ace them, but held to my hand as a
mother would clasp the hand of the child she sought to defend. The
captain stared at her between anger and admiration.

"Mademoiselle Vallois!" he rumbled. "What does all this mean? How dare
you interfere with the discipline of my ship?"

"How dare you, who call yourself an officer and a Christian, torture so
hideously this gentleman?" she returned.

"Gentleman?--Torture?" he echoed, taken aback.

"The gentleman I am betrothed to marry."

"Marry!--Him?"

"_Santisima Virgen!_ yes!" she cried. "And you!--you have lashed him
like a slave!--the truest, most gallant gentleman in Christendom!"

He muttered something about the mad third mate of a sloop. To this Dr.
Cuthbert made hasty reply: "All a mistake, sir,--a most egregious
error. Mr. Robinson is, I am certain, precisely what he claimed."

"Nevertheless," broke in the captain, his voice as hard as iron, "the
man has been tried, found guilty, and sentenced to one hundred lashes.
He has received ninety-seven. There are still three strokes."

"I will bear them for him!" said Alisanda.

"Mademoiselle, do not make yourself ridiculous," he reproved.

"Better that than your cowardly cruelty in seeking to lash to death a
citizen of the Republic which revolted from your brutal rule!" she
thrust back at him.

He stood for some moments gazing into her scornful eyes. Despite all his
harshness and arrogance, I believe he was alike pleased with her spirit
and softened by her beauty.

"This man is entered in my crew as a subject of His Majesty," he at last
stated, in a tone which invited argument.

"He is not a Briton," she replied. "I know he is an American. I met and
travelled with him in his own land. I saw, on the bank of the Ohio, the
tomb of his mother, who was slain by the red savages in the pay of your
Government. He was a volunteer with an expedition under Lieutenant Pike
of the Army of the United States. They crossed the western deserts of
Louisiana and the lofty sierras of the West, and came far south into New
Spain."

"Hold!" exclaimed the captain. "That is incredible."

"It is the truth," confirmed Father Rocus.

"You support her statement, sir?" demanded Powers.

"I am ready to swear to it, on my sacred word," replied the padre. "This
gentleman upon the couch is Dr. John H. Robinson, a physician of the
Louisiana Territory, who was the _compagnon du voyage_ of Lieutenant
Pike in the amazing journey of which Senorita