nancy 
 with a sparkle in her eyes, "we have but taken 
 what is our own, here." 
 
 "Hurrah!" shouted the men. "That's the 
 talk, Devon." 
 
 The Spanish girl's lips curved again, deli- 
 cately and disdainfully, and Nancy felt herself 
 grow feverish once more.
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 203 
 
 "If this be a lawful prize of war, methinks 
 the cargo, too, is fair booty. Let's have a look 
 at her papers, men." 
 
 The sailors gave a hearty British cheer, and 
 jumped and capered about the deck with glee, 
 and exchanged meaning glances among them- 
 selves, as if to say that things were going to 
 suit them very well indeed, and just as they had 
 planned they should. Captain Stillingfleet 
 looked thunder-clouds, but the Spanish cap- 
 tain merely smiled, with no trace of annoyance 
 upon his patrician face. 
 
 "Nevertheless, and you take the ship, save 
 that you cast her away, it will be restored to 
 me in good time," said he, "under the law, as 
 you shall find out." 
 
 "There is no law below the tropic, nor has 
 been since Elizabeth's time," replied Nancy. 
 "Nor is there any law that says that English- 
 men may not take back an English ship wher- 
 ever they find it." 
 
 "England and Spain are now at peace," said 
 Captain Stillingfleet, "and the senor speaks 
 truly."
 
 204 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 And then, in an evil moment, he looked at 
 the Spanish girl again, and she, smiling at 
 him in all her loveliness, the frown vanished 
 from his face. He smiled back at her and thus 
 settled his fate. 
 
 For a high resolve had been running in 
 Nancy's mind, no less a purpose than to save 
 her friends and kinsmen, hiding in France un- 
 til, the Stuarts might be overthrown again, 
 from the treachery of this Cavalier royalist, 
 a resolve to keep him from going back to Eng- 
 land, at all costs, at whatever sacrifice, until 
 time should frustrate his schemes. And then 
 that smile! It decided her. 
 
 "I would have a word with you in private," 
 said Godfrey Stillingfleet, drawing her aside; 
 and when they had walked to a little distance 
 from the rest he added, in a low tone, so that 
 the Spaniards might not hear: "What folly 
 is this that prompts you to the undoing of both 
 of us?" 
 
 "I shall hold the ship, come what may/' 
 Nancy replied, looking straight into his won- 
 dering eyes. 
 
 ''Do you not see that by joining with me we
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 205 
 
 can both go back to England? A little pa- 
 tience and skill will fetch to both of us our 
 heart's desire." 
 
 "There is time enough for going back to 
 England, and much that waits us here in these 
 far seas." 
 
 "There is not time for me," he cried, stamp- 
 ing his foot, "nor for the king. One might 
 think you a Puritan, a Conventicler." 
 
 "One might think anything," replied Nancy. 
 "I, for one, think of going adventuring." 
 
 "These men are pirates, I tell you," cried 
 Captain Stillingfleet, in vexation. 
 
 "Since that then is the case," said Nancy, 
 "I must needs turn pirate with them. Let us 
 have a peek at the papers, men," she called. 
 
 "Aye," roared the men, "let us see what sort 
 of a prize we have here," and they went tum- 
 bling aft, with Nancy at their heels. 
 
 They broke open the supercargo's cabin, and 
 getting out the ship's papers spread them upon 
 the table in the great cabin and pored over 
 them with exclamations of delight, Nancy 
 spelling out the items amid a chorus of cheers 
 and yells.
 
 206 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Men," said she, finally, "we have a prize 
 .here that brings us great riches. Here's the 
 list of treasure : 
 
 "Hides, 1,900; 100 chests of cochineal; 24 
 coffers of wedges of silver; 8400 Castilian 
 reals; 10 coffers of the King of Spain's treas- 
 ure ; 240 hundred-weight of dyestuff s ; 780 pigs 
 of lead." 
 
 "And what, miss, is all that worth, think 
 you?" demanded Jim Rimble. 
 
 "Not less than 300,000 crowns," answered 
 the girl after a pause. 
 
 At this the men looked at one another in 
 silence. Then the one among them who was 
 called Trueheart Jackson, a Sussex man, taking 
 a long breath, "Well, mates," says he, "we're 
 rich now, I'm thinking, and can go back home 
 to Old England and live like gentlemen for 
 the rest of our days." 
 
 "Hurrah!" shouted the men, mad with de- 
 light. 
 
 "And hang for it," said Nancy, looking first 
 one and then another of them in the eye. The 
 shot went home. Their faces fell, that is to 
 say the faces of those who could not go home,
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 207 
 
 because of their crimes and rogueries, and were 
 now reminded of them. 
 
 "Nay, but with gold we can buy pardons," 
 cried Trueheart Jackson. 
 
 "That's so ! That's so !" chorused the men, 
 happy as children once more. "We can buy 
 pardons." 
 
 "I can't buy a pardon in England for what I 
 done," bemoaned Jim Rimble. 
 
 "Why, what did you do, Jim Rimble ?" asked 
 Nancy. "Nay, forgive me, 'twas hastily 
 spoken. I meant it not." 
 
 "I stoled a sheep," replied Jim Rimble, wag- 
 ging his head and rolling his eyes at her. 
 "Thirty-eight year ago it were, come next 
 Mich'elmas, nor have I seen a glimpse o' bonny 
 England from that there day to this, and, God 
 help me, I'll risk my neck and go." 
 
 "Buy pardons!" The girl put warning, 
 alarm, a sneer, into her voice, for she was 
 frightened at the turn events had taken, and 
 the disposition the men showed to go back 
 home. "They'll strip you of your gold and, 
 when that's gone, Tyburn ! There's no justice 
 now for any man, in England."
 
 208 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "The maid is right!" roared Jim Rimble. 
 "There is no justice now in England." 
 
 This set the men nodding and bobbing their 
 heads again. 
 
 "And would you be content with such poor 
 spoils, men," the girl went on, "when another 
 year, aye, another six months, or even a month, 
 and you might return like gentlemen indeed, 
 with ten times the treasure we have here?" 
 
 "The maid is right ! The maid speaks wis- 
 dom," bellowed Jim Rimble. "Ten times the 
 treasure, men!" 
 
 There was another outburst of cheering. 
 
 "Nor will we go until all may go in safety 
 until we have riches enough to make the ven- 
 ture worth the risk! What, men?" cried the 
 girl. 
 
 "Aye, aye !" shouted the men. 
 
 Nancy glanced up, and there stood Captain 
 Stillingfleet by the cabin door, a look in his 
 eyes that was half anger, half amusement. 
 
 "And how will you navigate the ship, my 
 hearties?" he demanded. The noisy demon- 
 stration ceased, and the men fell to shuffling 
 their feet and looking at one another in deep
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 209 
 
 perplexity. "For know ye withal, men, I will 
 have no part in this piracy, nor will I aid you 
 in any way. To this decision will I adhere 
 whatever betides. Go on with thy madness as 
 thou wilt. I wash my hands of ye." 
 
 The men's faces fell prodigiously at this, 
 but Nancy said, looking the Devon man very 
 frankly in the face : 
 
 "We have a pilot among us, sir, and can do 
 without you." 
 
 "Aye," he replied, "the Spaniard. But hark 
 ye, men, an' ye put one of these Dons at your 
 helm, and he will assuredly take ye into some 
 Spanish city, nor will ye know better until it is 
 too late and the guns of the fort are on yt)u." 
 
 "Nay," interrupted Nancy, "I had no 
 thought of the Spaniard." 
 
 "Who, then?" 
 
 "Myself!" 
 
 "You?" 
 
 "I know the use of charts and globes, the 
 application of Gunter's scale and logarithms," 
 she answered him, smiling. "I can take an 
 observation as well as you. Nor am I the only 
 one, for there is Pierre, the Frenchman, who
 
 2IO 
 
 hath sailed twice to the Eastern Indies by the 
 Portuguese route, and hath made many voy- 
 ages in these very seas. He will be our pilot. 
 So, which is it to be, men England and New- 
 gate, or the Spanish Main and riches?" 
 
 Such a volley of roars and shouts and yells 
 of delight ascended at this brave speech, which 
 fired their imaginations, while it set at rest 
 their doubts, that the whole ship throbbed with 
 it, and Barney, aflame with excitement, his face 
 one great expanse of joyous mouth, leaped 
 upon the cabin table, and tearing off his cap, 
 proposed three cheers. They were given with 
 a lusty will. 
 
 "Now, men!" cried Nancy. "I set you free 
 from d'Ogeron's castle " 
 
 "Aye, that you did," they chorused back with 
 a great British bellow. 
 
 "Follow me, and we will seek purchase. 
 But know ye, withal, I am the captain here, 
 and my orders will be obeyed in all things. 
 What say you, men? If there be among you 
 one who will not abide by this, now is his time 
 to speak and step forward that we may know 
 just how we stand."
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 211 
 
 Not a man budged, as she looked each in 
 turn full in the eye. 
 
 "It is agreed? Then I will draw the papers 
 up, and all shall set their names down upon it, 
 with the shares each shall have according to 
 his rank and just deserts." 
 
 She seized a quill and a sheet, and wrote the 
 agreement, according as she had seen them 
 made upon the papers of some ship setting 
 forth from Plymouth on a voyage of adven- 
 ture, while all the men, save those on watch, 
 and the sick, groaning from their indiscre- 
 tions, in the scuppers, stood around and 
 watched her eagerly. When it was finished 
 she read it off: 
 
 "The captain (that is to say, myself) hath 10 shares. 
 
 The lieutenant (that is to say, Bras-de-Mort) hath 8 
 shares. 
 
 The master (that is to say, Jim Rimble) hath 7 
 shares. 
 
 The mate hath 6 shares. 
 
 The gunner hath 6 shares. 
 
 The boatswain hath 6 shares. 
 
 The carpenter hath 6 shares. 
 
 The gunner's mate hath 5 shares. 
 
 The quartermaster hath 4 shares. 
 
 The cooper hath 4 shares.
 
 212 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 The cook hath 4 shares. 
 
 The steward hath 4 shares. 
 
 The coxswain hath 2 shares. 
 
 The corporal hath 2 shares. 
 
 The foremast man hath i share, to each." 
 
 She paused. 
 
 "Shall I put you down for a share, Captain 
 Stillingfleet?" she asked, turning upon him 
 suddenly. 
 
 "Nay," said he, shaking his head. "I will 
 have naught of it." 
 
 "I will make you Chief Captain by Land, at 
 eight shares." 
 
 "Thou art embarked upon a course of folly, 
 I tell you," he replied, and shook his head 
 again. 
 
 The men crowded about the paper now, and 
 put their names upon it, most of them with a 
 mark, and all of them with much labor and 
 many twists of the tongue, as if they had been 
 writing with that organ instead of a quill. 
 
 "I regret your decision, Captain Stilling- 
 fleet," said Nancy to him again while the men 
 were busy, flashing at him one of her most 
 winning smiles in which were blended, with
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 213 
 
 an incongruity that was wholly feminine, rail- 
 lery and scorn and admiration. "I would 
 have you for my mate, an' you were willing." 
 
 Such a look lay in his eyes then that her 
 cheeks crimsoned under her tan, as he said, 
 speaking very slowly and softly, his voice full 
 of that deep tone which seemed to touch some 
 hidden chord in the very depths of her soul : 
 
 "I would be blithe to be your mate and, by 
 the living God, that I shall be in my own good 
 time." She lowered her eyes. "As for em- 
 barking in this mad piracy, I wash my hands 
 of it, but I will speak more at large with you 
 upon that subject later, and, mayhap, I shall 
 drag you back from the pit into which you are 
 rushing headlong." 
 
 "My thanks, sir, for your concern," she an- 
 swered, regaining her composure and nodding 
 to him lightly. "And now, men, you will mus- 
 ter before the mast and be told off in your 
 proper watches." 
 
 With a parting cheer they vanished, slap- 
 ping each other upon the back, as happy 
 as schoolboys. Nancy would have followed 
 them, but Captain Stillingfleet detaining her
 
 214 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 with a significant glance, she remained behind 
 for a moment to speak with him. 
 
 "Look ye, young woman," said he, when 
 they were alone, leaning across the cabin table 
 and compelling her eyes to his own, "it is my 
 duty to warn you that you are putting your 
 head in a noose." 
 
 She shrugged her shoulders and turned to 
 go. He stepped between her and the door. 
 
 "Listen to me, you must and shall/' he con- 
 tinued. 
 
 " 'Must' and 'shall' are words I like not, 
 Captain Stillingfleet," she replied. "I have 
 made my decision, and nothing shall shake me 
 in that determination. As for piracy, as you 
 call it, for more than a hundred years we Eng- 
 lish have fought the Spaniards below the 
 tropic, whether our countries were at war in 
 Europe or no. What won honors and glory 
 for that brave knight Sir Francis Drake hath 
 no terrors for me." 
 
 "Nay, child," he answered, "but Charles 
 rules at Whitehall now, and times have 
 changed." 
 
 "And will change again."
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 215 
 
 "By St. Bride! You talk like a Puritan. 
 I say times have changed. I know that Gov- 
 ernor Modyford at Jamaica hath orders to put 
 down privateering against the Spaniards in the 
 Indies, fo-r I have seen those orders with my 
 own eyes, in London, before they were sent 
 here to him." 
 
 "Then I will carry on a war against the 
 Spaniards on my own account/' said she, at 
 this bristling up. ''With thirty English at 
 my command " 
 
 "Moreover," he interrupted, "this Spanish 
 captain from whom we have taken this 
 ship" 
 
 "An English ship," she reminded him. 
 
 "Aye, an English ship, true enough." 
 
 "Although thou weren't enough of a seaman 
 to discover the fact for yourself." 
 
 He bit his lip, then went on : 
 
 "An English ship placed at the captain's 
 disposal by King Charles himself. For this 
 prisoner of ours I should say yours as he 
 hath told me, is the Don Luis de Espinosa who 
 hath long been his Majesty's confidential agent 
 in Spain, who shared his exile in France and
 
 216 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Holland, and who hath now concluded his busi- 
 ness in New Spain, where he hath had large 
 interests and honors under the Spanish crown, 
 and is now on his way to England to settle 
 down as an English gentleman on certain es- 
 tates in Devonshire that have been bestowed 
 upon him by his Majesty, none others, indeed, 
 than those belonging to the rebel Chilling- 
 worth, of whom I spoke to you not long since." 
 
 "Prithee, and what is this to me?" asked 
 Nancy, with a drawl in her voice, a vast indif- 
 ference, as if the blow had not told home. 
 
 "And so," added Captain Stillingfleet, "by 
 going back to England we would have served 
 all our interests and pleased the king to boot." 
 
 "Would we have served the interests of the 
 men? You yourself did tell me that half of 
 them would hang on Tyburn did they go back 
 and show their noses in London. Nay, I will 
 not play them false, nor deceive them in any 
 way soever. My mind is made up, Captain 
 Stillingfleet. My word hath been passed to 
 my countrymen here, and I will abide with 
 them, and we shall go away upon our own lay,
 
 THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND 217 
 
 until we have found riches to buy our pardons 
 beyond a doubt." 
 
 He shook his head at her, at this, as if at a 
 loss to make her out. 
 
 "Why, odsfish !" said he, pounding the table 
 with his fist. "But a few hours ago you were 
 hot for going back to England." 
 
 "I have but availed myself of a woman's 
 inalienable prerogative," she smiled. 
 
 "A what?" he cried, looking at her in per- 
 plexity. 
 
 "The right to change my mind. I am now 
 killing two birds with one stone, where I had 
 thought there was but one," she added, think- 
 ing of her father's estates, her own girlhood 
 home, that she could remember but dimly, but 
 loved, and now so strangely had an oppor- 
 tunity to save, temporarily at least, from the 
 alien usurper to whom they had been awarded 
 by the king. "Two birds, Captain Stilling- 
 fleet," she finished seriously, and turned to 
 leave him just as the Spanish girl came into the 
 cabin, very lovely in a gown of black and red. 
 
 Yvonne looked at Nancy without seeing her,
 
 218 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 but in her languid eyes were smiles for the 
 English captain, smiles which Nancy knew 
 meant treachery and deceit, so that she pressed 
 her teeth into her lip at the sight of them, but 
 which he, poor fool, saw only as the smiles 
 of a woman for a man. So he smiled back at 
 her. 
 
 Whereat Nancy, with the majesty of a 
 queen, for all her sailor's breeches and ragged 
 shirt, made an imperious exit, yet lingered long 
 enough to call back over her shoulder 
 
 "I began with an ambition to kill one bird, 
 Captain Stillingfleet, but found there were two 
 and have now discovered a third." 
 
 A speech which mystified the poor fellow 
 more than ever.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 
 
 That noon Nancy and Pierre had an observa- 
 tion, and finding themselves in the latitude of 
 i84i" N., and longitude 75i8" W., the girl 
 called a council of the men before the mast and 
 gave each among them a chance to express 
 his desires. The sick men had recovered from 
 the effects of their gluttony, and having fixed 
 their names to the agreement, and been allotted 
 their share of the spoils they had already taken, 
 were as eager as the rest to scour the seas in 
 quest of more. 
 
 The question of what to do with the Span- 
 iards under the hatches was uppermost in 
 Nancy's mind, and speaking of the matter to 
 the men, all agreed to her proposal that they 
 should be set ashore where they could find food 
 and water and thus sustain themselves. 
 
 "So, lads," said Nancy, "since we are all of 
 a mind on this point, our first dispute, what 
 say you to putting these Dons on the main of 
 
 219
 
 220 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Cuba, from which, as the chart shows, we are 
 not far distant?" 
 
 "Well, miss, I mean captain, asking your 
 pardon," said Jim Rimble at this, rolling his 
 eyes at her so earnestly that she had to bite 
 her lips to keep from smiling in his rugged 
 face, "but what's the use of getting a hornets' 
 nest around our ears, as you might say, when 
 there ain't exactly any need of it?" 
 
 "Why, what mean you by getting a hornets' 
 nest around our ears, Jim Rimble?" demanded 
 Nancy, glancing from him to Pierre, whose 
 eyes were snapping and blinking away at a 
 furious rate through the bushy hedge of whisk- 
 ers that he seemed to be hiding behind. 
 
 "Sacre! Mademoiselle'' interjected the 
 Frenchman, "Monsieur Jean Rumble he " 
 
 "Jim Rimble, you frog," roared the master; 
 "not Jean Rumble." 
 
 "Jean Rumble, then, monsieur, if you will 
 have it that way," replied Pierre, shrugging his 
 shoulders, while Jim Rimble gritted his teeth. 
 "He is right, no ? The fact that we are cruis- 
 ing in these waters will come to the ears of the 
 Spaniards quickly enough as it is."
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 221 
 
 "That it will," bellowed Jim Rimble, "that 
 it will, or I will kiss a pig." 
 
 "If we put these Dons on the Main, why, 
 and they have legs; haven't they?" demanded 
 Trueheart Jackson. "Then won't they just 
 naturally walk off?" 
 
 "Well, and what if they do ?" replied Nancy. 
 "We shall be well rid of them." 
 
 "Aye, but suppose they get to one of their 
 settlements," broke in Jim Rimble, wagging his 
 head at a rate that threatened to send it any 
 minute rolling into the scuppers, "and give the 
 alarm? We would be undone, I'm thinking." 
 
 "Then, what is your plan, Jim Rimble?" 
 
 "A island, miss, I mean captain, asking 
 your pardon. A small island, say we, eh, 
 mates?" 
 
 The men grinned their approval of this sage 
 advice, and Nancy, seeing the wisdom of it, 
 said: 
 
 "Very well, men, an' as you are familiar in 
 these parts, no doubt you have such a snug 
 island in mind." 
 
 "Well, miss, captain, I mean, asking your 
 pardon," replied Jim Rimble, "and that we
 
 222 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 have, to be sure or I will kiss a pig. Me 
 and my mates have talked this over, and we 
 think as how Cow Island would just about fit 
 the bill." 
 
 "Cow Island?" 
 
 "Aye, 'tis but a short league off the south- 
 west horn of the main of Hispaniola, and snug 
 enough, too, and we can get wood and water 
 there and then!" 
 
 He rolled his eyes at her and at the men in a 
 most grotesque but significant manner, so that 
 they burst into a roar of cheers. 
 
 "Cow Island it is then," said Nancy, and 
 gave her orders to Pierre, 'SO that, coming 
 about, they stood away S. E. by E. 
 
 All the night following and the next day, 
 bearing away more to the east, they held this 
 course in varying winds, and finally fell with 
 the island, but, rounding the point into the 
 harbor, a shot came across her bow, and rush- 
 ing on deck Nancy beheld at anchor in the cove 
 seven ships, of which the largest was a man-o'- 
 war, a frigate of thirty-four guns. They were 
 under the lee of the island. The sails hung 
 lifeless. It was impossible to go about upon
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 223 
 
 the other tack. The men aboard the frigate 
 were springing to quarters when the girl, her 
 eyes aflame with excitement, called out to her 
 men who had tumbled below to the gun-deck: 
 
 "Avast there, men, they're English !" 
 
 She hauled down the Spanish Ancient now 
 and ran up the British ensign with her own 
 hands. There was scarcely wind enough to 
 spread her folds, but the men aboard the 
 frigate and the other ships, too, recognized the 
 colors, and a great cheer came across the 
 waters to her. So they came to, and drifting 
 into the cove, came to an anchor in eight fath- 
 oms. 
 
 The men were not long in making out now 
 that the strangers they had come upon so sud- 
 denly were friends of their own kidney, so 
 that Nancy, fearful for the treasure ' in the 
 hold, and the danger they were in of one of 
 the Spaniards disclosing the secret, decided 
 to put a bold face upon the matter. She or- 
 dered out the captain's gig. 
 
 "But hark ye, men," said she, speaking in a 
 low tone, for they were now under the scrutiny 
 of the other ships, "say no word to these
 
 224 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 strangers of the riches we have between decks 
 here, for though they be our countrymen, may- 
 hap they would rob us with as easy a mind as 
 though we were the Viceroy himself. Nor 
 say any word soever of the Spaniards we have 
 here, lest we lose at last what we have already 
 gained at so much pains." 
 
 "The maid speaks truly," cried Jim Rimble 
 in half a roar, as though he tried to whisper, 
 and there was a nodding of heads among the 
 men, so that Nancy felt that they could be re- 
 lied upon. 
 
 "And now, men," she went on, "do you re- 
 move the Spanish captain and his daughter 
 from their cabin and put them in the hold with 
 their countrymen. Captain Stillingfleet," she 
 added, coolly, turning upon him suddenly, 
 "since he who is not with us is against us, you 
 will oblige me by stepping below and as 
 quickly as may be." 
 
 "And what if I refuse ?" he asked, his Saxon 
 eyes smiling at her quizzically. 
 
 "Why, then, sir," says she, "that ship yon- 
 der is an English ship of war, an' I make no 
 mistake."
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 225 
 
 "Thou art quite right," says he. "It is an 
 English frigate, for 'tis H. M. S. Oxford, as 
 I should know well enough, for I have served 
 upon her. So you see you have come to the 
 end of your rope already, as I knew thou 
 wouldst, though much sooner, I confess, than 
 I had expected." 
 
 "Nay, Master Stillingfleet," she answered 
 him very quietly, "thou art a poor prophet, for 
 I have just begun, and you will go below, and 
 quietly, and make no alarm or I will shoot thee 
 dead upon the deck, for that thou shalt not be- 
 tray me to this ship of war I am firmly re- 
 solved." 
 
 She suddenly pulled a cocked pistol from her 
 bosom, and pointed it at his head. 
 
 "Fie, Mistress Nancy," said he, gazing at 
 her like a great overgrown schoolboy, "you 
 would not shoot, and that I know very well 
 so have done with this playing." 
 
 "Give me no cause to prove my determina- 
 tion to you, I pray you, sir," she replied as 
 quietly as before, her face suddenly going pale 
 beneath her tan. "Were my own life only at 
 stake that I truly would not, but there are
 
 226 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 things in this business you do not comprehend, 
 and for those things I would kill you were it 
 necessary. Go below, sir, I beg of you." 
 
 "By St. Bride! That I will never do," he 
 replied, and took a step towards her, looking 
 into the barrel of her pistol, and, beyond that, 
 into the depths of her blue eyes. 
 
 But Bras-de-Mort slipping up upon him at 
 this they were on the side of the great cabin 
 away from the ships thrust the muzzle of a 
 musket into his face, with so unmistakable a 
 look in his snapping black eyes that, giving one 
 glance about the deck, and seeing no friendly 
 countenance there, Stillingfleet presently 
 turned upon his heel and went below, and the 
 hatches were all battened down and a guard 
 set. 
 
 The gig being now at the ladder in the waist, 
 Captain Nancy went into her, with Jim Rimble, 
 and Bras-de-Mort, Trueheart Jackson and the 
 boy Barney at the oars, and they pulled over to 
 the frigate. 
 
 What was their astonishment then, as they 
 went over the side and were greeted by one 
 who seemed to be in command, and his subordi-
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 227 
 
 nates who were gathered at the rail, to see 
 seated upon a coil of rope Yellow Eyes, the 
 tongueless man, his sinister orbs like molten 
 gold glaring at them with the ferocity of a wild 
 beast, his hairless head glistening in the bril- 
 liant tropical sun like some fleshless skull. 
 
 "Faith! Mademoiselle," cried Barney, "'tis 
 that devil again, the man with the yellow eyes." 
 
 But she had seen him, too, and stood there 
 silent, with parted lips, nor heeded the greet- 
 ing of a tall, handsome but slightly over-stout 
 man of thirty or thereabouts, with a heavy 
 but far from unpleasing Welsh face and a look 
 of great power and determination in his com- 
 manding eyes and strong mouth and chin. 
 
 Trueheart Jackson nudged her slyly. 
 
 " 'Tis Henry Morgan," he whispered. 
 "Hast heard of him? The greatest among us 
 in these seas I warrant you, aye, the greatest 
 since Drake. I was with him at Porto Bello." 
 
 Nancy turned to him and took his hand at 
 his greeting, and something that she saw in 
 his eyes made her suddenly conscious of her 
 boys' clothes, so that she stammered and 
 blushed before him. He, as if to cover her
 
 228 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 embarrassment, presented her then to Captain 
 Edward Collier, of his Majesty's navy, who, 
 Nancy presently understood, was in command 
 of the Oxford. But why he should be there, 
 among these men so plainly of another and 
 more lawless trade, she could by no means dis- 
 cover. 
 
 Captain Morgan greeted Jackson and Jim 
 Rimble familiarly as old friends, and, while 
 she spoke with Captain Collier, the latter draw- 
 ing the Welshman aside whispered something 
 to him, whereat he straightened up and stared 
 sharply at the girl, admiration deepening in his 
 eyes. 
 
 "We are well met, madame," said he, taking 
 off his hat and giving her a great bow. "We 
 touched at Tortuga on our way thither, to pick 
 up a few of the French there who occasionally 
 join with us in our enterprises, and thus I 
 learned of your great feat. So you are the 
 English girl who threw the sand in old 
 d'Ogeron's eyes and got clean away, with his 
 ship and his prisoners to boot! 'Sdeath! 
 You had the island in a turmoil when we ar- 
 rived there, and but for the fact of our great
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 229 
 
 force the governor would have taken out his 
 spite on us. He was like a wild man, yet 
 sounded your praises withal nor do I blame 
 him." 
 
 It was Nancy's turn to blush anew at this, 
 and, when he offered her his arm, gallantly, 
 she took it without a word and walked beside 
 him to the cabin. 
 
 "And right glad am I of this meeting, too, 
 eh, Collier," he adcfed. "We will need this 
 stout ship she brings though I confess the 
 brigantine Baptiste, which I thought I knew 
 full well" 
 
 " 'Tis not the same," said Nancy impul- 
 sively, and then wished she had not spoken. 
 "The Baptiste was lost in the storm, and this 
 is a ship which we, in our necessity, did take." 
 
 "What!" cried Captain Morgan, standing 
 off and surveying her dramatically. "A good 
 beginning, upon my soul, Collier! You see," 
 he added to Nancy, "we are met here in an- 
 ticipation of an assault upon Maracaibo, on 
 the Main, and for this purpose need another 
 ship at least, and more men." 
 
 "But that," said she in considerable surprise,
 
 230 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "is such an adventure as is no longer coun- 
 tenanced by his Majesty, so that I am in vast 
 perplexity at finding you thus upon one of his 
 Majesty's ships of war. Assuredly we can- 
 not be at war now with Spain." 
 
 "Nay," interrupted Captain Collier, with a 
 sidelong glance at her boyish costume and the 
 tangled mop of golden hair tumbling from be- 
 neath her cap, "we are always at war with 
 Spain below the tropic." 
 
 "But I am told that Governor Modyford, at 
 Jamaica, hath orders to prevent privateering in 
 the Indies," she persisted. 
 
 "Had orders," corrected Captain Collier. 
 "They have been modified. Odsfish ! A neat 
 jest, hey, Morgan? Ha ha ha! Didst hear 
 that Modyford's orders modified. By my 
 soul! 'Tis good enough to tell to the king, 
 himself. Have you no sense of humor, Mor- 
 gan?" 
 
 "Only a fair one, Collier," replied Morgan 
 drily. "But what he hath said is true 
 enough," he added, turning to Nancy. "I can- 
 not myself keep track of his Majesty's weather- 
 cock politics, now interfering with our busi-
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 231 
 
 ness in these seas, and again countenancing 
 our private warfare against Spain; nor do I 
 concern myself much with them, for it has been 
 England's policy since Drake's time to give 
 sugar pills to the Spanish Ambassador at Lon- 
 don, while winking at what goes on in this 
 part of the world. So I never know whether a 
 treaty is in force or no, and so have dismissed 
 the subject from my mind. Three months ago, 
 at Spain's complaint, they were all for hanging 
 at Port Royal some of the best men who have 
 ever fought with me against the Papists. 
 And now for some mysterious reason all this 
 hath been changed, and Collier is to go with 
 me to Maracaibo, clandestinely, but nathless 
 he is to go." 
 
 "I do not pretend to know all that goes on 
 in his Majesty's cabinet," said Captain Collier. 
 "Adventuring against the Spaniard was vigor- 
 ously put down for a time. But now it seems 
 the Spanish Ambassador at London hath been 
 hoodwinked again, and things are to be as be- 
 fore until his Majesty is browbeaten once 
 more by the Spanish crown. I myself have 
 lately brought new orders to Jamaica, and this
 
 232 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 expedition has been secretly fitted out there 
 by the governor's orders. When we have dealt 
 this blow to the Spanish power in the Americas, 
 you shall find a market for your spoils at Lon- 
 don Bridge, an' you wish it." 
 
 "You inform me on a point I was much in 
 ignorance on," replied Nancy. 
 
 "Join us," said Captain Morgan, "an' your 
 exploit will be winked at. We have absolu- 
 tion in advance. The captain here hath a 
 pocketful of pardons in blank for such as may 
 need the boon. But join us in the round-house, 
 and we will talk more at large." 
 
 They were at the cabin door now. But be- 
 fore they entered, Nancy nodded towards Yel- 
 low Eyes who still sat upon his coil of rope. 
 
 "How came you by the dumb man?" she 
 asked. 
 
 "Why, as to that, how did you know that he 
 is dumb?" asked Captain Morgan, throwing 
 at her a sharp look from beneath his heavy 
 brows. 
 
 "He is no stranger to me," Nancy replied, 
 while heartily wishing she had not been so 
 quick to speak.
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 233 
 
 "What know you of him ?" 
 
 "He stowed himself in the forward hold," 
 cried Barney, who had been aching for a 
 chance to enter the conversation, and until then 
 had seen no opening, "so we cut him adrift 
 that is, Nancy did and here he is." 
 
 "So Nancy cut him adrift!" laughed Cap- 
 tain Morgan, a twinkle in his eye. "I see you 
 know something of the man, madame, although 
 the explanation of the lad is not over clear. 
 I picked him up in an open boat, and all but 
 dead of thirst." 
 
 "Aye, we know him," said Barney, his 
 freckled face aglow with delight to be talking 
 thus with the great Captain Morgan. "Why, 
 'twas he who betrayed us at the governor's 
 castle, and gave the alarm, when we escaped 
 from the fort on the hill." 
 
 Captain Morgan's face grew black as a 
 thunder-cloud at this. 
 
 "A traitor, then !" he cried. "We give short 
 shrift to such." 
 
 He called to his quartermaster. 
 
 "Throw this rogue below," he ordered 
 roughly.
 
 234 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Nay, have pity on him, sir, I beg of you," 
 said Nancy, laying her hand upon the captain's 
 arm, "for though he hath been the source of all 
 my misery, my heart swells for him he is so 
 wretched with his great affliction I cannot bear 
 the thought of his suffering. Spare him for 
 my sake, for it was I who cast him adrift in 
 the longboat, so that he would have perished 
 but for the accident of his discovery, and that 
 would have been a sin upon my head." 
 
 "She talks like a Puritan!" cried Captain 
 Morgan. 
 
 But he gave an order to one of the men that 
 Yellow Eyes should not be injured, and the 
 dumb man was hauled away between two sea- 
 men, kicking and struggling, and carried into 
 the hold. Then Captain Morgan led the way 
 into the cabin where a great company of offi- 
 cers of the fleet were gathered, eating and 
 drinking. 
 
 Nancy, in the place of honor at the head of 
 the table, between the two captains, was obliged 
 to tell the story of the escape of the English 
 prisoners from the French at Tortuga, and of 
 the part she had played. When she had fin-
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 235 
 
 ished, Captain Collier ordered a salute of thirty 
 guns to be fired in her honor. 
 
 While the cannon roared, she studied the 
 faces of her companions, and gave a start as 
 she recognized a familiar figure, the little monk 
 whom she had seen first in the market square 
 at Lille, and then upon the ship in which she 
 had been kidnaped, the little monk whom she 
 had left apparently asleep beneath d'Ogeron's 
 table. 
 
 "How came he here?" she asked, pointing 
 him out. 
 
 "Who?" 
 
 "The monk." 
 
 "Monk!" roared Morgan, choking with 
 laughter. "Little Cochinillo? Why, madame, 
 that is a better jest than Captain Collier's. 
 Did he fool you with his cowl and habit? 
 That is the greatest rascal unhung three 
 times a galley slave, twice branded. But a 
 bright and happy soul, withal, and one of my 
 men who fell wounded at Porto Bello and was 
 sent off to Spain, but escaped from the hulks 
 and so found his way back to the rendezvous, 
 with the aid of his disguise, and indeed he has
 
 236 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 picked up a lot of the ritual at odd times and 
 serves us very well in that capacity." 
 
 The monk, for so she called him, seeing 
 himself under discussion, arose unsteadily to 
 his feet, a bottle in one hand and a gobbet of 
 greasy meat in the other, glibly told how 
 d'Ogeron had commanded him to marry him 
 to the girl, and how he had indignantly re- 
 fused, and declared most solemnly that he had 
 aided in her escape, whereupon Captain Mor- 
 gan, Nancy making no contradiction, de- 
 manded that a salute be fired in his honor. 
 
 Then Barney recounted the story of the 
 treachery of Yellow Eyes, and how he had 
 wanted to go back and gag him. Whereat the 
 jovial pirates roared with laughter, and Cap- 
 tain Morgan, in his hand a handsome silver 
 goblet that he had stolen from the governor 
 of Porto Bello, drank his health in rosa 
 solis, a strong' punch brandy, spices and 
 hot water, and ordered a salute of ten guns in 
 his honor. And Barney, overcome by the 
 honor, his whole face in complete eclipse, so 
 widely distended were his joyous jaws, leaped 
 upon the table and led the buccaneers in a
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 237 
 
 round of mighty cheers that made the frigate 
 shiver. 
 
 The admiration in the glances that Captain 
 Morgan bestowed upon her made Nancy feel 
 ill at ease. But she was taken all aback, when 
 suddenly he jumped up, and filling the silver 
 goblet proposed her health. 
 
 "Look ye, monk," said he, draining his 
 tankard at a single toss, "out with thy prayer- 
 book, thou gospel-slinging shark, and read the 
 marriage service. By the Gods ! This Devon 
 maid doth please me hugely. She is the first 
 ever I thought fit to be the wife of Henry Mor- 
 gan." 
 
 "Nay, sir," said she at this, her eyes filled 
 with alarm, and drawing away from him as he 
 bent down and sought to take her hand, "not 
 so fast, I pray you, and, besides, this is no 
 priest, but an impostor." 
 
 "Think on it, madame!" cried he, waving 
 aside her objections. "Thou art a woman 
 after my own heart fearless and resourceful. 
 Thou hast taken thy first ship as neatly as L 
 could have done it myself, and that thou art 
 here with thy men as their captain showeth me
 
 238 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 that thou hast ability withal. Join with me 
 and we will scourge these Dons until they 
 come to know who are masters in the Indies. 
 
 "Nay," he added, when she would have 
 stopped him, "have no fear as to the conse- 
 quences. For the time, the good old days of 
 Drake and Hawkins have come back once more. 
 Follow me, and I will lead thee to riches and 
 fame. Aye, I will make thee a Lady, for I do 
 tell thee, madame, when I return from this 
 expedition upon which I am now setting forth, 
 I shall kneel at his Majesty's feet and he will 
 say to me, 'Arise, Sir Henry Morgan.' ' 
 
 The officers, who had been listening to him 
 with the attention that men ever give to those 
 in authority above them, broke into cheers at 
 this brave speech, and Barney, leaping up 
 and proposing a salute of thirty guns in 
 honor of their chief, and thirty more for his 
 gracious majesty King Charles, such a volley- 
 ing began again as showed these pirates to be 
 as wasteful of their powder as, when they did 
 have it, they were with their money. 
 
 "Show her the papers you have, Collier," 
 Captain Morgan added, when he could make
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 239 
 
 himself heard between guns. "They will set 
 her mind at rest, I warrant you. Secret in- 
 structions these be, madame, for the benefit of 
 Englishmen here on the Spanish Main, with 
 pardons in blank for those that need them 
 a sort of general amnesty, indeed." 
 
 Captain Collier passed her then a packet of 
 papers, bearing the royal seal. Nancy had 
 just taken them, when, with a cracking roar 
 and a great burst of flame which seemed to en- 
 velop the whole ship, and filled the round-house 
 with heavy clouds of suffocating smoke, the 
 forward magazine exploded. The first explo- 
 sion was followed almost immediately, before 
 the company could gain their feet, by another 
 more terrible than the first, and the frigate 
 seemed torn asunder by the force of it. The 
 deck rose, fell away and crumbled beneath 
 them ; the mighty timbers were blown in all di- 
 rections. 
 
 Of what happened after the first explosion 
 Nancy never had a clear idea. Mechanically 
 she thrust Captain Collier's papers into her 
 shirt. Tongues of flame leaped toward her out 
 of the billows of dense black smoke.
 
 240 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 She shut her eyes in terror, and, when she 
 opened them, she was in the depths of the sea, 
 entangled in a mass of wreckage. She freed 
 herself, and then, her lungs bursting with pain, 
 shot to the surface. 
 
 As she came up, gasping and blowing, there, 
 not a dozen strokes from her, was Barney, 
 astride the shattered end of the mainmast. 
 She swam towards him, and he dragged her to 
 a place of safety beside him. 
 
 All about were debris and wreckage of every 
 description, with here and there a man's head 
 showing above the waves. As she looked, the 
 shattered hull of the frigate, in one last con- 
 vulsion, went down by the head, -to be seen 
 again no more. 
 
 Small boats put out immediately from the 
 other vessels at anchor in the cove; and one 
 from the Snapdragon, as they saw, pulled to- 
 wards them. 
 
 "Faith, mademoiselle," asked the Irish lad, 
 when he had emptied himself of the salt water, 
 "what happened?" 
 
 "The ship blew up, Barney," answered the 
 girl, "and 'tis only by the mercy of God that
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 241 
 
 we are alive. Few on board of her, I think, 
 could have survived it." 
 
 "Did Captain Morgan, do you suppose?" 
 he asked after a bit. 
 
 "Why, I do not know as to that I cannot 
 see him anywhere." 
 
 "Would you care if he didn't?" 
 
 "Care, lad?" 
 
 "Aye." 
 
 "Of course I'd care, Barney." 
 
 "Well," he replied, giving her a queer look, 
 "but I know one who wouldn't." 
 
 "And who might that be, Barney?" 
 
 "Captain Stillingfleet. Faith, he'd be wild 
 if he knew what Captain Morgan said to you 
 just now." 
 
 "Be quiet, Barney," said the girl sharply. 
 "Captain Stillingfleet cares naught what Cap- 
 tain Morgan thinks of me." 
 
 "Oh, and doesn't he now ?" 
 
 "Say no more of that to me, lad." Then, 
 after a pause, "Barney, canst keep a secret?" 
 
 "Aye, that I can." 
 
 "Then I know who blew up the ship." 
 
 "Blew it up?"
 
 242 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Aye, blew it up, Barney for revenge." 
 
 "Revenge! You mean " he lowered his 
 voice to the most mysterious whisper at his 
 command "you mean Captain Stillingfl eet ?" 
 
 "Thou art too ridiculous, Barney. Of 
 course not ! It was Yellow Eyes." 
 
 "The dumb man?" 
 
 "I feel sure of it. Look, there he is now!" 
 
 The boy turned as she pointed, and there 
 struggling in the waves close by them, clinging 
 to a spar, was the tongueless man, a great cut 
 over his temple from which the blood gushed, 
 staining the water all around him. A look of 
 hatred blazed from his eyes. 
 
 The longboat from the Snapdragon was 
 coming up rapidly now, with Cherie, her face 
 as pale as death, crouching in the bow, and 
 searching the wreckage with restless eyes. 
 They pointed the dumb man out to her, and he 
 was hauled aboard. As they came on now to 
 where they clung to the mainmast, the French 
 girl cried : 
 
 "Thank God, you are saved ! But where is 
 my man? Have you seen aught of Bras-de- 
 Mort?"
 
 THE PIRATES' ISLAND 243 
 
 "I have seen him not," answered Nancy, 
 sadly, "but some have been picked up by boats 
 from the other ships. Please God, he is among 
 them." 
 
 "Please God," echoed Cherie. 
 
 The longboat continued its search for those 
 that might be saved, and the French girl con- 
 tinued her quest with eyes so blurred with tears 
 she could scarcely see. At last they found 
 the Frenchman in another boat and took him 
 into their own, and then pulled back to the 
 Snapdragon, picking up Jim Rimble and True- 
 heart Jackson on the way. 
 
 And so they returned to their own ship in 
 safety, all who had gone away, with one among 
 them they had not expected to see again. As 
 they helped the dumb man over the side, Bar- 
 ney plucked at Nancy's sleeve. 
 
 "Some day," said he, pointing significantly 
 to Yellow Eyes, "he will go too far with me 
 that fellow."
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CAPTAIN MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 
 
 Back on the quarterdeck of her own ship 
 Captain Nancy paced restlessly. With a treas- 
 ure of upwards of 300,000 crowns in the hold, 
 the Spanish crew prisoners between decks, and 
 Don Luis and his daughter under heavy guard, 
 she realized that she was confronted by a situa- 
 tion demanding all that she had of tact and 
 diplomacy, the more especially since Captain 
 Stillingfleet was now not only no longer a 
 friend, but an active enemy. 
 
 As for the treasure, she understood from 
 what she had learned aboard the frigate that 
 it might safely be kept as lawful prize. This 
 she was determined to do, now that she had 
 won the men to her leadership by that promise. 
 As for the Spanish captain, it was but loyalty 
 to her father and the cause to keep this inter- 
 loper from the stolen estates that awaited him 
 in England, and this also she was resolved to 
 
 accomplish. 
 
 244
 
 MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 245 
 
 With the Spaniards set ashore on some 
 island, she could count upon the greed and the 
 love of adventure of her men to keep them in 
 those seas as long as she might choose to stay. 
 And this she vowed to do, until it became too 
 late for Godfrey Stillingfleet to work any in- 
 jury to General Sidney and her father, or the 
 other Puritan conspirators in France. 
 
 But as she pondered upon these considera- 
 tions, the conviction was borne home to her 
 that, after all, they were really trivial beside 
 another matter which forced itself upon her at- 
 tention as often as she sought to thrust it into 
 the background. 
 
 Captain Henry Morgan was not to be dis- 
 posed of so easily, and, as she went over again 
 and again the scene in the great cabin of the 
 Oxford, that had terminated so dramatically 
 and terribly, yet so providentially for her, she 
 realized that in this big, masterful, self-con- 
 fident Welsh buccaneer she had to deal with a 
 man of a different stamp from any whom she 
 had ever known before a man who was ac- 
 customed to have his way in all things, who 
 was not to be deterred by any considerations
 
 246 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 whatsoever from the accomplishment of any 
 undertaking upon which he might fix his iron 
 will. 
 
 And so, contemplating her predicament from 
 every angle, she resolved upon a measure that 
 was like to be her undoing. In the pirate's 
 love-making, rude as it was, there had been a 
 depth of passion she had not failed to recog- 
 nize, nor did it repel her. For try as she would 
 to rid herself of its appeal, the primal woman 
 in her responded to it with a force she could 
 resist but not deny. The thought of him made 
 her conscious for the first time of her ragged 
 shirt and coarse breeches, her sunburned arms 
 and limbs. Looking over the rail in thought- 
 ful mood, the burnished waters of the Carib- 
 bean sent back to her troubled eyes a reflection 
 that brought a blush to her tanned cheeks. 
 
 "I'll do it!" she whispered softly to herself, 
 and quitting the quarterdeck, all breathless 
 with excitement, demanded of the Fleming who 
 was on guard before the forecastle that he 
 summon to her Cherie, the French girl. Then 
 she burst into the cabin that had been occupied 
 by the Spanish captain's daughter.
 
 MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 247 
 
 "Well, Mistress Chillingworth," said she to 
 herself, "now that thou hast turned pirate, as 
 well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. Since 
 I have stolen a whole ship, 'twill be no greater 
 sin to add the theft of a few clothes to my other 
 crimes." 
 
 With this she began to rummage in the Span- 
 ish girl's chests, and presently, finding that for 
 which she searched, had the whole cabin lit- 
 tered with linens and silks. But first she let 
 down her tawny hair, and, assisted by Cherie 
 who tore herself away from Bras-de-Mort, 
 combed out the snarls, dancing about with 
 shrieks and groans, for the process, after so 
 long a neglect, was a painful one. Then she 
 fell upon the petticoats, the laces and ribbons. 
 
 An hour passed. Another slipped by. 
 Nancy and Cherie were oblivious to their sur- 
 roundings, intoxicated by the greatest of all 
 feminine delights. From this blissful state 
 they were aroused by a hail and the tramp of 
 feet upon the deck. Mindful of her duties and 
 obligations then, she threw open the door and 
 stepped out, just as Captain Morgan came over 
 the side.
 
 248 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 The buccaneer regarded her for a long in- 
 stant as if he had been suddenly cast into 
 bronze. Then off came his wide-brimmed hat, 
 with its nodding crimson plume that swept the 
 deck, what with the great bow he made. 
 
 "Madame," said he, taking her hand and 
 kissing it as gallantly as if he had been a 
 courtier, "the explosion on the frigate just now 
 interrupted me. I have come to resume where 
 I left off, and to say that I have fetched the 
 monk along. 'Sdeath! Madame, my heart 
 felt near to bursting when first I saw you yon- 
 der, and now that I behold you in your proper 
 person I am all the more aflame for you." 
 
 But though the mellow light in his eyes, 
 which for the moment lost their customary 
 hardness, bore witness to the ardor of his 
 words, his glances were not so wholly occupied 
 with the scrutiny of the beauty of her face and 
 girlish figure as to be oblivious to the beauty of 
 the ship, which he was quick to note and to ap- 
 preciate in hull and spars as in the line and 
 color of a pretty woman. To both he gave his 
 frank admiration, and, being no less a sea- 
 man than a lover, was so entirely impartial
 
 MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 249 
 
 that he bestowed his praises equally upon both, 
 in the same breath, until it seemed, that, with 
 a most remarkable economy of language, as 
 befitting a man of action rather than of speech, 
 he made a single word serve a double duty. 
 
 " 'Sblood, madame!" he cried, with another 
 great bow and flourish. "Well rigged thou 
 art, truly, nor over-rigged to wrong you in 
 your sailing. A great rake forwards on, like a 
 French craft, which is as I like, making for the 
 more speed." 
 
 Leading the way into the round-house, as 
 if he felt himself already master there, his 
 exclamations of delight increased with every 
 step he took, until at last he cried: 
 
 "By our Lady ! Madame, we are well met, 
 indeed. Here you have as staunch a vessel of 
 fourteen guns as ever I hope to see, and ports 
 could be cut on the gun-deck for more ord- 
 nance, though I depend not upon my cannon 
 in a fight, so that I can sail my ship to lay 
 aboard, and bring my enemy under the musket 
 fire of my men. Still, I scorn them not, and we 
 can use them. 
 
 "Such another ship as this with us, an' the
 
 250 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 frigate had not blown up and bereft me of my 
 largest, and I would take Panama this expedi- 
 tion. Join me in my plans, madame, and 
 though the larger undertaking be deferred un- 
 til a later time, nathless we shall go away now 
 to the Main and gain a king's ransom from the 
 rich Spanish cities, you, as my wife, to share 
 equally with me in the adventure, and your 
 men to share equally with my own, on the terms 
 which they well know, as the code of the 
 brethren of the coast no purchase, no pay. 
 Come, marry me and sail with me." 
 
 "As to the second part of your proposal, 
 sir," replied Nancy, seating herself at the table 
 where she had drawn up the agreement with 
 her English comrades, "I confess it hath much 
 to commend itself as well to my taste as to my 
 desires." 
 
 Morgan smiled and rubbed his hands with 
 a gesture of satisfaction. 
 
 "As for the rest of what you say, sir," she 
 added, "I thank you for the compliment you 
 have paid me, but that can never be." 
 
 "Can never be?" echoed Captain Morgan. 
 
 "Nay, sir, it is impossible," she answered,
 
 MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 251 
 
 turning her eyes from his. "I I I have 
 promised myself to another," she faltered, 
 stammering, and daring not to look at him. 
 
 " 'Sdeath, madame," answered the buccaneer 
 nonchalantly, as if vastly relieved, "do not let 
 that trouble you. Were you already married, 
 nathless I would wed thee still." 
 
 "But that would be a sin, sir," cried Nancy, 
 looking at the pirate with wide-open eyes. 
 
 Captain Morgan threw back his head and 
 laughed a hearty laugh that shook his whole 
 huge frame. 
 
 " 'Sblood, madame ! " he returned, when he 
 could recover his breath, "there is no such 
 thing as sin below the tropic, so make your 
 mind easy on that score, my lady, and I will 
 fetch 'the monk in and have the service read." 
 
 Whereupon he whistled loudly. Two of his 
 men, savage-looking fellows, bareheaded and 
 unkempt, with knives and pistols in their belts, 
 slouched up and gave him a rude salute. He 
 bade them summon the priest, and presently 
 Cochinillo, the pretended monk, appeared from 
 the direction of the cook-room, a pig's knuckle 
 in one hand and in the other a hunk of half-
 
 252 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 baked dough. His heavy face shone with 
 grease. With a sigh he thrust the bone and 
 the bread into his habit and entered the cabin, 
 rubbing his hands upon his frock. 
 
 "Hast thou thy prayer book about thee, 
 monk?" roared the pirate. 
 
 The little man choked out an inarticulate an- 
 swer, sending forth a cloud of crumbs and 
 gristle from his mouth that was so crammed 
 with food that very likely he would have 
 strangled to death before their eyes had not 
 the buccaneer rained a shower of mighty blows 
 between his shoulders. 
 
 "Curse thee!" cried Captain Morgan. 
 "Thou art always stuffing thy belly. Out with 
 thy book and say thy mumble and jumble over 
 us, and be quick about it ! For lack of a real 
 priest you will suit me as well as another." 
 
 "Not so fast, Captain Morgan, an' you 
 please, sir!" Nancy's face had gone quite 
 pale. "Did I not tell you that I was already 
 bespoken?" She blushed and hung her head. 
 "Well, not that, exactly," she faltered, "but 
 I have already promised myself to another. 
 I cannot marry you."
 
 MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 253 
 
 "That's what she told d'Ogeron," spluttered 
 the monk. She wouldn't do it, absolutely re- 
 fused, said she " 
 
 "Silence!" bellowed Morgan. "Curses on 
 d'Ogeron, and on you, too. Think you I am 
 to be thwarted of my desires because he knew 
 not that a woman's 'no' means 'yes' ?" 
 
 He passed quickly around the table and 
 grasped the girl, though not over-roughly, by 
 the arm. Though she saw in his flushed face 
 and his eyes, wherein lay a light that burned 
 with brilliance, no intent to do her harm, but 
 only desire and love for her, she shrank from 
 him with alarm and uttered a sharp cry that 
 brought the boy Barney to the cabin door, a 
 smile dying away on his freckled face. Not 
 having witnessed the beginning of the scene 
 within the round-house, and totally mistaking 
 the motives and attitude of Captain Morgan, 
 his Irish mouth quivered like a terrier's. 
 
 Barney's admiration for the mighty pirate, 
 whose fame in those seas he had been drinking 
 in around the forecastle lamp, vanished in an 
 instant. His ideas were ever good ones, but 
 in his singularly simple mind there was room
 
 254 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 for but one at a time. He saw only his friend 
 and comrade upon the defensive before the 
 Welshman, and without waiting to inquire into 
 the circumstances, he bounded into the cabin, 
 and with the spring of a young wolf threw him- 
 self full tilt upon the buccaneer, digging his 
 claws into the man's brawny throat and feeling 
 with his teeth for his ear. 
 
 Captain Morgan, giant though he was, stag- 
 gered beneath the onslaught, which took him 
 so by surprise that it all but threw him off his 
 feet. But he quickly recovered himself, not 
 without effort, and, shaking off the lad as a 
 dog would have rid himself of a rat clinging 
 to his nose, sent Barney reeling into the parti- 
 tion, where he lay in a corner dazed and dizzy, 
 the blood streaming from a cut over his right 
 eye. 
 
 "Shame, Captain Morgan!" Nancy cried 
 hotly, dropping to her knees beside the Irish 
 boy. "Tisbutalad!" 
 
 "Nay, you wrong me, madame," replied the 
 pirate sheepishly. "He took me so by sur- 
 prise I scarcely thought on what I was doing. 
 'Sdeath ! He flew at me like a lion.'
 
 MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 255 
 
 "He did but go to my rescue, sir," answered 
 the girl, "as he hath ever done since first we 
 met in the market place at Lille." 
 
 "Then he is my friend and shall ever be. 
 Come, lad, my hand on it." 
 
 He held out his huge fist, but Barney, scowl- 
 ing and shaking his head, refused it and 
 climbed weakly to his feet, and stood there 
 glaring at him and wiping the blood upon his 
 shirt. 
 
 "Nay, lad," continued the buccaneer, "but 
 be my friend and you shall never need another. 
 There is a common bond between us I love 
 your mistress as you do, aye, ten thousand 
 times more. And just now, when you rushed 
 to her succor, I meant her no injury, but was 
 but telling her of my love and asking her to be 
 my wife, that we might go away together to the 
 Spanish Main on an adventure that most cer- 
 tainly would bring riches to all of us. 
 
 "And you shall go with us, lad, and for your 
 faithfulness to her in the past, and because you 
 love her, too, you shall share with us far above 
 your rank and service, and go home to Eng- 
 land at last with money jingling in your pocket.
 
 256 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Come, lad, say you will be friend to Henry 
 Morgan. Go with us, where gold, and fame, 
 and the zest of a man's life await us, and we 
 shall have our hearts' desires, all of us my 
 hand upon it." 
 
 There was the glow of romance and the lure 
 of glory in his words, and a depth of passion 
 in his voice that sent the warm blood tingling 
 and dancing through Nancy's veins. For one 
 rebellious moment her heart responded to their 
 appeal with a surging desire. All the wanton- 
 ness of her untamed nature was crying to be 
 free, to follow this freebooter wherever his in- 
 satiable lust for gold might lead him. 
 
 If he had seized her then in his arms, he 
 might have had her for the asking; but he let 
 his moment of opportunity pass him by un- 
 heeded, as every man does with some woman 
 once in a lifetime. And so there slipped from 
 Henry Morgan a greater prize than all 
 the treasures the Spanish Indies held, for 
 Nancy, turning now to Barney, saw in his face 
 hatred and doubt and mistrust. Her ardor 
 cooled. Composure returned to her. She 
 was once more mistress of herself.
 
 MORGAN LOSES A PRIZE 257 
 
 When Barney slunk out of the cabin, and 
 Captain Morgan addressed her once more, he 
 found her shrinking from him as before. 
 While the Irish lad sped down the deck to the 
 forecastle, whispering an excited word to every 
 man he met, and finally, followed by Jim Rim- 
 ble and Pierre, his whiskers bristling, dived 
 down below on some mysterious mission, Cap- 
 tain Morgan returned to the assault of the 
 citadel of her heart, only to find it more 
 strongly fortified than ever, so that in his argu- 
 ments he passed from persuasion to force. 
 
 Eloquence gave way to anger, and failing by 
 less peaceful means to return to that stage of 
 his love-making where he had found himself 
 when interrupted, he adopted, too late, methods 
 to which he was more accustomed, and had just 
 taken Nancy, protesting, in his arms, when the 
 cabin door was burst open and Captain Stilling- 
 fleet was there, a dozen British faces framing 
 the companionway behind him. 
 
 So Henry Morgan released the girl from his 
 embrace, for there was something in God- 
 frey's mien that held his eager attention, even 
 as it held Nancy's, a look that he had never
 
 258 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 seen before in such eyes or upon such firm lips, 
 but that Nancy had seen there in the flash of 
 the lightning on the old Baptiste the night he 
 had held her close against his breast and had 
 kissed her; and she beheld it with different 
 emotions, too, for whereas the buccaneer felt 
 instinctively for his pistols, she as instinctively 
 felt for her handkerchief the Spanish girl's 
 handkerchief. Not having included that arti- 
 cle of toilette in her borrowed plumage, she 
 forbore to weep. 
 
 Captain Morgan also changed his mind. 
 He found the hilt of a pistol with a practised 
 hand, but did not draw, and not solely because 
 of the compelling look in the deep blue eyes of 
 Master Stillingfleet. The faces in the door- 
 way also carried a message that he was quick 
 to read.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET TAKES COMMAND 
 
 "Who, in God's name," said Captain Mor- 
 gan, after a pause, very coolly, and measuring 
 his antagonist at his leisure, taking note of the 
 breadth and the brawn of him, "may you be, 
 and to what do I owe this intrusion?" 
 
 "If you have not heard my name, that is a 
 misfortune you may repair in your own way 
 and in your own time," replied Captain Stil- 
 lingfleet, coldly. "As for what I am doing 
 here, since when has it been an intrusion for 
 the master of a ship to step into his own round- 
 house?" 
 
 "You master here!" exclaimed the pirate 
 with an incredulous sneer. "Nay, but the 
 maid is captain. Her own men did confirm it 
 not long since upon the frigate that was lately 
 blown up under me." 
 
 "Did Mistress Nancy tell you she was cap- 
 tain?" demanded Captain Stillingfleet, still 
 
 259
 
 26o BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 looking at the buccaneer with unblinking eyes. 
 
 "Why, as to that, no; but she did act the 
 part." 
 
 "That is as it may be. But since she did not 
 tell you that she is in command, I will tell you 
 that I am." And with this he smiled at the 
 girl, as if to say, "Now is your opportunity to 
 speak." 
 
 But Nancy, glancing then in vexation at 
 Captain Morgan, bit her lip, and said nothing. 
 Captain Morgan, looking sharply at the men 
 framed against the sky in the cabin door heard 
 him add, "Aye, ask them, an' you will, since 
 you doubt my word." And he turned full upon 
 Jim Rimble such a look as started him splut- 
 tering. 
 
 "Aye, he is our captain," said Jim Rimble 
 huskily, clearing his throat and glaring in his 
 turn at his comrades. " 'Tis a man's work." 
 
 "I can talk with you as well as with another," 
 said Captain Morgan, addressing Master Stil- 
 lingfleet in a more conciliatory tone. "My 
 business is come to quickly. I have urged this 
 lady here to go away with me to Maracaibo, on 
 the Main, where the Spaniards have rich set-
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 261 
 
 tlements, and where we can find gold and silver, 
 as well as huge quantities of dyes and goods 
 withal, and precious gems." 
 
 "Think you we would be such fools as to do 
 your fighting, only to have you in the end gain 
 the lion's share of the spoils ?" demanded Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet, while the men behind him 
 nodded their approval. 
 
 "As for that, I can quiet your alarms," re- 
 plied the pirate briskly, "by offering to you 
 the same terms I have offered to madame." 
 
 "The same terms?" 
 
 "No purchase, no pay the law of the coast 
 you and your men to share equally with my 
 own lieutenants and my own men. The same 
 terms I offered her, save in one particular." 
 
 "And what was the exception?" 
 
 "That she be my wife and share equally 
 with me." 
 
 "That shall never be!" cried Captain Stil- 
 lingfleet, more vehemently than he had yet 
 spoken. 
 
 "So she hath told me herself/' returned the 
 buccaneer dryly. 
 
 "Ah!"
 
 262 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 'The lady it seems, will have naught of me." 
 
 A smile beamed in the eyes of Godfrey Stil- 
 lingfleet. Then they darkened quickly as the 
 pirate added with genuine feeling in his voice. 
 
 "She hath promised herself to another. 
 'Sdeath" he finished savagely, and putting his 
 hand again upon the hilt of his pistol, "per- 
 chance thou art the man." 
 
 "Nay," answered Captain Stillingfleet, while 
 Nancy hung her head and would not look at 
 him. "That is not my good fortune." 
 
 " 'Sblood ! Since we are both in the same 
 boat, it should be easy for us to come to terms. 
 Go away with me on this adventure and you 
 shall fare as I do, forty shares between us, and 
 as for the girl, an' you please, we will let the 
 dice decide that issue between us two." 
 
 Captain Stillingfleet took a step forward. 
 "Get out of my round-house," he said. There 
 was no sound for a long instant but the shuf- 
 fling of the men's feet and the lapping of the 
 tide along the side. Nancy looked up, her 
 eyes smiling, a great contentment in her heart, 
 her mind at rest. 
 
 "You refuse me ?" demanded the buccaneer.
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 263 
 
 "When we go pirating, we go on our own ac- 
 count," replied Godfrey Stillingfleet, "asking 
 favors of none, sharing our booty only among 
 ourselves." 
 
 There was a murmur of approval behind 
 him, and Barney's shrill voice chortling as he 
 capered about the deck outside. 
 
 "As for the girl," added Captain Stilling- 
 fleet, "thougii she be not master here, she is 
 mistress. We are guided not by her com- 
 mands, but by her wishes. If she declines to 
 marry you or have aught to do with your 
 schemes, Captain Morgan, rest assured she will 
 not lack for arms to back up those refusals." 
 
 The satisfaction of the crew of the Snap- 
 dragon, that is to say, of the Englishmen who 
 had escaped from Tortuga, increased at this, 
 and Barney's countenance thrust between Jim 
 Rimble's knotty legs bore a smile so incredibly 
 vast that one would have sworn he did not have 
 a freckle to his name. 
 
 "Aye !" boomed Jim Rimble, rolling his eyes 
 at his mates as he spoke. "She will not lack 
 for arms." 
 
 "Since that is your decision," replied Cap-
 
 264 BEYOND THE .SUNSET 
 
 tain Morgan, making no great effort to hide 
 his chagrin, "mayhap you have powder and 
 ball that you could spare me from your store. 
 I do assure you, the loss of the Oxford just 
 now, with all her ammunition, was a heavy 
 blow." 
 
 "That is another matter, and may be ar- 
 ranged," answered Captain Stillingfleet. "We 
 have seven or eight hundred pigs of lead which 
 we would gladly exchange for salted and 
 smoked meat of hogs and cattle and such other 
 provisions as you may have by you in greater 
 abundance than you need." 
 
 "Call it settled then," agreed the pirate, with 
 an attempt at good humor. "I will send 
 aboard the victuals you stand in need of and 
 my men will fetch away the lead." 
 
 The bargain struck, Captain Morgan called 
 his boat and went off to his own ship anchored 
 further up the cove, in shore, though not with- 
 out a parting bow to Nancy, who sat now de- 
 jectedly at the cabin table, crestfallen at the 
 course events had taken, yet considering her- 
 self fortunate, on the whole, at the successful 
 termination of what had threatened to become
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 265 
 
 an awkward situation for her. Already her 
 mind was busy with the future, searching for 
 some play whereby she would be able to gain 
 once more the upper hand, and not doubting 
 but that she should find one. 
 
 Before Morgan had fairly pushed off Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet, full of large schemes, was 
 busily engaged putting them into execution. 
 He set the men at work, bringing up the pigs 
 of lead, which fortunately were stowed away 
 in the forward hold where they could be got 
 at readily without disturbing or disclosing the 
 Spanish prisoners. And by the time Captain 
 Morgan returned, this time in a longboat full 
 of men, great piles of the metal lay in the 
 scuppers waiting to be taken off. 
 
 Captain Morgan, in thoughtful mood, 
 paced the deck, and seemed much pleased at 
 the sight of so much lead, but whether the brain 
 behind his restless eyes was busy with thoughts 
 of how he should use it against the Dons, or 
 shaped a plot boding ill for Nancy and himself, 
 Captain Stillingfleet, who watched the pirate 
 and his tatterdemalions narrowly, could by no 
 means make out.
 
 266 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 The buccaneer made no move to return to 
 his own ship when the first boat-load of lead 
 went over the side and was pulled off, nor did 
 any of the victuals and provisions he had prom- 
 ised in return make an appearance. Two of 
 his men he dispatched to the island with orders 
 which he whispered to them, and then fell to 
 pacing the deck again moodily, as the Snap- 
 dragon's crew toiled over their task in the broil- 
 ing sun. 
 
 Now and then the pirate turned upon Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet his searching eyes, but there 
 was something in the young fellow's Saxon 
 face that evidently did not wholly please him. 
 For after such scrutinies he would scowl and 
 grind his jaws and turn his attention to the 
 men, as if mentally taking stock of them. And 
 Stillingfleet, quite well aware that the buc- 
 caneer had sailed with some of them in the 
 past, was not easy in his mind. 
 
 Casting an eye ashore, he observed that the 
 buccaneers were flocking down to the beach 
 in large numbers and putting off in small boats. 
 
 Convincing himself of this, he turned from 
 the rail to find Morgan deep in converse with
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 267 
 
 Jim Rimble, and stepping quickly up to them, 
 not liking the look he saw in the sailor's eyes, 
 he heard the pirate captain say something 
 about "Maracaibo," and saw Jim Rimble go 
 off among the men forward. Stillingfleet 
 pulled out a pistol. 
 
 "Hark ye, Captain Morgan," he said. "I 
 am not the man to stand for anybody stirring 
 up mutiny on my ship." And with this he 
 presented his piece at the pirate's head, and 
 cocked it. 
 
 Morgan laughed in his face, the coarse, 
 reckless, self-confident laugh of a strong man 
 who felt sure of his ground. 
 
 "What if I did speak with these men?" he 
 returned. "Will they hold it against me that 
 I offer them a chance for gold?" 
 
 Some of the men nearest them, seeing what 
 was going on, stopped their work, now almost 
 done, for the lead was all on deck, and slouched 
 up. Captain Morgan caught Jim Rimble's 
 eye and smiled at him. 
 
 Jim Rimble grinned back, pulling at his fore- 
 lock and shifting uneasily on his feet. He 
 had chipped off from some of the pigs of lead
 
 268 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 a handful of ragged pieces of metal, and these 
 he jingled nervously in his palms, so that they 
 clinked and rattled musically. 
 
 "Aye, lads," said Morgan, mockingly, 
 "suppose those were pieces-of-eight money, 
 lads, instead of sinkers for Jim Rimble's fish- 
 ing lines. Would you hold that, too, against 
 Henry Morgan?" 
 
 "Have done with this talk, sir," said Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet sternly, and went forward to 
 superintend the removal of the last boat-loads 
 of the lead, Morgan's pirates having come back 
 for the remainder of it. 
 
 He was anxious to get the work over with 
 and clear his ship of these buccaneers. Lean- 
 ing over the side he saw that the pirates had 
 returned, this time heavily armed, and some of 
 them had muskets concealed in their boats. 
 When the last of the lead had been stowed 
 away, instead of shoving off as they had done 
 before, they swarmed back over the side of the 
 vessel and trooped down to the rail of the 
 quarterdeck. 
 
 "Ho for Maracaibo!" shouted Jim Rimble, 
 carried away with enthusiasm, and throwing
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 269 
 
 his bits of metal into the air in his excite- 
 ment. 
 
 "Ho for Maracaibo !" shouted the others in 
 a roaring chorus. 
 
 Emotional fellows, simple as children for all 
 their rogueries, they were swept for the mo- 
 ment off fcheir feet by the glitter of gold in 
 Morgan's glowing words. They looked ques- 
 tioningly at Nancy, who came now from her 
 cabin, followed by Yellow Eyes, who appeared 
 mysteriously from some hiding-place, and the 
 shouts died down as quickly as they had risen. 
 There was a moment of silence, a thick, heavy, 
 ominous silence, the kind of a silence that fills 
 the world the moment before a hurricane 
 strikes, and then the sharp clatter of Jim Rim- 
 ble's fishing sinkers as they fell back upon the 
 deck. 
 
 One of them rolled to where the dumb man 
 stood blinking in the sunlight, his yellow eyes 
 burning like polished gold. His fiery orbs 
 rested for an instant upon the tiny disk that 
 had fallen at his feet. He stooped and picked 
 it up, smelled of it, bit it, threw it up and 
 caught it, and then went leaping about the deck
 
 270 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 like a madman, as if suddenly bereft of his 
 senses. 
 
 With the bit of metal clutched in his fingers 
 he rushed among the men, forcing them to look 
 upon it, pointing to it, making the most horrible 
 grimaces in his hopeless efforts to speak. 
 Catching sight of a long-boat loaded with the 
 lead and made fast at the side, he threw himself 
 into her and groveled among the pigs, covering 
 them with his slobbery kisses, caressing them, 
 endeavoring to carry one in his arms. This 
 being too much for even his great strength, 
 he scrambled back over the bulwarks and ran 
 about again among the men, grunting and 
 groaning. 
 
 "Curse the fellow!" cried Captain Morgan, 
 backing away from him, and all but stumbling 
 overboard in his haste. "He must be 
 possessed of the devil. I would not have him 
 on my ship for all the gold in Peru. Speak, 
 fool, and have done with thy gibberish. 
 What art thou trying to say? The sight of so 
 much lead hath befuddled thee. When I cast 
 it, I shall have a care to make a bullet that will 
 fit thy skull."
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 271 
 
 Yellow Eyes, who had stopped his frenzy 
 to listen to this speech, went fairly beside him- 
 self, his tongueless gullet filled with froth, his 
 great arms moving convulsively. Little Co- 
 chinillo, crossing himself piously, as if he had 
 been a real monk, scurried for the side, shout- 
 ing at the top of his voice : 
 
 "He's a witch! He's a witch!" and dived 
 into the sea. 
 
 The pirates waited for no more. With 
 blanched faces they made a rush for their 
 boats and tumbled into them, shaking and 
 trembling. 
 
 "Come back, you fools!" roared Captain 
 Morgan. "How can a man be a witch?" 
 
 But they paid no heed, and took themselves 
 off to a safe distance. 
 
 Stopping for a moment the dumb man 
 paused as if thinking, then made a rush for the 
 companionway. 
 
 "Don't let him go below, men!" cried Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet impulsively. "He'll turn the 
 prisoners loose or else disclose the treasure to 
 these pirates. Shoot him down !" 
 
 With the snarl of a wild animal, Yellow Eyes
 
 272 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 drew a knife from his shirt and rushed upon 
 the Devon man, who caught his wrist in an 
 iron grip, twisting it until the blade fell to 
 the deck. But if Godfrey was strong, the 
 dumb man in his frenzy was his master, and 
 breaking the hold, he sprang back, and, pick- 
 ing up an ax that lay in the scuppers, he hurled 
 it with all his strength. Captain Stillingfleet 
 dodged, but not quickly enough. The ax 
 struck him a glancing blow in the head and he 
 went down like an ox. 
 
 With a scream of mingled rage and grief, 
 Nancy looked about her for a weapon, tears of 
 fury in her eyes. 
 
 "Give me thy pistol," she demanded of Cap- 
 tain Morgan, who stood apart, a curious light 
 in his eyes. 
 
 "Nay," he replied. "Wait a bit. What 
 was it Master Stillingfleet said just now of 
 prisoners and treasure ? There is more mys- 
 tery here than I had thought on, and the man 
 yonder, for all his dumbness, may give me the 
 clew." 
 
 He raised his hand, that the men in the small 
 boats, still at some distance from the ship,
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 273 
 
 might see him, and gave a long, whistling call. 
 
 "Would you spare the scoundrel who blew 
 up your ship, and see him kill the finest Devon 
 man since Francis Drake?" shouted the girl, 
 fairly beside herself. 
 
 "Blew up the Oxford!" cried Captain Mor- 
 gan. 
 
 "Aye, that he did, I will swear. Canst thou 
 not see it in his evil eyes ? The man was born 
 a devil and does not deserve to live nor shall 
 I spare him now. He hath come at last to his 
 reckoning with me, for the injuries he hath 
 done me since he trepanned me out of France ; 
 for the murder that he did upon the old 
 Baptist e; for the betrayal of us all at Tortuga ; 
 aye, and for killing the man I I love," she 
 finished, turning an agonized face to where 
 young Stillingfleet lay upon the deck. "Here 
 is an account I shall pay home myself, an' 
 no one else will aid me." 
 
 With this the dumb man, in his molten eyes 
 a thousand demons gleaming, suddenly thrust 
 his hand within his shirt, and when it came 
 forth again there was a pistol in it. He raised 
 it to the level of her forehead, and ran his
 
 274 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 burnished eye along the barrel, just as Barney 
 McGiggen and Three-legs came racing down 
 the deck together. 
 
 The lad threw himself in front of the girl as 
 the tongueless one fired. Then he pitched 
 headlong to the deck without a moan, while 
 Nancy, at his back, clasped her breast with 
 both hands and sank beside him, for the same 
 bullet had pierced them both. 
 
 There was the flash of a tawny body, and 
 with a deep-chested roar the three-legged dog 
 for the second time in its short life hurled him- 
 self straight at the throat of Yellow Eyes, and 
 his teeth met in the man's corded neck. Had 
 he been a full-grown dog, he would have killed 
 him, but even so the force of his weight and the 
 snap of those jaws bore the dumb man back- 
 ward, and he went down with a crash, just as 
 Captain Stillingfleet rolled over in the scup- 
 pers and pulled himself to his feet. He took 
 the situation in at a glance, and, observing 
 Captain Morgan leaning over the rail, cursing 
 his men and ordering them to come back, and 
 catching him unawares, suddenly lifted him 
 bodily in his arms and hurled him overboard.
 
 CAPTAIN STILLINGFLEET 275 
 
 "Heave ahead, men in the tops, men upon 
 the yards !" he commanded. "Get the sails to 
 the yards, men, and step lively. Who is at the 
 wheel there?" 
 
 As Pierre took the helm and put it over, he 
 cut the anchor cables with his own hand, and 
 the Snapdragon swung around and drifted 
 down the cove on the tide. Fired by his zeal, 
 and catching the meaning of his hurried or- 
 ders, the men flew to obey. Then Captain 
 Stillingfleet gathered Nancy into his arms. 
 Standing over Yellow Eyes for a moment he 
 said: 
 
 "Now, lads, take the dog off that human 
 devil. We will attend to him later." 
 
 And then he bore the girl into the shade of 
 the round-house where he laid her down again 
 upon the deck, her head in Cherie's lap. 
 
 Bras-de-Mort and Jim Rimble, manning the 
 gun on the poop, trained it upon the pirates 
 and warned them that if they fired with their 
 muskets or tried to come aboard they would 
 sink them. Loaded down as they were with 
 the pigs of lead, they dared not adventure, but 
 picked up Captain Morgan and pulled off for
 
 276 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 their own ships, which presently they boarded 
 and got under way. 
 
 But by that time the Snapdragon, under all 
 the canvas she could carry, was clear of the 
 island, so that the buccaneers, seeing the hope- 
 lessness of the chase, soon gave it over and 
 went about. And they saw them no more. 
 
 "Will she live ?" asked Captain Stillingfleet, 
 on his knees by Nancy. 
 
 Cherie nodded. 
 
 "Thank God! But better dead than that 
 she had fallen a prize to Henry Morgan. And 
 how is the lad?" he added, as Bras-de-Mort and 
 Jim Rimble came up. "I need not ask. And 
 he loved her, too." 
 
 His eyes filled with tears. He left the little 
 group gathered about Nancy and stood by the 
 rail. The wind was fresh outside, with the 
 Caribbean rolling and tumbling beneath it. 
 
 "How's her head, Mr. Helmsman?" he asked 
 presently. 
 
 "South, southeast, sir," replied Pierre, in a 
 voice thick with emotion. 
 
 "Keep her full!" 
 
 "Aye, aye, sir."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 YVONNE 
 
 When Nancy opened her eyes, she was ly- 
 ing on the deck in the shadow of the round- 
 house, her head in Cherie's lap, and the sun 
 was going down in the west and sprinkling 
 with flecks of gold the rippling wake the Snap- 
 dragon left in the blue waters of the Caribbean. 
 She smiled faintly into the tear-dimmed eyes 
 of the Frenchwoman, then closed her own 
 again. 
 
 When next her lids fluttered open, Captain 
 Stillingfleet was bending over her. 
 
 "Where is Barney?" she asked, so softly 
 they barely heard her. These were the first 
 words she had spoken since she had lost con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 Captain Stillingfleet's eyes filled and a lump 
 rose in his throat, so that he could not answer 
 her, but pointed silently to a small object lying 
 stiffly on the quarter-deck, covered by a sail. 
 
 277
 
 278 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Nancy raised herself with an effort, then 
 sank back, moaning. 
 
 "Dead?" she whispered brokenly. 
 
 He nodded yes. 
 
 "Dead! Oh, dear God, for me! For me! 
 He died for me! Oh! Barney boy, come 
 back to me, come back to me, lad, for I am all 
 alone and need you so." A convulsive sob 
 choked her. 
 
 "Hush, dear heart," whispered Cherie. 
 "You, also, are badly hurt. Do not give way 
 to your grief, for 'twill be your death." 
 
 "He died for me," moaned Nancy, "he died 
 for me, just as he said he would. 'Mademoi- 
 selle/ he said to me, there on the island, Cherie, 
 you remember, 'Mademoiselle, I would lay 
 down my life for you.' And now he has kept 
 his word. Oh, Barney, Barney boy, come 
 back, come back to me." Her cry died away 
 in a wail, and she was silent, her bosom heav- 
 ing. Then, faintly: 
 
 "We are under way?" 
 
 "Yes. We got off just in time," answered 
 Captain Stillingfleet. 
 
 "Just in time?"
 
 YVONNE 279 
 
 "Yes; hush, you must not exert yourself." 
 
 "Just in time? Ah, I remember Captain 
 Morgan. His men, I thought, were over- 
 armed when they came aboard the last time. 
 I feared he meant us a mischief." 
 
 "I was sure of it. But we got clean away, 
 what with leaving behind the bow anchors ; and 
 though he gave us chase, we showed him a 
 clean pair of heels, so that he soon gave it over 
 and put back." 
 
 "And you, I suppose," said the girl, after 
 a pause, "have taken command of the ship?" 
 
 " 'Twas a duty,' madame," he answered, "I 
 could no longer neglect." 
 
 She said nothing to this for a long time, 
 lying quietly, with eyes closed, scarcely breath- 
 ing, it seemed to Captain Stillingfleet, who 
 watched her anxiously. Then 
 
 "Whither, sir, if I may ask?" 
 
 "I have laid out no course as yet," he an- 
 swered, avoiding her eyes. "There has not 
 been time. We have but sailed before this fret 
 of wind to give the pirates the slip." 
 
 "And then?" 
 
 "Do not trouble yourself about that, dear
 
 280 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 child. Lie quietly, and let us bind up your 
 hurts." 
 
 "We are to go adventuring, sir, I and my 
 men, to seek gold wherewith to buy their par- 
 dons. I must keep my troth with them." 
 
 She stopped, exhausted, and lay still. 
 Then, in a faint voice : 
 
 "Yellow Eyes ! It all comes back to me now. 
 Where is the dumb man?" she finished with a 
 tremor that shook her whole slender frame. 
 "Where is the tongueless man who killed my 
 Barney?" 
 
 "Hush, Nancy, hush, I beg you," said Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet. "The man with the yellow 
 eyes will trouble you never again. I turned 
 him ofT at the foreyard arm." 
 
 She looked at him dully at first, not compre- 
 hending. And then with a shiver, for all her 
 fever, she twisted herself around and looked 
 upward to where he pointed. 
 
 Silhouetted against the tropic sky the sin- 
 ister body of the dumb man dangled from a 
 spar, swinging gently with the motion of the 
 ship. 
 
 She turned back with a shudder, and weakly
 
 YVONNE 281 
 
 raised her hand to shade her eyes. Presently 
 she asked: 
 
 "You will keep your faith with me, and with 
 the men, Captain Stillingfleet ? Your word 
 upon it?" 
 
 "For your sake, I shall do as the men bid 
 me," he answered. 
 
 "Upon your word?" 
 
 "On my soul." 
 
 "We must have gold," she cried, her voice 
 rising to a wail, her eyes hot with madness. 
 "We must have gold ! Gold, Captain Stilling- 
 fleet, to buy the pardons for all of us. Steer 
 me to an island of gold, do you hear? Get 
 out the charts and find me such a one." 
 
 "Hush, Nancy, you break my heart. I can- 
 not bear to see thee thus in thy extremity. 
 You must rest quietly, for I perceive the fever 
 is coming upon you." 
 
 "Nay, Captain Stillingfleet," she screamed, 
 "I did not think that ye would play me false. 
 You steer for London town !" 
 
 "I thought you had great business there," 
 he answered, "and sickose, I have, and pressing 
 business, too. All would be well if we "
 
 282 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Would you see my brave fellows lashed 
 through the streets from Newgate at the tail 
 of a cart, or hanged on Tyburn Hill?" 
 
 "Nay, Nancy, I" 
 
 "Jim Rimble!" she screamed, as the delirium, 
 she had been righting off, at length over- 
 whelmed her. "Jim Rimble ! Pierre ! Where 
 art' thou and thy twinkling eyes? Ho, lads, 
 tumble up. How's your helm, Mr. Quarter- 
 master ? Put it hard to port. Go below, Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet. No, dear God, that I would 
 not shoot thee, save that I had no other course 
 then would I pistol you with my own hand. 
 Forgive me, sir, but go below. What is this 
 that burns my eyes? Take away the light. 
 Whence comes that cruel glare upon the 
 stern?" 
 
 "Hush, Nancy dear," he said brokenly, " 'tis 
 evening, and the sun is going down." 
 
 "How comes it on the stern? So, Captain 
 Stillingfleet, our bow is pointed east, and thou 
 hast played me for a dupe. Mr. Quarter- 
 master, port your helm and sail beyond the 
 sunset, for I can see it plainly, now, and it is 
 solid gold. Father! Do not look at me so
 
 YVONNE 283 
 
 sadly, I beseech thee. Thou dost not know 
 of all the things that I could tell thee on had 
 I the mind." 
 
 She stopped. Her shrill voice that had 
 brought the men up upon their tiptoes, with 
 tears in their eyes, sank to a whisper. She 
 'lay still, and Godfrey gathered her limp form 
 in his arms and carried her into the cabin, just 
 as Yvonne, the Spanish girl, stepped out upon 
 the deck. 
 
 Stillingfleet laid Nancy upon the captain's 
 bed, and left her there with Cherie, and, when 
 he returned with stores from the medicine 
 chests, s%e was between the sheets and could 
 no longer recognize either of them. 
 
 With such rude surgery as he was master 
 of, he bound up her wound, which was in the 
 side. The pistol ball he could not find, and, 
 although he would not have dared to probe for 
 it, if it had proved otherwise the case, he felt 
 sure that it had passed through her body. In- 
 side her shirt he found a packet of papers, and 
 these he put into his pocket, to save for her, 
 while Cherie washed the blood away, and 
 staunched the flow with herbs and bandages.
 
 284 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 All that night the Frenchwoman sat wide-eyed 
 by the couch, bathing the sick girl's forehead, 
 and moistening her burning lips with water and 
 brandy. 
 
 The moon was master of the tropic sky, and 
 all his court of stars were radiant, when Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet had got his ship in order. 
 
 Then he called the men before the mast, and 
 said a prayer for Barney, before the small 
 body, with round-shot at its feet, slipped over 
 the side. He watched the ripples as they died 
 away, and tears, which he did not try to con- 
 ceal, welled up into his eyes. 
 
 "Farewell, my lad," he whispered, "I will 
 stand guard on her where you left off." 
 
 Then he went to the quarterdeck, trying to 
 solve the many problems which now con- 
 fronted him, nor had he found his answers 
 when day came again. 
 
 From time to time through the night he 
 stole into the cabin and stood by Nancy's bed, 
 but gained little consolation there, for she was 
 out of her head with fever and pain, and so 
 white it clutched his throat to look at her.
 
 YVONNE 285 
 
 Coming out of the cabin after the last of 
 these visits, when the sun was high in the 
 heavens, he found the Spanish girl walking up 
 and down, very fresh and gay in a yellow gown 
 of silk, and with a scarf about her head. Al- 
 though he scarcely heeded her, so busy was he 
 with thoughts of other things, many times that 
 day he found her in his company, and once 
 she joined him on the quarterdeck. 
 
 The days that followed were idle ones, for 
 calm followed calm with such persistency that 
 they could scarce make a league a day, and 
 the men, what with having nothing to do, were 
 growing restive at the weather that balked 
 their desires. 
 
 There was idleness upon the quarterdeck, 
 too, and when the reports from Nancy's sick- 
 bed became more encouraging, and Cherie's 
 face was bright once more with hope, Captain 
 Stillingfleet began to take more interest in 
 Yvonne, who always had for him a smiling 
 mouth and dancing eyes, and such an inex- 
 haustible supply of gowns and finery that never 
 did he see her twice the same.
 
 286 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Standing with her at the rail one day her 
 hand touched his, and as she leaned towards 
 him, smiling into his eyes, he could feel her 
 hair blowing upon his cheek, and the warm 
 breath from her perfumed lips. The ardent 
 look she gave him changed to one of vexation 
 when a sailor, his forelock in his hand, came 
 up and begged the privilege of interrupting 
 them. 
 
 "What now, Jim Rimble?" demanded Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet. 
 
 "Begging your pardon, sir," stammered the 
 buccaneer, "but the men has appointed me to 
 ask if you will step forward a bit, sir." 
 
 "What do they want?" 
 
 "A favor, sir, to ask you, and a little dis- 
 cussion of what we are to do next, seeing that 
 in this ca'm there's plenty of time to think 
 things over." 
 
 "Well, then, another time will do," said 
 Captain Stillingfleet. i 
 
 "Asking your pardon, sir, but the men is 
 anxious to see you now. What they want 
 won't keep." 
 
 A refusal of this request was on his tongue,
 
 YVONNE 287 
 
 but thinking the better of it, he nodded an 
 assent. 
 
 "I must quit you for a moment," he said, 
 turning to the girl, who made no great effort 
 to hide her chagrin. And with a bow he left 
 her and walked to the rail of the quarterdeck, 
 where the men had gathered in a body, gloom 
 and frowns upon their faces. 
 
 "What is it, men?" he asked. 
 
 There was a shuffling of feet. They looked 
 then at each other in considerable perplexity, 
 but no one spoke. 
 
 "Art thou tongue-tied?" 
 
 "Well," said Trueheart Jackson, stepping 
 forward, "we want to know how we stand, 
 sir." 
 
 "Stand!" repeated Captain Stillingfleet. 
 "What mean ye by that?" 
 
 "Are we going adventuring, or what? 
 That's what we want to know." 
 
 "Aye," boomed Jim Rimble, "that's what 
 we want to know." 
 
 "Do you blame me because there is no 
 wind?" 
 
 "The weather's about to change, sir," said
 
 288 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Trueheart Jackson again, "and there'll be a 
 breeze afore morning. Now, the question is, 
 where are we going then?" 
 
 "I am the captain here," said Stillingfleet 
 impatiently. "You can leave that to me." 
 
 "Aye, we could, and would, if you were on 
 the quarterdeck of a man-o'-war, but you're 
 on a craft that's ours, that we took, eh, mates ?" 
 
 "Right you are, Trueheart Jackson," 
 boomed Jim Rimble, "and we will back you 
 up in that." 
 
 "Hark ye, men," said Godfrey bluntly, "I'll 
 have no mutiny on this ship so long as I am 
 captain here. Mind that !" 
 
 "There ain't going to be no mutiny yet," 
 said Jackson, while the men shuffled their feet 
 uneasily. "But agreements is agreements, and 
 we want ours kept." 
 
 "What agreement?" demanded Captain 
 Stillingfleet, studying the weather-stained 
 faces before him, but without letting the men 
 see what was passing in his own mind. 
 
 "What we wants to know is, where do we 
 maroon these Dons?" 
 
 "Aye," chimed in Jim Rimble, slapping
 
 YVONNE 289 
 
 Pierre upon the back so hard that the French- 
 man's little eyes threatened to twinkle them- 
 selves right out of his face, "where do we set 
 'em ashore, that's what we wants to know 
 
 now." 
 
 "If you haven't made up your mind," said 
 Jackson, taking a step closer to the rail, "we 
 thought we'd tell you that the coast of Domingo 
 suits us well enough. The main thing is to get 
 rid of these Dons. It ain't right to keep 'em 
 down below like this, and it ain't 'healthy for 
 us, neither. And what's more, we don't want 
 'em breaking out and getting us all bloody 
 again. So it'll be Domingo, to-morrow, un- 
 less you know another place." 
 
 "That's talking, Trueheart Jackson," said 
 Jim Rimble. "You speak wisdom, and we are 
 with you, eh, mates?" 
 
 There was a chorus of assent. 
 
 "There is no danger of the Spaniards taking 
 the ship," said Captain Stillingfleet, "so I tell 
 you to let your minds rest on that score. They 
 have not the strength." 
 
 "Aye, they have not the strength, but what 
 they cannot do by force they may do by
 
 290 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 strategy, and that would be the same for us." 
 
 "A petticoat might easy unfasten them 
 hatches, I'm thinking," said Jim Rimble, after 
 a pause, "and that's what I'm worrit about 
 me and my mates." 
 
 Captain Stillingfleet's face darkened, for 
 Jim Rimble's sally had been greeted by a roar 
 of laughter, and the men jerked and nodded 
 their heads aft, where Yvonne still stood by the 
 rail, waiting. 
 
 "I am a Frenchman," said Bras-de-Mort, 
 stepping into the center of the group. "I 
 know women. This Spanish girl will have you 
 wound around her finger in another week, and 
 we'll wake up some morning in irons." 
 
 "Do you think that I would betray my own 
 countrymen?" cried Captain Stillingfleet, his 
 face suddenly full of blood. 
 
 "There ain't no telling what a man wouldn't 
 betray for a pretty gal," said Jim Rimble, in a 
 tone of deep conviction "even another gal. 
 I had a man once that I'd bunked with for nigh 
 onto sixteen year try to stick a knife in my 
 ribs, and all on account of a wench that liked 
 me better than she did him."
 
 YVONNE 291 
 
 "We're fair uneasy, sir," admitted True- 
 heart Jackson, "and no offense to you, but this 
 we want settled. Are you with us?" 
 
 "You're talking nonsense, men," said Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet. "But here comes a capful of 
 wind. Get to your stations, and I will speak 
 more at large with you on this at another time. 
 Mr. Quartermaster, mind your helm," and with 
 this he turned on his heel, and left them. 
 
 The Spanish captain, who had the freedom 
 of the deck, was waiting for him in the cabin 
 that had been set aside for him and his daugh- 
 ter, and, inviting him in, closed the door, and 
 said to him very frankly : 
 
 "Captain Stillingfleet, the time has come for 
 simple phrases between us. I see that your 
 heart is not in this enterprise that has resulted 
 in my ship being temporarily taken from me. 
 Let us have done with indecision, and talk as 
 men who understand each other." 
 
 Captain Stillingfleet looked at him, but said 
 nothing. 
 
 "I know," said Don Luis, "who you are, and 
 how you stand at court. We serve his Majesty 
 together, and have here an opportunity to show
 
 292 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 our loyalty. Say the word and let my men 
 on deck, to-night, when these pirate scum have 
 gone to sleep in their liquor, and we can take 
 the ship and sail for England." 
 
 The door had opened as he was speaking, 
 and turning, Godfrey found the Spanish girl 
 at his side, such a smile upon her face as was 
 like to turn his head. 
 
 "I heard what my father proposed. just now," 
 she said, springing lightly to the table in front 
 of him, and sitting there, regarding him with 
 dark eyes full of invitation, her right knee 
 drawn up and held in her clasped hands, her 
 red lips close to his. "Shall I ask you, too?" 
 
 "I know that your business in England is 
 urgent," said Don Luis, after a pause, "for 
 you have mentioned it to me. And the king 
 has confidence in you." 
 
 "What a wonderful voyage home it would 
 be, Captain Stillingfleet!" smiled Yvonne, 
 flashing at him another look whose meaning he 
 was not slow to read. 
 
 "It is true," said Captain Stillingfleet, "that 
 I must go to England. While I remain here,
 
 YVONNE 293 
 
 his Majesty's very life may be in danger for 
 want of news that I could take to him." 
 
 "There is no other way, save the one I have 
 mentioned," said Don Luis, a smile of satis- 
 faction lighting up his dark face. 
 
 "There must be another way. I cannot take 
 that one." 
 
 "Not even for your king?" 
 
 "Nor even for me?" asked Yvonne, placing 
 her hand upon his arm. 
 
 "I cannot. I have passed my word." 
 
 The girl's face darkened, and her lip curled. 
 
 "The men have trusted me." 
 
 "The men !" she was smiling again. 
 
 "Poof! They are pirates, the riff-raff of 
 society!" exclaimed Don Luis. 
 
 "To me they are Englishmen," replied Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet, simply. "I must find another 
 way." 
 
 There was a knock at the door, and opening 
 it, Captain Stillingfleet looked at Cherie with 
 sudden alarm springing to his heart. 
 
 "She is worse?" he asked. 
 
 "Better," answered the Frenchwoman. "I
 
 294 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 thought you would want to know that she has 
 passed the crisis of her fever." 
 
 "Thank God !" said Godfrey quietly, stepped 
 out of the cabin, and went to her, leaving Don 
 Luis staring into his daughter's face with a 
 look that would have pleased Jim Rimble 
 hugely. 
 
 Nancy was sleeping quietly, and he stood 
 there for a long time smiling down at her. 
 Presently he looked for his handkerchief, and 
 found in his pocket in its place a sheaf of 
 papers, which he took out and stared at curi- 
 ously. They were the packet he had taken 
 from her bosom, and when he recalled the in- 
 cident, until now forgotten, he would have put 
 them back; but they unrolled in his hand, and 
 his eye fell upon some writing on the parch- 
 ment that made him whistle with astonishment. 
 
 He stepped on deck quickly, and sang out an 
 order that brought the ship about. Then he 
 went down to the rail of the quarterdeck again, 
 and sent for the men, who came tumbling up, 
 their faces now wreathed in smiles at the 
 changing of the course, the significance of 
 which was not lost upon them.
 
 YVONNE 295 
 
 "Well, men," he said, when they had all 
 come up, "and after Domingo what?" 
 
 "Well, as for that, sir, what say you?" 
 grinned Trueheart Jackson, while Jim Rimble 
 capered with delight. 
 
 "I say Merry England, lads," replied Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet. 
 
 There was a sullen growl at this. 
 
 "Nay, men, hear me through. I have some- 
 thing for you here better than riches."
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 
 
 "How comes it, Captain Stillingfleet," Nancy 
 asked him one day, when they were well past 
 the Azores, and she sat on deck, wrapped in a 
 shawl, with Three-legs at her feet, "that I see 
 aboard no signs of the Spanish prisoners? I 
 had not thought on them before. Where are 
 they Don Luis and his daughter?" 
 
 'Tut ashore, as was the original agree- 
 ment," answered Captain Stillingfleet .so in- 
 differently that she studied his face with some- 
 thing more like peace in her soul than she had 
 known for weeks. 
 
 "On some island?" 
 
 "On the main of Hispaniola. After Yellow 
 Eyes after the dumb man had gone, we put 
 in and set them ashore, and left them with 
 water and victuals sufficient for their needs." 
 
 "So," she thought, her being bathed in a 
 296
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 297 
 
 great contentment, "he does not love her, after 
 all." 
 
 Then, after musing a while, she added, 
 aloud : 
 
 "I thank you, Captain Stillingfleet, for fol- 
 lowing my wishes when you took command." 
 
 He looked a little sheepish at this, and then, 
 with a wry smile, said: 
 
 "By St. Bride ! I had no choice in the mat- 
 ter." 
 
 "No choice? I do not understand." 
 
 "The men. I would have had a mutiny on 
 my hands." 
 
 "Oh!" 
 
 "They said the agreement had been reached 
 to maroon the Spaniards, Don Luis and all, 
 and that did I not choose to do it, they would 
 seize the ship, which assuredly they would have 
 done, as they did threaten." 
 
 "So," thought Nancy, "it was not from in- 
 difference, then, that he left this Spanish girl," 
 and fell into serious mood once more, until Jim 
 Rimble came rolling up and held out a bit of a 
 trinket on a string with a gesture of such hon- 
 est devotion that her heart was touched.
 
 298 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "A keepsake from old Jim, miss captain, 
 I mean, asking your pardon," he stammered 
 huskily. "One of them there sinkers o' mine 
 that set off Yellow Eyes in such a fit and started 
 all the trouble. I hammered it out round like, 
 and put my mark on it, ma'am, a cross-bones 
 and skull, and run a string through it. I 
 thought on how you might wear it, miss cap- 
 tain, I mean, as was, for Jim Rimble's sake, to 
 remember him by, miss captain, I mean." 
 
 "Why, that I truly will, Jim Rimble," 
 laughed Nancy, grasping his hand. "I shall 
 wear it for you, and in memory of the profes- 
 sion I entered but did not practise. But for 
 the high-handed proceeding of Captain Stil- 
 lingfleet in running off with our ship, I should 
 have been a pirate like " 
 
 She stopped suddenly, and fell to musing. 
 Presently she asked : 
 
 "Master Stillingfleet, how comes it these 
 fellows return so willingly with you to Eng- 
 land?" 
 
 Captain Stillingfleet chuckled. 
 
 "Why, niadame," said he, "you yourself pro- 
 vided a scheme whereby they could all go back,
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 299 
 
 and I told them of it; and hugely pleased they 
 were, indeed." 
 
 "I provided a scheme? I know of none." 
 
 "Aye." 
 
 He pulled from his coat a packet of papers, 
 and in a flash she recognized them. 
 
 "Why," said she, starting up excitedly, "I 
 have seen those before." 
 
 "As I have surmised." 
 
 "I found them in the bosom of your shirt," 
 he said, while Nancy hung her head, "when 
 you were wounded, and kept them for you. 
 And I concluded that you had brought them off 
 with you from the Oxjord, when she was 
 blown up." 
 
 "And so I did, to be sure. Captain Collier 
 passed them to me a moment or two before 
 the explosion which killed him took place. I 
 remembered no more until I found myself hi 
 the sea." 
 
 "You must have thrust them within your 
 shirt to save them, and so come off with them 
 safely." 
 
 " Tis possible." 
 
 " 'Tis likely."
 
 300 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 " 'Tis lucky, too. Those papers contain par- 
 dons for such as Captain Collier might wish to 
 favor, for so he told me." 
 
 "Aye, that is true," said Captain Stillingfleet. 
 "Pardons in blank; leastways they were in 
 blank." 
 
 "Were?" 
 
 "See, I have filled them out in the names of 
 those among us who need them." 
 
 "And generous of you, I call it, too, to think 
 of them and try to aid them," she said. 
 "Sometimes, Master Stillingfleet, I have 
 thought you did not have a heart. And it was 
 clever of you to think of it, too." 
 
 "Necessity sharpened my wits." 
 
 "How so?" 
 
 "The men fell to grumbling before the mast. 
 They feared we did not have enough treasure 
 to buy pardons for all, and were hot for seek- 
 ing more. In desperation, I thought of this 
 scheme, and so wrote their names down upon 
 the pardons. This satisfied them, and so they 
 go back to England willingly enough." 
 
 "Can they return in safety?" 
 
 "Aye, under the king's name they can walk
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 301 
 
 the streets of London free men, and none may 
 touch them." 
 
 "And with gold in their pockets?" 
 
 "That is as may be," he answered. 
 
 But this did not disturb her, for, thought 
 she, if there was to be war with Spain again 
 below the tropic, she and her men could profit 
 from it as well as any. Presently she added: 
 
 "Let me take the papers, Captain Stilling- 
 fleet. I would examine them, for they have set 
 my mind at rest upon a subject that hath been 
 causing me great perplexity." 
 
 They were walking now into the round- 
 house, where Nancy, seizing a quill, while 
 Captain Stillingfleet stepped out for a moment 
 to issue some order, contrived to scribble some- 
 thing upon them which he, upon taking the 
 packet from her and returning it to his pocket, 
 failed to observe. 
 
 What to do with the black man, the one who 
 had assisted the Fleming in their escape from 
 d'Ogeron at Tortuga, also gave her great con- 
 cern, for that she had promised to transport 
 him back to Guinea she by no means forgot ; but 
 the negro, a very intelligent and honest fellow,
 
 302 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 set her mind at rest upon this score. Coming 
 up to her one day, when they had passed the 
 fishing fleets in the Channel, and were in sight 
 of the white cliffs of Dover, he besought her, 
 with so many manifestations of devotion that 
 she was touched, to take him into her service 
 and let him abide with her in England, that 
 she consented. 
 
 "But how comes it, Kololo," for so he called 
 himself, "that you would rather go into Eng- 
 land with me than return to your own coun- 
 try?" she asked. 
 
 "Me no find my country any more," he an- 
 swered. "My country move all about," from 
 which she understood that the tribe to which 
 he belonged had no fixed abode, but was 
 nomadic. 
 
 "But haven't you a wife in your country, 
 Kololo?" she insisted. 
 
 "Me have wife long time no have wife 
 now," he returned, rolling the whites of his 
 eyes at her so ludicrously that she could not 
 forbear to smile. "Some mans have Kololo's 
 wife now. Kololo get plenty more wif es, one, 
 two, three, maybe. Kololo rich now."
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 303 
 
 By this he referred to the fact that he had 
 been awarded his share of the spoils, as one 
 of the men before the mast, and, indeed, he 
 had proved himself a natural sailor and very 
 nimble in going aloft, even in the roughest 
 weather. Nancy tried to explain to him that 
 people in England had but one wife, but he 
 either would not, or could not, understand this. 
 So she gave it over and consented to take him 
 into her service, at which he seemed hugely de- 
 lighted. 
 
 They arrived at length in the Thames on an 
 April afternoon, and came to anchor at Lon- 
 don. 
 
 Then such a stir was created as had not been 
 known in England since good Queen Bess had 
 gone aboard the Golden Hind to brave the 
 wrath of Spain and make of Francis Drake a 
 knight, for word of the treasure stowed away 
 in the hold of the Snapdragon spread through 
 all the ale-houses and taverns where the men 
 rushed so soon as they could contrive to leave 
 the ship, until the story of the Devon girl who 
 had rescued thirty Englishmen from the 
 French in the Indies was the talk of the town,
 
 304 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 and John Evelyn himself went down, with some 
 of the gentlemen of the Admiralty, to see the 
 British ship they had retaken from the Span- 
 iards, and verify the tales of gold that had 
 reached even the king, and greatly astonished 
 were they to find in command Godfrey Stilling- 
 fleet, who had long been given over for dead. 
 
 Nothing would do but Mr. Evelyn must 
 fetch them straight away to Whitehall, al- 
 though Nancy would rather far have gone to 
 her cousin Mountf ord's house, as well to learn 
 news of her father and her old friend Colonel 
 Sidney, as to deliver their message to her kins- 
 man, the importance of which, she feared, had 
 been destroyed by her long absence in the trop- 
 ics, making the news she bore stale. But they 
 would not hear of this, and so carried her off 
 with them in a coach, waiting only to put the 
 Snapdragon under the protection of the cus- 
 toms officers. 
 
 Charles Stuart was not the man to be un- 
 moved by so stirring a tale of adventure, and as 
 Captain Stillingfleet described how Nancy had 
 come to him and the English pirates in the
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 305 
 
 night, in the French governor's castle on the 
 cliffs of Tortuga, and had called to them in the 
 darkness a message of freedom, the sparkle 
 in his eyes grew more bright and his face 
 beamed. 
 
 " Tis a pity, Mr. Evelyn," said he, "that we 
 have not such tarpaulins in the fleet as these 
 men who have been fighting our battles below 
 the tropic, else would we have had greater suc- 
 cess lately against the Dutch and the Turk. 
 Yet, methinks your favorite theory as to the 
 value of discipline receives a rude blow from 
 this account." 
 
 "Nay, sire," replied Mr. Evelyn, whose keen 
 interest in the welfare of his Majesty's navy 
 had made him an authority on all such mat- 
 ters at court, "but does not the fact that it 
 was Master Stillingfleet who took command 
 at a critical juncture, and so brought them off 
 safely with all their booty from that fellow 
 Morgan who must be a very devil of a cap- 
 tain, an' I misjudge him not, and will be heard 
 from one day to the credit and glory of our 
 arms does not the fact that Captain Stilling-
 
 306 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 fleet, as a gentleman of the fleet, had been 
 trained to command, but prove the soundness 
 of my contention?" 
 
 "It doth seem to me that Captain Stilling- 
 fleet did but conduct himself indifferently well, 
 since he assumed command of the what is 
 the name, it doth please me hugely, ah the 
 Snapdragon, only when the maid had been 
 put out of the combat, as it were," returned 
 the king dryly. 
 
 Nancy, accompanied by Godfrey Stillingfleet 
 and the gentlemen of the Admiralty, had ar- 
 rived at Whitehall to find there the usual gay 
 and dissolute assemblage. In the gallery a 
 great crowd of lords and ladies were at cards 
 or dice, and Nancy had grown suddenly timid 
 as she beheld so many of the women whom 
 she had been taught to regard as creatures of 
 vice and shame, regarding her with ill-con- 
 cealed astonishment written on their painted 
 cheeks and lifted eyebrows as she was hurried 
 through one of the long corridors towards the 
 king's private apartment. 
 
 Charles, toying with a spaniel, was seated 
 at a table looking at a collection of medallions
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 307 
 
 which a goldsmith had spread out before him 
 for his inspection, and his Majesty's interest 
 had been divided at first between the trinkets 
 and the story which Captain Stillingfleet, at 
 the request of Mr. Evelyn, had begun to tell. 
 
 But as he progressed, the king's attention 
 was more and more attracted to the slender girl 
 who stood shrinkingly in the shadow of a mag- 
 nificent cabinet, until now he regarded her with 
 such frank admiration that Nancy, feeling 
 upon her those dark eyes which were never so 
 agreeably occupied as in the inspection of a 
 beautiful woman, suddenly felt herself grow 
 shy and her cheeks to burn. 
 
 "And how much treasure have you brought 
 off with you?" he demanded suddenly, when he 
 had surveyed her critically at his leisure from 
 beneath his heavy eyelids. 
 
 "We estimate it at 300,000 crowns, my 
 liege," replied Nancy, "but I do not know what 
 the sum will prove to be exactly, until it hatb 
 been appraised." 
 
 "A goodly fortune," commented his Majesty. 
 
 "And would have been larger, but for the 
 lead which we did practically give away to
 
 308 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 Captain Morgan, a vast quantity of it, sire, 
 which he did agree to take in trade for pro- 
 visions and other goods, yet cheated us in at 
 the last." 
 
 " 'Tis ample, what you have," returned 
 Charles with a grimace. "Would to God it 
 were mine," he added petulantly, "and I war- 
 rant I should quickly be rid of this beggarly 
 Parliament that doth trouble me sorely. Nay, 
 Sir Godfrey," he smiled quickly, raising his 
 delicate fingers, while Captain Stillingfleet, 
 
 
 
 overcome by the knighthood that had been so 
 nonchalantly conferred upon him, dropped to 
 his knee and kissed his sovereign's hand, "take 
 me not seriously. I do but jest, nor offer me 
 a share in this treasure, for I will take the 
 will for the deed. 
 
 "As for my friend, Don Luis, I can see him 
 now, up to his neck in the jungle, beset by 
 mosquitoes and crocodiles, and what other 
 vermin there be in those parts. Nathless, an' 
 he could not take care of his own, I shall not 
 worry my head about his plight, for he did ever 
 love me best when my purse was fullest, and 
 hath bled me white for the scantv service he
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 309 
 
 0tt 
 
 did ever render me nor am I sure he did not 
 come by this English ship by foul means and 
 treachery. And since he is not here to claim 
 the lands in Devonshire I had reserved for 
 him, I dare say I can do no better than by con- 
 ferring them upon you. 
 
 "But, believe me," he added, turning to 
 Nancy, "I reward him thus only that through 
 him I may serve you, who have brought such 
 honor to our arms and stimulated our fleet 
 which doth sadly need such inspiration." 
 
 With this, the king suddenly took one of 
 Nancy's hands within his own, and placed it 
 in Sir Godfrey's mighty fist, whereat both of 
 them reddened so furiously that the king ex- 
 claimed with mock rapture he had never seen 
 the like in Whitehall, and did believe a similar 
 thing had never happened before within those 
 walls, for that they were the first blushes he 
 had observed there. 
 
 "Nay, my liege," stammered Captain Stil- 
 lingfleet, "since she alone is deserving of your 
 Majesty's favors, as most cheerfully and gladly 
 do I admit, I pray you, confer these estates 
 upon her alone."
 
 310 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "What!" cried Charles, leaning back in his 
 chair, a look of astonishment upon his hand- 
 some face. "Do you then decline the lady's 
 hand? By God's light! The incident is 
 unique. Never before has it happened nor 
 would I have believed it could !" 
 
 "Sire, 'tis through no fault of my own the 
 lady is promised to another." 
 
 "Thou art a simpleton, sir. I should make 
 thee Duke of Numskull ! Will you tell me to 
 my face that Charles Stuart knows naught of 
 women? This lass hath felt thy lips and is 
 afire to feel them again. And now, be off with 
 you, and, when you go upon your honeymoon, 
 you might easily combine business with pleas- 
 ure by spending it in Paris, where I have other 
 business of the kind that took you there be- 
 fore that awaits your attention." 
 
 "Nay, my liege," burst forth Nancy, "but 
 there is no need now for that." 
 
 The king regarded her with amazement, 
 looking in great perplexity from her to Cap- 
 tain Stillingfleet, and then back to her again. 
 At last he said: 
 
 "What know you of this affair?"
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 311 
 
 She hung her head and was silent. 
 
 "This boy hath been babbling, I'll be bound. 
 What say you now, Mr. Evelyn, of the value 
 of discipline?" 
 
 " Twas nothing much that he said, sire," 
 said Nancy softly. " 'Twas only a careless 
 word dropped, and would have meant nothing 
 to another. But, my liege, I am John Chilling- 
 worth's daughter." 
 
 The king in his excitement sprang to his feet 
 and stood looking down at her. 
 
 "Daughter of John Chillingworth !" he ex- 
 claimed. "Daughter to that arch-traitor !" 
 
 He fell into a reverie, then threw back his 
 head and laughed that singularly winning 
 Stuart laugh. 
 
 "Odsfish ! Solomon was right ! Why, here 
 I have gone and conferred upon John Chilling- 
 worth's daughter's husband that is to be, the 
 estates which he hath forfeited for his trea- 
 son." 
 
 "But, sire," said Godfrey Stillingfleet, blush- 
 ing furiously and clasping and unclasping his 
 hands nervously, "I fear your Majesty did not 
 understand that I cannot accept this gracious
 
 312 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 gift for reasons for reasons that make it im- 
 possible the lady, sire, is promised to " 
 
 "As for you, sir!" interrupted the king, as 
 if he had not heard him. "Upon my soul, for 
 a secret mission I would rather trust this cun- 
 ning maid here than any young blood in 
 Christendom." 
 
 Nancy smiled, for the words carried her 
 straight back to the little lodging over the 
 pastry-cook's shop in Lille, and those that Gen- 
 eral Sidney had spoken to her father. 
 
 "Well, sir," the king was saying, "since I 
 have made over Chillingworth's estates to his 
 daughter, through you, we will have done with 
 this traitor quest, so leave him be in peace, un- 
 til such time as he shall come to England with 
 his plots and cursed conspiracies." 
 
 "Nay, my liege," returned Nancy, making 
 him a courtesy, "but he can return to England 
 as safely as any man, and Algernon Sidney, 
 too, since they have the protection of the king's 
 pardon." 
 
 "Pardon!" cried his Majesty. "I know 
 naught of a pardon for either of these regi- 
 cides."
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 313 
 
 "Aye," said Nancy, smiling frankly and un- 
 abashed into his eyes, so that he was as struck 
 with the freshness and innocence of her youth 
 as with her girlish beauty, "aye, for both of 
 them, sire." 
 
 With this she suddenly drew from Godfrey's 
 pocket the packet of papers she had first taken 
 from the hand of Captain Collier on the Ox- 
 ford, and extending them toward the king, 
 cried: 
 
 "See, your Majesty the royal seal !" 
 
 "What means this?" demanded the king, 
 turning the papers over in his hand and ad- 
 dressing himself to Captain Stillingfleet. 
 
 "These, sire, be the pardons which were fur- 
 nished to Captain Collier for such of those 
 English derelicts in the Indies who, needing 
 them, might gain them for some exploit in the 
 service of your Majesty's government. When 
 Captain Collier was killed in the explosion, as 
 I described to you, the papers came into our 
 possession, and having among us many worthy 
 fellows, your devoted subjects, who could not 
 otherwise come back to Old England, to the 
 glory and credit of your kingdom, I made bold,
 
 314 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 sire, knowing full well the purposes for which 
 they had been issued, to use them as you your- 
 self had intended." 
 
 "Of that I have no complaint to make," re- 
 plied Charles. "But since the rebels Chilling- 
 worth and Sidney were not among you, how 
 their names appear here above my seal, I can- 
 not make out." 
 
 "Yet 'tis very simple, my liege," said Nancy. 
 
 "Simple!" fretted the king. 
 
 "Aye, my liege I wrote them there my- 
 self." Saying which, she assisted the king in 
 unfolding the papers, and pointing to the list 
 of names upon the pardon indicated those of 
 Sidney and Chillingworth among the rest. 
 
 "Am I ever to be thwarted?" cried the king. 
 Then the smile came back again to his dark 
 face. "Nathless, and I have put my name 
 upon it, there it shall stand," he said. "So 
 worry not, my child, and send for thy father 
 and his friend when thou wilt, and so they com- 
 port themselves as my faithful and devoted 
 subjects in the future they will hear naught of 
 me again." 
 
 He turned to go, the interview at an end,
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 315 
 
 when his eye caught a glimpse of Jim Rimble's 
 keepsake hung by its string about the girl's 
 neck, and spreading it upon his palm: 
 
 "Odsfish! Mr. Isaacs," said he, "here is 
 a medallion more curious than any in your 
 collection. See, the cross-bones and skull. 
 Some pirate's masterpiece, no doubt." 
 
 "Right willingly would I present it to you, 
 my liege," said Nancy, "were it not for the 
 fact that it is a keepsake, given to me by Jim 
 Rimble, the sailor I did tell you of, who hath 
 exacted a promise from me to wear it in his 
 remembrance." 
 
 "I recall him the singing fisherman," 
 laughed the king. 
 
 "Aye, that is the one," replied Nancy. 
 "And this was one of his angling sinkers, fash- 
 ioned rudely into the shape you see it. 'Tis 
 without value, being but a bit of lead a chip 
 from one of the pigs that Master Stilling- 
 fleet did sell to Captain Morgan for cannon 
 balls. Yet would I wear it for him." 
 
 "Lead, say you !" exclaimed Mr. Isaacs, the 
 goldsmith, who had taken Jim Rimble's keep- 
 sake into his hand and had been examining it.
 
 316 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "Nay, Mistress Chillingworth, say not so 
 'tis solid silver, ma'am!" 
 
 As they all stood then, looking into one an- 
 other's faces, the sound of laughter and music 
 came faintly floating to them from the merry- 
 makers in the gallery. Mr. Evelyn was the 
 first to break the silence. 
 
 "And you say," said he, "that this piece was 
 chipped from one of the pigs of lead sold to 
 Captain Morgan at the pirates' island?" 
 
 Nancy, inarticulate, nodded in assent. 
 
 "Sold, and never paid for in any way so- 
 ever," finished Captain Stillingfleet. "We 
 didn't get a ham !" 
 
 The king snorted, a genuine plebeian snort, 
 and turned upon young Stillingfleet a pitying 
 glance. 
 
 "And how many hams and shoulders would 
 have recompensed you for this loss, think you ? 
 I warrant you 'twould take the fleets of Eng- 
 land to fetch them home, unless you have as 
 poor a head for commerce as you have for 
 love." 
 
 "And were all the pigs of lead the same?" 
 asked Mr. Isaacs.
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 317 
 
 "They were all alike," replied the girl. 
 
 "How many of them, did you say?" 
 
 "A huge number, seven hundred and eighty 
 in all." 
 
 Mr. Evelyn took from his pocket a small 
 notebook and crayon, and figuring for a mo- 
 ment: 
 
 "My liege," he said, turning to the king, "in 
 all probability Captain Henry Morgan is bom- 
 barding Maracaibo at this moment with silver 
 cannon balls worth upward of 200,000 pounds. 
 An' he take the place, 'twill be the most costly 
 victory ever your Majesty won." 
 
 Charles regarded Master Stillingfleet with 
 such a look, at this, that the poor fellow stood 
 twisting his hat in his hands. 
 
 "I did not know," he stammered. 
 
 "Assuredly not, nor had you any way to 
 learn," said the king, "since you needs must 
 hang the only one among you with enough rum- 
 gumption to see a fortune when it lay before 
 your eyes." 
 
 "I I do not understand, sire," said God- 
 frey. "I hanged no one save Yellow Eyes, 
 the tongueless man, who "
 
 318 BEYOND THE SUNSET 
 
 "And who else had an ounce of sense in all 
 that tattered crew ?" said Charles. 
 
 "The dumb man!" 
 
 ' 'Sdeath! He might have made thee rich, 
 and for reward you let him dangle from a 
 spar." 
 
 "Nay, your Majesty," said Captain Stilling- 
 fleet with spirit, "I turned him off for all the 
 crimes he did commit against this lady here, 
 and had he told me then, when he had shot 
 her down, where I might find a city paved with 
 gold, nathless I would have hanged him still." 
 
 "I had not suspected thee of such an inter- 
 est in the wench," smiled Charles, taking 
 Nancy's hand. "Is there naught else I can do 
 for you, my child?" he asked. 
 
 "Well, yes, your Majesty," replied Mistress 
 Chillingworth, feeling for Godfrey's hand, and 
 taking it in her own, "you might give us your 
 blessing." 
 
 "But I thought you were promised to an- 
 other," smiled Charles, a twinkle in his eye. 
 
 "Not to another, my liege," answered the 
 girl, "but to this one, as you did guess, and I
 
 JIM RIMBLE'S KEEPSAKE 319 
 
 did see just now in his eyes a light that makes 
 me bold to speak." 
 
 Captain Stillingfleet threw his shoulders 
 back with a gasp, and she felt her fingers 
 crushed in his great palm. 
 
 "Bless you both," laughed the king. "You 
 need a guardian, you two, and I will serve as 
 well as any other you could find. My boy, 
 when you bring Lady Stillingfleet back to Lon- 
 don, do not forget us at Whitehall." 
 
 He turned, and left them looking into each 
 other's eyes. 
 
 THE END
 
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