“Away, away!” cried the frantic girl, waving her hand wildly towards Alida and the Patroon, who advanced as if hurrying to rescue her from a precipice—“Thine, and thine only!”
The smuggler released himself from her frenzied grasp, and, with the strength of a giant, he held the struggling girl at the length of his arm, while he endeavored to control the tempest of passion that struggled within him.
“Think, for one moment, think!” he said. “Thou wouldst follow an outcast—an outlaw—one hunted and condemned of men!”
“Thine, and thine only!”
“With a ship for a dwelling—the tempestuous ocean for a world!—”
“Thy world is my world!—thy home, my home!—thy danger, mine!”
The shout which burst out of the chest of the ‘Skimmer of the Seas’ was one of uncontrollable exultation.
“Thou art mine!” he cried. “Before a tie like this, the claim of such a father is forgotten! Burgher, adieu!—I will deal by thy daughter more honestly than thou didst deal by my benefactor’s child!”
Eudora was lifted from the ground as if her weight had been that of a feather; and, spite of a sudden and impetuous movement of Ludlow and the Patroon, she was borne to the boat. In a moment, the bark was afloat, with the gallant boy tossing his sea-cap upward in triumph. The brigantine, as if conscious of what had passed, wore round like a whirling chariot; and, ere the spectators had recovered from their confusion and wonder, the boat was hanging at the tackles. The free-trader was seen on the poop, with an arm cast about the form of Eudora, waving a hand to the motionless group on the shore, while the still half-unconscious girl of the ocean signed her faint adieus to Alida and her father. The vessel glided through the inlet, and was immediately rocking on the billows of the surf. Then, taking the full weight of the southern breeze, the fine and attenuated spars bent to its force, and the progress of the swift-moving craft was apparent by the bubbling line of its wake.
The day had begun to decline, before Alida and Ludlow quitted the lawn of the Lust in Rust. For the first hour, the dark hull of the brigantine was seen supporting the moving cloud of canvas. Then the low structure vanished, and sail after sail settled into the water, until nothing was visible but a speck of glittering white. It lingered for a minute, and was swallowed in the void.