t that I heard you and that Irish ruffian in
conversation?"

"You are right--perfectly right," I answered; "and you make me feel very
heartily ashamed of myself for my lamentable want of self-control--of
which I will take especial care that henceforward there shall be no
repetition. Of course I can see clearly enough, now, how positively
suicidal it would have been for me to have yielded to the impulse that
animated me at the moment when you so fortunately came upon the scene--
suicidal for myself, and ruinously disastrous for _you_--which
circumstance will, I assure you, amply suffice as an effectual check
upon me for the future. We are but two against sixteen, and common
sense tells me that, with such odds against us, violence is out of the
question; we must depend upon craft and diplomacy to secure our ends."

"Oh! I am _so_ glad to find you taking a reasonable view of our most
unfortunate situation," exclaimed my companion, her eyes sparkling with
pleasure. "Of course," she continued, "I can easily understand how
terribly exasperating it must be to you--a naval officer, who has always
hitherto been accustomed to the most implicit obedience on the part of
your crew--to find yourself defied and insulted by these wretches, and I
am not at all surprised that, under such circumstances, you find the
provocation all but unendurable; but I am sure you are right in
believing, as you say, that we must fight by diplomatic means rather
than by a resort to brute force. I feel sure that the latter would be a
terrible mistake on our part, and I will not attempt to deny that on the
two occasions when you seemed about to resort to such means, I have been
most horribly frightened."

"Yes," I exclaimed, with profound contrition, "I can quite understand
that you would be so; and I very humbly beg your pardon for having so
terrified you. I have been contemptibly weak at the very moment when I
most needed to be strong; but have no further fear; you have effectually
cured me of my weakness. And, now, you may as well tell me what was the
important matter upon which you so urgently desired to speak to me."

For a moment my companion gazed at me with a most bewitching expression
of perplexity in her glorious eyes; then her face lighted up with a
smile of amusement, and she broke into a musical laugh.

"What!" she exclaimed. "Do you not yet understand? I only wanted to
say to you what I have just said--or, rather I wanted to get