nd see the island more easily.

And neither was this necessary, for there were no sidelights, and the
Crag was now so dim that had he not known it was there it would have
been invisible; but he preserved it all mentally, and thought of the
pleasant home, with the saddened faces there, of the happy days he had
spent, and now for the first time fully realised what a joyous boyhood
he had passed in the rocky wildly picturesque old place, with no greater
trouble to disturb his peaceful life than some puzzling problem or a
trivial fit of illness. All so bright, so joyous, so happy,--and now
gone, perhaps, for ever; and some strange, wild life to come, but what
kind of existence he could not grasp.

Naturally enough, Mike's thoughts ran in the same channel, but he gave
them utterance; and Vince, as he stood there, heard him saying
piteously,--

"Good-bye, dear old home! I never knew before what you really were.
Good-bye--good-bye!" And then, passionately--"Oh, Vince, Vince! what
have we done to deserve all this? Where are we going now?"

"To bed, _mes amis_," said the captain, slapping them both on the
shoulders and rudely interrupting their thoughts. "Come: I take you
myself. Not over ze powdaire now. I vill not tempt you to _faire
sauter_--make jump ze _chasse-maree_--blow up ze sheep, eh? My faith,
no! But you take ze good counsel, _mes_ boys. You go to your bunk like
ze good shile, and have long sleep. You get out of the deadlight vis ze
sheep in full sail. You go ovaire-board bose of you, and I am vair
sorry for ze _bonnes_ mammas."

"Doesn't seem like it," said Vince stoutly, "taking us off prisoners
like this."

"Prisonaires! Faith of a good man! You sink I treat you like
prisonaires, and have you to dinnaire and talk to you vis _bonnes
conseilles_ like ze papa?"

"You are taking us away, and making every one who cares for us think we
are dead."

"_C'est dommage_--it is a great pitee, my young friend; but, you see, I
have a large propertee at ze caverne. It is vort tousand of pounds, and
ze place is vair useful to me and ze _confrere_ who come to take it
somevere else."

"What, are there more of you?" blurted out Vince.

"Eh? You nevaire mind. But I cannot part vis my store, and I vant ze
place to go to ven I bring a cargo."

"But we'll promise you on our words that we will not betray it to any
one, if you set us ashore."

"Aha! Not to have anozaire kick at _notre bon_ Joseph, eh?"