if I can," replied he.

"You'll be clever if you do that, boy," said the man, sneeringly.

I allowed the boy to follow me down into the cabin, and then asked him
what he had to say.

"I have that to tell you which is of more value than the lives of a
hundred boys like me."

"Boys like you? Why I thought it was to save your father's life that
you came down, Sir?"

"Pooh!" said he, "let him hang; he was born for a halter. I am come to
save my own life. I only said that to gammon him."

"You're a hopeful youth," said I; "and pray what is that you can tell
me that will save your own neck from the halter?"

"That which will save your own, most likely," replied the boy, "and
tit-for-tat's all fair."

"Well, let's hear it, then," replied I.

"No, not unless you promise. I can swing, if need be, as well as
father, but I'd rather not, 'cause I know where all his money is
hidden."

"I can't make any promise," replied I.

"Then I can't tell," replied he, "so I may e'en go on deck and tell
father that I cannot manage it;" and as he said the latter part of
this speech, the undaunted little villain actually laughed at the idea
of gammoning his father, as he termed it.

Train up a child in the way he should go, and he will not depart from
it, is mostly true; but it is more certain that if you train a child
up in the way that he should not go, he will be a more true disciple.
Could there be a more decided proof of the above than the behaviour of
this young villain? but his father had made him so, and thus was he
rewarded.

"Stop," said I, for I had reflected whether, after all, there were any
grounds for hanging the boy, and come to a conclusion that a jury
would have probably acquitted him. "Stop," said I; "you say that what
you can tell is of the greatest consequence."

"And becomes of more consequence every minute that passes," replied
he. "I will tell you every thing, and let you into father's secrets. I
peach upon father altogether."

"Well, then," replied I, "if what you have to disclose proves
important, I will do all I can to save your life, and I have no doubt
that I shall be able so to do."

"No more have I," replied he, "or I would not have come to you. Now
then, father came to the back of the island to do a little business
with a pirate schooner, as he said just now; and he has very often
done it before, as he said just now; but father did not tell you all.
When we were in Port Royal, father went to th