Like a child the sport of an evil fairy, he was again the boy of the old wanderings, in the old, hungry times. But did he ever look so lost as in the mirror before him? he wondered.
“You haven’t told me——” said the captain, and stopped short, as if he dreaded going further.
“I will tell you anything you want to know, sir. Please ask me.”
“You say you did not come on board the frigate: what am I to understand by that?”
“That I was brought, sir, in my sleep. It wouldn’t be fair, would it, sir, to mention names, when I don’t know for certain who they were that brought me? I never knew anything till I opened my eyes, and thought I was in——”
He paused.
“Where did you think you were?” asked the captain eagerly.
“In the dome of the angels, sir,” answered Clare.
The captain’s face fell. He thought him an innocent, on whom rascals had been playing a practical joke. But that made no difference! If he were a simpleton, he might none the less be——! Was her boy left to——?
He shuddered visibly, and again was silent.