combustible material
deposited there, and then sprang on toward the Tiger's Trap. A few
minutes afterward the doctor turned his eyes in that direction, and saw
the sails of the brigantine sheeted home and run up like magic; and,
taking the last breath of the sea-breeze on her quarter, the sternfast
was cast off, and she slipped easily out of the gorge-like channel.
Still, as those dark stern eyes watched the receding hull of the
"Centipede," a sudden jar shook the island, a heavy column of white
smoke rose from below the crag like a water-spout, and, spreading out
like a palm-tree, came down in a deluge of timber, stones, and dust,
while sheets of vivid flame leaped out from the gloom, and an awful
peal, followed by a heavy, booming roar, that shook the crag to its
base, announced the ruin of the pirate's den. At the same time the red
fires gleamed in fitful flashes from the sheds, and, rapidly making
headway, all at once burst forth in wild conflagration, till the whole
nest was wrapped in flames. The shock of the explosion and the fires
killed the wind, and a lurid pall of smoke and cinders hung like a
gloomy canopy over the island.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE MOUSE THAT GNAWED THE NET.

"There passed a weary time. Each throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye.
A weary time! a weary time!
How glazed each weary eye!
When, looking westward, I beheld
A something in the sky."

As the powder vomited forth its dreadful thunder, and as the stones and
timbers from the blasted den were hurled high in air, and scattered by
the explosive whirlwind far and near, some of the splinters and
fragments came down in dropping hail upon the red-tiled sheds and the
doctor's dwelling. At the first shock the lonely child started up in his
little bed, and while the earth rocked and the stones came pelting and
crashing on the roof, he screamed, "Mamma! mamma!" No loving echo came
back to those innocent lips, and naught was heard save the crackling of
the flame beyond, licking its tongue along the dry timber and roaring
joyously as it was fed. "Mamma! _chere_ mamma!"

Yet no answer, and still the savage flames came careering wildly on till
the very stones of the court-yard cracked like slates, while the burning
flakes and cinders loaded the air, and the eddying volumes of smoke
reeled in dense clouds, and poured their suffocating breath into the
room where the forsaken child was crying.

One more panting,