very pleasant tones, "What do you
want with me at this time o' night? Who are you, and where do you come
from?"

Jake was so nervous that he found it impossible to find a place at
which to begin his story, and the impatient Lieutenant spurred him
with direct questions.

"What's your name?" he asked. "You can tell that, can't you?"

"Yes, sir," faltered Jake.

[Illustration: "SPEAK, MAN! OR I CHOKE YOU."]

"Well, tell it then, and be quick about it."

"My name is Jacob Elliott," said that worthy, fairly gasping for
breath in his embarrassment.

"Oh! you do know your name, then," said the officer. "Now, then, where
do you come from?"

"From Alabama," answered Jake.

"From Alabama! the mischief you do! You're an American then? What the
mischief are you doing here?"

"Oh, sir, that's just what I want to tell you about, if you'll let
me."

"If I'll _let_ you? Ain't I doing my very best to _make_ you? Havn't I
been worming your facts out of you with a corkscrew? But you'd better
be quick about giving an account of yourself. If you don't give a
pretty satisfactory one, too, I'll arrest you as a _spy_,--a _spy_, my
good fellow, do you understand? _A spy_, and we hang that sort o'
people. Come, be quick."

"Spies! that's just it, Lieutenant. I came here to-night to tell you
about spies."

"Then why the mischief don't you do it? You'll drive me mad with your
halting tongue. Speak man, or I'll choke you!" and with that the
officer stood up and bent forward over Jake, to that young man's
serious discomfiture.

"They's some spies here--" Jake began. "Where?" asked the impatient
officer interrupting him.

"Down there, in a camp," said Jake, talking as rapidly as he could,
lest the officer should interrupt him again; "Down there in a camp by
the bay, an' they've got a boat an' guns, an' they're boys, an' they
pretend to be a fishin' party."

"Ah!" said the Lieutenant, "I thought I'd make you find your tongue.
Now listen to me, and answer my questions, and mind you don't lie to
me, sir; mind you don't lie."

"I won't. I pledge you my honor--," began Jake.

"Never mind pledging that; it isn't worth pledging. You see you're a
sneak, else you wouldn't be here telling tales on your fellow
countrymen. But never mind. It's my business to make use of you. I'm
provost-marshal."

This was not at all the sort of treatment Jake had expected to receive
at the hands of British officers. He had supposed that the value of