“The truth is that I myself don’t know! I thought I was familiar with the colors of all nations, but I cannot make these out at all!” “How strange. What are they like?” “Like bars—red, white and red. I do not recollect them as the colors of any nation on the face of the earth!” “Nonsense! You have forgotten! Let me look, Justin. I am familiar with the flags of all nations,” said Britomarte, impatiently. He adjusted the telescope for her sight, and she took a long and silent view. “What do you make of the flag?” inquired Justin, with good-humored sarcasm. “Red—white—red! I can make nothing of it whatever. I never saw it before.” “Judith, you are an old salt, and have seen many a strange flag in the ports where you have stopped in your voyages to and from India. Take a look at this one, and tell us if you ever saw it before,” said Justin, as Britomarte retired from the telescope. “Sure and so I will. Faix, if it was the flag iv purgatory itself, with Ould Nick at the helm, I’d be glad to hail it, so I would, if it would take us offen this baste iv an island,” said Judith, taking her place at the telescope and “sighting” the object. “Well, can you make the flag out?” inquired Justin. “Devil a bit. I niver saw the likes iv it before in all the days iv me life. Sure and I’m thinking it must be a pirate or a fraybooter,” said Judith. “You may be right, Judith! though Heaven forbid you should be!” answered Mr. Rosenthal. “Justin!” exclaimed Britomarte, who now replaced Judith at the glass—“Justin, she must be a pirate! She carries guns! I see them!” “I know she carries guns; but it does not follow from that circumstance that she is a pirate. She may be an armed merchantman.” “Sailing under no recognized flag, Justin? Would not an armed merchantman sail under the colors of her country?” “Most likely.” “And if this should be a pirate!” “Yes, if she should! The contingency is not a pleasant one. Judith, we must go down the mountain, my good girl, and hide all the animals in the holes of the rocks; for, if this strange sail should prove to be a pirate coming here in search of wood and water, she would be sure to make very free with all our stores, and especially with the beasts!” said Justin, uneasily. “Troth would she! And sure if the crew was hungry for fresh beef itself, they’d kill and ate Crummie, the crayture in less time nor I could milk her, so they would!” said the Irish girl. “Come, let us go!” urged Justin, taking up his telescope. The three turned their steps down the mountain side, and employed the next hour in driving the animals into the caverns at the base of the mountain; and closing up the openings to these caverns, not with boards—which would have attracted attention—but with green brushwood, arranged in such a way as to seem a part of the natural thicket that clothed the mountain side.