Not to give her time to think the matter over, he slipped her arm in his and led her from the grotto, calling to the panic-stricken Irish girl to follow them. Holding her hand, he helped her to ascend the almost inaccessible height where his “hole in the rock” was situated. He put her and her attendant in there; and then he closed the opening with fragments of rock, so loosely put together as not to exclude the air; and then he stuck green brushwood in between them in such a way as to make it look like growing bushes and conceal the entrance from the most prying eyes. Having completed his task, he put his head down among the brushwood and his lips to a small crevice between the fragments of rock, and whispered: “Good-night, dear Britomarte! Trust in Providence and keep up your spirits. As soon as the pirate ship has gone I will come and release you, and all will be well.” CHAPTER XXVII. AT BAY. Justin returned to the grotto and busied himself with putting out of sight all Britomarte’s and Judith’s little personal effects that might have tempted the cupidity of the pirates or reminded them of the presence of women on the island. Having done this, he went to one of the caverns where the stores taken from the ship were kept, and he selected from them tobacco, pipes, whisky, greatboots, sticks, guns, pistols, swords, sabres, a little of everything, in fact, that looked like a man’s peculiar property and suggested only the presence of man, and he brought them into the grotto and scattered them about in careless disorder. Then he sat down to rest and to wait for what should come next. With rest came the opportunity of reflection, for up to this moment he had acted from impulse only. But now in the midst of his clear sense of the danger that threatened not only himself, but her who was dearer to him than his own life, he thought with keen anxiety of his beloved native country, plunged in all the horrors of civil war and menaced with destruction. And, oh! the intolerable longing that filled his soul to get back to her, to fight for her, and, if need were, to die for her. But this could not be, he knew. The ship that he had hoped would have borne him and his companions back to their homes was now discovered to be a pirate, sailing under false colors, and making prey of unarmed merchantmen. He and his party, if they should escape death from the crew, must remain on the lone island waiting for the improbable event of another vessel’s arrival to take them off. But even in his deepest distress Justin did not despair; his trust in Divine Providence was too strong to permit him to do so. While thus reflecting, he suddenly became conscious of the approach of the pirate crew. He arose to his feet, and standing over the unconscious form of the drunken captain, waited to receive them.