"You should not have let her say that."

"_Mais_, fo' w'y?"

"Why, because, if you are partly responsible, you ought so much the more
to do what you can to shield his reputation. You should have said,"--the
attorney changed to French,--"'He is no pirate; he has merely taken out
letters of marque and reprisal under the flag of the republic of
Carthagena!'"

"_Ah, bah_!" exclaimed Doctor Varrillat, and both he and his
brother-in-law, the priest, laughed.

"Why not?" demanded Thompson.

"Oh!" said the physician, with a shrug, "say id thad way iv you wand."

Then, suddenly becoming serious, he was about to add something else,
when Père Jerome spoke.

"I will tell you what I could have said, I could have said: 'Madame,
yes; 'tis a terrible fo' him. He stum'le in de dark; but dat good God
will mek it a _mo' terrible fo'_ dat man oohever he is, w'at put 'at
light out!'"

"But how do you know he is a pirate?" demanded Thompson, aggressively.

"How do we know?" said the little priest, returning to French. "Ah!
there is no other explanation of the ninety-and-nine stories that come
to us, from every port where ships arrive from the north coast of Cuba,