"It is not necessary; I reckon I would have done the same had our positions been reversed. Moreover, I am not much grieved over it. Long-Sword is a very decent sort of man--too decent to stretch a halter." "You will do nothing, sir, to apprehend him?" gasped Jamison. "Nothing!" said Marbury. "And the seaman he killed, in cold blood?" "Was the man married?--Yes? Then I shall give his widow a year's pay. For my part, I have had enough of pirates, and I do not propose to disturb this house party, especially the women folk, by hunting one who is trying his best to get away. You are at liberty, with your crew, to continue the search, provided it does not conflict with your orders. But Hedgely Hall is done with the buccaneering business--and, please God! it be done with her. Gentlemen, I must to the fields," and, with a curt nod, he was up in saddle and away. "What are you going to do, Jamison?" said Parkington. "Do, sir! what can I do? Follow down the coast, and raise the hue and cry--and, likely, find he has gone Northward! Devil's Ship! but it's a bad business." "The pirate business is generally bad--in the end," remarked Parkington. "If you do not catch Long-Sword, the chances are that some one else will," sympathized Plater. "Yes, and get the reward," said Jamison.--"I cannot claim the thousand guineas, unless I deliver him to the authorities." "Then, it is the reward and not the pirate you are after?" "It is the pirate because of the reward.--I would not turn a hand to take him, otherwise." "Well, you better be up and doing, or you will not have any chance of taking him," said Parkington. "If I can aid you, in any way, pray, command me. I rather fancy chasing a pirate on land--it is a novel experience." "I'm off, sir!--I'm going down the coast; may be, I can pick him up. He will likely make for one of the Virginia ports. Thank you, sir, for your offer of assistance." "He will never take him," said Plater, looking after Jamison. "The fellow has not gone to Virginia, I will wager. He will lie very low, until his injury is healed--a stranger, with a broken collar-bone, is too easily located." Parkington nodded assent. "Marbury's course seemed to surprise Jamison," he said. "Because Jamison was thinking only of the reward. I should have done just as Marbury did; he has the pirate ship, which, doubtless, he considers is prize enough. Jamison lost his prisoner through sheer carelessness, and Marbury does not intend to turn the plantation upside down to help retake him. Oh, the old man is usually right." "He seems to have been, at least in getting money." "Yes--after Carroll he is the richest man in Maryland.--You have met young Carroll." Parkington nodded. "He seemed a particularly nice fellow."