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Doubt and skepticism came at last,–and came from Wan Lee! Wan Lee of all creatures! Wan Lee, whose silent, stolid, mechanical performance of a pirate’s duties–a perfect imitation like all his household work–had been their one delight and fascination!

It was just after the exciting capture of a merchantman, with the indiscriminate slaughter of all on board,–a spectacle on which the round blue eyes of the plump Polly had gazed with royal and maternal tolerance,–and they were burying the booty, two tablespoons and a thimble, in the corner of the closet, when Wan Lee stolidly rose.

“Melican boy pleenty foolee! Melican boy no Pilat!” said the little Chinaman, substituting “l’s” for “r’s” after his usual fashion.

“Wotcher say?” said Hickory, reddening with sudden confusion.

“Melican boy’s papa heap lickee him–s’pose him leal Pilat,” continued Wan Lee doggedly. “Melican boy Pilat INSIDE housee. Chinee boy Pilat OUTSIDE housee. First chop Pilat.”

Staggered by this humiliating statement, Hickory recovered himself in character. “Ah! Ho!” he shrieked, dancing wildly on one leg, “Mutiny and Splordinashun! ‘Way with him to the yard-arm.”

“Yald-alm–heap foolee! Alee same clothes-horse for washee washee.”

It was here necessary for the Pirate Queen to assert her authority, which, as I have before stated, was somewhat confusingly maternal.

“Go to bed instantly without your supper,” she said seriously. “Really, I never saw such bad pirates. Say your prayers, and see that you’re up early to church tomorrow.”

It should be explained that in deference to Polly’s proficiency as a preacher, and probably as a relief to their uneasy consciences, Divine Service had always been held on the Island. But Wan Lee continued:–

“Me no shabbee Pilat INSIDE housee; me shabbee Pilat OUTSIDE housee. S’pose you lun away longside Chinee boy–Chinee boy make you Pilat.”

Hickory softly scratched his leg; while a broad, bashful smile almost closed his small eyes. “Wot?” he asked.

“Mebbe you too flightened to lun away. Melican boy’s papa heap lickee.”

This last infamous suggestion fired the corsair’s blood. “Dy’ar think we daresen’t?” said Hickory desperately, but with an uneasy glance at Polly. “I’ll show yer to-morrow.”

The entrance of Polly’s mother at this moment put an end to Polly’s authority and dispersed the pirate band, but left Wan Lee’s proposal and Hickory’s rash acceptance ringing in the ears of the Pirate Queen. That evening she was unusually silent. She would have taken Bridget, her nurse, into her confidence, but this would have involved a long explanation of her own feelings, from which, like all imaginative children, she shrank. She, however, made preparation for the proposed flight by settling in her mind which of her two dolls she would take. A wooden creature with easy-going knees and movable hair seemed to be more fit for hard service and any indiscriminate scalping that might turn up hereafter. At supper, she timidly asked a question of Bridget. “Did ye ever hear the loikes uv that, ma’am?” said the Irish handmaid with affectionate pride. “Shure the darlint’s head is filled noight and day with ancient history. She’s after asking me now if Queens ever run away!” To Polly’s remorseful confusion here her good father, equally proud of her precocious interest and his own knowledge, at once interfered with an unintelligible account of the abdication of various queens in history until Polly’s head ached again. Well meant as it was, it only settled in the child’s mind that she must keep the awful secret to herself and that no one could understand her.

The eventful day dawned without any unusual sign of importance. It was one of the cloudless summer days of the Californian foothills, bright, dry, and, as the morning advanced, hot in the white sunshine. The actual, prosaic house in which the Pirates apparently lived was a mile from a mining settlement on a beautiful ridge of pine woods sloping gently towards a valley on the one side, and on the other falling abruptly into a dark deep olive gulf of pine-trees, rocks, and patches of red soil. Beautiful as the slope was, looking over to the distant snow peaks which seemed to be in another world than theirs, the children found a greater attraction in the fascinating depths of a mysterious gulf, or canyon, as it was called, whose very name filled their ears with a weird music. To creep to the edge of the cliff, to sit upon the brown branches of some fallen pine, and, putting aside the dried tassels, to look down upon the backs of wheeling hawks that seemed to hang in mid-air was a never-failing delight. Here Polly would try to trace the winding red ribbon of road that was continually losing itself among the dense pines of the opposite mountains; here she would listen to the far-off strokes of a woodman’s axe, or the rattle of some heavy wagon, miles away, crossing the pebbles of a dried-up watercourse. Here, too, the prevailing colors of the mountains, red and white and green, most showed themselves. There were no frowning rocks to depress the children’s fancy, but everywhere along the ridge pure white quartz bared itself through the red earth like smiling teeth; the very pebbles they played with were streaked with shining mica like bits of looking-glass. The distance was always green and summer-like, but the color they most loved, and which was most familiar to them, was the dark red of the ground beneath their feet everywhere. It showed itself in the roadside bushes; its red dust pervaded the leaves of the overhanging laurel; it colored their shoes and pinafores; I am afraid it was often seen in Indian-like patches on their faces and hands. That it may have often given a sanguinary tone to their fancies I have every reason to believe.