pe so, too," rejoined Venner thoughtfully. "With a white woman's
opportunities, what a woman she could have been."

But the gods are inscrutable. Only the warm mantle of the setting sun
gave a hint that Dolores might be even now entering into a place of
eternal rest, where her sins of ignorance and untutored instincts would
not count too heavily against her. The sea is very benign to its elect;
a calm sea in the setting sun received Dolores in arms of infinite
benignity.

(The end.)

[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors present in the
original edition have been corrected. In Chapter V, "inscrutaable" was
changed to "inscrutable"; in Chapter X, "Let me show thee they master"
was changed to "Let me show thee thy master"; in Chapter XVII, "could
not enchance your worth" was changed to "could not enhance your worth";
in Chapter XVIII, "shaking his first at Milo" was changed to "shaking
his fist at Milo"; and in Chapter XXI, "protruding a foot for Tomlin's
back" was changed to "protruding a foot from Tomlin's back".]

[Transcriber's Note: The following summary originally appeared at the
beginning of the serial's second installment.]

PRECEDING CHAPTERS BRIEFLY RETOLD

Within his mysterious stronghold, "The Cave of Terrible Things," on the
Maroon coast of Jamaica, washed by the waters of the Caribbean Sea, Red
Jabez, Sultan of Pirates, had just died.

Dolores, his daughter, "a splendidly lithe, glowing creature of beauty
and passion," "a royal woman conscious of mental and physical
perfection," succeeded her father as tyrant over the motley crew of
Spaniard and Briton, Creole and mulatto, Carib and octoroon, and
coal-black negroes.

Milo, the giant Abyssinian, who knew no fear and no law save the will of
this capricious creature, served Dolores as body-guard and chief.

Pascherette, "a gleaming, gold-tinted creature, a miniature model of
Aphrodite," beloved of Milo, was her maid and attendant.

Moved to mutiny by Rufe, the Spaniard, the pirates had risen in revolt
to loot the rich treasure of the dead Sultan's cave; but supported by
Milo, Dolores had cowed them, no less by her dagger than her threats.

But discontent rode the soul of the Sultana. She longed for other lands,
other people. With Milo's aid she determined to capture the first sail
that passed her shore, and escape.

When Rupert Venner and his guests, Craik Tomlin and John Pearce, aboard
the Venner yacht, Feu Follette,