on't care much for the
revenue cutters, for there is not one of them that can overhaul
the Trois Freres in a wind like this. They have all had more than
one try, but we can laugh at them; but it would be a different
thing if we fell in with one of the Channel cruisers; in a light
wind we could keep away from them too, but with a brisk wind like
this we should have no chance with them; they carry too much sail
for us. There is the boy carrying in the supper to your sisters;
with their permission, you and I will sup with them."

The captain sent in a polite message to the girls, and on the
receipt of the answer that they would be very pleased to have the
captain's company, he and Harry went down. The meal was an excellent
one, but the girls ate but little, for they were both beginning to
feel the effects of the motion of the vessel, for they had, when
once fairly at sea, kept on deck. The captain perceiving that they
ate but little proposed to Harry that coffee should be served on
deck, so that the ladies might at once lie down for the night.

"Now, captain," Harry said as the skipper lit his pipe, "I daresay
you would like to hear how we came to be fugitives on board your
ship."

"If you have no obligation to tell me, I should indeed," the captain
replied; "I have been wondering all day how you young people escaped
the search for suspects so long, and how you came to be at Nantes,
where, as Adolphe tells me, your sister was an angel among the poor,
and that you yourself were a member of the Revolutionary Committee;
that seemed to me the most extraordinary of all, but I wouldn't
ask any questions until you yourself volunteered to enlighten me."

Harry thereupon related the whole story of their adventures,
concealing only the fact that the girls were not his sisters; as
it was less awkward for Jeanne that this relationship should be
supposed to exist.

"Sapriste, your adventures have been marvellous, monsieur, and I
congratulate you heartily. You have a rare head and courage, and
yet you cannot be above twenty."

"I am just nineteen," Harry replied.

"Just nineteen, and you succeeded in getting your friend safely
out of that mob of scoundrels in the Abbaye, got your elder sister
out of La Force, you fooled Robespierre and the Revolutionists
in Nantes, and you carried those two girls safely through France,
rescued them from the white lugger, and got them on board the Trois
Freres! It sounds like a miracle."

"Th