n
broken French, for he did not for a moment forget his assumed character.
He used the same "pigeon-talk" to the consul, and Christy, in the little
he said, adopted the same dialect.

"I see you are not Americans, my friends," said the official.

"No, saire; we are some Frenchmen," replied the detective, spreading out
his two hands in a French gesture, and bowing very politely.

"Being Frenchmen, I am not a little surprised that you should have
undertaken to defend me from this assault," added Mr. Alwayn.

"Ze Frenchman like, wat was this you call him, ze fair play; and ve
could not prevent to put some fingers in tose pies. Ver glad you was not
have the head broke," replied M. Rubempre, with another native flourish.
"_Mais_, wat for de _canaille_ make ze war on you, saire? You was
certainment un gentleman ver respectable."

Mr. Alwayn explained why he had incurred the hostility of the
blockade-runners and their adherents, for he was sometimes compelled to
protest against what he regarded as breaches of neutrality, and was
obliged in the discharge of his duty to look after these people very
closely, so that he was regarded as a spy.

"Oh! it was ze blockheads, was it?" exclaimed the Frenchman.

"Hardly the blockheads," replied the consul, laughing at the blunder of
the foreigner. "It is the blockade-runners that make the trouble."

"Blockade-runners! _Merci._ Was there much blockadeers here in ze
islands?" asked M. Rubempre, as though he was in total ignorance of the
entire business of breaking the blockade.

"Thousands of them come here, for this is about the nearest neutral port
to Wilmington, where many of this sort of craft run in."

"Wilmington was in Delaware, where I have seen him on ze map."

"No, sir; this Wilmington is in North Carolina. If you look out on the
waters of the harbor, half the vessels you see there are
blockade-runners," added the consul. "And there are more of them at St.
George's. It was only yesterday that a steamer I believe to be intended
for a man-of-war for the Confederacy came into the port of St. George's,
and I have been much occupied with her affairs, which is probably the
reason for this attempt to assault me."

"Ze _man_-of-war," repeated the Frenchman. "Ze war, _c'est la guerre_;
_mais_ wat was ze man?"

"She is a vessel used for war purposes."

"_She!_ She is a woman; and I think that steamer was a woman-of-war."

The consul laughed heartily, but insisted upon the f