whom he did not think it worth his while to use much
circumlocution, "_your_ turn is next. It's the maid's duty to follow
her mistress."

"I know'd it _must_ come," said Biddy, meekly. "If there was no mercy
for the missus, little could I look for. But ye'll not take the life
of a Christian woman widout giving her so much as one minute to say
her prayers?"

"Ay, pray away," answered Spike, his throat becoming dry and husky,
for, strange to say, the submissive quiet of the Irish woman, so
different from the struggle he had anticipated with _her_, rendered
him more reluctant to proceed than he had hitherto been in all of that
terrible day. As Biddy kneeled in the bottom of the stern-sheets,
Spike looked behind him, for the double purpose of escaping the
painful spectacle at his feet, and that of ascertaining how his
pursuers came on. The last still gained, though very slowly, and
doubts began to come over the captain's mind whether he could escape
such enemies at all. He was too deeply committed, however, to recede,
and it was most desirable to get rid of poor Biddy, if it were for no
other motive than to shut her mouth. Spike even fancied that some idea
of what had passed was entertained by those in the cutter. There was
evidently a stir in that boat, and two forms that he had no
difficulty, now, in recognizing as those of Wallace and Mulford, were
standing on the grating in the eyes of the cutter, or forward of the
foresail. The former appeared to have a musket in his hand, and the
other a glass. The last circumstance admonished him that all that was
now done would be done before dangerous witnesses. It was too late to
draw back, however, and the captain turned to look for the Irish
woman.

Biddy arose from her knees, just as Spike withdrew his eyes from his
pursuers. The boatswain and another confident were in readiness to
cast the poor creature into the sea, the moment their leader gave the
signal. The intended victim saw and understood the arrangement, and
she spoke earnestly and piteously to her murderers.

"It's not wanting will be violence," said Biddy, in a quiet tone, but
with a saddened countenance. "I know it's my turn, and I will save yer
sowls from a part of the burden of this great sin. God, and His Divine
Son, and the Blessed Mother of Jesus have mercy on me if it be wrong;
but I would far radder jump into the saa widout having the rude hands
of man on me, than have the dreadful sight of the missus d