s it not odd that only
you and I should have imagination and ingenuity? I knew you would see
when the game is over. My compliments, Captain Shelton. You deserve to
have done better."

"Of course," said my father, with a slow nod of assent, "I see when the
game is over."

"I knew you would be reasonable," said Mr. Sims. "When it is finished,
you and I stop playing, do we not? I am sorry we were not on the same
side, but I have been commissioned to take you, captain, for a little man
whom you and I both knew back in Paris. I have a dozen men aboard now,
who will get us to the harbor. You are a prisoner of France, as you have
doubtless guessed. We shall all be trans-shipped to Mr. Jason Hill's
schooner, which has been waiting for you; and now you may go below."

Still staring thoughtfully before him, my father rested his chin in the
palm of his hand.

"I remember you now," he said. "And may I add it is a pleasure to have
met you? It is still a pleasure, much as I resent being taken on board a
ship I own."

Mr. Sims bowed ironically.

"And now, Captain, the document, if you please, unless you care to be
searched."

I thought my father had not heard, for he still looked quite blandly at
the lantern.

"Would you mind telling me," he inquired, "what became of my crew? You
bribed them, I suppose."

"There was only an anchor watch on deck when we came on board," said Mr.
Sims. "We drove them below quite easily. The only man who gave us any
trouble was your master. We had to hit him over the head when he reached
the deck."

My father nodded slowly, seemed to lose his balance on the rolling deck,
recovered himself, and set his feet a trifle wider apart.

"I am sincerely sorry for you, Mr. Sims," he said.

But if Mr. Sims ever asked why, it was in another life than ours. I
recall his sudden bewilderment, but I never have understood exactly how
it happened. I remember Brutus' eyes on my father's hand, as it moved so
gently over his coat. It must have been some gesture, smooth and
imperceptible. For suddenly, my father's languor left him, suddenly his
lips curled back in a smile devoid of humor, and he leapt at the lantern.
He leapt, and at the same instant, as perfectly timed as though the whole
matter had been carefully rehearsed, Brutus' great bulk had streaked
across the deck, crashing towards Mr. Sims like an unleashed fury. The
speed of it, the unexpectedness, the sheer audacity, held the men around
us motionle