u be comrade with me this night?"

At the brutal bluntness of my speech and question--for I fear I took
out upon him those feelings I ventured not to exploit with Madame,
recalling how this same difference of faith had come between us two
with its dread shadow--a red flush sprang into the priest's thin,
wasted cheeks, and I could see how tightly his hands clinched about the
crucifix at his girdle.

"As to my Order, it hath little to fear from thy dislike, young man, as
that is born from early prejudice, and lack of proper learning," he
returned gravely, meeting I my eyes fairly with his own. "Yet,
speaking as frankly as yourself, I doubt if I would prove of much
assistance upon a ship's deck; such effort as you propose for this
night would be wholly foreign to my habit of life."

"Spoken truly; nor would I make choice of one with muscles so inert
from disuse were this to be an onset, where men give and take hard
blows. I ask you not upon the ship's deck at all, my friend, nor shall
I require your company one step farther than the roof of the great
sugar warehouse of Bomanceaux et fils. Still, it will require steady
nerve to do even what little I require, and, if you doubt your courage,
say so now, and I will seek among the slaves for stouter heart and
readier hand."

That my words touched his pride I could read instantly in his uplifted
face.

"Nay, thou needest seek no further," he announced briefly, his thin
lips tightly pressed together. "I will go, Monsieur." I knew
instantly by the bold ring of the words that henceforward I might trust
him to the death.

"I thought you would. Now a question more, and then I must have food.
Can you prepare for my use one of your robes?"

"Easily, Monsieur; Father Cassati left one behind at the chapter-house
when he went aboard ship, and you do not greatly differ in point of
size. But is it possible thou proposest to turn priest, and of our
Order?"

"In outward vesture merely, and that not for long. It would afford me
greater liberty of movement on the 'Santa Maria' than my own garb, and
may spare me some unpleasant questioning. Yet, perchance, there may be
danger of my overdoing the priestly character, as well as of
overestimating the privileges granted the clergy on board."

He shrugged his shoulders, nettled somewhat by my words and manner.

"I have indeed reason for gravely distrusting your naturalness in the
wearing of a robe dedicated to religion," he made