“You have me there,” said Capt. Bendig, with a coarse grin; “and I think we had better both hold our tongues.” “Just as you please: I don’t often go out of my way to meddle with private affairs: I have only done my duty in this case, and you can tell whom you please about it.” The officer was really sorry that he found nothing on board of the yacht, for he was human enough to desire to see such an ill-natured fellow as the captain of the “Moonlight” get into a scrape. “I want you to send that boy you picked up in the water back again to the vessel from which he escaped,” said the skipper, as the officer was about to return to his boat. “Does he belong to the yacht?” asked the officer. “No: he’s nothing but a wharf-rat: he broke into this vessel night before last, and I owe him a licking for it,” grinned the captain, as though it would be a pleasant thing for him to bestow the castigation. The officer’s sympathies were with the boy; and he was willing to do any thing in his power to save any human being from falling into the clutches of such a brute as he saw the master of the “Moonlight” to be. “How happened he to fall overboard?” asked the revenue-officer. “He didn’t fall overboard: he jumped over.” “Well, what made him jump overboard?” “To get rid of the licking he deserved, I suppose. He is a young scamp that ran away from the place in the country where he lived; and I intend to have him sent back,” replied Capt. Bendig. “I will report the matter to the captain, and he will do what he thinks proper,” added the officer. “See here, I don’t want no fooling over this case. I want the boy sent back at once. You are not the lords of the sea, if you are in a revenue-cutter. You haven’t any claim on that boy, and I want him sent back,” blustered Capt. Bendig. “Do you know to whom you are talking?” said the officer. “We do not take any orders from any but the government.” “I want the boy; that’s all I’ve got to say about it; and, if you don’t send him, you’ll have a bone to pick with my owner, who has some influence in Washington. Some things can be done as well as others.” “I will report what you say to the captain of the cutter; and it is probable that he will not be bullied into sending the boy back,” replied the officer indignantly. “If you want the boy, you had better send for him; for I am quite confident the captain will not trouble himself to send him back, after your insulting message.” “You young squirts of officers think you are the lords of the sea; and you talk to men like me as if we were of no consequence,” growled Capt. Bendig. “I treated you like a gentleman till you proved that you were not one.” The revenue-officer went over the side into his boat; but, just as he was ordering his crew to shove off, he discovered another boat pulling from the cutter. In a few moments it was alongside of the “Moonlight.”