rous sense of honour--a
sentiment, my child, that they would not outrage for the value of fifty
such schooners as this. All the same," he added, with an inflection of
deep cunning in his voice, "I do not want to meet with a British cruiser
at close enough quarters to be compelled to hand the dear Courtenay over
to his countrymen; oh no!"

"Why not?" demanded Francois; "what advantage is it to you to keep him
on board? Is it because you are so fond of his company? Pah! if you
had eyes in your head, you would see that, despite his gratitude to you
for saving his life, he despises you. What do you mean to do with him?
Are you going to turn him adrift among the negroes when we arrive upon
the coast? I never could understand why you insisted upon saving him at
all."

"No?" queried Lemaitre, with a sneering laugh. "Ah, that is because you
are a fool, Francois, _mon enfant_, a more arrant fool even than the
dear Courtenay himself. Do you suppose I did it out of pity for his
condition, or because I love the British? No. I will tell you why,
idiot. It is because he will fetch a good five hundred dollars at least
in the slave-market at Havana."

"So _that_ is what you intend to do with him, is it?" retorted Francois.
"Well, Lemaitre, I always knew you for an ass, but, unless you had told
me so with your own lips, I would never have believed you to be such an
ass as to sell a man for five hundred dollars when you can just as
easily get a thousand for him. Yet you call me fool and idiot! Pah,
you sicken me!"

"Oh, I sicken you, do I?" growled Lemaitre, by this time well advanced
toward intoxication. "Take care what you are saying, my friend, or I
shall be apt to sicken you so thoroughly that you will be fit for
nothing but a toss over the lee bulwarks. No doubt it is I who am the
fool, and you who are the clever one; but I should like to hear by what
means you would propose to get a thousand dollars for the fellow. True,
he is young and stalwart, and will be in prime condition by the time
that we get back to Havana,--I will see to that,--but I have known
better men than he sold for less than five hundred dollars; ay, _white_
men too, not negroes."

"Did I not say you are an ass?" retorted Francois. "Who talks of
selling him at Havana? You, not I. Do you not know who this Courtenay
is, then? I will tell you, most wise and noble captain. He is the
youth who attacked and destroyed Morillo's settlement at Cari