“You alluded to Miss Lambold: I am sorry to be obliged to admit, for my own sake, that the lady is an unmitigated myth; and so is her excellent papa, Sir William Lambold; I shall not have the pleasure of presenting you to either of them. I am sorry I cannot; but truth is mighty and must prevail.” “I have no doubt it will prevail; and I shall be sorry to see what becomes of you when that time comes.” “Don’t distress yourself in the least on my account, my dear Louis. When you understand my character better you will appreciate it more highly.” “If I don’t get ahead any faster than I have so far, I am afraid I shall have a very mean opinion of you,” replied Louis, trying to keep up with the raillery of his companion. “Don’t forestall your judgment. In time you will love me as a model of integrity and truthfulness.” “Speed the time when the serpent shall become a new creature. But will you kindly answer a few questions?” continued Louis, who was still burning to know what had become of Captain Ringgold and Felix, without whom he felt that he could do nothing to redeem the situation. CHAPTER VI A DISAGREEABLE REVELATION “Certainly, my dear fellow, I will answer your questions if I can do so with propriety,” said Mr. Fobbington in reply to Louis. “Was there any truth in those yarns you reeled off to me on the piazza of the hotel? Probably you could tell me the truths in your story quicker than you could the falsehoods.” “You are quite right so far as time is concerned, though I did tell you some truth; but the proportion to the lies was ridiculously small,” answered the helmsman with a laugh. “I am a graduate of one of the colleges of Oxford; I spent a year in Paris; I had a fortune of about one-twentieth of the sum I mentioned, but I spent it all in ‘riotous living,’ as the Scripture has it; I never had the least difficulty in spending my income, and should not have had if it had been ten times as great.” “I am much obliged to you for this frank statement. Perhaps you will allow me to ask a few more questions on other subjects,” continued Louis, who was becoming somewhat accustomed to the situation, and was considering how he should get out of the scrape into which he had so easily tumbled. “I will permit you to ask any questions you please.” “Where are my friends who went below?” asked Louis very anxiously. “I did not expect you would bring a crowd with you when you accepted my friendly invitation, and your two masculine friends are in the way. In fact, their presence on board was really embarrassing; and when they went below to examine the timbers of the vessel, I was under the painful necessity of confining them in the hold by putting on the lower hatch,” returned the wheelman.