traps of a lieutenant with which he had been careful
to ornament his coat.

The men at work in the waist finished their task as Christy was
returning from his promenade, with the intention of presenting himself
to the commander. Among those who saluted him in proper form was Walsh.
He seemed to be a little diffident about encountering the son of his
late employer, and turned his face away as he touched his cap. But the
officer had fully identified him, and spoke to him, calling him by name.
The sailor made no reply; but Christy had placed himself directly before
him, and he could not escape without a breach of discipline.

"I spoke to you, Walsh," said the lieutenant, in the tone he had learned
to use when he intended to enforce respect and obedience.

"I beg your pardon, sir; my name is not Walsh," replied the sailor, with
all the deference the occasion required.

"Your name is not Walsh!" exclaimed Christy with a frown.

"No, sir; that is not my name, and I supposed that you spoke to some
other man," pleaded the late man-servant of the mansion at Bonnydale.

The lieutenant gazed earnestly into the face of the sailor, for he was
willing to admit to himself the possibility of a mistake. Walsh, or
whatever his name might have been, was a man of robust form, not more
than an inch or two short of six feet in height. He was clean-shaved,
with the exception of his upper lip, whereon he sported a rather long
dark brown mustache, of which a Broadway dandy might have been vain. As
a servant, he had been rather obsequious, though Christy had observed
that he used very good language for one in his menial position. As the
officer examined his form and features, and especially regarded the
expression in general, he was satisfied that he could not be mistaken.

"I did not speak to another man; I spoke to you," added Christy, as he
intensified the gaze with which he confronted the man, resorting to the
tactics of a sharp lawyer in the cross-examination of an obdurate
witness.

"I ask your pardon, sir, but you called me Welch, or some such name,"
replied the late servant, as Christy was sure he was in spite of his
denial.

"I called you Walsh; and that is the name to which you responded at two
o'clock this morning," persisted the lieutenant.

"That is not my name, sir; and I refer you to the ship's papers to prove
it. I am not the man to be ashamed of my name, which is not Welch or
Walsh, sir, if you will excuse me for sayi