CHAPTER XV
LEONIDAS
“What do you think of this case of young Bayard?” inquired the earl, as the two gentlemen drove back to the hotel.
“I cannot think! I have never in my life felt so amazed, so confused, and so uncertain! The sudden meeting of Anglesea——”
“Stukely, my dear friend! Stukely!” interrupted the earl.
“Stukely, then! the man we have known as Anglesea—and now known as the blockade runner, slaver and pirate—has—demoralized my mental faculties!” exclaimed Abel Force.
“Do you believe Bayard to be a voluntary confederate of the pirate?”
“No! no! If you put the question in that way, I say no! I do not believe it!”
“The young man was a protégé of yours, I have heard.”
“Yes.”
“Yet you do not know his parentage, or what traits of character he may have inherited, which may have been kept down by circumstances, and only wanted opportunity to spring into life and activity.”