s as steward."

"I beg your honor's pardon; I had the honor, not the yacht," interposed
Mr. Ebenier, bowing.

"Well, I should say that the honors were divided," replied the justice;
and his remark was regarded as a judicial joke. "If you could commence
where you left off; and go on, I should be under very great obligations
to you."

"I will make a persistent effort to do so, your honor," added the
obliging Mr. C. Augustus Ebenier. "As I had the honor to hear your
honor remark, the three young men from the fishing vessel, about to
depart, as aforesaid, were on board of our yacht, as aforesaid, and as
I was standing near the cabin door, as aforesaid,--now my narrative
progresses, your honor,--one of the young men from the fishing schooner
aforesaid, as Captain Fairfield was about to go over the side into his
boat, rushed up to me with the bag in his hand."

"You mean the shot-bag containing the gold--do you?" asked the squire,
now deeply interested in the substance of the story.

"I do, your honor; perhaps I should have said the bag aforesaid, which
I thought I had described with sufficient minuteness. The bag had
originally contained shot, if the words printed on it can be relied
upon----"

"In the name of the Constitution of the United States, don't repeat the
description of the bag!" protested the squire. "One of the young men
rushed up to you with the bag in his hand."

"The bag aforesaid, then, your honor. I affirm that he _rushed_ up to
me, meaning that he walked briskly and rapidly towards me. He placed
the bag--the bag aforesaid, your honor--in my hand, extended for the
purpose of receiving it when I understood that he wished to commit it
to my keeping."

"Precisely so; what did he say?"

"He observed that the captain desired me to place the parcel--by which
I mean the bag aforesaid, with its contents, not then known to me--in
one of the lockers in his state-room. As nearly as I can remember,
though I should not be willing to swear to the precise phraseology of
the language he used, his words were, 'The captain wants you to put
this into the locker in his state-room.'"

"Didn't you ask him what it was?"

"No, your honor; I never ask any questions when the captain's orders
come to me. It is my duty to obey, without knowing the reasons for the
action I am directed to take. I went immediately to the captain's
state-room, and deposited the parcel--the bag aforesaid--in one of the
empty lockers. I suppos