Captain Cuffe had not seen fit to wait for his subordinate on
deck; but as soon as it was ascertained that he was coming off in a
shore-boat, he retired to his cabin, leaving orders with the first
lieutenant, whose name was Winchester, to send Mr. Griffin below the
instant he reported himself.
"Well, sir," commenced Cuffe, as soon as his lieutenant came into the
after-cabin, without offering him a seat--"here _we_ are; and out yonder
two or three leagues at sea is the d--d Few-Folly!" for so most of the
seamen of the English service pronounced "Feu-Follet."
"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.
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