"My stars! And did your little schooner capture this?"
"Yes, captain, and these guns bear the name of his Britannic majesty's Monarch on them. That made prize number two."
"I congratulate you. Your crew will be rich. But why did you want to see me? Why, zounds, sir, did you neglect to sign your name?"
Vernon, instead of replying, said, calmly:
"Captain Decatur, we captured more than you see. The captain of the Caroline had abducted one of the most beautiful American girls I have ever seen. He tried to force her to marry him, but she stood out against his threats, saying she would kill herself rather than be his wife."
"Brave girl!"
"Her abductor was killed——"
"Good thing, for if he had been alive I would have strung him up to the yardarm."
Naval commanders had the power to execute any criminal, and they often took advantage of that, as they did of another power vested in them—that of marrying. On the high seas a marriage ceremony performed by a captain, and duly entered on the ship's log, is as legal as if the presiding official was a clergyman or judge.
"Yes, he was killed in the engagement, but his prisoner is here. She loves most earnestly one of my officers——"