“Seize him, my men! seize him, and bind his arms!—­he is our prisoner,” said the English officer.

“By what authority do you give such an order as that, Captain Bramble?” asked the young commander.

“In the queen’s name, sir; in the name of the English people, who abhor pirates and slavers!” was the taunting reply of the Englishman.

“Stand back!” said Captain Ratlin, felling two seamen to the earth who approached him to lay hands upon his person, and at the same time drawing a revolver from his pocket.  “Stand back, I say!  I carry the lives of six of you in this weapon, and I am not one to miss my aim, as your valiant leader yonder well knows.—­Now, Captain Bramble, I will surrender to you, provided you accede to my terms, otherwise you cannot take me alive!”

“Well, sir, what have you to offer?” said the English officer, positively quailing before the stern and manly front of the young commander.

“That you accept my word of honor to obey your directions as a prisoner, but that you shall not bind my arms or confine me otherwise.”

“Have your own way,” replied the Englishman, doggedly; “but give up your weapons.”

“Do you promise me this, Captain Bramble?”

“I do.”

“It is well, sir; there goes my weapon;” saying which he hurled it far into the river’s bed.

As soon as Maud saw him, she sprang to her feet, and with all the bitterness of expression which her countenance was capable of, she scowled upon his upright figure and handsome features.  It was evident she felt a bitter disappointment at his absence from the late affray, and would only have rejoiced had she believed he was blown to atoms with his vessel by the wild explosion which had so lately shaken the very earth upon which she now stood.  It was plain that up to this very moment, however, that the young commander had never suspected her of treachery, or even jealousy, towards himself; but now, he would have been worse than blind not to have seen and realized, also, the deep malignant feeling which was written on her dark, but handsome face.

“Maud,” he said, in a low, but reproachful tone, “is it you who have betrayed us?”

“Ay,” said the girl, quickly, and with a shrill cadence of voice, “a double heart should be dealt doubly with.  It was I who led these people hither, and I hoped the fate of so many of your ship’s company might have been yours!—­but you are a prisoner now, and there’s hope yet!”

“Maud, Maud! have I ever wronged you or your father?” asked Captain Ratlin, reproachfully.

“Do you not love that white-faced girl you brought hither?”

“And if I did, Maud, what wrong is that to thee?  Did I promise thee love?”

“Nay; I asked it not of you,” said the angry girl.

“But you have done me a great wrong, Maud; one that you do not yourself understand.  I forgive you though, poor girl; you are hardly to blame.”