ut a lot right to-day," he said at
the entrance to the cabin. "Tell me one thing honestly before we part
now--did you kill Erris Boyne?" Dyck looked at him long and hard.

"I don't know--on my honour I don't know! I don't remember--I was drunk
and drugged."

"Calhoun, I don't believe you did; but if you did, you've paid the
price--and the price of mutiny, too." In the clear blue eyes of Captain
Ivy there was a look of friendliness. "I notice you don't wear uniform,
Calhoun," he added. "I mean a captain's uniform." Dyck smiled. "I never
have."

The next moment the door of the admiral's cabin was opened.

"Mr. Dyck Calhoun of the Ariadne, sir," said Captain Ivy.

CHAPTER XV. THE ADMIRAL HAS HIS SAY

The admiral's face was naturally vigorous and cheerful, but, as he
looked at Dyck Calhoun, a steely hardness came into it, and gave a
cynical twist to the lips. He was a short man, and spare, but his
bearing had dignity and every motion significance.

He had had his high moment with the French admiral, had given his
commands to the fleet and had arranged the disposition of the captured
French ships. He was in good spirits, and the wreckage in the fleet
seemed not to shake his nerve, for he had lost in men far less than the
enemy, and had captured many ships--a good day's work, due finally to
the man in sailor's clothes standing there with Captain Ivy. The admiral
took in the dress of Calhoun at a glance--the trousers of blue cloth,
the sheath-knife belt, the stockings of white silk, the white shirt with
the horizontal stripes, the loose, unstarched, collar, the fine black
silk handkerchief at the throat, the waistcoat of red kerseymere, the
shoes like dancing-pumps, and the short, round blue jacket, with the
flat gold buttons--a seaman complete. He smiled broadly; he liked this
mutineer and ex-convict.

"Captain Calhoun, eh!" he remarked mockingly, and bowed satirically.
"Well, you've played a strong game, and you've plunged us into great
difficulty."

Dyck did not lose his opportunity. "Happily, I've done what I planned
to do when we left the Thames, admiral," he said. "We came to get the
chance of doing what, by favour of fate, we have accomplished. Now,
sir, as I'm under arrest, and the ship which I controlled has done good
service, may I beg that the Ariadne's personnel shall have amnesty,
and that I alone be made to pay--if that must be--for the mutiny at the
Nore."

The admiral nodded. "We know of your