“Where are we now?” Arabel said, as she went upon deck, and felt the land breeze sweeping around her, and filling the long flapping sails.
“We have reached our destination,” answered Harris, as Claud directed the sailors to call him, for he felt that it was necessary to have a new name for every place, to prevent suspicion.
Then fourteen of the crew manned a boat, and went ashore to make discoveries; they returned at night-fall, having discovered the place in Saugus known to this day as Pirate’s Glen, and still bearing the evidence of having been inhabited. The next day there were heavy black clouds in the horizon, and at night they burst in all their mad fury, causing the black waves to seethe and boil against the rough rocks in sight, and frightening Arabel almost away from her senses.
“We shall die, Claud, I know we shall,” she moaned, wearily grasping the silken covering to the lounge on which she lay. Then she fainted. Harris remembered a small public house he had seen upon the beach, and determined that, be the consequences what they might, he would reach that. The men readily volunteered to accompany them, and this brings us back to the point where we started, the night that first gave Wallace an acquaintance with the band of men that afterward frequented Pirates’ Glen and Dungeon Rock. It was, perhaps, a week that they spent there, and then returned again to Italy; not, however, until they had aroused the suspicions of the settlers, who were on the constant lookout for danger.
A few weeks after their return, a great rebellion arose in Spain. Claud must go; Arabel dared not,—so she remained at the fortress, with her own thoughts and the gorgeous works of art for company, and he started on the wild and perilous adventure. When he returned the boats were loaded with costly articles that had the indelible Spanish stamp upon them. These he secreted in the ancient fort. Some were carried away up to their hiding place in Wales, and others were retained in Spain. The greater part, however, were brought there, and to Arabel’s eager, childish questions of where he found them, and what they were for, he only answered, with a sober smile, “They are all to be changed into money, Bel, unless you want some of them to wear.”
But he heard flying rumors that he was suspected even there. “That must not be,” he said, firmly; “for I dread the idea of being known as a pirate. I cannot, will not, bear it.”
So he packed the goods he had stolen from the imperial Spanish palace, all the beautiful adornings of the fair young queen,—for it was she whom Don Jose had called little Cristelle in the first part of our story,—and hid them in the low vaulted basement. Don Jose had been the queen’s valet, and Claud took him to be of future use to them in discovering the secrets concerning their enterprise in Spain. Then he opened the doors of the ancient tower and fortress; lighted up the long cathedral, with its dim arches, and quaint oaken carving, and gave his friends in Rome and Venice a banquet, at which he and his young bride presided. The rooms were crowded with beauty and fashion; music floated through the long corridors, and up and down the winding stairs, covered for the occasion with rich, soft carpets. The night passed in revelry, and when morning dawned the guests departed satisfied.
To Arabel it seemed like a fairy dream of beauty, so much life and joy around; to Claud it was the hollow formalities of hypocrisy. He saw the eager glances, the suspicious looks, the cautious steps, when they entered the dim old rooms. He could bear his double part well, however, and he did. It was not long after this that he carried the most suspicious goods across the water, and landed them in the then unbroken solitude of Pirates’ Glen.
By this time the foundery was nearly built. All the men of the place met there to talk over their affairs, and here it was that Claud, or rather Harris, used to station a watch, and sometimes he would stay himself to hear what was said, and direct his own work accordingly.
Arabel had been staying at the Glen several days, and begged that she might stop still longer,—the woody glade was so wild, and the distant hills so high. She was not obliged to practice constant deception there; she would remain a little while; and she did one whole long day alone, but she was used to solitude.