“I suppose when you use the plural number that you include your mother. Was she able to join you?” “I did not mention the lunch to her, though I sent for a cup of tea for her.” “That was right, my boy; I am glad you made yourself at home.” It was really a combat between Scoble and Louis to see which should display the greater good humor, though the captain had to struggle at times to keep his temper in subjection. The time had come for the jockey to begin upon the great undertaking that had brought him to the United States in face of the danger of being arrested and sent to Sing-Sing as an embezzler. Doubtless he believed he could win back his wife if he could keep her away from her son. CHAPTER XI A BATTLE IN POLITENESS Louis Belgrave was still seated at the table with Captain Scoble, and the skirmish of words was likely to become a pitched battle. “You spoke just now as though you had been at sea some time in your life, my boy. It must have been since I left the Park,” continued the master of the Maud. “I have not been on any long cruises, but I have made several trips in the Blanche; and once I went around Long Island,” replied Louis. “The Blanche! I don’t think I ever saw her.” “Oh, yes, you have! You remember the day the Maud went to the bottom in New York Bay. She came about just astern of you. You had discovered, with the aid of your spy-glass, that mother and I were on her deck, and you changed your course suddenly. That was the reason why the tug-boat ran into you and stove a hole under the counter of the schooner.” “Oh! That was the way it happened, was it? I did not know how it was before, and I am glad to be informed,” replied Scoble, laughing as though it were a capital joke. “I was afraid of you, and I tried to run away?” “Not exactly afraid of mother and me, but of the warrants in the pockets of Mr. Woolridge and Uncle Moses,” added Louis very quietly, as though he did not understand that his remark had a terrible sting in it. “What Woolridge was that?” asked Scoble, choking down his wrath, for he was bound to keep the peace for the present. “He is the gentleman who had thirty-five thousand dollars in the little new valise you carried on board of the steamer two years since. It was long ago, and perhaps you have forgotten the circumstance. It was he also who sent a cablegram to London that a certain deserter would arrive at Liverpool in a certain steamer.” The commander of the Maud winced, bit his lips, and twisted about on his stool, but he still maintained his self-possession. “I think you said you were bound to Southampton, Captain Scoble?” continued Louis. “Undoubtedly; you shall have the chance to buy your hams.” “I suppose there is an office there from which I can send a cable message to Uncle Moses. I shall be out of funds when I get there, and I shall have to cable him to send me twenty thousand dollars, or so,” said the passenger very glibly.