The Sea-Hawk

nning engineers had been employed and no money spared, rode proudly at anchor just of

e about the little forge and the huddle of cottages that went to make up the fishing village, as if in earnest of the great traffic that in future days was to b

een entirely withdrawn by Lionel; more, indeed Lionel had actually gone so far in the opposite direction as to support Sir John in his representations to Parliament and the Queen. It followed naturally enough that just as Sir

here might come to suffer as a consequence of the development of a port so much more advantageously situated, yet that could not be in his own lifetime; and meanwhile he must earn in return Sir J

that she might abstract herself from the importunities of his suit that she had sought and obtained Sir John Killigrew's permission to accompany the latter's sister to France wh

quitted Cornwall in his turn and went forth to see the world. He spent some time in London about the Court, where, ho

dripping water wears away a stone. Yet she could not bring herself to forget that he was Sir Oliver's brother-the brother of the man she had loved, and the

absence of some two years, urging these matters as reasons why an

not at all ag

ntlewoman to dwell alone. As long as I live, or as long as I remain in England, all will be well. You may continue indefinitely your residence here at Arwena

ss to the company you would th

gratitude for that lad's burning devotion, for

essilian's broth

the price that he must pay for his brother's sins? Besides, consider that

"If you must have me wed I beg

han the one he had chosen her. He pointed out the contiguity of their two estate

cience would not permit him to heave anchor until he had bestowed her safely in wedlock. Lionel too was persistent, in a

he caught herself thinking of him frequently and wistfully; she found herself comparing him with his brother; and for all that she had bidden Sir John find her some other husband than Lionel, she knew full well that any suitor brought before her must be submitted to that same comparison to his inevitable undoing. All this she accounted evil in herself. It was in vain that she lashed her mind with the reminder that

sent her out of Barbary by the hand of Pitt-but her thoughts she could not govern, and her thoughts were full often traitors to her will. There were longings in her heart

o Arwenack with that letter and his story. They had heard, as had all the world, of the corsair Sakr-el-Bahr, but they had been far indeed from connecting him with Oliver Tre

ver again set foot in England. It extinguished finally that curiously hopeless and almost subconscious hope of hers that one

be confessed that already during their betrothal he gave some proof of his reason for his confidence. She had been lonely, and he dispelled her loneliness by his complete surrender of himself to her; his restraint and his cautious, almost insidious creeping along a path which a more clumsy fellow would have taken at a d

atience now. The marriage bells were to be his signal for departu

y was to sup. It was a small party. Just Sir John and Rosamund and Lionel, who had lingered on that day, and Lord Henry Goade-our chronicler-the Queen's Lieutenant

to unknown seas. In the turret chamber a dozen sempstresses were at work upon the bridal outfit under the directions of that Sally Pentre

ing his company to table Sir Oliver Tressil

e ship's two boats, and in these he had conveyed some thirty of his men ashore. Twice had the boats returned, until a hundred of his corsairs stood ranged along that foreign beach. The other hundred h

once more went near to drawing tears from him. How familiar was the path he followed with such confidence in the night; how well known

ling-piece that he would creep one night over these dunes a renegade Muslim le

ecovery when his mind swung to all that he had so unjustly s

narrow for Master Lionel and the reckoning. Such was the project that warmed him, conquered his weakness

gaped, and a lantern was advanced. Instantly that lantern was dashed aside and Sir Oliver had leapt over the sill into the courty

e spacious gateway. On he led them, at a run almost, towards the tall mullio

t with the gatekeeper, and such was the speed and caution of their movements that Sir John and his comp

t here was some mummery, some surprise prepared for the bridal couple by Sir John's tenants or the folk of Smithick and Penycumwick, and h

ade was bared. What was to do was to be done with their naked hands alone and without bloodshe

ans of every hue. He considered the company in grim silence, and the company in amazement considered this turbaned giant with the masterful fac

a sudden gasp Lionel Tressilian sank back

lashed upon him

deep voice. "I was assured I could depend upon the eyes of brotherl

table before her. They too recognized him now, and realized that here was no mummery. That something sinister was intended Sir John could not for a moment doubt. But of what that something might be h

sped, and "Sir Oliver Tressilian!" ec

desperate corsair your lies, cupidity, and false-heartedness have fashioned out of a sometime Cornish gentleman." He

armoured walls; how Sakr-el-Bahr barked out a single word in Arabic, and how at that word a half-dozen of hi

, covered his face with his hands in sheer horror. One and all of them expected to see some ghastly deed of blood performed there, coldly and callously as the wringing of a capon's neck. But no such

y inarticulate. Lithe brown arms encircled him like a legion of snakes. Powerless, he was lifted in the air and borne swiftly away. For an instant he found himself held face to face with his

ronged the hall behind him a lane was swiftly opened and Lion

ied Sir John indomitably. He had risen

She saw him wince; she saw the mocking lustful anger perish in his face, leaving it vacant for a moment. Then it became grim again with a fresh resolve. Her words had altered all

hen you come to be better acquainted with him? Though, faith, naught would surprise me in a woman and her love. Yet I

thou with me, lady," he comm

ems to have been stir

between to shield her. 'Thou dog,' I

h his deep laugh. 'I have suffered alr

e out of hell!' I warned him. 'Thou shalt

ry calm and sinister. 'And

red, being by now sti

nt the hawk of the sea? Thou? Thou p

abic command, whereupon a dozen blackamoors whirled t

ive long years, and he realized that in every moment of that time th

," he bade

swiftly as lightning she snatched a knife from the board and drove it at his heart. But his hand m

her own attempt and of the man who held her. That horror mounting

five years and more ago under the grey wall of Godolphin Court above the river. What prophet could have told him that when next he so held her the condi

he were a sack of grain, and swung about, his business at Arwenack accomplished-

y sped as fleetly and silently as they had come, n

own the slope towards the beach where their boats awaited them. Sakr-el-Bahr ran as lightly as though the swooning woman he bore were no m

urpose to visit it, as we know. But the necessity had now been removed, and he was conscious of a pang of disappointment, of a hunger to look again upon his home. But to shift the current of his thoughts just then ca

e lads and maidens there should fe

ing him, heeding indeed little in this wor

ers and make a raid upon them? It were an easy task

uldst thou have come to know by now that those who once were of my own race, those of the land from whic

hese unknown seas into this far heathen land to be rewarded by no more

hr to judge," was

ome thy return with such poor spoils as these? What questions will he set thee, and what account shalt thou

and I shall answer what I please a

warmth of that body upon his shoulder, and knowing not, so tumu

re had been at sunset, there was no more clue to the way they had taken than to the way they had come. It was as if they had dropped from the skies in the night upon that Cornish coast, and bu

-gallery. Lionel he ordered to be dropped into a dark hole under the hatchway, there to lie and meditate upon the retribution that had overta

What, indeed, would be Asad's welcome of him on his return if he sailed into Algiers with nothing more to show for that long voyage and the imperilling of the lives of two hundred True-Believers than just those two captives whom he intended,

ous that the battle he invited was one of which his corsairs had no experience, and one upon which they must have hesitated to venture with another leader than himself. But the star of Sakr-el-Bahr was a star that

say that it was stern and fierce, entailing great loss to both combatants; that cannon played little part in it, for knowing the quality of his men Sakr-el-Bahr made haste to run in and grapple. He prevailed of course as he must ever pre-v

hey succeeded. A Dutch pike broke some links of his mail and dealt him a flesh wound which went unheeded by him in his fury; a Dutch rapier found the breach thus made in his de-fences, and went through it to stretch him bleeding upon the deck. Yet he staggered up, knowing as full as did they that if he succumbed then all was lost. Armed now with a short axe which he had found under his hand when he

ey laid him on a couch prepared for him amidships on the main deck, where the vessel's pitching was least discomfiting. A

d not be that the Gardener could already pluck so fragrant a fruit from Allah

nd he recovered complete consciousness, to learn of the final issue of t

akr-el-Bahr learnt the value of the capture, when he was informed that in addition to a hundred able-bodied men under the hatches, to be sold as slaves in the s?k-el-Abeed, there was a cargo of gold and silver, pea

het, one of them an argosy so richly fraught, a floating treasure-house, and he need have little fear

Othmani had taken charge of them, and that he had continued the treatment me

ecks above, his followers rendered thanks to Allah the Pitying the Pitif