and exhaustion, fell back in a swoon almost as soon as he was hauled
out of the water.

Need we describe the state into which poor Madame Zeppa was thrown when
Orlando returned to her?--the strange mingling of grief and terrible
anxiety about her husband's fate, with grateful joy at the restoration
of her son? We think not!

Ebony, the faithful and sable servitor of the family, got hold of
Orlando as soon as his poor mother would let him go, and hurried him off
to a certain nook in the neighbouring palm-grove where he was wont to
retire at times for meditation.

"You's quite sure yous fadder was not shooted?" he began, in gasping
anxiety, when he had forced the boy down on a grassy bank.

"I think not," replied Orley, with a faint smile at the negro's
eagerness. "But you must remember that I was almost unconscious from
the blow I received, and scarce knew what was done."

"But you no hear no shootin'?" persisted Ebony.

"No; and if any shots had been fired, I feel certain I should have heard
and remembered them."

"Good! den der's a chance yous fadder's alive, for if de no hab shooted
him at first, de no hab de heart to shoot him arterwards. No, he'd
smile away der wikitness; de _couldn'_ do it."

Orlando was unable to derive much comfort from this sanguine view of the
influence of his father's smile--bright and sweet though he knew it to
be--yet with the energy of youth he grasped at any straw of hope held
out to him. All the more that Ebony's views were emphatically backed up
by the chiefs Tomeo and Buttchee, both of whom asserted that Zeppa had
never failed in anything he had ever undertaken, and that it was
impossible he should fail now. Thus encouraged, Orlando returned home
to comfort his mother.

CHAPTER THREE.

But Orley's mother refused to be comforted. What she had heard or read
of pirates induced her to believe that mercy must necessarily be
entirely banished from their hearts; and her husband, she knew full
well, would sooner die than join them. Therefore, she argued in her
despair, Antonio must have perished.

"But mother," said Orley, in a soothing tone, "you must remember that
Rosco and his men are not regular pirates. I only heard them shout
`Hoist the black flag!' when they seized me; but that does not prove
that they did hoist it, or that Rosco agreed to do so. They were only
mutineers, you see, and not hardened villains."

"Hardened enough when they threw you overboard, my