At last, when the stranger had eaten enough and was satisfied, and Judith had taken out the remnants of the feast, and divided them among the men who were sitting grouped outside the grotto door, Justin thought the time had come when, without impropriety, he might question his guest. He began in a delicate, distant, roundabout manner, on the common ground of politics. “I need not ask you if you are a native American, Captain Spear. I see that you are.” “Yes—I am. And yourself? Your name is German; yet you speak English like a native.” “I am a native American of German descent,” answered Justin. “A native American, are you?—of the North, or the South?” inquired the stranger, pointedly. “Of the South,” replied Justin, rather reservedly, and feeling that the tables were being turned upon him, and that from the questioner he was again becoming the questioned. “Of the South! So am I. Give me your hand again. We shall be friends, I am sure!” warmly exclaimed the red-bearded captain, seizing the fist of his host and shaking it heartily. “Thanks,” said Justin, wincing somewhat. Then, making another effort to enter upon the common ground of politics, he said: “When I left my native country last October a year ago, the contest was very bitter between the two great parties that divided the nation. Which succeeded in electing their candidate?” “Good Heavens! What a realizing sense of your long sequestration from the world and your utter ignorance of its affairs your question gives me! I positively never fully appreciated your position until this moment! Man, you might as well have been dead and buried in your grave as entombed alive in this desert of an island!” “I do not think so,” said Justin. “But tell me who was elected President of the United States?” “Is it possible that you don’t know?” “How should I? I left the United States in October. When I left there seemed to be an equal chance of success between the candidates; the election did not come off until November.” “And you don’t know what has happened since?” “No, I tell you.” “What! did no passing ship bring you the news?” “If a ship had passed, we should not have been found here,” said Justin, impatiently. “Did no bird sing it? No wave bear it? No breeze waft it?” “Birds, waves and breezes are not apt to gossip with me,” replied Justin. “Hear it, Olympian Jove! Here is a gallant son of the South that does not yet know that he is free! That he has been free for nearly two years! A man that still believes in the supremacy of the Stars and Stripes and in the existence of the Glorious Union! Ha—ha—ha! ho—ho—ho! Oh! but in respect to the ladys’ presence, I could shout with laughter! Come—what will you give me for my news?” “Nay, friend, if you will not freely impart your news to an exile who has been without any for so long a time, I have nothing to offer you but my thanks,” replied Justin, greatly perplexed by the words and manners of his guest.