"Aileen!" exclaimed Miss Pritty, raising her head suddenly, and gazing
with anxiety into the face of her friend; "has our short residence among
these wretches begun to remove that delicacy of mind and sentiment for
which I always admired you?"

"_No_," returned Aileen, firmly, "but your excessive alarms may have
done something towards that end. Nay, forgive me, dear," she added,
gently, as Miss Pritty's head sank again on her shoulder, with a sob, "I
did not mean to hurt your feelings, but really, if you only think of it,
our present position demands the utmost resolution, caution, and
fortitude of which we are capable; and you know, love, that this
shuddering at trifles and imagining of improbabilities will tend to
unfit you for action when the time arrives, as it surely will sooner or
later, for my father has taken the wisest steps for our deliverance,
and, besides, a Greater than my father watches over us."

"That is true, dear," assented Miss Pritty, with a tender look. "Now
you speak like your old self; but you must not blame me for being so
foolish. Indeed, I know that I am, but, then, have not my worst fears
been realised? Are we not in the hands--actually in the hands--of
pirates--real pirates, buccaneers--ugh!"

Again the poor lady drooped her head and shuddered.

"_Your_ worst fears may have been realised," said Aileen; "but we have
certainly not experienced the worst that might have happened. On the
contrary, we have been remarkably well treated--what do you say? Fed on
rats and roast puppies! Well, the things they send us _may_ be such,
for they resemble these creatures as much as anything else, but they are
well cooked and very nice, you must allow, and--"

At that moment Aileen's tongue was suddenly arrested, and, figuratively
speaking, Miss Pritty's blood curdled in her veins and her heart ceased
to beat, for, without an instant's warning, the woods resounded with a
terrific salvo of artillery; grape and canister shot came tearing,
hissing, and crashing through the trees, and fierce yells, mingled with
fiend-like shrieks, rent the air.

Both ladies sat as if transfixed--pale, mute, and motionless. Next
moment Mr Hazlit sprang into the hut, glaring with excitement, while a
stream of blood trickled from a slight wound in his forehead.

Uttering a yell, no whit inferior to that of the fiercest pirate near
him, and following it up with a fit of savage laughter that was quite
appalling, the once