e has grace enough!"

Milo stayed only to get his flare-powder and tinder-box, then
disappeared down the cliff.

Dolores despatched her four attendants to the schooner, prepared to
follow, then, with an afterthought, halted two of them.

"Here, Hanglip, Spotted Dog, wait!" She swiftly entered the council
hall, went to the three small chambers, and released her captives from
the ring-bolts. Driving them before her, bewildered by the sudden
emergence from tranquillity to the turmoil of the storm, she gave the
two pirates each a chain, held the other herself, and led the way down
to the stranded schooner. Her motive was not only uncertainty about the
people left at the camp, who might prove susceptible to bribery if not
pity; she also felt a sort of whimsical desire to impress these
strangers with the utter inevitability of her power.

The Feu Follette lay on the edge of the bar, as she had lain since
stranding, except that with tide after tide her keel had worn itself a
place in the sand, and she was less closely held than before. Of her
rightful crew but five survived the fight; one was the sailing-master,
Peters, and all were imprisoned under jailers in the forecastle. On the
schooner's sloping decks, when Dolores and her party climbed aboard,
were a score of nondescript pirates, besides the crew's custodians, at a
loss to account for the escape of the sloop, and worked up to a pitch of
nervousness where they were only fit for sudden, strenuous action with a
merciless taskmaster. And such they speedily had.

Dolores ordered her three captives to be taken to the great cabin, and
their chains were fastened to the ornately paneled mainmast which ran
down through both decks and formed the support of a gorgeously furnished
sideboard. Then the companionway was locked on them, and the girl sprang
to tremendous life.

"Aloft with thee, Stumpy!" she cried, selecting him because after Milo
his eyes were keenest of them all. "Keep thy eyes open for Milo's
flares, and mark well the direction. Hanglip, thou surly dog! Take ten
men and lay me out a good anchor astern, with a stout hawser. Be brisk!
Come aboard in ten minutes, or thy back shall smart."

Sancho's boat had remained at the port quarter, and into this Hanglip
drove his crew while Spotted Dog with the rest of the men got ready an
anchor to lower to them.

"Caliban, cast off the gaskets from fore and main!" cried Dolores next.
"Where are thy rascals? Plague take th