Year: 1877

| mighty HduuleT nave SEONu NCah alit
pOwerless. Sir Jasper hears the hoofs
I of his pursuers' horses die away in


the distance, but still he thinks it pru-


dent to barricade the door. Then he


tells Daniel that he is expected not only


to take them across to the opposite coast


when the gale has passed away, but to


provide them with food and entertain


ment until such time as they can de-


part. Small matter to Dan1 Druee,


whether they be for the King or for the


Parliament, for he cares for neither !;


but he refuses TO give them meat and


drink, saying he has none from pure


covetousness. They dispatch him to


obtain food, however, threatening him


with the burning of his hut should he


betray them. Dan'l, against his will,
departs. Left to themselves, the cava-
lier and his follower discuss the dire


strait into which they have fallen. Sir


Jasper's spirits have not deserted him,


and he believes that som day he will


be rewarded for his allegiance to his
King. Meantime, after seeing that the
child, whose presence he denounces in


round terms as nuisance, is doing


well, he opens the locker with hatchet,


and finds proof of Dan'l's false economy


through the discovery of food and drink.


Before blazing fire which they impro-


wise right speedily, and with such COM


parative luxuries as bread, fish and a
| bottle of Schiedam, the Lord of Combe


Raven soliloquizes or the freaks of for


tune which have made him glad of the


shelter of fisherman's hut. Accident


ally he starts a board that conceals the
horde of wealth over which Dan'l Druce


has gloated but now, calling it child


and more than flesh and blood. But


although he is penniless, Sir Jasper is


above availins himself of this chance


he will not stoop to plunder. This
quick resolve is followed by the hurried


re-entrance of his sergeant, Reuben


Haines, who had been on the lookout


for Dann Druce, and who now bears


the startling intelligence that they must


OC AOl LAAO SOGAAh OA AAOA


ses' hoofs tell him thar they have been


betrayed Sir Jasper bids him make


ready Dan'l's boat, for they must put
out to sea. Then, reasoning that, as
they have been betrayed, DaDl Druce's
money is fair plunder, he possesses
himself of the cherished wealth of
the miser and is about to depart; but
he sees that it would be death to the
child TO take her with him, and equal
danger to that incurred in an open boat
at sea to remain with her in his arms
and fight their pursuers. He decides to
leave her, first placing locket and
chain on her neck and pinning paper.
on which he has written something, to
her dress. lie has barely time TO leap
through the window before Dan'l en-
ters the place, leading number of SOL
diers clad in the Parliamentary uni
form They think that the Royalists


have escaped them, and SO it indeed
proves; for, although the boat is per-
ceived making off from the beach, and
is fired upon, Sir Jasper and his re


tainer are beyond the range of their
weapons. Meantime Dan'l Druce has
discovered the disappearance of his
gold, and cries out that his "child'' has
gone. The sergeant, perceiving the lit
tie girl left by Sir Jasper, supposes that
it is to her that the distracted miser re-
fers, and tells him that his child is safe.


Danl Druce cannot bring himself to
understand, but he bids the sergeant
read what is written on the paper found
on the child's dress, and the sergeant
reads an injunction to be kind to the
child for his ultimate gain, and decla-
ration that his gold has passed into this
shape. Daniel Druce thinks he sees in


this the miracle he has prayed for. This
gold has become child, and in the
eyes of the babe he declares that he sees
a likeness TO those of the wife he has
lost. He bids the soldiers kneel, he fore
fends them from touching heavens
gift, and he feels that an answer has
been vouchsafed to his prayer.


Fourteen years have passed since that
eventful night on the Norfolk coast, and
Dan'l rruce has grown not only older,
but better. A hale old man of sixty


four, he plies his original trade of
blacksmith with no less content, if con-
siderable less strength, than younger
men. His old age has a comfort and a !
blessing in Dorothy, maid of seven
teen, once the babe who was abandoned
by the Royalist colonel in his flight
from the battle of Worcester, now
s'standing with reluctant feet where
the brook and river meet''-almost
grown to the estate of womanhood. Do
rothy has proven worth a thousand
times the sixty golden pounds which
were taken in her stead to Dan'l Druce.
Sometimes thought will cross the old
mans mind that she may be claimed
sometime BY the man who left her in
his hut fourteen years before; and
sometimes comes the idea that some
young fellow will seek her out in mar
riage and rob him of her. But Dorothy
assures the man whom she has learned
TO call father that she will never leave
him, and he is only too ready TO believe
her. Nevertheless, when lie tells her
that Godfrey Wynyard, an old play
mate of hers, has returned from sea and


is about to visit her, she is too delighted
to make it probable that she entertains
a feeling of mere friendship for the
sailor who departed when lad, and
comes back stalwart man. Her meet
ing with Godfrey, which follows speed
lily, is a joyful one. He sees that she is
grown to be a woman, and tells her that
she is a fair one. More, when she con-


fesses naively that she has often thought
of him and of the peril which he ran in
his life on the waves, he tells her there
is but one thing he loves better than the
sea, and that is herself. He speaks to
her passionately of his hopes regarding
her, and woos the maiden with all the
of lnunr HA