"Obey orders," said Bart relapsing, as it were, to his former manner. "No; stay. I have only you to trust." "And you'll leave me now along of him?" "Without a feeling of dread, Bart; because the temptation would come in vain." "Are we all mad!" said Bart, softly, as he stood listening to the retiring footsteps; and then he sank down upon the stones, with his back to the wall, and the light shining upon his rugged head. CHAPTER THIRTY SIX. ONE PRISONER FREE. "Dinny! You here!" "Yes, sor--it's me." "But at liberty?" "Yes, sor; and I'm to attend on ye as I did avore." "But--" "Oh, it's all right, sor! The captain's a bit busy, and I'm not to be hung at present. I'm to be kept till there's a big holiday, and be strung up then. It's the fashion out in this part of the counthry." "My poor fellow," cried Humphrey, "I am glad to see you safe again!" "Safe, sir! and d'ye call it safe, whin the first time, perhaps, as the skipper gets in a passion I shall be hung up in all me youth and beauty, like one o' the big drooping flowers on a tree!" "Nonsense, man!" "Oh, it's sinse, sor; and I shall droop, too, wid all my moight!" "No, no," said Humphrey, as he pondered upon the past, and saw in Dinny's reprieve a desire to gratify him. "No, my lad. I appealed to the captain to spare your life, and this is the result." "Did ye, now, sor! Sure, an' I thought that the pretty little darlin' had been down on her knees to him; and, knowing what a timpting little beauty she is, it made me shiver till I began to consider what sort of a man the captain is, and how, when the boys have been capturing the women, and sharing 'em out all round, the skipper niver wance took a fancy to a single sowl. Faix, and he's always seemed to take to you, sor, more than to annyone else. Some men's of a marrying sort, and some ar'n't. The skipper's one of the ar'n'ts." Humphrey looked at the man curiously, but it was evident that he had no hidden meaning. "Sure, sor," continued Dinny, "when I think about you two, it has always seemed to me as if the captain wanted to be David to your Jonathan, only the other way on, for the skipper isn't a bit like King David." "Have you suffered much!" "Suffered, sor!" "I mean in prison." "Divil a bit, sor! I've lived like a foighting-cock. They always fade a man up well in this part of the counthry before they finish him off." "You may make your mind easy, Dinny," said Humphrey, thoughtfully; "the captain will not take your life unless he takes mine too." "An' is it mak me moind aisy, sor, when I can't get spache of the darlin', and that Black Mazzard in hiding somewhere and freckening the poor sowl to death!" "Surely, there is nothing to fear from him now?"