irst lieutenant is more apt to use toward his captain than
toward any one else.

"Good evening, Winchester," said Cuffe, in a familiar, friendly way,
which satisfied the subordinate that he was not sent for to be 'rattled
down'; "draw a chair and try a glass of this Capri wine with some water.
It's not carrying sail hard to drink a gallon of it; yet I rather think
it fills up the chinks better than nothing."

"Thank'ee, Captain Cuffe, we like it in the gun-room, and got off a
fresh cask or two this morning, while the court was sitting. So they
tell me, sir, his lordship has put his name to it, and that this
Frenchman is to swing from our fore-yard-arm some time to-morrow?"

"It stands so on _paper_, Winchester; but if he confess where his lugger
lies, all will go smoothly enough with him. However, as things look
_now_, we'll have her, and thanks only to ourselves."

"Well, sir, that will be best, on the whole. I do not like to see a man
selling his own people."

"There you are right enough, Winchester, and I trust we shall get along
without it; though the lugger must be ours. I sent for you, by the way,
about this Bolt--something must be done with that fellow."

"It's a clear case of desertion, Captain Cuffe; and, as it would now
seem, of treason in the bargain. I would rather hang ten such chaps than
one man like the Frenchman."

"Well, it's clear, Mr. Winchester, _you_ do not bear malice! Have you
forgotten Porto Ferrajo, and the boats, already? or do you love them
that despitefully use you?"

"'Twas all fair service, sir, and one never thinks anything of that. I
owe this Monsieur Yvard no grudge for what he did; but, now it's all
fairly over, I rather like him the better for it. But it's a very
different matter as to this Bolt; a skulking scoundrel, who would let
other men fight his country's battles, while he goes a-privateering
against British commerce."

"Aye, there's the rub, Winchester! _Are_ they _his_ country's battles?"

"Why, we took him for an Englishman, sir, and we must act up to our own
professions, in order to be consistent."

"And so hang an innocent man for a treason that he _could_ not commit."

"Why, Captain Cuffe, do you believe the fellow's whining story about his
being a Yankee? If that be true, we have done him so much injustice
already, as to make his case a very hard one. For my part I look upon
all these fellows as only so many disaffected Englishmen, and treat them
accordingly.