I	A SLOOP COMES IN	[1]
II	ITS CARGO	[15]
III	A COLONIAL DINNER PARTY	[27]
IV	THE BREAKING HEART	[40]
V	IN THE THREE-MILE FIELD	[50]
VI	THE HUT ON THE MARSH	[60]
VII	A MENDER OF NETS	[71]
VIII	THE NEW SECRETARY	[86]
IX	AN INTERRUPTED WOOING	[91]
X	LANDLESS PAYS THE PIPER	[100]
XI	LANDLESS BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR	[108]
XII	A DARK DEED	[117]
XIII	IN THE TOBACCO HOUSE	[129]
XIV	A MIDNIGHT EXPEDITION	[137]
XV	THE WATERS OF CHESAPEAKE	[150]
XVI	THE FACE IN THE DARK	[162]
XVII	LANDLESS AND PATRICIA	[173]
XVIII	A CAPTURE	[185]
XIX	THE LIBRARY OF THE SURVEYOR-GENERAL	[193]
XX	WHEREIN THE PEACE PIPE IS SMOKED	[205]
XXI	THE DUEL	[219]
XXII	THE TOBACCO HOUSE AGAIN	[226]
XXIII	THE QUESTION	[239]
XXIV	A MESSAGE	[247]
XXV	THE ROAD TO PARADISE	[252]
XXVI	NIGHT	[267]
XXVII	MORNING	[273]
XXVIII	BREAD CAST UPON THE WATERS	[282]
XXIX	THE BRIDGE OF ROCK	[295]
XXX	THE BACKWARD TRACK	[306]
XXXI	THE HUT IN THE CLEARING	[315]
XXXII	ATTACK	[326]
XXXIII	THE FALL OF THE LEAF	[335]
XXXIV	AN ACCIDENT	[343]
XXXV	THE BOAT THAT WAS NOT	[349]
XXXVI	THE LAST FIGHT	[357]
XXXVII	VALE	[369]

PRISONERS OF HOPE

CHAPTER I

A SLOOP COMES IN

"She will reach the wharf in half an hour."

The speaker shaded her eyes with a great fan of carved ivory and painted silk. They were beautiful eyes; large, brown, perfect in shape and expression, and set in a lovely, imperious, laughing face. The divinity to whom they belonged was clad in a gown of green dimity, flowered with pink roses, and trimmed about the neck and half sleeves with a fall of yellow lace. The gown was made according to the latest Paris mode, as described in a year-old letter from the court of Charles the Second, and its wearer gazed from under her fan towards the waters of the great bay of Chesapeake, in his Majesty's most loyal and well beloved dominion of Virginia.

The object of her attention was a large sloop that had left the bay and was sailing up a wide inlet or creek that pierced the land, cork-screw fashion, until it vanished from sight amidst innumerable green marshes. The channel, indicated by a deeper blue in the midst of an expanse of shoal water, was narrow, and wound like a gleaming snake in and out among the interminable succession of marsh islets. The vessel, following its curves, tacked continually, its great sail intensely white against the blue of inlet, bay and sky, and the shadeless green of the marshes, zigzagging from side to side with provoking leisureliness. The girl who had spoken watched it eagerly, a color in her cheeks, and one little foot in its square-toed, rosetted shoe tapping impatiently upon the floor of the wide porch in which she stood.

Contents

PRISONERS OF HOPE

CHAPTER I

A SLOOP COMES IN