of that. Be frank with me and we may do some good. Play tricks with me,
and I'll crush you.'

'What do you wish me to do?'

To give me a true account of all that happened at the Abbey Grange last
night--a _true_ account, mind you, with nothing added and nothing taken
off. I know so much already that if you go one inch off the straight,
I'll blow this police whistle from my window and the affair goes out of
my hands forever.'

The sailor thought for a little. Then he struck his leg with his great
sunburned hand.

'I'll chance it,' he cried. 'I believe you are a man of your word, and a
white man, and I'll tell you the whole story. But one thing I will say
first. So far as I am concerned, I regret nothing and I fear nothing,
and I would do it all again and be proud of the job. Damn the beast, if
he had as many lives as a cat, he would owe them all to me! But it's the
lady, Mary--Mary Fraser--for never will I call her by that accursed
name. When I think of getting her into trouble, I who would give my life
just to bring one smile to her dear face, it's that that turns my soul
into water. And yet--and yet--what less could I do? I'll tell you my
story gentlemen, and then I'll ask you, as man to man, what less could
I do?

'I must go back a bit. You seem to know everything, so I expect that you
know that I met her when she was a passenger and I was first officer of
the _Rock of Gibraltar_. From the first day I met her, she was the only
woman to me. Every day of that voyage I loved her more, and many a time