"You know him, then?" said Anthony.
His uncle composed himself, took a seat in a big chair, and nursed his lame foot.
"I have known him these five years," said he. "And in that time I've found him to be a knave and a cheat. It's true he once served aboard a United States frigate, and with some distinction; but a thing like that doesn't light a man through a whole lifetime of roguery. His open doings are of that rakehell kind countenanced by many honest people as the outcomes of a large nature and high spirit. But his connections with the money-lenders and slimy shipping-agents of the Algerian coast are kept out of view and are known to only a few, and even those few don't know enough to speak publicly against him. But," and he looked at Anthony with narrowed eyes, "what of this answer you made to his challenge?"
"It was the answer I'd make to any man's challenge."
"You are not afraid, then," and the eyes of the uncle devoured him, "of being thought a coward?"
Anthony smiled.
"The man who is afraid of being thought one, is one," said he.
"By God!" said Charles. "That's what your grandfather would have said! They are the very words."
Here Captain Weir was shown in, and after greeting Anthony he sat down at the far end of the room with the merchant, while Anthony talked with Dr. King.
"Well," said the physician humorously, "he seems to approve your doings, even though they've been a trifle heady."