He replied by bidding me go to a place which, though it may likely enough have been his ultimate destination, I sincerely hope may never be mine nor the reader’s. “I’m sure I know that dulcet voice,” I said, stopping and wheeling round. “It must be, it _is_, the genial Hughes. How are you, my worthy fellow?” The worthy fellow intimated that his health was not noticeably affected for the better by the sight of me. “Oh, don’t say that,” I said. “You were most hospitable to me in the matter of drinks when I had the pleasure of spending a very delightful hour in your company on board the ‘Cuban Queen’ one evening. Pray let me return the compliment. This is my cottage, and I’ve got some excellent whisky aboard. Won’t you come in and have a glass?” This was a temptation not to be withstood, and he replied a little more civilly that he “didn’t mind,” and even unbent so far as to answer Yes or No to one or two casual remarks I made. When he rose to go, some spirit of mischief prompted me to ask him what he had in the oilcan, and this, apparently recalling his grievance, put him in the worst of tempers again, for he snatched at it, savagely blurting out,-- “What the dickens ’as that got to do with you?” “Keep a civil tongue in your head, you scoundrel!” I said sharply, taking a step towards him. “Answer me like that again, and I’ll give you a lesson you won’t forget!” “_You_, yer bloomin’ monkey!” he snarled, spitting on the ground in front of me as an outward and visible sign of his contempt. “_You_ give me a lesson! And where should I be, do yer think?” I looked him full in the face and shot my bolt. “You would be in prison, my good fellow, for harbouring a murderer, disguised as a woman, and you’d be charged with being an accessory after the fact.” He stepped back, paling visibly under his bronze complexion, and answered, for once, without an oath. “’E ain’t a murderer. ’E’s a private soldier wot struck ’is superior officer for comin’ between ’im and ’is wife, and then deserted. I see it myself in the paper ’e showed me, and I’d ’a done the same if I’d bin in ’is place. And so ’ud you, Mister.” “Ho, ho! my friend,” I said to myself. “I was a ‘monkey’ a moment ago--now I’m a ‘Mister.’ So you are funking it already, are you?” And then, aloud,-- “Do you think any jury will believe that you thought a private soldier could afford to pay you what that man’s paying? Now, look here! I’ve got the whip hand of you, but I don’t wish you any harm, personally. If you’ll do exactly as I tell you, and play me fair, I’ll pay you the sum that yonder man’s paying you, and you sha’n’t get into any trouble if I can help it.” “Wot d’ yer want me to do?” he asked. “Answer me one question first. Supposing I were to arrange to take your place on the ‘Cuban Queen’ for a couple of days. In that case the man who waits on the hulks would have to be squared to keep his mouth shut. Could that be done?”