"Mr. Ebénier," said Squire Saunders, "you had proceeded in your narrative, when the court adjourned, to the point where four of the crew of the fishing vessel, about to depart in search of ichthyological specimens, came on board of the yacht, which has the honor to have your valuable services as steward."
"I beg your honor's pardon; I had the honor, not the yacht," interposed Mr. Ebénier, bowing.
"Well, I should say that the honors were divided," replied the justice; and his remark was regarded as a judicial joke. "If you could commence where you left off; and go on, I should be under very great obligations to you."
"I will make a persistent effort to do so, your honor," added the obliging Mr. C. Augustus Ebénier. "As I had the honor to hear your honor remark, the three young men from the fishing vessel, about to depart, as aforesaid, were on board of our yacht, as aforesaid, and as I was standing near the cabin door, as aforesaid,—now my narrative progresses, your honor,—one of the young men from the fishing schooner aforesaid, as Captain Fairfield was about to go over the side into his boat, rushed up to me with the bag in his hand."
"You mean the shot-bag containing the gold—do you?" asked the squire, now deeply interested in the substance of the story.
"I do, your honor; perhaps I should have said the bag aforesaid, which I thought I had described with sufficient minuteness. The bag had originally contained shot, if the words printed on it can be relied upon——"
"In the name of the Constitution of the United States, don't repeat the description of the bag!" protested the squire. "One of the young men rushed up to you with the bag in his hand."
"The bag aforesaid, then, your honor. I affirm that he rushed up to me, meaning that he walked briskly and rapidly towards me. He placed the bag—the bag aforesaid, your honor—in my hand, extended for the purpose of receiving it when I understood that he wished to commit it to my keeping."
"Precisely so; what did he say?"
"He observed that the captain desired me to place the parcel—by which I mean the bag aforesaid, with its contents, not then known to me—in one of the lockers in his state-room. As nearly as I can remember, though I should not be willing to swear to the precise phraseology of the language he used, his words were, 'The captain wants you to put this into the locker in his state-room.'"