ry to take him off, but whom she had never
seen again. In her present horror of that memory she remained hidden,
determined at all hazards to avoid a meeting. When they had landed,
one of the men halted accidentally before the shrubbery where she was
concealed as he caught his first view of the cottage, which had been
invisible from the point they had rounded.

"Look here, Bragg," he said, turning to Marion's friend, in a voice
which was distinctly audible to Mrs. Bunker. "What are we to say to
these people?"

"There's only one," returned the other. "The man's at sea. His wife's
here. She's all right."

"You said she was one of us?"

"After a fashion. She's the woman who helped Marion when he was here. I
reckon he made it square with her from the beginning, for she forwarded
letters from him since. But you can tell her as much or as little as you
find necessary when you see her."

"Yes, but we must settle that NOW," said Bragg sharply, "and I propose
to tell her NOTHING. I'm against having any more petticoats mixed up
with our affairs. I propose to make an examination of the place without
bothering our heads about her."

"But we must give some reason for coming here, and we must ask her to
keep dark, or we'll have her blabbing to the first person she meets,"
urged the other.

"She's not likely to see anybody before night, when the brig will be in
and the men and guns landed. Move on, and let Jim take soundings off
the cove, while I look along the shore. It's just as well that there's
a house here, and a little cover like this"--pointing to the
shrubbery--"to keep the men from making too much of a show until after
the earthworks are up. There are sharp eyes over at the Fort."

"There don't seem to be any one in the house now," returned the other
after a moment's scrutiny of the cottage, "or the woman would surely
come out at the barking of the dog, even if she hadn't seen us. Likely
she's gone to Saucelito."

"So much the better. Just as well that she should know nothing until
it happens. Afterwards we'll settle with the husband for the price of
possession; he has only a squatter's rights. Come along; we'll have
bad weather before we get back round the Point again, but so much the
better, for it will keep off any inquisitive longshore cruisers."

They moved away. But Mrs. Bunker, stung through her benumbed and
brooding consciousness, and made desperate by this repeated revelation
of her former weakness, had