Hands of iron seized Giles Peram.

He was lifted into the air as if he had been an infant, and flung head first into a cluster of white thorn, where he lay for a few moments, confused and bleeding.

Then Sir Albert St.Croix raised the half-fainting Rebecca from the ground and said: "Come, my child, be not affrighted; he will not harm you." She gazed up at the kind face and asked: "Are you the owner of the ship _Despair_ ?" "I am." "Thank you, Sir Albert," she began; but he quickly interrupted her with: "Thank not me, sweet child; but come, tell me what hath gone amiss, and have no fear, for I am powerful enough to save you from any harm." While the villanous little coward Giles Peram crawled from the hedge and hurried back to town, the old man led the victim of his insults to the church, where they sat upon the step at the front of the vestibule.

She had no fear of this good old man, whom she instinctively loved, and who seemed to wield over her a strange and mysterious influence.

He asked her all about her tormentor, and she confided everything to him.