"Remained to resist; to kill." The Governor's tones, without being raised, were sharper. "And when, after the crime against these instruments of justice, he escaped to the high seas, why did you not go with him?"
"He wouldn't have it."
"Thinking you would be more useful here? A spy?"
"He said he would be held an outlaw; a price put on him, and—he dismissed me from his service."
"Dismissed you? An excellent jest! But," with sudden incisiveness, "what about the priest, eh? What about the priest?"
The man straightened. "What priest?" he said in a dogged tone.
"You are accused of harboring and abetting an unfrocked fellow who has long been wanted by the government, a scamp of revolutionary tendencies; you are accused of having taken him to sea," the prisoner started, "to some rendezvous—a distant isle—to meet some one; to wait for a ship; to be smuggled away—?"
The man did not reply; with head sunk slightly, seemed lost in thought.
"Speak—answer!"
"Who accuses me?"