"I beg your pardon, Captain Cuffe," answered Griffin, who found himself compelled to appear a delinquent, whatever might be the injustice of the stiuation; "it could not be helped. We got in in proper time; and I went to work with the deputy-governor and an old chap of a magistrate who was with him, as soon as I could get up to the house of the first. Yvard had been beforehand with me: and I had to under-run about a hundred of his lying yarns before I could even enter the end of an idea of my own--" "You speak Italian, sir, like a Neapolitan born; and I depended on your doing everything as it should have been." "Not so much like a Neapolitan, I hope, Captain Cuffe, as like a Tuscan or a Roman," returned Griffin, biting his lip. "After an hour of pretty hard and lawyer-like work, and overhauling all the documents, I did succeed in convincing the two Elban gentry of my own character, and of that of the lugger!" "And while you were playing advocate, Master Raoul Yvard coolly lifted his anchor and walked out of the bay as if he were just stepping into his garden to pick a nosegay for his sweetheart!" "No, sir, nothing of the sort happened. As soon as I had satisfied the Signor Barrofaldi, the vice-governatore--" "Veechy-govern-the-tory. D--n all veechys, and d--n all the governatorys, too; do speak English, Griffin, on board an English ship, if you please, even should your Italian happen to be Tuscan. Call the fellow vice-governor at once, if that be his rank." "Well, sir, as soon as I had satisfied the vice-governor that the lugger was an enemy, and that we were friends, everything went: smoothly enough. He wanted to sink the lugger as she lay at her anchor." "And why the devil didn't he do it? Two or three heavy shot would have given her a stronger dose than she could bear." "You know, Captain Cuffe, it has all along been your wish to take her alive. I thought it would tell so well for the ship to have it to say she had _caught_ le Feu-Follet, that I opposed the project. I know Mr. Winchester hopes to get her as a reward for carrying her, himself." "Aye, and that would make you first. Well, sir, even if you didn't sink her it was no reason for letting her escape." "We could not prevent it, Captain Cuffe. I had a lookout set upon her--one of the very best men in Porto Ferrajo, as everybody will tell you, sir; and I made the signals of the lamp and the blue-lights, as agreed upon; and, the ship answering, I naturally thought all was as it should be, until--" "And who burnt the rockets off here where we are at this moment? They deceived me, for I took them to be signals of their presence from the Weasel or the Sparrow. When I saw those rockets, Griffin, I was just as certain of the Few-Folly as I am now of having my own ship!"