"I've never been there, and don't want to go," the officer replied; "you're a British deserter, and you come from Devonshire!"
"That's a lie!" said Bill; "I never saw Devonshire, or any other shire of England, in my life!"
"Be careful how you talk to a British officer! Be careful!"
"When a British officer, or any other man, tells me something about myself wot ain't true, I've a right to say so, haven't I?"
"You've a right to use a civil tongue, and you'll use it before I get through with you."
"I was born in Salem, and here's the papers to show I'm an American." With that Bill drew from a pocket inside his shirt his American protection papers, made out in regular form and shape, so that there was no denying his nationality. The officer took the papers in his hand, scanned them quickly, and then, dropping them on the deck, not condescending to return them to their owner, he proceeded to the next man.
He asked almost exactly the same questions that he had in Haines's case, and received practically the same replies, though they were less independent in their character. When he came to me, I answered his questions promptly, told where I was born, how old I was; in fact, informed him of all he wished to know. He seemed to hesitate over my case, as to whether he should take me along or not, but evidently concluded that there was not the least shadow of a reason which he could allege for believing that I was of British birth, and, furthermore, my youth was such that it would have been almost ludicrous to claim me as a deserter.
David was standing next to me and of course his answers were almost identical with mine. To make assurance doubly sure, the officer required David to step out of earshot of me, and answer certain questions which he asked about the distance between our houses, the number and names of the members of our families, and little matters of that sort. Then he sent David back to his place in the line and called me out to answer the same questions. The similarity of our replies satisfied him of the truth of our stories and we were not further molested.
It took him perhaps half an hour to get through with the examination of the crew. He found two men who admitted that they were of British birth, but had lived a good while in America and had protection papers, showing that they had been duly naturalized and were citizens of the United States. They denied emphatically that they had ever served in the British navy, but he paid no attention to their denials and ordered them down into his boat. He evidently wanted to take along our friend Joe Herne, and doubtless would have done so if Joe had not been armed with his protection papers in the same way that Haines was.