e gradual abating of the gale and rising of the tide.
When it was thought safe to do this, the sails were trimmed, the cables
cut, and, finally, the _Ocean Queen_ was carried triumphantly into
port--saved by the Covelly Lifeboat.

Need we tell you, good reader, that Mr Webster and his daughter, and
Mrs Niven, spent that night under the roof of hospitable Mrs Boyns?
who--partly because of the melancholy that ever rested like a soft cloud
on her mild countenance, and partly because the cap happened to suit her
cast of features--looked a very charming widow indeed. Is it necessary
to state that Mr Webster changed his sentiments in regard to young
Captain Boyns, and that, from regarding him first with dislike and then
with indifference, he came to look upon him as one of the best fellows
that ever lived, and was rather pleased than otherwise when he saw him
go out, on the first morning after the rescue above recorded, to walk
with his daughter among the romantic cliffs of Covelly!

Surely not! It would be an insult to your understanding to suppose that
you required such information.

It may be, however, necessary to let you know that, not many weeks after
these events, widow Boyns received a letter telling her that Captain
Daniel Boyns was still alive and well, and that she might expect to see
him within a very short period of time!

On reading thus far, poor Mrs Boyns fell flat on the sofa in a dead
faint, and, being alone at the time, remained in that condition till she
recovered, when she eagerly resumed the letter, which went on to say
that, after the bottle containing the message from the sea had been cast
overboard, the pirates had put himself and his remaining companions--six
in number--into a small boat, and left them to perish on the open sea,
instead of making them walk the plank, as they had at first threatened.
That, providentially, a whale-ship had picked them up two days
afterwards, and carried them off on a three years' cruise to the South
Seas, where she was wrecked on an uninhabited island. That there they
had dwelt from that time to the present date without seeing a single
sail--the island being far out of the track of merchant vessels. That
at last a ship had been blown out of its course near the island, had
taken them on board, and, finally, that here he was, and she might even
expect to see him _in a few hours_!

This epistle was written in a curiously shaky hand, and was much
blotted, yet, str