One was a fair Circassian damsel called Retté, and her companion, an English girl named Mary Whitford. These fair ones Barbe Rouge had taken from an Algerian vessel which he intercepted on her voyage from Cyprus to Dargelli, whither the girls were being conveyed to the sheik Obdurrah, as reinforcements for his harem. How the girl Mary Whitford could thus be sold Tussaud’s book says not; but he captured her, and brought her and Retté to Jethou, where he took them ashore to his stone house, much to the regret of William Trefry, the mate, who had fallen greatly in love with Mary during the voyage home. Barbe Rouge saw what was in the wind, and watched the couple unnoticed, but with a hawky, jealous eye. Trefry feared his skipper, for he had seen him perform cruel deeds that made the boldest heart on board tremble, and because Barbe Rouge’s giant form possessed the strength of two men; so, fearing any personal encounter, he resolved by stratagem to carry out a scheme for Mary’s release which he had been elaborating during the last few days of the voyage. He foresaw that the two girls would be immediately taken ashore on the arrival of _La Chauve-souris_ at Jethou, and with this in view he arranged two or three plots with Mary, by which they might escape together to Guernsey; they also arranged a set of private signals with which to communicate with each other. As anticipated, an hour after reaching the haven of Jethou, Mary and Retté were taken ashore, and, alas for their hopes, the girls were quartered in a room which did _not_ overlook the haven; and furthermore, they were only allowed out for exercise after dusk, when their jealous protector, Barbe Rouge, accompanied them for a walk round the island. Thus were their signals of no more avail than a wink in the dark. The days sped rapidly; boats went to and from St. Peter Port bringing stores and taking various goods for sale. Half-a-dozen carpenters and a smith, besides the sailmaker and others, were busy with the ship’s hull and rigging, refitting and altering, repairing and renewing all kinds of gear, and over these men was placed Trefry, to whom the whole crew looked up as skipper during Barbe Rouge’s frequent and prolonged absences ashore on Jethou. The young Englishman gnawed his very heart away in devising schemes for Mary’s release, and his eyes grew weary with looking for the preconcerted signals from her, but none ever appeared. Could she have forgotten him? Was it a case of “out of sight out of mind”? No, that could never be, for the girl’s anxious desire was to escape, and reach her dear old Yorkshire home, from which she had been absent nearly two years. She had left it to take a trip on her uncle’s bark, _The Develin_, from Whitby to Samos in the Grecian Archipelago, in company with her brother, who was two years her senior.