“And you left her”——
“To join you.”
“Tell me, Wilder, did they treat you, too, as one of an inferior order? Ha! was your merit called ‘provincial?’ Did they read America in all you did?”
“I left her, Captain Heidegger.”
“Ay, they gave you reason. For once they have done me an act of kindness. But you were in her during the equinox of March?”
Wilder made a slight bow of assent.
“I thought as much. And you fought a stranger in the gale? Winds, ocean, and man were all at work together.”
“It is true. We knew you, and thought for a time that your hour had come.”
“I like your frankness. We have sought each other’s lives like men, and we shall prove the truer friends, now that amity is established between us. I will not ask you further of that adventure, Wilder; for favour, in my service, is not to be bought by treachery to that you have quitted. It is sufficient that you now sail under my flag.”
“What is that flag?” demanded a mild but firm voice, at his elbow.