decreed. Something in her pure, exquisitely beautiful face, touched
his compassion. There were murmurs of discontent among his savage
crew. But the strong-willed Captain had his way, and when he sailed
back with his booty to their place of rendezvous, he bore with him
the beautiful maiden. Here, it was said, he gave her honorable
protection, and had her cared for as tenderly as was possible under
the circumstances. And it was further related, that, when the maiden
grew to ripe womanhood, he abandoned the trade of a buccaneer and
made her his wife. The sailor told this story, shrugged his
shoulders, looked knowing and mysterious, and left his auditors to
draw what inference they pleased. As they had been talking of
Captain Allen, the listeners made their own conclusion as to his
identity with the buccaneer. True to human nature, in its
inclination to believe always the worst of a man, nine out of ten
credited the story as applied to the cut-throat looking captain, and
so, after this, it was no unusual thing to hear him designated by
the not very flattering sobriquet of the "old pirate."

Later events, still more inexplicable in their character, and yet
unexplained, gave color to this story, and invested it with the
elements of probability. As related, the old gossip's second
intrusion upon the Aliens, in the capacity of nurse, furnished the
town's-people with a few additional facts, as to the state of things
inside of a dwelling, upon whose very walls seemed written mystery.
In the beginning, Mrs. Allen had made a few acquaintances, who were
charmed with her character, as far as she let herself be known.
Visits were made and returned for a short season. But after the
birth of her first child, she went abroad but rarely, and ceasing to
return all visits, social intercourse came to an end. The old nurse
insisted that this was not her fault, but wholly chargeable upon the