'I do not want to go far,' she said; 'we can walk up and down here and talk as well as anywhere else. Will you give me a plain answer to a question?'
'Certainly I will—to any question.'
'Are you the man who followed us from England, and who arrived at New Orleans the evening before we left it?'
'And was all but murdered that night. Yes, I am the man.'
'Then you are a police spy,' she said in a tone of utter scorn, 'and you have been pretending to be a friend only to entrap us.'
'Not at all,' Ned answered calmly; 'I have nothing to do with the police, nor have I had any desire to entrap you. My name is Hampton; I am a captain in the English army.'
'It is no matter to me who you are,' she said, angrily. 'What is your object in following us here?'
'I might reply by asking what was the object of the two men with you in setting a man on to murder me in New Orleans.'
Her face changed at once. 'I knew nothing of it,' she exclaimed; 'I know we hurried away from our hotel, and they told me afterwards that Warbles had recognised some one he knew on board a steamer that had just come in. But they never could have done that. Were you much hurt?'
'It was a miracle I was not killed,' he said; 'as it was I was laid up for three weeks.'