“Good-night.”
The strangest part, reader, about this little interview, if so it could be called, was that Ossian had never even barked or growled, but lay looking very wise and wagging his long tail.
“I’m sure,” said Effie, “she is a good girl, else Ossian would have been angry.”
They slept again more soundly now, and it was far into the next day before they awoke. Perhaps they would not have wakened even then, had not a knocking at the door aroused them.
“Are you all alive, little ones? Breakfast is waiting.”
It was Captain Bland’s voice.
“Yes, thank you,” cried Leonard; “we’ll soon come out.”
Having finished their toilets, with all speed they hastened to the large cave.
“My men have all gone—only myself here,” said the robber chief, as Effie called him. “Now, dears, eat heartily; you have a long journey before you. By-the-bye, your donkey wandered away somewhere by himself last night. Very likely some farmer has found him. But my men have been sent to look everywhere about, and it is sure to be all right.”
The journey was indeed a long one, for it was nearly evening before they arrived at a little village near the sea. The captain took them into an inn there, and they had an excellent supper, the smuggler chief telling them stories that made them laugh.