"All the vessels in the place captured, and carried off!" exclaimed the late commander of the garrison.
"I don't discover the least difficulty in explaining how it all happened. You were so very obliging as to allow your men to go to sleep in the barrack without even posting a sentinel at the battery. That made the whole thing as easy as tumbling off a sawhorse," replied the leader of the expedition, without trying to irritate the repentant captain of the forces.
"And, like an infernal thieving Yankee, you went into the fort and stole the guns!" exclaimed Captain Rowly, beginning to boil with rage as he thought of his misfortune.
"Well, it did not occur to me that I ought to have waked you and told you what I was about before taking the guns."
"It was a nasty Yankee trick!" roared the soldier.
"I suppose it was, captain; but we Yankees cannot very well help what was born in our blood; and I have heard that some of your honest and high-toned people have made bigger steals than this one. While I have carried off only four twelve-pounders, your folks have taken entire forts, including scores of guns of all calibres," replied Christy, amused at the view the fat gentleman took of his operations.
"Our people took nothing that did not belong to them, for the forts were within our territory," retorted the soldier.
Captain Rowly protests.
"That was just my case. I have the honor to be an officer of the United States Navy, and as these guns happened to be within the territory of our government, of course it was all right that I should take them."