"

"That is a sure way to quiet one's feelings, Winchester; but it's most
too serious when it comes to hanging. If Bolt deserve any punishment, he
deserves death; and that is a matter about which one ought to be
tolerably certain, before he pushes things too far. I've sometimes had
my doubts about three or four of our people's being Englishmen,
after all."

"There can be no certainty in these matters, unless one could carry a
parish register for the whole kingdom in his ship, Captain Cuffe. If
they are not Englishmen, why do they not produce satisfactory proofs to
show it? That is but reasonable, you must allow, sir?"

"I don't know, Winchester; there are two sides to that question, too.
Suppose the King of Naples should seize you, here, ashore, and call on
you to prove that you are not one of his subjects? How would you go to
work to make it out--no parish register being at hand?"

"Well, then, Captain Cuffe, if we are so very wrong, we had better give
all these men up, at once--though one of them is the very best hand in
the ship; I think it right to tell you that, sir."

"There is a wide difference, sir, between giving a man up, and hanging
him. We are short-handed as it is, and cannot spare a single man. I've
been looking over your station bills, and they never appeared so feeble
before. We want eighteen or nineteen good seamen to make them
respectable again; and though this Bolt is no great matter as a seaman,
he can turn his hand to so many things, that he was as useful as the
boatswain. In a word, we cannot spare him--either to let him go or to
hang him; even were the latter just."

"I'm sure, sir, I desire to do nothing that is unjust or inconvenient,
and so act your pleasure in the affair."

"My pleasure is just this then, Winchester. We must turn Bolt to duty.
If the fellow is really an American, it would be a wretched business
even to flog him for desertion; and as to treason, you know, there can
be none without allegiance. Nelson gives me a discretion, and so we'll
act on the safe side, and just turn him over to duty again. When there
comes an opportunity, I'll inquire into the facts of his case, and if he
can make out that he is not an Englishman, why, he must be discharged.
The ship will be going home in a year or two, when everything can be
settled fairly and deliberately. I dare say Bolt will not object to
the terms."

"Perhaps not, sir. Then there's the crew, Captain Cuffe. They may think
it s