,
"you're a man."

The boatswain looked down at the youthful visage in some surprise.

"Well, I s'pose I am," said he, stroking his beard complacently.

"And you know what it is to be misunderstood, misjudged, don't you?"

"Well, now I come to think on it, I believe I _have_ had that
misfortune--'specially w'en I've ordered the powder-monkeys to make
less noise; for them younkers never do seem to understand me. As for
misjudgin', I've often an' over again heard 'em say I was the crossest
feller they ever did meet with; but they _never_ was more out in their
reckoning."

Corrie did not smile; he did not betray the smallest symptom of power
either to appreciate or to indulge in jocularity at that moment. But
feeling that it was useless to appeal to the former experience of the
boatswain, he changed his plan of attack.

"Dick Price," said he, "it's a hard case for an innocent man to be
hanged."

"So it is, boy,--oncommon hard. I once know'd a poor feller as was
hanged for murderin' his old grandmother. It was afterwards found out
that he never done the deed; but he was the most incorrigible thief and
poacher in the whole place; so it wasn't such a mistake, after all."

"Dick Price," said Corrie, gravely, at the same time laying his hand
impressively on his companion's arm, "I'm a _tremendous_ joker--_awful_
fond o' fun and skylarkin'."

"'Pon my word, lad, if you hadn't said so yourself, I'd scarce have
believed it. You don't look like it just now, by no manner o' means."

"But I am, though," continued Corrie; "and I tell you that in order to
show you that I am very, _very_ much in earnest at this moment, and that
you _must_ give your mind to what I've got to say."

The boatswain was impressed by the fervor of the boy. He looked at him
in surprise for a few seconds, then nodded his head, and said, "Fire
away!"

"You know that Gascoyne is in prison!" said Corrie.

"In course I does. That's one rascally pirate less on the seas, anyhow."

"He is not so bad as you think, Dick."

"Whew!" whistled the boatswain. "You're a friend of his, are ye?"

"No, not a friend; but neither am I an enemy. You know he saved my life,
and the lives of two of my friends, and of your own captain, too."

"Well, there's no denying that; but he must have been the means of
takin' away more lives than what he has saved."

"No, he hasn't," cried Corrie, eagerly. "That's it, that's just the
point; he has saved more than ever he took