By what mysterious power Jason Hammond had won the gentle girl from her devoted father no one knew, but with haggard face and heart-wrung pain, Colonel Dare had bidden his one ewe lamb prepare for the sacrifice.
This long-planned excursion was to be the last of freedom for Minnie Dare.
Striding up to the unconscious lovers, the man said rudely,—
"Miss Dare, do you mean to hang about here all day? They are waiting for you."
"I presume, sir, Miss Dare has the right to stay where she pleases," retorted Eldon Brand, a quick, angry flash leaping to his eyes.
"Hardly," returned the other superciliously, "at all events she knows better, whatever your view of the matter."
With a look of appeal from her blue eyes that arrested the sharp rejoinder from the lips of the man she loved, the girl turned away, her face suddenly paling from fear.
"Here comes the pirate chief with his captive," exclaimed a laughing girl.
"Hush, Cornelia; he may hear you—horrid man! He wouldn't be here if he wasn't so rich."