is now enforced, in order to land you and the lady. Besides, we may be
in action at any time after we get under way."

"Then if I do not yield the point, you intend to leave me to carry out
this enterprise alone?" demanded Mulgate.

"In that case, I wish to go with you, Captain Carboneer," added Corny,
with emphasis. "But I want it understood that I shall not leave
Bonnydale without telling my uncle to look out for his daughter."

"Then you mean to be a traitor, Corny?" said Mulgate angrily.

"Call it what you like."

"All this is absurd, Mulgate," interposed Captain Carboneer. "Without my
resources, you can do nothing at all, and it would be foolish for you to
attempt the capture of the vessel. You are not a sailor or a navigator,
and you could do nothing with the vessel if you succeeded in getting her
to sea."

"I have no doubt I could find a hundred men in New York, including
half a score of navigators, to assist me in this enterprise," replied
Mulgate.

"I have another steamer in view, though the Bellevite is vastly superior
to anything I know of in speed and general fitness. Do as you think
best, Mulgate; and I shall be able to explain in a satisfactory manner
my failure to obtain this vessel."

"The fault will be mine, I suppose," muttered Mulgate.

"The court-martial will decide that point," replied the captain.

Mulgate seemed to be buried in his own reflections, no doubt suggested
by the last remark of the other. Possibly he considered that the failure
of such an important enterprise because he had insisted upon bringing
a lady into the affair would not sound well at home. Whatever he was
thinking about, he was greatly agitated, and Captain Carboneer walked in
the direction of the road, half a mile from the river. He had no time to
consider the matter: he must yield at once, or abandon the scheme.

"I will do anything you ask, Captain Carboneer!" he shouted, forgetting,
in his excitement, the demand for secrecy.

The naval officer, as his conversation indicated that he was, turned and
retraced his steps to the beach. He did not seem to be at all excited
because his associate had changed his mind, for in his judgment it would
have been worse than madness for him to persist in his intentions.

"I have stated the case as I understand it, and I have nothing more to
say, Mulgate," said he.

"I renounce my scheme, and I will not ask that the lady be a passenger
even to Bermuda or Nassau," replied Mu