dock here, my good Peterson."

"Well, we can beat 'em with one engine and one screw. Besides, what
have we done?"

"Haint you was 'hrobber, han ron hoff with those sheep?" demanded the
keeper excitedly.

"No, we are not ship thieves but gentlemen, my friend," I answered,
suddenly catching at his long gun and setting it behind me. "You
might let that go off," I explained. At which he went yellower than
ever, a thing I had thought impossible.

"Now, look here," said I. "Suppose we are robbers, pirates, what you
like, and suppose a price is put on our heads--a price which means a
jolly nice libel suit for each paper printing it, by the way, or a
jolly nice apology--none the less, we are a strong band and without
fear either of the law or of you. Here you are alone, and not a sail
is in sight. If any boat did come here, we could--well, we could blow
her out of the water, couldn't we, Peterson? We could blow you out of
the water, too, couldn't we, we and these ruffians of our crew?"--and
I pointed at the two low-browed pictures of Lafitte and L'Olonnois.

A shudder was my only answer. I think the two portraits of my young
bullies did the business.

"Very well, then," I resumed, "it is plain, Messieurs, that there is
many a slip between the reward and the pocket, _voyez vous_? _Bien!_
But here--" and I thrust a hand into my pocket--"is a reward much
closer home, and far easier to attain."

Their eyes bulged as they saw two or three thousand dollars in big
bills smoothed out.

"_Ecoutez, Messieurs!_" said I. "Behold here not enemies, but men of
like mind. I speak of men who live by the sea, men of the old home of
Jean Lafitte, that great merchant, that bold soldier, who did so much
to save his country at the Battle. Even now he has thousands of
friends and hundreds of relatives in this land. You yourself, I doubt
not, Messieurs, are distant cousins of Jean Lafitte? _N'est-ce pas?_"

They crossed themselves, but murmured "_Ba-oui!_" "Est ees the trut'!
How did Monsieur know?" asked the tender.

"I know many things. I know that any cousin descended from those brave
days loves the sea and its ways more than he loves the law. And if
money has come easy--as this did--what harm if a cousin should take
the price of a rat-skin or two and carry out a letter or so to the
railway, and keep a close mouth about it as well? To the good old
days, and Messieurs, my friends!" I had seen the neck of a flask in
Peterson's pocket, an