bloody encounter with these bloodthirsty sea wolves.

For a week the men were busy constructing the new camp,

but never again was Virginia left without a sufficient

guard for her protection. Von Horn was always needed

at the work, for to him had fallen the entire direction

of matters of importance that were at all of a

practical nature. Professor Maxon wished to watch the

building of the houses and the stockade, that he might

offer such suggestions as he thought necessary, and

again the girl noticed her father's comparative

indifference to her welfare.

She had been shocked at his apathy at the time of the

pirate attack, and chagrined that it should have been

necessary for von Horn to have insisted upon a proper

guard being left with her thereafter.

The nearer the approach of the time when he might enter

again upon those experiments which had now been

neglected for the better part of a year the more self

absorbed and moody became the professor. At times he

was scarcely civil to those about him, and never now

did he have a pleasant word or a caress for the

daughter who had been his whole life but a few short

months before.

It often seemed to Virginia when she caught her

father's eyes upon her that there was a gleam of

dislike in them, as though he would have been glad to

have been rid of her that she might not in any way

embarrass or interfere with his work.

The camp was at last completed, and on a Saturday

afternoon all the heavier articles from the ship had

been transported to it. On the following Monday the

balance of the goods was to be sent on shore and the party

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