t; that is, if you mean to propose that I shall join
you in seizing the vessel for the purpose of giving her up to one of
Uncle Sam's ships."

"I never said so," exclaimed Tierney. "I never said one single, solitary
word that could lead you to think I meant any such thing."

"I haven't hinted that you did; but all the same that is the proposition
you came here to make me. I can see through a ladder as well as you
can."

"Well, I don't see that it's any good to beat about the bush," said the
ship-keeper frankly. "That's just what I came here for. We could get a
reward for turning the schooner over, and you could run her up as far as
Fortress Monroe, couldn't you?"

"I might do it on a pinch, but I won't."

"We'll have men enough to take her without the least trouble," urged
Tierney.

"I hope you'll not try it, but if you do, you will find me close by
Captain Beardsley's side."

"Will you fight?"

"I'll fight till I drop before I will go near the Yankees with the crew
of that privateer. They would take one look at us, and then go to work
and hang the whole lot."

"Why, didn't you tell the old man that they wouldn't?" exclaimed
Tierney; and if Marcy could have had a view of his face, he would have
seen that the ship-keeper was both astonished and frightened. "You must
have changed your mind."

He certainly had, but did not feel called upon to explain why he had
done so. His idea was that the faces of the schooner's crew, if Tierney
and his companion ship-keeper were to be taken as specimens, would be
quite enough to condemn them, and that the United States authorities
would be justified in putting it out of their power to do mischief.

"I'll not have any hand in the mutiny, but will do my best to quell it
if it breaks out," Marcy declared, with emphasis. "You've had your walk
for nothing."

"So that's the end of _that_ hope," said Tierney, looking down at the
ground and trying to act as though he was very much disheartened. "You
won't repeat what has passed between us, of course?"

"Of course I will. I'll go to Mr. Beardsley with it the first thing in
the morning."

"What's that you say?" Tierney almost shouted. "Take back those words or
I'll--"

He made a step forward and raised his hands as if he were about to
spring at Marcy. His actions were certainly threatening, and the boy
believing that he might commit an assault just to keep up appearances,
thought it best to summon a friend upon whose loyalty