teamer to the other without assistance,
though Owen was always ready when the young ladies wished to pass from
one to the other. After this job had been done, I went forward and
found Cornwood at the helm, where I had left the pilot. I was not
exactly pleased to see him at the wheel. After we had left the wharf,
Nick and the Floridian had been permitted to enjoy the liberty of the
deck, for I did not believe they would be likely to attempt to escape
while the country seemed to be covered with water in every direction.

"What are you doing there, Cornwood?" I asked, as I entered the
pilot-house.

"The pilot has gone below for some matches, and I offered to take the
wheel while he was absent," replied Cornwood, in the mildest of tones.

"I will thank the pilot to call a deck-hand when he wants to be
relieved," I replied.

"You think I mean mischief, I dare say," he added, with his silky
smile; "but you can see that I can do no harm if I desired to, which I
do not. Captain Blastblow is at the wheel of the other steamer."

At this moment the pilot came in, with a cigar in his mouth, and took
the wheel.

"Captain Garningham, I should like to have a little talk with you,"
said Cornwood. He led the way to a couple of chairs on the forecastle,
which had just been abandoned by the young ladies.

"Captain Garningham, I have been subjected to such an outrage as I
never before experienced in my life," said the Floridian.

"I think you cannot greatly wonder at it," I replied.

"Should you wonder at it if a party were to come on board of the
Sylvania, take you by force, strip you almost to the skin, and rob you
of your money? That is precisely my case, and you say I need not
greatly wonder at it," continued Cornwood, as mildly as he had begun.

"I think my case would be a little different from what yours was," I
replied.

"As yet I have not even been informed of the cause of such brutal
treatment. If you had stayed a few hours longer in New Orleans, and had
not treated the men you picked up on the house so liberally, I should
have sought a remedy in a writ of _habeas corpus_."

"I don't think you were quite ready to adopt such a course as that, for
it would have resulted in having you sent to the calaboose to wait for
a requisition from the Governor of Florida," I answered, laughing at
what I considered the absurdity of the proceeding. "The only reason we
did not hand you over to the police was that we were afraid of be