ant. "Reach over into the long boat
and bring Partial on board. He is my friend. And bring also our flag.
Run it aloft above our prize."

"Aye, aye, Sir," came the reply of Jean Lafitte. And a few moments
later our long boat was riding astern more easily. Jean Lafitte on his
return busied himself with our burgee. And at that moment, Partial,
overjoyed at also having a hand in these affairs, barked joyously at
his discovery of the neglected end of the cook's cue projecting
through the hinges of the door. On this he laid hold cheerfully,
worrying it until poor John shrieked anew in terror; and until I freed
him; and ordered tea.

I next went over to the hatches of the engine-room, and having opened
them, bent over to speak to Williams, the engineer.

"It's all right, Williams," said I. "I am going to take her over now
and run her perhaps to the Gulf. We hadn't time to tell you at first.
There has been a legal difficulty. Peterson is on deck, of course."

"All right, Mr. Harry," said Williams, who recognized me as he leaned
out from his levers to look up through the open hatch. "At first I
didn't know what in hell was up. It sounded like a mutiny----"

"It was a mutiny, Williams," said I, "and I am the head mutineer. But
you're sure of your pay, so let her go."

He did let her go, smoothly and brilliantly, so that before long she
was at her top speed, around fifteen knots an hour. I was familiar
with every detail of the _Belle Helene_, and now I looked in both the
generating plant and the storage batteries, so that four thousand
candle-power of electric light blazed over her from bow to fantail.
The steady purr of the _Belle Helene's_ double sixties--engines I had
had made under my own care--came to me with a soothing rhythm where I
stood near by the wheel. Her search-light made a vast illumination far
ahead. Brilliant enough must have seemed the passing spectacle of our
stanch little ship to any observer, as we now swept on down the tawny
flood of the great river. Who would deny me the feeling of exultation
which came to me? Was I not captor and captain of my own ship?

I turned to meet L'Olonnois, my blue-eyed pirate. He stood at my side
as one glorified. The full swing of romance had him, the full illusion
of this,--imagination's most ardent desire--now gripped him fully. He
was no boy, but a human being possessed of all his dreams. His second
self, once oppressed, now free, stood before me wholly satisfied. I
n