We proceeded, therefore, through the wood, sweet in the dew of

morning, among many twittering birds, and so came, presently, to the

end of my path, where the little gate shuts it off from my mowing

meadow; at the upper end of which, it may be remembered, the good ship

Sea Rover lay anchored. The grass stood waist-high and wet in the

dew as we turned along the meadow side, and L'Olonnois flinched a bit,

although Lafitte waded along carelessly.

I observed that each boy had now thrust into his hat band a turkey

feather, picked up, en route, along my field's edge. Jimmy was not

sure of the correctness of this; and admitted that, sometimes, he had

read literature having to do with Indian fighting, as well as

piratical enterprises. I suggested that, to my mind, nothing quite

took the place of the regulation red kerchief bound about the head;

whereat, gravely, both L'Olonnois and Lafitte discarded their hats and

feathers, for the bandannas which I proffered them. Having bound these

about their foreheads, a great courage and confidence came to them.

L'Olonnois drew his sword, and with some care placed the blade

between his teeth. "Hist!" exclaimed Lafitte, himself swept by his

friend's imagination, and preparing to place his cutlass in his mouth

also. "Let us approach the vessel with care, lest the enemy be about."

So saying, each pirate with a mouthful of cold steel, and a hand

shading his red-kerchiefed brow, stole through my clump of birches

toward the bend, where the boat had first surprised me; myself

following, somewhat put to it to refrain from laughter, although one

rarely laughs in the young hours of the day, and myself rarely, at

all.

We were greeted by no hostile shot, and found our vessel quite as we

had left her, as I could see at a glance when we neared the bank; but,

none the less, something stirred in the bushes. A growl and a sudden

barking, greeted Hiroshimi as he approached the boat in advance.

"You, Tige!" called out Lafitte. The dog--a dog none too beautiful,

and now just a bit forlorn--approached us, alternately wagging in

friendship and retreating in alarm.

"Well, what do you think of that!" said Jimmy. "We left him back at

the lake--sent him home half a dozen times. How'd he get here, and

how'd he know where we was?"

"He couldn't a-swum the lake," assented John. "And it was more'n ten

miles around; and how could he smell where we went, on the water? Come

here, Tige, you blame fool!"

"Nay," said I, "he is no fool, this dog, but a creature of great

reason, else he never could have found you. And I'll be bound he is as

keen for adventure as any of us."

"He is coming here last night two ow-wore after dinner," said the

omniscient Hiroshimi. "Also he bite me on leg. He, also, is

malefactor."




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