“At first I looked at the matter much as I believe you do; but after thinking it over, and I have had ample time, I fancy there is much of good in it.”
“In what way?”
It would be impossible for me to set down here all the arguments Alec advanced in favor of the plan, explaining as he spoke that he but repeated what his brother had said. It is enough if I give the chief points, and it appears to me that the case should be made plain lest we be blamed for what we afterward did.
First the difficulty of proving the man’s guilt was brought up, and I was free to admit that argument a good one, because we had really seen nothing which would absolutely fasten the crime upon him.
Then came the supposition that, being given a chance to redeem himself, Nathaniel Hubbard might become a better man. If he would do his part in such a plan it was strong reason why he should be set free; but I doubted the man’s desire for reformation.
The shame which would come upon his family with the publication of his guilt was another argument, and I did not try to answer it. The strongest reason for freeing him was a general one, and did more toward convincing me than any other. I knew full well there were many in the United States who cried out that this was an unjust war—that Americans had no right to uphold it, and once it was noised about that a prominent citizen of the town which had begged the hardest for troops was in full sympathy with England, it would go far toward proving to the people at large that the wrongs of us on the frontier were imaginary rather than real.
I know not, even now the words are written, whether I have made my meaning plain; but it is the best I can do in the way of explanation. I know for a certainty that the arguments convinced me even against my will, and when we two lads came down from the forecastle-deck I was pledged to do whatsoever lay in my power to set Nathaniel Hubbard free in such a manner that the crew of the Lawrence, and all others in the fleet, for that matter, should remain in ignorance of our movements.
“When is it to be done?” I asked, as we walked aft, and Alec replied in a whisper:—
“After we have arrived at Put-in-Bay. There we shall come to anchor, and ample time will be given us.”
This was the ending to our conversation, and the matter was not referred to again until the evening of August 15th, when our fleet entered the harbor known as Put-in-Bay.