"Stop!" cried Elizabeth, springing between their swords. "He saved my life at the risk of his own."
"D-n him!" said the Englishman, grinding his teeth.
"Your condemnation comes too late, sir," said O'Neill, with bitter emphasis, with an expressive glance at Elizabeth, who continued impetuously:
"This gentleman treated me with the most distinguished courtesy."
"I wish that he had exhibited some of it here," interrupted Coventry again.
"I have but followed your own example," retorted O'Neill, calmly.
"Will you hear me in silence, Edward? They are not pirates-"
"I call them so," said Coventry, stubbornly.
"Enough, Lady Elizabeth," said O'Neill, taking his share in the conversation again. "Two lovers are sometimes an embarrassment of riches. This seems to be one of the times. If you will stand aside, I trust that a few moments will rid you of one or the other of them."
"I will not go!" said the girl, defiantly. "You shall not fight; you have nothing to quarrel about."
"We have you, or rather he has," responded the Irishman.
"Withdraw, I beg of you, Elizabeth. This matter must be settled," said Coventry, in his turn.
"I will not, I tell you!" persisted the girl, determinedly. "If you fight, you will fight through me."
"We are doing that now," said O'Neill, savagely. "Will you withdraw, madam?"
"I repeat it, I will not, and I wish to remind you that I do not like your tone. You are not on the deck of your ship now, sir."
"Oh, am I not? Boat ahoy, there! Price," cried O'Neill, waving his hand. A few strokes brought the whaleboat to the shore again. The crew were eager to take a hand in the fray. "Coxswain, come here," said the officer.
"Ay, ay, sir," replied the sailor; and while the other two stood wondering, the veteran seaman rolled up to them and saluted his lieutenant with a sea scrape. "Want us to take a hand in this yere little scrimmage, yer Honor?"
"No. Take this lady and her maid to that clump of rocks yonder."
"That's easy; 'tain't no fightin' at all, that. Come along, yer Leddyship," said the old man, in great disappointment, as the boat shoved off again.
"You monster!" cried Elizabeth, stamping her foot on the sand. "You are a pirate, after all!"
"As you say, madam. Stop, sir!" said O'Neill to Coventry, who made a move to approach the sailor. "My man will do no harm to her Ladyship, and you have other matters to attend to, unless you wish to shelter yourself behind a woman's petticoats."
Coventry had been playing for more time, but this was more than he could stand. "I think you have said enough, sir, and if you are ready," he said, "we will talk in another fashion."
"At your service," said the Irishman, composedly. Two swords flashed in the air simultaneously, and rang against each other with deadly purpose a moment after. Both men were masters of the weapon. Coventry had been thoroughly trained in the more direct English school; while O'Neill was a master of all the graceful tricks of the subtle fence of France and Italy. It was as pretty a play-parry and thrust-as one could hope to see, and for a time the advantage was with neither one of them. Elizabeth stood with clasped hands, her face pale with emotion, her lips parted, eagerly watching. The maid as usual was furnishing a comic side to the scene by her screams of "murder-help!" while the sailors were deeply interested in the two combatants.
Finally, after one especially vicious thrust on the part of Coventry, whose foot slipped a little, a clever parry, followed by a dashing riposte en quarte, which was met and returned with less skill than usual, O'Neill, with a graceful turn of the wrist, whirled the Englishman's sword from his hand. It flew up into the air and fell clanging on the rocks some distance away.
Coventry was unarmed and helpless before a bitter enemy. He was the stronger of the two, and it flashed into his mind to spring upon his antagonist suddenly, catch him in his arms, and overcome him by brute force; but the glittering point of his enemy's sword, shivering in the sunlight like a serpent's tongue, effectively barred the way. He had played the game and lost. If he must die in the presence of his love, he would do it like a gentleman, on the sword's point.
"Strike, sir!" he said hoarsely, with one quick glance toward Lady Elizabeth, who stood perfectly motionless, looking on in terror. She would have run forward had it not been for old Price.
"Oh, he will be killed, he will be killed!" wailed the maid.
"Sir Englishman, pick up your sword," said O'Neill, lowering his point.
"Sir Irishman," said the other, bowing, "men may call you pirate-"
"Not with impunity, sir," interrupted the touchy O'Neill.
"That I grant you. I was about to add that, whatever they call you, you fight like a gentleman; and it will give me great pleasure to testify to your personal worth at every convenient season. Will you permit me, though I do not know your name, to call you my friend?"
There is a great educational value in the point of a naked sword, and it may account for the sudden change which came over Coventry.
"I shall esteem myself honored, sir. My name is O'Neill, Barry O'Neill, at your service."
"I shall remember it. You have not only saved the life of Lady Elizabeth Howard, but now you have given me my own."
"Thus am I the prince of match-makers," said O'Neill, bitterly. "I would that I had lost mine in one of the savings!"
"Now, sir," continued Coventry, disregarding this last remark, "if you would be advised by me, withdraw while you may yet do so in safety."
CHAPTER VI
The Master Player takes a Hand
At this moment, a number of red-coated soldiers clambered down the path in the rocks, while a squad of cavalry came galloping upon the beach by the road at the other end, and, at once dismounting, advanced up the strand. The seamen in the boat, in obedience to a wave of O'Neill's hand, swept her in toward the shore, jumped out, and moved toward him, drawing their cutlasses and handling their pistols threateningly; though they were greatly outnumbered, they would not give up without a struggle. It was Coventry's opportunity now.
"I shall not be able to indulge your desire for the loss of your life," he said, stepping back and picking up his sword, "but I fear that duty imposes upon me the necessity of depriving you of your liberty-I regret the necessity, believe me, 'tis a poor return for your generosity, but I have no option."
"What mean you?"
"You are, by your own statements, a rebel against his Majesty. It is my duty as commander of this post and a loyal servant of the king to apprehend you. Indeed, I have been especially charged to look out for you. I will promise you and your men the best of treatment, however, and you liberty of action, if you will give me your parole."
"I am twice captured then, it seems," said the lieutenant, looking at Elizabeth, who had come forward as soon as old Price, who had left her, had sprung to his officer's side. As the girl drew near to him, and Major Coventry turned away his head a moment to give an order, the Irishman said to her:
"Why did you not call out to save your lover a moment since?"
"It was not necessary," she said, looking at him with eyes filled with tears. "I knew what you would do." Delay was dangerous to him, – Coventry was posting his men; he hesitated a moment, however, and taking her hand bowed low over it.
"Thank you," he whispered gratefully. "This word, and you, I shall remember."
"And I," said the girl, her eyes filling with tears, "will never forget-"
"Come, sir," said Coventry, dryly, turning at this moment, having finished his dispositions. "I think you overstep the privileges of a parole; and if you will have your