"In God we'll trust!" said Tempest, and Bertha Decatur drew nearer to him, as she whispered lovingly:
"He will protect us!"
Then, with a feminine fear, she asked:
"Do you think we shall have to fight?"
"I am afraid so; but if we do—can you be brave, my darling—can you bear to hear the truth?"
"Tell me what it is you fear."
"If we fight we shall be beaten. Against such as yon ship we have no chance. And if the other is a Britisher, we are doomed."
"Let me die with you."
"We may not be killed."
Bertha looked at her betrothed, her lips quivering and her body trembling, not with fear, but rather with the thought that her life might be so short, now that she had begun to realize how well it was worth living.