"I wouldn't be surprised if it were precisely what I mean," said
Frank.
"Look here, Captain," said Jack, taking a hand in the conversation. "You're not half the bloodthirsty pirate you would have us believe. To tell the truth, I've taken quite a shine to you. In the right way, you could make a man of yourself."
"Thanks," said the pirate chief. "I've had those same thoughts, but I guess it's too late now."
"It's never too late," said Jack sententiously.
"Let me ask you a few questions."
"Fire away," said Captain Jack.
"All right. Now, you're an American, are you not?"
"Yes; a German-American, I guess you would call me."
"There is no longer such a thing as a German-American," Frank broke in. "Either you are an American, with the interests of the United States at heart, or you are a German and a subject of the Kaiser."
"Exactly," Jack agreed, "and for a man born and reared in America, as I judge you to have been, I cannot conceive how he could forsake the land of his birth for such brutes as the Germans have proved themselves to be in this war."