two extra officers who had been sent on board.

"Do you speak French, gentlemen?" asked the detective, addressing
himself to the two officers.

"Not a word of it," replied Mr. Gwyndale, one of them.

"Not a syllable of it," added Mr. Tempers, the other.

"Excuse me, gentlemen," said Mr. Gilfleur, as he retreated to his room.

Mr. Suppleton introduced the two new officers to Christy, and he then
followed his associate. The Frenchman was afraid the new-comers
understood his native language, and had been listening to his
explanation of the use of the strange boat; but he had spoken in a
whisper, and no one could have heard him, even if the listener had been
a Frenchman.

"We are all right," said the detective when they had both resumed their
seats, and the Frenchman had begun to overhaul his papers.

Mr. Gilfleur proceeded to explain in what manner he had obtained his
knowledge of the plot to send the gun-making machinery to the South. One
of Captain Passford's agents had ascertained the name of Hillman Davis,
who was in correspondence with those who were fitting out the ships for
the Confederate service.

"But that is all we learned from the letters--that the men who were
sending out the ships were in correspondence with this man Davis, who is
a very respectable merchant of New York," Mr. Gilfleur proceeded.