'Where have you been, George?'
'At sea, Glory, and smelt powder. I have been a sailor in His Majesty's Royal Navy, in the Duke of Clarence, and I am pensioned off, because of my leg.'
'Have you been wounded?'
'Not exactly. A cannon-ball, as we were loading, struck me on the shin and bruised the bone, so that I have been invalided with swellings and ulcerations. I ain't fit for active service, but I'm not exactly a cripple.'
'But George! when did this take place? I do not understand. After your escape?'
'Escape, Glory? I have had no escape.'
'From confinement in Red Hall,' she added.
'I never was confined there. I do not know what you are talking about.'
Mehalah passed her hand over her face.
'George! I thought that Elijah had made you drunk and then put you in his cellar, chained there till you went mad.'