really expect to be treated as
such--and after what you have done!"

"What have I done?" asked Clif.

Ignacio's eyes began to dance at that; for the officer turned toward
him.

"This gentleman," said the officer, "is one of our trusted agents. And I
have learned from him of your villainy."

Clif was not in the least surprised at that. It was just what he had
looked for.

"I should be pleased to learn also, if I may, what has this trusted
agent told you?"

As he said that, he turned toward the grinning Ignacio.

But it was the officer who continued speaking.

"I suppose you wish to deny everything," said he. "But I assure you it
will do not the least good in the world."

"I presume not," escaped Clif's lips.

The Spaniard frowned angrily, but he went on without a change of tone.

"You were captured, if I understand it truly, from a merchantman which
you ran upon the rocks in order to prevent one of our vessels from
recapturing her?"

"That is true," Clif said.

"And you must have thought it quite a smart trick! But according to this
man here, you previously had some fighting with our vessel. Would you
mind telling me about it?"

"I would not," said Clif. "We were steaming toward Key West, myself and
these four men being a prize crew from the gunboat Uncas. We were hailed
from the darkness by another vessel----"

"Ah! And what was the name of the vessel?"

"I do not know."

"Did you not ask?"

"I did. But she answered falsely. She pretended to be an American
vessel----"

The Spaniard gave a sneer.

"So that is the yarn you mean to tell," he laughed.

"That is what occurred," said Clif, quickly. "If you have heard
otherwise you have been told a lie. And my men will bear me out in the
statement."

"Indeed! I do not doubt it."

There was fine sarcasm in that tone; but Clif did not heed it.

"Would you mind telling me what this fellow Ignacio has said?" he
inquired.

"He says," responded the other, "that the vessel announced herself as a
Spaniard, and called on you to surrender. You did so; and then when the
boat's crew came aboard you shot two of them and steamed away. Is that
so, Ignacio?"

"It is," snarled the "agent." "I will take my oath upon it."

It was of course a lie; and it made Clif's blood boil. The Spanish
vessel had deceived them and tried to capture them by stealth. The men
of the Spanish boat's crew had been shot while trying to hold up the
American.

But Clif had expe