"But we had no intention of doing you any harm; and we treated you well
after you went on board of the Snapper."

"You committed a dastardly outrage upon me; but your punishment will be
left to others."

"But I had no intention to do you any harm," pleaded Percy.

"No more lies! You have told me enough since I met you."

"But I am speaking the truth now," protested the frightened Southerner.

"No, you are not; the truth is not in you! Did you mean me no harm when
you attempted to entice me on board of the Snapper? Did you mean me no
harm when you engaged Flanger and his ruffians to make me a prisoner,
and put me on board of his steamer? It was a flagrant outrage from
beginning to end; for I had the same rights in Nassau that you and your
father had, and both of you abused the hospitality of the place when you
assaulted me."

"You were a prisoner of the Confederacy, and had escaped in a
blockade-runner; and I thought it was no more than right that you should
be returned to your prison," Percy explained.

"I had the right to escape if I could, and was willing to take the risk;
and my capture in Nassau was a cowardly trick. But I did not escape from
a Confederate prison."

"You told me you did."

"I did not; that was a conclusion to which you jumped with very little
help from me."

"I thought I was doing my duty to my country."

"Then you were an idiot. You have done your best to compromise your
country, as you call it, with the British government. If your father is
not sent out of Nassau, I shall lose my guess as a Yankee."

"But my father would not allow Captain Flanger to do you any harm; for
he was bent upon hanging you as soon as he got out of sight of land, and
he sent me with you to see my mother in order to prevent him from
carrying out his threat."

"You would have been a powerful preventive in the face of such a brutal
ruffian as Captain Flanger," said Christy with a sneer. "You have lied
to me before about your father, and I cannot believe anything you say."

"I am speaking the truth now; my father saved your life. I heard him
tell Flanger that he would lose the command of the Snapper if any harm
came to you."

"If he did so, he did it from the fear of the British authorities.
I have nothing more to say about it."

"But as my father saved your life, you ought to stand by me in this
scrape," pleaded Percy.

"Whatever was done by you or your father for me, was done from the fear
of conseque