by Bret Harte
o' woman! Thinko' me," continued Captain Bunker with a tentative chuckle, "sort o'pretendin' to hand yo'r auntie to Kernel Marion for--for his lady love!I don't wonder ye's half frighted and half laffin'," he added, as hiswife uttered a hysterical cry; "it WAS awful! But it worked, and I gother off, and wot's more I got her shipped to Mazatlan, where she'll joinMarion, and the two are goin' back to Virginy, where I guess they won'ttrouble Californy again. Ye know now, deary," he went on, speaking withdifficulty through Mrs. Bunker's clinging arms and fast dripping tears,"why I didn't heave to to say 'good-by.' But it's all over now--I'vemade a clean breast of it, Mollie--and don't you cry!"
But it was NOT all over. For a moment later Captain Bunker began tofumble in his waistcoat pocket with the one hand that was not claspinghis wife's waist. "One thing more, Mollie; when I left her and refusedto take any of her dimons, she put a queer sort o' ring into my hand,and told me with a kind o' mischievious, bedevilin' smile, that Imust keep it to remember her by. Here it is--why, Mollie lass! are youcrazy?"
She had snatched it from his fingers and was running swiftly from thecottage out into the tempestuous night. He followed closely, untilshe reached the edge of the rocks. And only then, in the struggling,fast-flying moonlight, she raised a passionate hand, and threw it farinto the sea!
As he led her back to the cottage she said she was jealous, and honestCaptain Bunker, with his arm around her, felt himself the happiest manin the world!
*****
From that day the flag flew regularly over the rocky shelf, and, intime, bugles and morning drumbeats were wafted from it to the decks ofpassing ships. For the Federal Government had adjudged the land for itsown use, paid Captain Bunker a handsome sum for its possession, andhad discreetly hidden the little cottage of Mrs. Bunker and its historyforever behind bastion and casemate.