“Yes,” replied the officer briefly.
“I suppose it is to find fault with me for our want of success.”
“I believe that is the case,” said the officer coldly.
“Ha!” ejaculated the contrabandista. “I have as good a right to blame his Majesty for the meagreness of the help his followers have afforded me.”
“I have done my best,” said the officer gravely, “and so have the rest. But this is no time for recriminations. I believe you, sir, are a faithful friend to his Majesty; and I believe you think the same of me.”
“I do,” replied the smuggler, “and his Majesty is not to blame for thinking hard of one who has brought him into such a position as this.”
“Be brief, please,” said the officer, “and be frank with me before you join the King. He feels with me that we are completely trapped, and but a short time back he went so far as to ask me whether the time had not come for us all to make a desperate charge upon the enemy, and die like men.”
The smuggler uttered an ejaculation which the officer misconstrued.
“I meant for us, sir,” he said bitterly, “for I suppose it is possible that you and your men are sufficiently at home in these noisome passages to find hiding-places, and finally escape.”
The smuggler laughed scornfully.