d act with
great caution."

My companion's advice was, I saw, the wisest that could be pursued; and
therefore we remained in our hiding-places, narrowly observing our
visitors as they approached. They entered the fishing-pool, and I could
then distinctly not only see, but hear them. To my extreme surprise,
one of the first men who jumped out of the boat was John Gough, who had
brought Mrs Reichardt to the island. He looked older, but I recognised
him in a moment, and so did my companion. Her admonitory "Hush!" kept
me from betraying the place of our concealment--so great was my
astonishment, having long believed him and all his lawless associates to
have been lost at sea.

He was well armed, and evidently possessed some authority; nevertheless,
I thought I could detect an air of concern in his features, as he
offered to help one of the captives out of the boat. The latter,
however, regarded him with an air of disdain, and, though his hands were
tied behind him, leaped ashore without assistance. He was a man of
commanding stature, with a well-bronzed face, and a look of great energy
of character. He wore a band of gold lace round his cap, and had on
duck trousers, and a blue jacket and waistcoat.

"Come, Captain!" exclaimed John Gough, "I bear you no malice. Though
you have been rather hard upon us, we won't leave you to starve."

"He's a deuced deal better off than he desarves to be," cried a man from
the boat, whom I at once recognised as the fellow on whom I had drawn my
knife for hurting Nero. "If we had made him walk the plank, as I
proposed, I'm blowed if it wouldn't have been much more to the purpose
than putting him on this here island, with lots o' prog, and everything
calkilated to make him and his domineering officers comfortable for the
rest of their days."

"Hold your tongue, you mutineering rascal," exclaimed the Captain,
angrily; "a rope's end at the yard-arm will be your deserts before
long."

"Thank ye kindly, Captain," replied the fellow, touching his hat in
mockery. "But you must be pleased to remember I ain't caught yet; and
we means to have many a jolly cruise in your ship, and get no end o'
treasure, before I shall think o' my latter end; and then I means to die
like a Christian, and repent o' my sins, and make a much more edifying
example than I should exhibit dangling at the end of a rope."

The men laughed, the Captain muttered something about "pirates and
mutineers," but the r