"It can't be possible?"
"But it wuz, my lad."
"How did you escape?"
"One night I got free an' rushed into the powder magazine with a lit pipe in my mouth, an' them arter me."
"If you were a prisoner where did you got the lit pipe?"
"Oh, I had it," replied Tim. "Ter continer, seein' my enemies all rushin' arter me, I took ther pipe an' yelled fer 'em ter go back or I'd drop ther burnin' baccy inter ther powder. They refused—"
"And you dropped the light into the powder?"
"No. Ther light had gone out," grinned Tim. "It skeered 'em so though, that when they recovered they bolted out, an' fearin' ter git blowed up, they all jumped overboard an' was drowned. I released my messmates, an' we took ther ship."
"Tim, is that a lie, or a fabrication?"
"A fabrication, o' course," indignantly and innocently answered the old salt. "D'yer s'pose Tim Topstay would tell a lie?"