What guarantee have we, Mister Gascoyne, or Mister Durward, that we shall not be seized and made to walk the plank, or perform some similarly fantastic feat--in which, mayhap, our feet will have less to do with the performance than our necks--when you get into power ?" "You have no guarantee whatever," returned Gascoyne, "except the word of a pirate!" "You say truth," cried Ole, springing up and pacing the deck with unwonted energy, while a troubled and somewhat fierce expression settled on his usually good-humored countenance.

"You say truth, and I think we have been ill-advised when we took this step; for my part, I regard myself as little better than a maniac for putting myself obstinately, not to say deliberately, into the very jaws of a lion,--perhaps I should say a tiger.

But, mark my words, Gascoyne, _alias_ Durward" (here he stopped suddenly before the pirate, who was leaning in a careless attitude against the mast, and looked him full in the face), "if you play us false, as I have no hesitation in saying I believe that you fully intend to do, your life will not be worth a pewter shilling." "I am yet in your power, Mr.Thorwald," said Gascoyne; "if your friends agree to it, I cannot prevent your putting about and returning to Sandy Cove.

But in that case the missionary's child _will be lost!_" "I do not believe that my child's safety is so entirely dependent on you," said Mr.Mason, who had listened in silence to the foregoing dialogue; "she is in the hands of that God on whom you have turned your back, and with whom all things are possible.

But I feel disposed to trust you, Gascoyne; and I feel thus because of what was said of you by Mrs.Stuart, in whose good sense I place implicit confidence.