n
and notorious thief, but he is useful to us as a _stool pigeon_,[3] and
you must let him go.'

'Clapp, you can go,' said the Captain; and Mr. Numbers Clapp lost no
time in conveying himself from the dangerous vicinity of justice; though
such _justice_ as we here record, was not very dangerous to _him_.

'Now, fellow, what's _your_ name?' asked the Captain of a shabbily
dressed man, whose appearance strongly indicated both abject poverty and
extreme ill health.

'Dionysus Wheezlecroft,' answered the man, with a consumptive cough.

'Do you know him?' inquired the Captain, addressing the under-official,
in a whisper.

'Perfectly well,' replied the other--'he is a poor devil, utterly
harmless and inoffensive, and is both sick and friendless. He was
formerly a political stump orator of some celebrity; he worked hard for
his party, and when that party got into power, it kicked him to the
devil, and he has been flat on his back ever since.'

'What party did he belong to?--_ours?_' asked the Captain.

'No,' was the reply; and that brief monosyllable of two letters, sealed
the doom of Dionysus Wheezlecroft.

'Lock him up,' cried the Captain--'he will be _sent over_ for six months
in the morning.' And so he was--not for any crime, but because he did
not belong to _our party_.

Several negroes, male and female, who could not possibly belong to any
party, were then summarily disposed of; and at last it came to Frank's
turn to be examined.

'Say, you sailor fellow,' quoth the Captain, 'what's your name?'

Frank quietly stepped forward, and in as few words as possible made
himself known; he explained the motives of his disguise, and the
circumstances under which he had been induced to enter the house of Pat
Mulligan.--The Captain, though savage and tyrannical to his inferiors,
was all smiles and affability to the rich Mr. Sydney.

'Really, my dear sir,' said he, rubbing his hands, and accompanying
almost every word with a corresponding bow, 'you have disguised yourself
so admirably, that it would puzzle the wits of a lawyer to make out who
you are, until you should _speak_, and then your gentlemanly accent
would betray you. Allow me to offer you ten thousand apologies, on
behalf of my men, for having dared to subject you to the inconvenience
of an arrest; and permit me also to assure you that if they had known
who you were, they would not have molested you had they found you
demolishing all the houses on the Points.'