"What ho! Jean Lafitte," said I at length, rousing myself from the old

habit of reverie, of which I had chiefest dread; "and you, Henri

L'Olonnois, scourges of the main, both of you, listen! I have a plan

to put before you, my hearties."

"Say on, Sirrah!" rejoined the younger pirate, so promptly and so

gravely that again I had much to do to refrain from sudden mirth.

"Why then, look ye," I continued. "The sun is sinking beneath the

wave, and the good ship rides steady at her anchor. Meantime men must

eat! and yonder castle amid the forest offers booty. What say ye if we

pass within the wood, and see what we may find of worth to souls bold

as ours?"

"'Tis well!" answered L'Olonnois; and I could see assent in Lafitte's

eyes. In truth I could discover no great preparations for a long

voyage in the open hold of the Sea Rover, and doubted not that both

captain and crew by this time were hungry. Odd crumbs of crackers and

an empty sardine can might be all very well at the edge of the

village of Pausaukee (I judged they could have come no greater

distance, some twelve or fifteen miles); but they do not serve for so

long a journey as lies between Pausaukee and the Spanish Main.

They rose as I did, and we passed beyond the clump of tall birches,

along the edge of my mowing meadow, and through the gate which closes

my woodland path--to me the loveliest of all wood-trails, so gentle

and so silent is it always, and so fringed, seasonably, with ferns and

flowers. Thus, presently, we saw the blue smoke rising above my lodge,

betokening to me that my Japanese factotum, Hiroshimi, now had my

dinner under way.

To me, it was my customary abode, my home these three years; but they

beside me saw not the rambling expanse of my leisurely log mansion.

They noted not the overhanging gables, the lattices of native wood. To

them, yonder lay a castle in a foreign land. Here was moat and wall,

then a portcullis, and gratings warded these narrow portals against

fire of musketoon. My pet swallows' nest, demure above my door, to

them offered the aspect of a culverin's mouth; and, as now, I made my

customary approach-call, by which I heralded my return from any

excursion on the stream of an evening, I could swear these invaders

looked for naught less than a swarm of archers springing to the

walls, and the hoarse answer of my men-at-arms back of each guarded

portal. Such is the power of youthful dreaming, such the residuary

heritage of days of high emprise, when life was full of blood and wine

and love, and savored not so wholly of dull commonplace!




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