what troubled
and restless night, traceable, no doubt, to my long conversation with
Ricardo, the _Barracouta_ had vanished, and nothing remained to mark her
late anchorage save the buoy to which she had been moored.

And now ensued a period of almost perfect bliss to me, for I had by this
time reached that precise stage of convalescence where all danger is
past, yet in which the patient is still so very far from being well that
he must be waited upon, hand and foot, and tended with as much
solicitude as though he were an utterly helpless babe; and such
attention I was afforded in its most perfect and acceptable form by
Lotta and Mammy. Small wonder is it, therefore, that my progress toward
recovery was rapid, and that in just a month from the day on which the
_Barracouta_ sailed I should find myself strong enough to admit of my
rising from my bed and donning my clothes for an hour or two. I was now
practically myself again, save that I was so weak as to need support
whenever I attempted to stand; but, with Lotta on one side, and Mammy on
the other, I was soon able, not only to totter from one room to another,
but even to get into the garden for a few minutes, and sit there in a
comfortable basket chair, drinking in renewed health and strength with
every breath of the soft, warm, deliciously perfumed air.

We now began to look daily, nay hourly, for the return of the brig, and
I ventured to indulge in the hope that, when she came, I should have the
satisfaction of learning that my last conversation with Ricardo had
borne good fruit, and that he had decided to abandon piracy, and to
devote the remainder of his life to doing good, as some sort of
atonement for the countless shocking crimes of which he had been guilty.
Meanwhile my strength came back to me fast from the moment when I was
able to get into the open air, and within another fortnight I was
practically my former self again.

It is scarcely needful to say that during this long and tedious period
of my convalescence I had enjoyed many a long and confidential chat both
with Lotta and with Mammy, and sometimes with both together; thus, by
the time that even Lotta was fain to pronounce me once more quite well,
and in no further need of nursing, we had very few secrets from each
other, and I had confided to her all my earnest hopes regarding Ricardo,
in which hopes she cordially joined me. I also told her what Ricardo
had said as to my becoming his heir, and taki